Everyone seems to be talking about CPR a lot the past few days since the
patch. Well, I'm tired of reading and am going to give everyone what my
final take is on the matter.
I've played almost every race game there was made for the computer, way
back to pole position on the Amiga, autobahn on the apple 2+, Most of the
test drive games, on the Apple 2GS, and anything you can think of for the
PC. I've tried them all, so I have some idea of what I'm talking about.
On top of this, I have racing experience in karts, besides, running on
ovals, short sprint tracks, and large road courses such as Daytona,
Hallett, Topeka, etc. This is to say that I know what it's like to race in
competition for real, not on any game network, I know how other cars react
around you. The last race I was in had over 150 entries in just one class
I ran. You have to know the cars around you and how they will drive, in
order to move through the field and stay in front.
With all this said, I have to say CPR is the biggest disappointment I have
seen in driving simulators. Forget about frame rate; I have a p266 with a
nVidia and 3dfx card, my computer does not suffer from frame rate. Forget
about visuals, this is one of the best looking games I have ever seen,
Pysgnosis's f1 being probably the best. My main gripe with this game is AI
and handling. I'm sorry, but cars just don't behave like this. I'm on the
pole at Michigan, We take the green, and Pruett takes a hard left right at
the flag and takes the whole field including me out of the race. pathetic.
The cars are not very responsive to adjustments in the pits. I have yet
to find a setting that gives you smooth steering through the corners. You
can't apply the brakes even in little increments without them locking up
and you pushing into the wall. And about this yellow flag thing! First
there is none in the original, people told you need full course yellows, so
in the patch you give us local yellows, and the cars don't slow down anyway
so there might as well not be any, What part of we want full course yellows
did you not understand? Or did you leave them out because you know if you
put them in that is the only condition we will race under? You know, I've
only tried maybe five different tracks out of the 17 on the game. Do you
know why? Let me tell you why! Because I get so frustrated after trying
the first few, I have a choice, either smash the computer or shut it off.
You know it is almost impossible for a beginning player to make it more
than 10 laps at any track without being taken out of the race by either
a)the wall, b) the other cars, or c) all of the above. How can you play a
game like this? Why should anyone play a game like this? You know what
makes games like Nascar 2 or Grand Prix 2 so great, is not the visuals, or
the interface, or the options, or the frame rate. (GP2 has one of the
harder interfaces of the games I've tried.) What makes these games great
is the fact that not only can you control the car around the track, and you
can customize them enough to get a decent frame rate, but when you find the
right difficulty level for yourself, you can race with other cars on the
track for several laps in a row, fight with the computer cars, work you ass
off for ten laps in a row just to get a few tenths closer to that car in
front of you. They allow you to make consistent laps, you can adjust your
car with ease, and you can make realistic passes on other cars. What is
really neat about GP2 is if you catch a car that is running close to you ,
let's say you try to outbreak him into a corner. A lot of the cars will
see this and try to go into the corner deeper, to keep you from getting by.
This is one of the things that gets your mind thinking that you are racing
against an opponent and not the computer. There are no other games that do
that as well as GP2. Where Nascar excells, is the side by side racing you
can do lap after lap. There is nothing like working a guy from the outside
groove for five-ten laps, and taking him on the outside and making it
stick, what satisfaction, and immersion. I recently tried the TOCA demo,
and while I've seen some people complain in this group about frame rate,
those of you will the muscle to run it have to admit that car model is a
blast to drive around the track. Even the mighty Papyrus could learn a
thing or two about the AI those cars have! Those cars race hard with each
other, the game just needs more difficulty levels to make it more
challenging. CPR provides none of the above things. If you can't get into
the game it isn't worth playing. I'm sorry, but I've tried this game about
two dozen time, and I've really tried hard to like it. It just has too
many flaws, even with the patch. And I've decided I'm not wasting my time
on it anymore, not when I've got N2, GP2, ICR2, SODA, F1, DD, and other fun
games to play. I might consider dragging it out again if they try another
patch, but as of today, I'm taking it off my drive for good. Long live
Papyrus.