F1RS2 - first impressions

I've played the full version of F1RS2 (albeit with French language only) and I'm impressed. On first inspection, the car handling has been improved - it's now a lot more progressive and it's easier to correct and slide the car than the first version, which tended to send you into a spin and keep you there. IMHO, the sound is better too. On a down side, they've given up on the FOCA licencing deal and so all the cars, drivers, teams and tyres are fictional. They've provided a neat texture extractor, though, so I'd say within around a month we should be back up to speed with 1998 (9?) teams. Rain conditions are improved, with loads of spray which actually makes it quite difficult to see, and genuine mist which reduces the visibility distance. Menus still take too long to load and tonight, my first attempt at using the replay ended with the game crashing. But what the heck - it's only a fairly early French-only version anyway! John

I've played the German demo of F1RS2. It seems IDENTICAL to F1RS1. Except there are no real drivers and teams. James Larson

>I've played the German demo of F1RS2. It seems IDENTICAL to F1RS1. Except >there are no real drivers and teams. In that case it doesn't seem like you know F1RS very well. I've only just downloaded it and played it with the keyboard, but it seems very different to me. It hfeels totally different (much better); the cars are very different and so is the sound.... though it is still based on F1RS and therefore the tracks look almost identical to F1RS. The handling is very different to F1RS... a lot more progressive and the car actually feels like it has weight/momentum and sits on the road. My 1st impression was very good... I'll give it a good test tonight. Regards, David ps. In the demo the car textures and drivers are arbitary.... with that be like that in the full game? (I don't think so).

> I've played the German demo of F1RS2. It seems IDENTICAL to F1RS1. Except > there are no real drivers and teams. Then you're either blind or you started F1RS1 instead... l8er ronny -- Toys'R'Us '99: "So, would you like a hand gun with that action figure, kiddo?" |\ _,,,---,,_ I want to die like my Grandfather, ZZZzz /,`.-'`' -. ;-;;,_ in his sleep. |,4- ) )-,_. ,\ ( `'-' Not like the people in his car, '---''(_/--' `-'\_) screaming their heads off!

snip > Regards, > David > ps. In the demo the car textures and drivers are arbitary.... with that be > like that in the full game? (I don't think so). It with, eeh will be...UbiSoft didn't want to spend the big dollars for Bernie's license to print money... but as they probably didn't change the file formats we should be able to use the current 98 carsets for F1RS, so this won't be a problem for a very long time. l8er ronny -- Toys'R'Us '99: "So, would you like a hand gun with that action figure, kiddo?" |\ _,,,---,,_ I want to die like my Grandfather, ZZZzz /,`.-'`' -. ;-;;,_ in his sleep. |,4- ) )-,_. ,\ ( `'-' Not like the people in his car, '---''(_/--' `-'\_) screaming their heads off!

Quoted text (8 lines)

>In that case it doesn't seem like you know F1RS very well. I've only just >downloaded it and played it with the keyboard, but it seems very different to >me. It hfeels totally different (much better); the cars are very different and >so is the sound.... though it is still based on F1RS and therefore the tracks >look almost identical to F1RS. The handling is very different to F1RS... a lot >more progressive and the car actually feels like it has weight/momentum and >sits on the road. My 1st impression was very good... I'll give it a good test >tonight.

Yep. I like it. The only thing I still miss is the "dive" and "raise" when you use the brake or step on the gas. I know that the suspension of a F1 car is stiff, but that stiff? Remco

>The handling is very different to F1RS... a lot >more progressive and the car actually feels like it has weight/momentum and >sits on the road. That's the first thing I noticed about the game and I mentioned it in my review too. I'm wondering how many others noticed this. It's a very hard subject to describe, but now the cars feel like they are made of metal, and not balsa wood. CPR always gave me the impression of driving a heavy, ultra powerful car, and now MGP does also. How they did this I don't know, but I'd love to hear from Ubi Soft. Also, the steering is much, much, better. Very smooth. These two changes have made a huge difference in the way I view the game. I thought F1RS was great, but now it seems dramatically better which surprises me. Dave DmndDave

>Yep. I like it. The only thing I still miss is the "dive" and "raise" >when you use the brake or step on the gas. I know that the suspension >of a F1 car is stiff, but that stiff? Whatever the suspension setup, your head isn't as stiffly sprung - and so from your view from the visor, there should be some kind of movement. Mike.

Quoted text (16 lines)

>>I've played the German demo of F1RS2. It seems IDENTICAL to F1RS1. Except >>there are no real drivers and teams. >In that case it doesn't seem like you know F1RS very well. I've only just >downloaded it and played it with the keyboard, but it seems very different to >me. It hfeels totally different (much better); the cars are very different and >so is the sound.... though it is still based on F1RS and therefore the tracks >look almost identical to F1RS. The handling is very different to F1RS... a lot >more progressive and the car actually feels like it has weight/momentum and >sits on the road. My 1st impression was very good... I'll give it a good test >tonight. >Regards, >David >ps. In the demo the car textures and drivers are arbitary.... with that be >like that in the full game? (I don't think so).

OK, I played it with my T2 wheel on my P2 300 + 64MRAm + 3dfx (1) and it runs like a dream. The cars look great everything is perfectly smooth and you can even recognze some of the cars just by their shape :-) ...should be easy to match up the dripers/skins. On a more important note; my 1st impression was right... the car does feel like it has mass/momentum and it is a lot more progressive. Also, there are more feedback "queues" to let you know what the car is doing. So in that department it's excellent. The AI looks much better too... not the AI cars move more realistically also you f"finally" get the feeleing that they are actual cars... a lot of this has to do with the fact that they "bump" on the road and the fact that the wheels now spin a lot more realistically. Souind is definatelly improved. I though that the "skidding" and "gear" sounds are much better. The "crash" sounds are great too. The engine sound is not bad... very much like what you'd hear from the in-car cam in the TV coverage. Though, I was hoping for a bit more "raw" feel to it.... not bad though. Not here come some gripes: 1st off I can't, for the hell of it, get smooth power delivery. To me it seems that I'm either moving really slowly or spinning the rear wheels (especially in all the 1st gear corners and to a degree in second). Now when the rear wheels are moving slowly you apply the power gradually and smoothly through the pedals and it's still not doing much ultil the rear-wheels break traction. Now ytou thinks OK, I can handle this... just back off the throttle a little bit - doing that doesn't do much good the revs don't drop and the wheels are still spinning so you back of even more and still to no avail. Now you really back off and the wheels stop spinning but I'm back to square one.... I'm barelly moving. It seems that the wheel spin comes on too easy... I know that when the wheels lose traction then their resistance (to the ground) also decreases and you have to back of a bit more that you gave it in the 1st place. Though this to me seemed really extreme.... I don't see real F1 drivers spinning wheels 80% of their time in the 1st and 2nd gear. I found myself driving in no lower that 2nd gear because of this and while you keep your momentum everything feels really great. Maybe someone else has this problem as well and figured out a way of dealing with this.... if you have, then please let me know. Second of all, to me it seems that when you're on the back of another car (physical contact), that the perspective is a bit wrong... I feel like I'm a bit too high (I'm looking above the rear wing?!) and too far (my front 2 wheels seem about 4 times the size of the wheels (rear) of the car in ront. The in-front car seems to fill only about 1/4 of the screen while I would expect most of my screen to be taken up bu the car whn I'm on it's ass and I'd expect to be looking bellow the rear wing. Does anyone have a coment on this? They are my only 2 gripes... the second is no big deal though the 1st (the throttle issue) is bugging me.... can anyone help? I have a T2 and it is perfectraly smooth in GPL and ICR2. Regards, David Mocnay