GP4 First impressions.

My copy arrived today not monday so i can stop playing the downloaded one :) These points are based on about 3 or 4 days play only. First impressions, The manual (or should i say leaflet!). The previous 3 games have had thick juicy manuals full of detail and data. This one comes with a megre 30 page thin effort that doesnt mention tracks, setup information or just about anything other than how to drive around in arcade mode. Its all very well saying "Use the GPaedia" but its a hell of a lot easier to sit down and digest printed information than to scan through a small window of text on a dodgy coloured background with irritating background music. Lets have a return to real documentation with complex games ! A lot of the same problems as GP3. I calibrate and play my FFB MS wheel and cant then use the in game menus without unplugging it as the selection keeps permanently scrolling (it works fine in the game). Even the mouse wont work as the selection keeps changing. Its an identical problem to GP3. It makes altering car setup during practice sessions very fiddly. Why isnt standard Direct Input utilised and an option to disable controller in the menu ? Black flags. Very irritating and still hasnt implemented the simple stop/go and drive-through penalties. Slowing the car to 50mph for a while isnt valid for a jump start. Its not THAT hard to implement a stop-go within the 10 laps forecast. As it stands simply cutting a corner even if it has no effect on the time and/or position EVEN IN PRACTICE can result in a black flag, Example at monza, the first bend just putting 1 wheel on the green paint on the inside of the kerb leads to a flag. A lot more could have been done to fix this black flag problem which has been here since the original F1GP game. Safety car isnt modelled either. Launch control is nothing more than a turbo traction control at the start - it doesnt help you start as soon as the lights go on, simply stops wheel spin. Again surely not a huge programming effort to cure. Performance: System is an XP2000+ with Geforce2 GTS card, 768mb ram. Running in 1024 x 768, automatic settings results in about half detail being selected. Its fine in practice with higher but CPU occupancy in a race is 130-140% on non graphic intensive circuits. Even with settings down to half it still spikes to 120-130 at times during a race causing some odd behaviour. I think i may have to knock it to 800 x 600 eventually or risk turning so much detail off im not going to get turn points etc. Overall: Looks like an upgrade to GP3 not a new game. It seems most of the code has just been ported, the teams updated (to last years only) and welded onto a new graphics engine. Not even known bugs have been addressed and new features are at a minimum. Having said that, the gripes aside its still a very good game and one im likely to be playing for a long time.

To me this sounds like just another faulty patch for GP2... I cannot understand why you guys even bother to buy it... Crammond has clearly shown that he either dont care or is incapable of fixing the bugs in his software. It's carp - Period. -- ed_ "Richard Whitcombe" <[email hidden]> skrev i melding news:af2eid$or9$[email hidden]... > My copy arrived today not monday so i can stop playing the downloaded one :) > These points are based on about 3 or 4 days play only. > > First impressions, > > The manual (or should i say leaflet!). The previous 3 games have had thick > juicy manuals full of detail and data. This one comes with a megre 30 page > thin effort that doesnt mention tracks, setup information or just about > anything other than how to drive around in arcade mode. > > Its all very well saying "Use the GPaedia" but its a hell of a lot easier to > sit down and digest printed information than to scan through a small window > of text on a dodgy coloured background with irritating background music. > Lets have a return to real documentation with complex games ! > > A lot of the same problems as GP3. I calibrate and play my FFB MS wheel and > cant then use the in game menus without unplugging it as the selection keeps > permanently scrolling (it works fine in the game). Even the mouse wont work > as the selection keeps changing. Its an identical problem to GP3. It makes > altering car setup during practice sessions very fiddly. > Why isnt standard Direct Input utilised and an option to disable controller > in the menu ? > > Black flags. > > Very irritating and still hasnt implemented the simple stop/go and > drive-through penalties. Slowing the car to 50mph for a while isnt valid > for a jump start. Its not THAT hard to implement a stop-go within the 10 > laps forecast. As it stands simply cutting a corner even if it has no > effect on the time and/or position EVEN IN PRACTICE can result in a black > flag, Example at monza, the first bend just putting 1 wheel on the green > paint on the inside of the kerb leads to a flag. A lot more could have been > done to fix this black flag problem which has been here since the original > F1GP game. > > Safety car isnt modelled either. > > Launch control is nothing more than a turbo traction control at the start - > it doesnt help you start as soon as the lights go on, simply stops wheel > spin. Again surely not a huge programming effort to cure. > > > Performance: > > System is an XP2000+ with Geforce2 GTS card, 768mb ram. > > Running in 1024 x 768, automatic settings results in about half detail being > selected. Its fine in practice with higher but CPU occupancy in a race is > 130-140% on non graphic intensive circuits. Even with settings down to half > it still spikes to 120-130 at times during a race causing some odd > behaviour. I think i may have to knock it to 800 x 600 eventually or risk > turning so much detail off im not going to get turn points etc. > > Overall: > > Looks like an upgrade to GP3 not a new game. It seems most of the code has > just been ported, the teams updated (to last years only) and welded onto a > new graphics engine. Not even known bugs have been addressed and new > features are at a minimum. > > Having said that, the gripes aside its still a very good game and one im > likely to be playing for a long time. > > > >

