I'm more of an RAS lurker, but decided to post this review for the following
reasons:
1) It's the one sim where I have actual experience, having driven an A/FD
in Pro Comp a few years ago (OK, it was more than 20 years, but things
haven't changed all that much!). So, I've really driven a rear-engined rail
at over 200 mph in the 1/4 mile.
2) I haven't seen many other reviews here aside from the usual "returned
it after 2 hours" or "it sucks because..." posts.
I'm not going to compare it with "Burnout" since I haven't played that
game -- mainly since I never liked "bracket" or "handicapped" racing and
always preferred the heads-up, fastest-guy-wins racing classes.
My system: PII-233, 64Mb, Matrox Millenium, Monster 3D (Voodoo 1), AWE64,
TSW wheel.
Graphics performance: Perfectly smooth as far as my eyes can tell.
Graphics quality: Uses DirectX, so some 3Dfx features are not used. You have
to use what they call "low res textures", but it still looks pretty good.
The smoke looks kind of blocky in closeup views, but this really only
affects replays assuming that you're viewing from the driver's seat when
actually racing. The header flames are well done, going from transparent at
idle to fully flaming when the throttle is hit. It would be nice if the
screen resolution were finer than 640x480, but again this mainly affects
what you see on replays.
Sound: Great use of actual recorded sounds. Stereo effects are very well
done as you can hear your opponent burn out in the lane next to you, etc.
Also, when watching replays, the sounds moves in stereo space according to
the camera view and where the cars are.
Controls: Appears to have been intended for pedals, but as released uses
buttons for throttle and brake. Actually this isn't as bad as it sounds for
the way that drag racing is done, and I think that the typical PC pedal
units would not work well for drag racing unless you bolted them to the
floor and decrease their travel. For the wheel setup, what worked best for
me was to set the "sensitivity" just about to the max, but set the steering
ratio very low. It steers for me just about the way that my actual car
did -- just a bit of pressure one way or the other would correct most normal
drifting conditions. It's really easy to over-correct when you first try it!
On-screen aids: They provide some very good visual aids that are necessary
to operate the car. There's a set of arrows to help you back up into the
groove following a burnout (it would have been nicer to have an animated
crewman jump out to do this, but something is necessary here). Then there's
a color bar that shows you how close you are to the prestage lights.
Finally, there's a color bar during the race that lets you see if you're
losing traction and starting to go up in smoke. This is required since you
don't have the physical feel of the tires spinning.
Tuning: There are not as many tuning points as some people would probably
like. However, they've covered the bases pretty well. There are enough
settings to show you how easy it is to "lose your setup" by making too many
changes at once! Hint: save lots of setups that work and record the track
conditions. In a fairly short time I went from 4.90's with the "crew-chief
selected" setups to 4.50's with my own tuning (maybe this indicates that
it's a bit too easy to find a setup).
Menus: There are a few areas that could have been improved, but overall I
don't have any complaints. I think that what they call "Novice" should have
been "Arcade" and vice versa. In any case, the only way to really start
winning is to select "Full" and do your own tuning.
Race modes: Supports testing, match racing, single event (qualifying and
eliminations), and season. When doing a season, there's also some budgeting
that you have to do, but I haven't tried any of this yet.
Racing: Very realistic, but you're cheating if you don't use the driver's
view (press "F1" then "2"). I especially like the vibration of the bodywork
when idling, etc. They seem to have thrown in enough randomness that you
will not be fully consistent from run to run, especially if you're just on
the edge of traction or whatever. The tracks also seem to vary from lane to
lane. The sensation of speed is very accurate, down to the feeling of
"tunnel vision" as you approach the traps. On one of my best runs, the car
carried the front wheels at a couple of points on the track, and everything
reacted as I would have expected. You can also do full wheelstands and
blowovers, and crash in interesting ways if you're into that.
You also get a sense of some of the frustrations of drag racing: the
slightest mental or setup mistake can take you right out of an event!
Looking back on my own career, I tend to remember my screwups more than my
victories. This will also happen to you while playing this game. It's hell
to run a low E.T and lose because you were asleep at the line!
Replays: The BEST feature of the game! There are a multitude of different
camera views, and you can select them quickly during a replay to view your
runs just as they would look on TV. One especially tricky view is a closeup
of the driver, who you can watch doing steering, brakes, and tripping the
chute release! I've spent as long as 20 minutes watching the replay of one
of my races while trying out all the camera tricks. (You can also race from
any available camera view, but there are obviously only a few that are
really practical.) Another neat view is from just behind the rear wing: you
can see it vibrate back and forth when idling, and during a run you can
actually see the tire growth.
