OK, first a warning, these are just my opinions!
I bought IndyCar II in the sales after Chrimbo, and I now have about
three weeks of driving (read skidding and sliding!) under my belt so
I thought it was about time to make some commments.
Firstly, good job for including 15 tracks instead of pulling the usual
"here's half the Championship, go buy the other 8 tracks in three months
time" stunt that we saw with IndyCar and NASCAR.
It's funny to race at circuits like Long Beach or Laguna Seca and to
see buildings that are now textured go past at a higher frame rate
than the original game's 15 fps!
Nice to see SVGA as well, even if it is still beyond my PC's capability -
I go for framerate above texture every time.
However, the opponent cars don't appear to look as good as the cars from
the original game, I can't put my finger on it, but they remind me more
of the cars from F1GP than IndyCar! The AI seems a lot better, they don't
suddenly slam on the brakes when exiting corners like in the first game,
but the opponents still appear to be subject to a different set of Physics
than the player - although it is less noticeable than it was in IndyCar.
The trouble is, having played the game now, I don't feel that I have
gained much over IndyCar and NASCAR. The menu system is identical to
NASCAR & IndyCar, the whole game has the feel of the first two. OK, so
we now have all the NASCAR advances over IndyCar, but, big deal, they
weren't that great to start with!
Once again, the game doesn't capture the feel of racing the way that
F1GP does. Every time you return to the garage in a practice session,
all the other cars return to the pits as well - why can't they continue
circling? Hell, they managed that in Indy 500 The Simulation! And why
I can't get more information about lap times, etc. when I finish a race?
I didn't mind the lack of spray in IndyCar when racing in the wet, but
IndyCar II doesn't even have a wet weather option!! F1GP has both the
slippery track surface *and* the sudden loss of visibilty caused by
the spray from other cars and it is a four-year old game!!!
The rev counter warning light "bug" seems more like the usual Papyrus
"release an unfinished bug-ridden game to catch the Christmas rush"
trick, although this is no fault of the programmers.
So what if Grand Prix II is months late? At least it will be a finished
product. And who remembers the *huge* gap between Indy 500 and IndyCar?
That's a much better comparison than the gap between ICR, NASCAR and
ICR II which are, I hate to say it. little more than graphic re-writes
of the original ICR game.
IndyCar II is a good game, but it isn't a great game the way that IndyCar
was. For me, it adds little more than SVGA graphics, some new circuits
and handling that matches the rule changes, to the existing game. It's
more like IndyCar 1.2.
Sorry if no one agrees, personally I like IndyCar II, but I imagine that
I, like most people, will go absolutely BONKERS over Grand Prix II!!
As for "Grand Prix II will need a really incredible PC before it will
run", a) that's rubbish and b) didn't we all say the same thing about
NASCAR???
So endeth the soapbox.
DR J
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