Translated by a friend from a German Review
Whilst Papyrus and Microsoft rest on their laurels regarding
simulation, and Psygnosis amuse themselves with unrealistic
action-oriented console conversions, French company Ubi Soft have
developed a Formula 1 game that, thanks to its superior technology,
can be placed at the very top of the field. We'll tell you in a review
coming soon if they manage it - but since we already have a limited
playable beta version, we don't want to deprive you of our first
impressions.
Lets start with the obvious: the graphics are easily better than in
Grand Prix 2, even though a 3D Accelerator card (3Dfx or Power VR) is
not absolutely necessary. You can even get better graphics than
Formula 1 (3Dfx version), without compromising the atmospherics. If
you can believe Ubi, it's realistic to a tee (?), and over 160 hours
of video from the driver's perspective was evaluated. The glorious
graphics are based on a souped-up pod-engine(?), whose flexibility can
be shown by the fact that it's also good for hyper-realistic
simulations.
One small detail shows how seriously the programmers have taken it -
while in F1 there are no***pits, and in GP2 they're only
differentiated by colours, all the original***pits are rendered in
F1RS: 22 different ones! Driving simulation should be more important,
though. Even here, it knocks the competition into a***ed hat (like
that one, Rob?). Peggy Desplats, the F1RS's friendly project leader.
likes Grands Prix 2 just fine, but she wants to beat GP2 in every
respect. To that end she has studied the competition in detail: the
top game for realism doesn't have a 'real' driving model - it has
several fudges: the engine rev count is not given, as the engine
doesn't convert correctly from revs to wheel revolutions and from
wheel revolutions to speed; normally the car stays stuck to the
ground, and when it does lift off, the behaviour is pre-set. Even the
wheels are not individually calculated. All that has been done
differently in F1RS: it uses a real driving model that goes into great
detail - if you take a curve too fast, you have to account for the car
skidding round on only two wheels. Even tuning freaks won't be
disappointed: everything can be finely tuned. For optimum information,
the temperature is even measured on three points of each tyre.
If you think that all this makes it completely useless for a casual
gamer, think again: a beginner can enter a virtual driving school and
choose an easier driving model. For one thing was important to the
developers: F1RS should challenge experts, but also give beginners
lots of fun.
One of the biggest weaknesses of the other games was the paucity or
lack of multi-player options - F1RS will (naturally) be playable over
a modem, but a split-screen mode will also be included.
We're a bit worried about the hardward requirements for the game. The
version we were given runs very slowly on a P166 with Orchid Righteous
3D, and only becomes really playable on a P200. Ubi have promised to
optimise the performance, however: the finished game should run fast
enough on a P120.
I've saved the best til last: for the first time in a Formula 1 game
there's going to be a 'ghost option'. That means that you or your
friends can race against a car which drives exactly the same as you
drove in a previous race.