Bugs: The only thing that I would consider to be a major "bug" is that the
buffer used to hold data for replay simply isn't big enough. If you make a
really long burnout or otherwise take you time setting up for a run, then
you won't be able to see the complete run in the replay. They need to
provide for about another 30 seconds of data. I've also noted a few graphic
and sound glitches during replays while fooling with the camera angles, but
have not encountered any bugs during the real gameplay.
A big issue has been made by some about the "load time" preceding each race.
This runs from 10-15 seconds. Big deal!! You normally have to wait 45
minutes to an hour between rounds at a real race :-). In any case, there are
no big delays in any other part of the game and if you can live with the
menus in F1RS (which are 10 times more annoying than this), you can
certainly wait 10 seconds before each drag race!
Wish/feature list: Pedals should be supported for those who really want to
use them (they are partially there on the menus, so this may come out as a
patch). Graphics should be supported at higher resolutions for fast
machines. It would also be nice to be able to actually design your car,
specifying things like wheelbase, engine type, engine location, etc. This
would present more of a modeling challenge for the software, but would add
to the complexity of getting a car built and set up.
Do I sound enthused about this game? Definitely! It probably will not be
your favorite if you're not already a drag racing fan, but if you have any
interest at all in the subject then don't hesitate to give it a try. I got
my copy at CompUSA for only $29.99 and consider it a real bargain at that
price.
--
Doug Gordon
(remove "nospam" from e-mail address)
I forgot to mention multiplayer support as one big item that's missing --
there's no support for it of any type. I think I can understand part of the
technical problems: a T/F race is only five seconds long and a hell of a lot
goes on in those few seconds. On a typical Internet-speed connection, I'm
not sure how two computers could exchange data fast enough to make the
simulation work correctly. On the other hand, how does Burnout do it?
Anyway, this would be a really nice feature for a future upgrade!
Doug Gordon
This was a nice review. In fact it makes me want to go buy the game.
a 4.5 sec run driving one handed seems realistic enough :-)
Seriously though the main thing I guess I am worried about is the
3dfx support. Others had said it was slow and looked like crap.
It sounds like you are saying the opposite.
--
Header address intentionally scrambled to ward off the spamming hordes.
Thanks for that Doug. I think you just helped me decide my next software title. Great
to hear from someone with such relevant experience and to learn how good this sim is in so
many areas. And the button/peddle issue is not really worrying me either after thinking
about it since brakes mean nothing and throttle is either on or off anyway.
Btw, what is the method, in real life, used to stop the motor over revving in
burnouts. I'm sure I knew at one stage but cannot recall at the moment.
>Snip great review
>Seriously though the main thing I guess I am worried about is the
>3dfx support. Others had said it was slow and looked like crap.
>It sounds like you are saying the opposite.
Well, my first racing sim ran on an EGA monitor on top of a PC/XT, so any of
the recent 3D-based games are bound to impress me :-)! IMHO, the speed is
sufficient for you to drive the car without noticing any type of jerkiness
and the replays also seem very smooth from all angles. I suppose there are
some "videophiles" out there who aren't satisfied with less than 75 fps or
whatever, but I'm looking at this more as a simulation and game than as a
graphics showcase.
BTW, I had race today where I beat Joe Amato by .003 second! I was .047
quicker in ET, but he had a .044 better reaction time. The difference at the
finish line was thus .003 and it looked like a dead heat in the replay as I
caught him in the traps on the top end.
--
Doug Gordon
(remove "nospam" from e-mail address)
> Btw, what is the method, in real life, used to stop the motor over revving in
>burnouts. I'm sure I knew at one stage but cannot recall at the moment.
I don't know these days. In my time it was just the driver being careful
about it. You'd often hear the motors rev up to the point of valve float!
--
Doug Gordon
(remove "nospam" from e-mail address)
It's called a throttle stop.... The nitro guys utilize a mechanical limiter on
the throttle linkage for the burnout, then after the car's backed up (before
staging), they remove it from the linkage..
(not to be confused with the electronically timed throttle stops currently used
in the Super classes)
Hope this clarifies matters... :)
"There are those who race.....and those who watch..... I don't watch!"
Xman
FMDRS #25 Super Street (Attitudes adjusted in 10.90 seconds)
>Thanks for that Doug. I think you just helped me decide my next software title. Great
>to hear from someone with such relevant experience and to learn how good this sim is in so
>many areas. And the button/peddle issue is not really worrying me either after thinking
>about it since brakes mean nothing and throttle is either on or off anyway.
> Btw, what is the method, in real life, used to stop the motor over revving in
>burnouts. I'm sure I knew at one stage but cannot recall at the moment.