"Ed Solheim" wrote > It's carp - Period. I think this should have been posted to rec.outdoors.fishing... Tony

"Ed Solheim" wrote I think this should have been posted to rec.outdoors.fishing... Tony

"Ed Solheim" <edwins[ REMOVE ]@[ THIS ].no> wrote in message news:3k3R8.778$[email hidden]... > To me this sounds like just another faulty patch for GP2... > I cannot understand why you guys even bother to buy it... Crammond has > clearly shown that he either dont care or is incapable of fixing the bugsin > his software. > > It's carp - Period. > > -- The way i see it is that its an upgrade to GP3 (albeit a minor one). Its still the only decent F1 game out there. I hate the EA series, they all have an arcadey type feel to them. It probably wasnt worth the �29 though, �10 for an upgrade to gp3 would have been fairer. A big missed oppertunity i think.

The game is crap. How to use the new technology since Gp2 has passed Geoff by. It is such a shame, I always considered him a "Gaming Legend" ; up there in the same realm as Dave Krammer of Papyrus. He should have stopped there. I used to play Gp2 for hours along with Indycar 2 and Nascar 2. I always considered that era a "golden age" of Racing simulations. IMO all three were landmark achievements when they were released. "Richard Whitcombe" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:af2l1v$24p$[email hidden]... > > "Ed Solheim" <edwins[ REMOVE ]@[ THIS ].no> wrote in message > news:3k3R8.778$[email hidden]... > > To me this sounds like just another faulty patch for GP2... > > I cannot understand why you guys even bother to buy it... Crammond has > > clearly shown that he either dont care or is incapable of fixing thebugs

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> in > > his software. > > > > It's carp - Period. > > > > -- > > The way i see it is that its an upgrade to GP3 (albeit a minor one). Its > still the only decent F1 game out there. I hate the EA series, they all > have an arcadey type feel to them. It probably wasnt worth the �29

though, > �10 for an upgrade to gp3 would have been fairer. A big missedoppertunity > i think. > >

LOL!! Actually, calling the game "carp" may not be too far off the mark. Carp are kind of skuzzy fish, just is GP4 is kind of a skuzzy excuse for a race sim. Todd "Tony Rickard" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:Or4R8.3923$[email hidden]...

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> > "Ed Solheim" wrote > > > It's carp - Period. > > I think this should have been posted to rec.outdoors.fishing... > > Tony > >

On Sat, 22 Jun 2002 16:30:32 -0400, Sebastion Melmoth <[email hidden]> wrote:

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> On Sat, 22 Jun 2002 18:10:24 +0000 (UTC), "Richard Whitcombe" > <[email hidden]> bleeted: > > > >A lot of the same problems as GP3. I calibrate and play my FFB MS wheel and > >cant then use the in game menus without unplugging it as the selection keeps > >permanently scrolling (it works fine in the game). Even the mouse wont work > >as the selection keeps changing. Its an identical problem to GP3. It makes > >altering car setup during practice sessions very fiddly. > >Why isnt standard Direct Input utilised and an option to disable controller > >in the menu ? > > > There was such an option in GP3. There isn't one in GP4 buried > somewhere? >

Workshop > Menu Setup > Disable Joystick Control In Menu (or something like that).

"Richard Whitcombe" <[email hidden]> wrote > System is an XP2000+ with Geforce2 GTS card, 768mb ram. > > Running in 1024 x 768, automatic settings results in about half detailbeing > selected. Its fine in practice with higher but CPU occupancy in a race is > 130-140% on non graphic intensive circuits. Even with settings down tohalf > it still spikes to 120-130 at times during a race causing some odd > behaviour. I think i may have to knock it to 800 x 600 eventually or risk > turning so much detail off im not going to get turn points etc. I get much much better performance like that with my 1.2GHz CPU and GF3Ti200. That performance loss is down to your graphics card I'm afraid. Well, that and GC's programming. You're almost certainly maxing out your GF2 with that CPU so an upgrade should be in order even so though. :) Apart from that, I agree with everything else you state. You took the words right outta my mouth. -- Frode

Scott wrote: > On Sat, 22 Jun 2002 16:30:32 -0400, Sebastion Melmoth <[email hidden]> wrote: > snip >>There was such an option in GP3. There isn't one in GP4 buried >>somewhere? > > Workshop > Menu Setup > Disable Joystick Control In Menu (or something like that). Oh boy, I missed that one. I still didn't get to read the "manual", well, it's a couple of pages, even a misprint as the second half of it is in French instead of German... quality control. -- l8er ronny Your mouse has moved. Windows must be restarted for the change to take effect. Reboot now?