Hi,
I've some opinions to air on the game after a few hours.
Graphically, it is very lush. I'm using the Rendition Redline version on
a 200MMX, 32MB RAM. It's plays smoothly at 640*480, although I prefer
the FPS at 512*384. Not much worse. I can't tell the frame-rate, but I
want to see the tyre-wall stencil rotate quickly enough. The first thing
I felt was that `wouldn't it be great if we could get GP2 cars to run on
these tracks!'. I remember some comments about the superior track
accuracy by Psygnosis over Microprose's. This is most evident in the
backing on the main straight at Interlagos and that dip at the Senna's
as well as the infamous bump at *** Square and other similar places.
However I do have reservations abt certain other places. The Rivazza
section and the preceding fast left sweeper (Imola) I feel, is more
accurate in GP2, in F1, it seems way too flat and short. But it's got
alot of wonderful stuff like being able drive on the escape roads at Ste
Devote and *** Square, looking down from the Interlagos straight and
being able to see the infield section. And of course, the most
up-to-date tracks at the moment (finally, Argentina begins to make some
sense.) So did Power F1, but that's a different kettle of trash
altogether.
My main gripe is that you cannot custom assign control inputs. For those
of us who use controls on both axis, this means having to sacrifice our
pedals (I use a GP1/ CH Pedals combo). I feel this is a very glaring
oversight on their part. All recent Win95 driving games to my knowledge,
sim/ arcade or otherwise have permitted control configuration. One other
thing I don't know if anybody out there thinks the same, it seems that
it's quicker on keyboard...it seems lacking in input resolution with the
wheel) The menu selection is also %&%#ly dumb. If you are in free
practice and you want to change your controls or something, you have to
GO through quals and race before returning to the main menu. And the
menus shift so sloooowly. Stupid little gripe.
For us Rendition users, playing F1 means sacrificing our Rendition utils
because the Reddline drivers have to be installed in place of the
Sierrs/ Intergraph ones and for me, it's a performance hit too. I hope
the vendors get their new drivers out soon (Creative's alreay on beta).
This game is definitly arcade. No modelling of wheelspin/ slipping. No
worries for hard-core GP2 fans here. You have a boost catch-up mode. NO
***PIT view. I use the `sitting on the nose' view, which seems to make
all the other cars look as if you're ten foot above them. It's quite
unnerving not having all those***pit info we're used to.
My opinions of this game are mixed. For sure, it's flawed, but's it good
fun. It's not fair to compare the with GP2. You should use the fun of F1
to enjoy yourselves, away from the intensity of GP2. Complementary. It's
a buy if you're an F1 nut like me, not least for the opportunity to race
with dear old Murray. Play-by-play could be better implemented, somewhat
repeatitive (how many times should you say "unless I'm mistaken, I am
very much mistaken..." in a race.) And when he says " I think it's a XXX
" , where XXX is the name of yr car, I think it sounds downright
retarded. But if you're born and bred on Murrayisms, you won't be racing
without him. Does anyone know who did the French commentary? Methinks
it's Philipe Alliot, n'est ce pas?
Cheers,
Stanley Chan
> My main gripe is that you cannot custom assign control inputs. For those
> of us who use controls on both axis, this means having to sacrifice our
> pedals (I use a GP1/ CH Pedals combo). I feel this is a very glaring
> oversight on their part.
is this with or without the win 95 one joystic converter that
thrustmaster will send for free?
The sound's also pretty weak. For a game using Dolby Surround/ Q-Sound,
they should have used better quality sound. At least, it should have
been as good as GP2, but instead we get very lame, high pitched
screeches and totally no backfire sound on the downshift. The
neighbouring cars sound terrible and really do detract from the game.
Like GP2, you sometimes hear `ghost' cars, but in this case, they sound
very.
Somebody once asked which game has the best soundtrack. This one
probably takes it if you like heavy rocker music.
Stanley
With the joystick convertor, you can use both axes of the GP1 and T2 on
the same 'stick. It's OK if you're a T2 user, but if you're on a GP1,
you have to plug in the pedals as a seperate 'stick because the paddles
behind the wheel already take up the vertical axis for 'stick 1.
Stanley
