|I agree completely with you on this... I too am very sick and tired
|reading peoples posts on why they think it sucks because of extremely minor
|details...then again I'm not on here much because I'm playing F1. ;)
Welcome to USENET. How bad something gets flamed combined somehow with
how long it gets flame is usually proportional to how good a product
is. Look at PC titles- GP2, ICR2, Quake, etc- people gripe endlessly
and mercilessly about them. Meanwhile titles like "Al unser racing",
or the like just fade in to eternity without a mention.
I think Psygnosis' F-1 is brilliant- the best product I've found yet
for playstation. In fact, it is worth *buying* a playstation for. It
is a light-year leap ahead of anything close to it. I think it is on a
par with GP2 on the PC, better in some things, lesser in others. Just
wish it had mirrors! ;>
GP2 apparently offered such a good simulation of the tracks that
Jacques Villaneuve offhandedly credited it in some part (esp
regarding track familiarity) with his successes at Hungary and ... the
next one (forgot which). You can be sure after he said that anybody in
F-1 without GP2 went and obtained it immediately, if at least to make
sure they weren't missing something. Well, I think Psygnosis has gone
an order of magnitude beyond GP2 in the track simulation- particularly
the banking, fantastic trackside detail, grass vs. gravel detail. The
thing that amazes me most with F-1 is that courses really have a
"local flavor" to them- you can see access and non-racing roads, and
in general, all the messy details on a real track, and a sense of
where you are in the world. GP2 is very clean, more generic. Not
knocking it- it is just the case.
The AI in GP2 seems better to me. These Psygnosis F-1 dudes are *very*
agressive, suicidal at times even, and they never seem to blow engines
or spin or crash. I also sense less of a difference between GP2's AI
and my own driving than with my driving and F-1's AI. F-1's AI seems
too slow in some corners, braking too much. Maybe This is just on easy
or medium settings, I don't know.
Anyway, as a comparison, I went and bought Andretti racing... and
traded it. I love Indycar, easily as much as F-1, and I am dying for a
real F-1 or GP2 style Indycar simulator in Playstation. But I felt
that Andretti racing was a half-hearted and half-baked job. Sure,
Vancouver looks decent, but first off, to compete, there needs to be a
product sanctioned by CART (or whoever is left at the end of all this
***we're living through now), with ALL tracks. Ya, I know, that is a
bit of a problem these days, knowing what "all the tracks" are, or who
the sanctioning body is. Indycar needs to get it's shit together; we
all lose like it is now.
What killed me totally, absolutely with Andretti Racing was that I
couldn't find a menu to calibrate my Mad Catz wheel (I use less pedal
movement than Mad Catz is capable of). Was there one? Sure didn't seem
to be. I hope to god NASCAR does, or else it is useless to me. Anybody
know?
With F-1, even without proper (any!) documentation or, I never, ever
get the feeling the makers didn't put all of themselves in to it.
Perhaps they rushed the end, but it is a full work, no rip-off. Even
if you hate the driving modelor the AI, the track detail alone is,
like an encyclopedia, worth the money for a fan, just to refer to.
Psygnosis... any interest in simulating the Indycar circuit? You could
probably buy a lot of shortcuts real cheap from Sierra-bought Papyrus!
<snip>
How's the driving model compared to GP2? Most significantly, are
wheelspin and brake lockup modeled accurately, or modeled at all?
couldn't find a menu to calibrate my Mad Catz wheel (I use less pedal
movement than Mad Catz is capable of). Was there one? >>
No, but I didn't find that the problem that you did.
useless to me. Anybody know?
There is full calibration on NASCAR for the Mad Catz. The wheel & pedals
are even shown in the setup screen!
probably buy a lot of shortcuts real cheap from Sierra-bought Papyrus!>>
I doubt it. Psygnosis is very UK oriented.
Randy
><snip>
>How's the driving model compared to GP2? Most significantly, are
>wheelspin and brake lockup modeled accurately, or modeled at all?
Wwheelspin yes, particularly if you put a wheel on the grass.
Brake lockup no, not that you would notice.
Be warned, however, F1 does have a serious bug with regard to
pitstops. Some of the computer cars will (for some reason) go into the
pits on every single lap after their scheduled stop for the rest of
the race. This means you can battle with a car for the first half of
the race only to finish five laps ahead of it at the end 'cause its
pitted every time.
Phil
