Sorry..I'm using a direct UNIX account, and don't have much experience
with TRN or PICO. Irrespective, what should have been in my message is
the following: As everyone is now collectively logging into
WWW.ALLGAMES.COM, their server is dreadfully overtaxed. Whoever can pry
themselves from their CRT long enough, I would like to get your
impressions. Compare it to GP2, NASCAR 1, Indycar 2, whatever. Give us
your system specs, too. THANX.
Compare it to GP2, NASCAR 1, Indycar 2, whatever. Give us
Cursory exam on a Gateway P-120, 16mb RAM, Ensoniq Soundscape and STB
Powergraph w/2mb:
The demo only includes 5 other cars, but I could tell right away that
the frame rates were blowing NC1 away. With the original I had to cut
most textures off to get acceptable speed.
This sucker flies, even with track texture on. Still can't run
everything wide open, but with the limited number of cars, I can pretty
much display it all. Hard to tell what a full field would do though.
The cars look good, better than before, and the handling is even more
realistic.
One of the nicest features I see is the interface. Real nice menus,
etc. Far as I'm concerned the folks at Papyrus are brewing a
winner...my compliments to the chefs.
David Thompson
Hawaii: dglenn
Quoted text (7 lines)
> Sorry..I'm using a direct UNIX account, and don't have much experience > with TRN or PICO. Irrespective, what should have been in my message is > the following: As everyone is now collectively logging into > WWW.ALLGAMES.COM, their server is dreadfully overtaxed. Whoever can pry > themselves from their CRT long enough, I would like to get your > impressions. Compare it to GP2, NASCAR 1, Indycar 2, whatever. Give us > your system specs, too. THANX.Quoted text (26 lines)
> > Sorry..I'm using a direct UNIX account, and don't have much experience > > with TRN or PICO. Irrespective, what should have been in my message is > > the following: As everyone is now collectively logging into > > WWW.ALLGAMES.COM, their server is dreadfully overtaxed. Whoever can pry > > themselves from their CRT long enough, I would like to get your > > impressions. Compare it to GP2, NASCAR 1, Indycar 2, whatever. Give us > > your system specs, too. THANX. > It really can't be compared to the other games, since it is only a demo, but > it is an improvement. It doesn't have the feel of gp2 with the rumble strips > and car control, it feels more like nascar 1 after an icr2 patch. The > spotter is great, but he is sometimes late in telling you that you just > passed someone on the high side. It would be nice if he called out car > numbers. Running on a P75 with 16 megs of ram, I turned on clouds, objects, > car paint, and paint/skids, and it ran okay. There are no skid marks at all, > probably to be put in later. The menu's are cool, and the setup screen will > be great once we actually get to use it. The game looks very promising. > -- > Brian Fox > The Fox Den: Nascar and ICR2 > http://www.4w.com/pages/fox AND/OR > http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/1238 > When I die, I want to go peacefully, like my grandfather in his sleep, > not screaming like the other passengers in his car.I got the demo and played it all last night on my Pentium Pro 200. I had all
graphics turned on and was getting a very smooth frame rate, must have been
20fps or higher. I don't know actual numbers because the frame rate counter
didn't seem to work (hey, it's only a demo) but compared to Nascar 1 it's a
HUGE improvement. With the old game I had to turn off most graphics in SVGA to
get the same smoothness I get with the demo.
The new graphics are awesome. It looks like all the object textures have been
redone with more detail, yet the game still runs faster than NCR1. When you
pass a camera tower at Watkins Glen you can see through it (i.e. you only see
the steel bars comprising the tower, not a big box with bars painted on.) I
remember going by a timing (?) tower and could make out the individual LED
segments. If you're passing another car who's missing a quarter panel, you
can look over into his trunk. On the Driver Options screen, there is a large
picture of the driver on the left side of the screen, a picture of the game car
on the lower right, and driver info on the upper right. Again, you can't change
anything in the demo. I miss the rotating cars from the old game.
The car setup procedure has been totally redone. Instead of having seperate
menus and submenus for each setting, everything is cleanly laid out on one
"tech sheet." Although this too isn't functional in the demo, it looks like a
much better system. Papyrus did a great job on this, I never liked wading
through the old menus much.
I can't comment much on the driving aspect. I was a crappy NCR1 driver, and I
look forward to being a crappy NCR2 driver. :) The computer cars get into
their own messes including multi-car pileups, not just spins like NCR1. There
are no pit stops in the demo so no comment there. Ditto for modem/net play.
There is a menu option for 8-player IPX setup but it doesn't do anything.
Complaints? When you go to a race, i'm not sure I like having the menu spread
out along the bottom edge of the screen. The old way was better, stacked in the
upper left. The steering went out sometimes in Arcade mode, turning off a
graphic option solved it for some reason (it was NOT my driving, I am sure.)
That's all i can think of right now.
Overall, it's a great demo and looks to be a great game. I never 'got into'
Nascar 1 because it didn't perform very well on my system, but 2 leaves that
all behind. Excuse me, I think i'll go play some more... :)
