Having been reading all the posts about GP3 and WSC on theis NG and been
frustrated by constantly spinning too often in GPL , I decided to give GP2
an airing again in the past few days.
I started off using an old analogue joystick , practising and racing around
Monza , Silverstone , Hockenheim and San Marino , learning each corner and
braking point and gradually shaving my laptimes . I'd forgotten just how
much fun the game could be , racing neck and neck with the car in front ,
driving on the limit , trying to stay ahead of the car behind and all this
without having to worry about spinning every lap or two. I know that GPL is
the supreme test of a simmer's skill and I can appreciate the effort that's
been put into the physics engine but sometimes you just want to concentrate
on the racing as opposed to staying on the track.
Yesterday , I finally found out how to setup my MSFF wheel to use in the
game though I'm using one of the buttons as a brake and then I thought ,
let's see what downloads are on offer . One ot the best sites I've found so
far has been at www.alphaf1.com with a mass of editors , car files and loads
of tracks to download. So today I downloaded Victor Gars' excellent track
handler together with several other tracks around the UK and Europe . One of
the most satisfying moments was racing around Pembrey in Wales . It's just a
few miles away and I've watched everything there over the years from from
Formula 3 to BTCC to Jaguar Club events . It used to be a very popular venue
for F1 testing , attracting even Senna a few times and having been round it
in the passenger seat of a Ferrari Dino and a racing Porsche 911 it was
wonderful to be able to race there in my virtual car for myself.
I'm now going to start expeimenting with the setups to see how competitive I
can get the car plus I'll explore some of the more advanced features of the
game. Granted the graphics of the game aren't up to what we're used to
nowadays but it makes up for that in gameplay and involvement , besides , I
can run the game with all options on my K6-2 400@450.
GP3 won't be out until the end of July ( I'm planning on upgrading to an AMD
Duron later) so I'll be getting some practice in on GP2 in the meantime as
well as GPL if my patience holds out
Happy racing
Andrew