Ditto to Doug - nice to read a nice, detailed review. And I had really been
thinking along his lines all along, that for drag racing buttons would work
fine and the pedal support issue would be no biggie for me. Kept seeing all
these complaints and I thought "Why would you be at part-throttle on a
dragster anyways?" <grin> F1RS, sure, but not a dragster.
Never really been terribly into the dragsters, especially bracket racing, so
skipped Burnout and thought I might this too, but for $30 I might give it a
shot. What intrigues me is the season mode, where the $$$ might come into
play in your decision making. Always thought this could add a lot to a
racing sim. Loved how the old Ferrari F1 made you spend your testing time
and time between sessions at events in a realistic manner. I can see where
if not done well it wouldn't add much to the gameplay, but if done well
could be neat, like having to be REAL careful with your car because you've
wrecked a few too many previously.
So if anyone has any comments on the season mode I'd love to hear them.
Ken
Ken,
I ran into one of those $$$ situations with "NHRA Drag Racing". I
qualified for an event and won the first and second rounds of
eliminations. Unfortunately I wrecked the car in the traps both
times. I had no car and no money left and couldn't advance to the
next round of eliminations.
Doug,
Thanks for the great review. I like 'NHRA Drag Racing" a lot. I have
"Burnout" also but I'm not one to do all the tinkering that's
available in that sim. Also, for me, the button issue is no big
deal, after playing I can see that it works much better than trying to
use the X-axis of the joystick for acceleration and braking as I would
normally do.
The one thing that gripes me is no 3dfx support, and a very minor
complaint is that the program doesn't save your name. You have to
enter it every time you start the game.
Jim
I also noted the name-saving "bug" but forgot to mention it. I also found
another bug when using "season" mode: when I proceed to a new event, the
"Standings" chart does not erase the names from the previous event. For
example, after qualifying the names and times are correct in the outermost
columns of boxes, but the rest of the elimination chart still shows the
pairings and times from the previous event! It doesn't affect anything, but
can be confusing. This seems like an easy problem to fix, but also hard to
see how it made it through the beta testing.
The 3Dfx issue is unfortunate, but this is actually the reason that DirectX
was invented. It's easier for developers to write to a single API than to
have to write code specific to each available card. Unfortunately, not all
cards are created equal so DirectX ends up being useful for the "least
common" set of features.
--
Doug Gordon
(remove "nospam" from e-mail address)
>Doug,
>Thanks for the great review. I like 'NHRA Drag Racing" a lot. I have
>"Burnout" also but I'm not one to do all the tinkering that's
>available in that sim. Also, for me, the button issue is no big
>deal, after playing I can see that it works much better than trying to
>use the X-axis of the joystick for acceleration and braking as I would
>normally do.
>The one thing that gripes me is no 3dfx support, and a very minor
>complaint is that the program doesn't save your name. You have to
>enter it every time you start the game.
>Jim
Thanks for that. So if this is modelled properly then the "button for accelerator"
should be fine!
Quoted text (14 lines)
> >> Btw, what is the method, in real life, used to stop the motor over > >revving in > >>burnouts. I'm sure I knew at one stage but cannot recall at the moment. > It's called a throttle stop.... The nitro guys utilize a mechanical limiter on > the throttle linkage for the burnout, then after the car's backed up (before > staging), they remove it from the linkage.. > (not to be confused with the electronically timed throttle stops currently used > in the Super classes) > Hope this clarifies matters... :) > "There are those who race.....and those who watch..... I don't watch!" > Xman > FMDRS #25 Super Street (Attitudes adjusted in 10.90 seconds)Quoted text (9 lines)
> Never really been terribly into the dragsters, especially bracket racing, so > skipped Burnout and thought I might this too, but for $30 I might give it a > shot. What intrigues me is the season mode, where the $$$ might come into > play in your decision making. Always thought this could add a lot to a > racing sim. Loved how the old Ferrari F1 made you spend your testing time > and time between sessions at events in a realistic manner. I can see where > if not done well it wouldn't add much to the gameplay, but if done well > could be neat, like having to be REAL careful with your car because you've > wrecked a few too many previously.Correct. It sounds like they did D3D calls which the RIVA does
well and the 3dfx does not. The same was true some flightsims
(like Flying Corps) which are D3D. They made D3D calls which
a 3dfx does well and others do not. So the best card for that
game is 3dfx. It is unfortunate. I had high hopes for this game.
But since I only have a 200-MMX and a 3dfx card there is no
way.
--
Header address intentionally scrambled to ward off the spamming hordes.
The nitro boys also only use one magneto during the burnout as well...they
use two during the run..this helps a little as well.
*remove spam to reply by email*
