PC SportsGames GPL Review

Thanks for that...Next time, simply post a link to the article. = \ > GRAND PRIX LEGENDS [snip] -- Marc J. Nelson The Sim Project - http://www.simproject.com/ Extinct Track Archive - http://www.simproject.com/eta/ * Switch confused.net with concentric.net to reply...Confused-yet? *

> Thanks for that...Next time, simply post a link to the article. = \ I would rather see articles like this posted here in their entirety (along with a link). -- Pat Dotson IMPACT Motorsports http://www.impactmotorsports.com/pd.html

GRAND PRIX LEGENDS Published by: Sierra Sports System requirements: Pentium 166 or better; 2x CD ROM - 28.8 or faster modem for multiplayer play; high-speed (16550 UART) serial card - Windows 95/98 - 32 MB RAM - Joystick or Mouse, sterring wheel and pedals Tested on: Pentium II 266 - 64 MB RAM - STB Velocity 128 and Diamond Monster I 3D cards - 24X CD - SoundBlaster AWE 64 Thrustmaster Grand Prix 1 Racing Wheel ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------- Papy, Papy, Papy, youve done it again. Papy, for those of you who are not hardcore race sim fans, is short for Papyrus. The race sim gurus who have brought us masterpieces such as Indy 500: The Simulation, Nascar, Nascar 2, and Indy Car Racing. This just in, theyve struck gold once again with Grand Prix Legends. The year is 1968. It will go down as an historic year in auto racing. Wings were introduced for the first time to aid in keeping cars on the track and a host of rule changes have been implemented to cut down on driver fatalities.. Welcome to 1967. Gameplay - Amazing, the physics model is nothing short of amazing. Your car will catch air, tumble, spin out, slide on the grass, lock up etc It just has that, well, feel about it. I really feel like Im driving one of these deathtraps. Youll find yourself sitting about a foot in front of over 400bhp in a machine that weighs slightly over 1100lbs. Tip: dont floor the gas unless your in 3rd gear or higher. You can make things a little easier on yourself with braking and throttle help and even let the computer do the shifting for you. Thats not the point here. This is as close to a simulation of the Grand Prix driving experience as your gonna find. Enjoy it. Drivers will have all 11 tracks from the 1967 season to choose from as well as most every car. Though youll find that the Honda and the Maserati have been renamed. I can only assume for some type of licensing reasons. Youll also find a majority of the drivers included although a few have been left out, Jackie Stewart is a little missed. Players have the option of stepping into these beasts at the Novice, Pro, or Grand Prix levels. Each option provides a different race length, opponent difficulty, and damage model. Feel free to bounce around at the Novice level, your car is indestructible. At the Grand Prix level, caution is a necessity, as a bump into the wall could throw your camber out of whack. Rev the engine too hard and speedshift, and youll be driving a car that is crippled. A lot of the intricacies of pit strategy involved in modern F1 racing are out the window. Heck, it wasnt uncommon for drivers to race on the same set of tires two weeks in a row back then. The driving world is slightly contained. Nail the fence at 100+ mph and your car will go flying in an incredibly realistic manner, but will always tumble along an invisible wall at the edges of the driving universe. Otherwise, feel free to drive up hills, backwards, or just about anywhere you want to go, within the environment. The world constantly changes too. I was shocked to race and still find my rubber burns in the exact same fashion many laps later. Many sims simply erase these when your car is out of sight. Ive found this incredibly useful. Racing a buddy at Rouen I was completely frustrated trying to reel him in from 25 seconds back. Thats until I saw a pair of rubber streaks left by him that led straight into the white tire barrier. I knew I was closer. Budding engineers will find the typically in depth Papyrus car setup a joy to use. Although I did catch myself a few times searching for the wing options which I had become spoiled by. DOH! As in most racers, making an adjustment to one element often means a non-wanted result to another part of the car. Its a game of cat and mouse to get dialed in. I found monitoring the tire temps and pressure to be the most effective way to get feedback, outside of actual course performance. Multiplay is a dream. Drivers can hookup with friends over the net, a LAN, or modem to modem. Fortunately I have a good bud, who is a fellow enthusiast, in town and we have found the modem connection to be flawless. I have also read on message boards where other drivers have found internet play to be surprisingly smooth and lacking a lot of the warp effect which often pops up in online racers. I could go on all day. Just a few more items before moving on. Tracks are incredibly re-created. I also read on a message board a post from a gentleman who attended the races at Rouen back in the early 70s. He was blown away at how