After a few days spent tinkering with the menu options I found a controller
setup that I liked.
I left the pit box in Sepang using manual clutch with the revs up, loving
the realism of using a clutch. As usual, the graphics were stunning and I
was looking forward to putting in some intensive sessions to work on
tweaking the setups.
Out of the pits, I floored the throttle, the wheels spun, giving a weak
chirp like a budgie. I hit 2nd gear and floored it. The wheels spun again
with a weak chirp but the car remained resolutely pointing straight ahead.
No power slide, no rear end aggression, no feeling of fighting an
overpowered monster, just launched straight ahead. I hit the rev
limiter...hmm, some strange quirk in the diff settings, back to the pits.
Played with the diff and found no diff. Launched forward, a feeble chirp and
hit the rev limiter.
Ah well, put in some laps and forgive this minor problem. First turn, taken
slow in 2nd, careful with the throttle, keep it tight for the next
lefthander, turn in and floor it. Full throttle, power out for the long
sweeping righthander getting ready to catch the rear as it swings out left
under power(no aids here)grab 3rd keep it floored, no slide, hit the rev
limiter, 4th, floored, no slide, 5th, full throttle, no bloody slide, no
hint of slide, no hint that the possibility of a slide may be imminent, just
a small shudder as the revs hit the limit. What's happening? Up to 7th, 100
Metre marker on my left, down through the gears for the tight right-hander
keep it in 3rd gently turn-in quarter throttle, what happens? SLIDES! Huge
over-steer travelling in an F1 car at 70MPH with almost no throttle. What's
happening?
My setup head tells me that the car must have a huge rear wing to keep it
stable in the fast stuff and an extremely stiff spring/damper/roll bar
brick-like setup at the rear to cause this car behaviour. Surely no level of
rear wing will ease power oversteer in 3rd whilst turning with the throttle
floored feeding 800bhp to a bit of grooved rubber? I told myself that things
weren't so bad. At least I could floor in in the fast stuff and go about
setting some decent times. Up the gears to the next sweeping left-right
combination, into 5th medium throttle turn in the car seems glued, a little
more throttle, the rear end breaks away, no warning, no noise, no sound of
skidding tyres, no on-the-limit twitches. The first indication the game gave
that I was oversteering was when my view of the road ahead was now a view of
the road leftwards. Yet the car stuck like glue on the previous fast turn.
Back to the pits, soften the anti-roll bar at the rear, stiffen the front,
same with the springs and dampers, raise the rear end to cope, fix the
camber to balance the temps, keep it a little negative to allow for natural
tyre flexion at the limit.
The result? The car reacts exactly the same. Just the vague impression that
the rear is a little more 'stodgy'.
This game can not possibly reproduce the seat of the pants, on the edge,
road hugging feeling that GP3 gives a Sim Racer. It is worlds apart.
Something is not right about it. Something that is very difficult to define.
It seems to have all the attributes and ingredients of a great game but
lacks a sim soul. The very thing that GP3 has in buckets, this game provides
in spoonfuls. Balls to the Wall gut reaction opposite locks, not here. Oh,
you can catch the rear, if you take -that corner at that speed with that
degree of lock and that amount of throttle- and you know that the last 2 or
3 times the rear stepped out, then you can catch the rear. But there's no
audio-spatial feedback or simply gut instinct that it's going to go. There's
nothing to react to. Aside from the view change.
GP3 may lack the polished polygons and the stunning textures, it may limit
us to one car model with one set of physics, but it feeds us with all the
information we need -in the force-feedback, in the sounds, in the little
twitches and lurches that it gives- that allow us to make those little
inputs to place the car where we want it to be, and to react on time when it
is not.
PS, no amount of logical setup changes would allow me to properly dial out
this strange car behaviour.
And I really want to love it...
--------------------
Ian Bell
GPLRank -16.8
Gonna learn The Ring and Silverstone soon.
