Here are my impressions of the game:
Firstly, the game really is amazing, no doubt about it.
I was suprised to see such a detailed menu system, you can do anything
from setting up your joystick to setting the ride height of your car.
The intro sequence is good, it is a vga sequence with loads of photos
flashing on and off. The music is a real racey style which adds to the
astmosphere of the intro and menus. The menus are all in SVGA and look
real nice.
I set up my joystick in seconds and was ready to race so selected myself
as Damon Hill and went off to a quick race at Silverstone. Just as I was
about to play I remembered that I had to change the graphics to SVGA and
so went onto that particular menu. Brilliant. I had quite a few textures
done and was ready to go at 18 frames per second. I am using a Pentium
120mhz PC. So back I went to Silverstone and began in 12th place on the
grid. First thing I noticed was how detailed everything was. Before I
had much time to think, though, on came the horn and all engines were
started. I was ready to go!! The red light came on and then the green
and GO!!, well not quite, I was standing on the line a cloud of my own
tire smoke. I then let off the throttle and slowly began to increase it.
At that moment it was quite difficult to see because there was a lot of
other tire smoke from other cars. Therefore, I didn't Ukyo Katayama
coming up on the outside and progressed to drive straight into him.
Whoops! Off went Ukyo, in the air, right into the trackside barrier. In
the process of hitting him, I lost control of my car and was amazed to
see the other cars behind me managing to swerve to avoid the accident.
Amazing AI!! David Brabham, in his Simtec, was not so clever and drove
right into the side of my car and off came his nose cone. I regained
control and went into the first corner. Oh dear, massive tire lockup,
this won't do. I saw the rest of the pack driving off into the distance
as I locked up and headed onto the gravel. Damn!! I drove off the
gravel, a timely process, and while going flat out, I tried to take a
chicane too fast and drove straight over it. Out came the black flag. I
drop in engine revs, just for about 5-10 seconds. I proceeded round the
track, making more mistakes and then found myself being lapped and then
soon, the race was over with me in a horrible last place.
The whole thing totally amazed me. I drove on a few other tracks, again
having more accidents. Just a few minutes ago I had a heartstopping race
at Magny-Cours. First time, I was on pole and then was then forced off
the track by Schumacher. This was annoying. I found myself well down the
field. I was happily keeping my head and then suddenly one of the
Footwork cars spun right in front of me. I just swerved and then missed
him but ended up in the barrier. The next accident was absolutely
breathtaking. I was having a good race after my previous near miss with
the Footwork. I was heading for the esses and drove onto the grass. I
was soon back on the track and onto the throttle. That grass trip, made
me lose concentration I took the Nurburgring first section wrong and
went too wide. I struck the kerb and was in the air, just as I was
returning too earth, I struck another kurb and then went even higher
than before. Without any control I hit the wall, in mid-flight, very
hard indeed. I looked at the replay and it was brilliant. I was in the
air and then as I struck the second kurb the car went sideways up, and I
caught a glimpse of the wooden plank. The car spun in the air and then
came down into the barrier. I couldn't believe such an amazing carsh in
a computer game.
My frame rates were OK. Monaco is a joke. It is much too slow. I had a
bit of trouble at tamburello at Imola too, the game slows down a bit
beacuse of the trees. When there is a lot of tire smoke, the game slows
down too.
I only spotted one bug, as Damon Hill, I was driving in 1st place and I
saw Coulthard behind me, except, the car was No. 0 instead of No. 2. It
was Damon's number of Coulthard's car. After the first lap, the number
changed to 2 permanently. Oh well, not a major blow.
The sound is cool and so are the graphics. The manual os very detailed.
These are the complaints that I have:
* When qualifying, you get split times in the***pit, except the times
are your split times and not the times of the driver in pole position.
Surely, you want to be competing against the split times of the pole
position sitter?
* You cannot save replays, only hotlaps. I wanted to save my replay of
my crash at Magny-Cours, but couldn't.
* The replays are only 20 seconds long.
Thanks for reading this, it took me a while to write. If you haven't got
the game and want to ask any questions, as long as the questions are in
english because I live in the UK, I will be happy to answer them.
Have a good time racing GRAND PRIX 2!!!!
Andrew Easter