accurately it has been recreated. Drivers will also find a faithful recreation of the 14 mile Nurburgring. Yep, 14 MILES! I often drive this just to relax. Tires spit sand when spinning out on the lip and put down varying shades of black when doing this on the track. The suspension is incredible with the wheels and springs bobbing up and down to the road and the car dropping out when drivers start going up instead of straight. It aids in the driving. Finally, the car itself has been incredibly modeled with appropriate pieces flying off on impact and fuel cells catching fire in the real nasties. AI/ Difficulty - Only one and I mean just one problem in this category. It may be a little too hard for novices and has a very steep learning curve. I still have trouble hanging with the competition on the novice setting. But hey, lets not play wet nurse, this is a real sim and will take some real time to master. It took me over 100 hours to win with Indy 500 back in 89. Uh, I also almost dropped out of college that semester. How will Papyrus ruin my life this time? The AI is mind-blowing. Now, I cant be certain that this was programmed in, but it sure seemed to me that different drivers reacted different. At Monaco when coming out of a tight corner I noticed Jim Clark, regarded by many to be maybe the finest of his era, dice it up and even use a little curb to get around me. In the exact same situation I noticed that some of the ham and eggers backed off or were much less aggressive. The drivers also have their flaws, which is comforting. I couldnt help but laugh when I witnessed McLaren lock up and hit the wall. As I have mentioned, the game is difficult. If you cant appreciate mastering the intricacies of the tracks and the cars, then go find your daddys wallet and head to the arcade for a little Daytona USA. No soup for you! This is for serious drivers. Pretenders need not apply. Look for the online community to grow and really adopt this game. But it will be a world populated by those who really appreciate what motorsports is all about. I recently raced my buddy at Rouen. Bumped the tirewall, and had to race the last lap with the steering wheel held all the way left just to stay straight as my alignment went out of whack. Its that real. Graphics - The game is gorgeous, of course most games are lately. But its the extras that count. Smoke is translucent, the drivers are polygonal, different tires can be seen locking up appropriately and even spinning at different rates, springs expand and contract, and the cars are smoothly rounded. Games can be played in resolutions up to 1024x768. But youll need a bear of a machine for that. With my specs I found an 800x600 resolution worked best. Its pretty cool to watch a replay and see your arms turning throughout the track. There are a few minor and I mean very minor complaints here. The backdrops are a little cartoonish. But in a strange way, that almost lends itself to the 1967 feel. Also, I would like to have seen my drivers head bob the way it did in F1RS. Lens flare is missing but drivers wore goggles back then, so dont sweat it. It's a little disturbing to watch a replay of my car going out of control and see that silly grin still pasted to my driver who oddly resembles a weeble-wobble, minus the weebling and wobbling. But again, in a very strange way, this almost lends itself to the nostalgia. Sound FX - Finally, this game does it right, this puppy rumbles. For the first time sound improves the feeling of being there. Youll feel the horses, youll also appreciate all the different sounds. It's so refreshing to head down a straightaway and know that I have Bandini in his Ferrari to my left and Hill to my right in his Lotus. Yep, each engine makes a distinct sound. Ive found the Lotus suits my driving style but I generally drive the Ferrari just to listen to its sweet music. Its 1967, pretty much all your gonna hear is that beast turning out the horsepower. But other sounds exist here as well. I cant be certain, but I thought for a brief moment I could hear wind whistling when I let off the gas coming down a straightaway. That may have been humming in my headphones, but it sure as hell sounded like wind in my helmet. If so, well done. Tires squeal to perfection. The crowd cheers, dont know why, I can barely hear them with that V12 screaming. At the start of the race youll hear the PA announcer, again sounding very much like hes straight out of 1967. One complaint. Heading into the tunnel at Monaco it would have been nice to hear sound bouncing off the wall. Interface - Oh no. We came so close to just running the board here with stars. The interface is a little awkward at first, but I soon found it to be very intuitive. It's very easy to use and is especially a joy when setting up the car. Keys and driving controls can be assigned and adjusted and a wide range of graphical and sound options can be fine tuned. I am still having a very difficult time with the replay portion. It wont do what I want it to do!!! Oh well, most of that is probably my fault, but I am gonna have ... read more »