F12000 = disappointing, long

Ok, I'm a modern F1 sim junkie and my rather large habit hasn't been properly fed in quite some time. Sure I bought F1RS and MGPRS2, raced them quite a bit in fact, but they were little like methadone to me. I've been a bit down about GP3 since I found out that the cars will not perform any differently. In fact, I've been so down on GP3 that I probably will not buy the thing unless this newsgroup gives it a 5 star rating, warts and all. I was really hoping F12000 would be the big winner and I anxiously read the posts in this ng over the past week or so looking for a hint. Well, as most of you already know, those posts have been about 50/50 for and against which is more than a little disconcerting for a junkie like me. How can everybody be so split on the thing? I decided to find out for myself, cruised down to my local EB yesterday and picked up a copy. Played it for about 4 hours yesterday, about 2 hours this evening, and unfortunately after what happened this evening I'm finished with it. I'll explain what happened in just a bit, but first I want to give it a mini-review. First Impression: My first impression was "Oh ***it has music and pictures of attractive women with fake ***s and tight shorts this is going to suck." But I decided to go for a drive anyway. I setup a profile, got rid of the driving aids, set the AI at 100%, and off I went. First Driving Impressions: So I selected a Minardi (Keep that in mind) and went to Melbourne for a test session and my first thought was "Hmmm, this is different" not good, not bad, just different. When I thought back to other racing sims/games to compare it with, the closest one it came to in my mind was CPR, the disastrous Microsoft foray into the racing sim genre. For example, the brake pedal doesn't seem to have any feel (travel), it's either all on or all off. Now I've read somewhere that the braking in modern F1 cars is much like that so I accepted it and carried on. The next odd thing I noticed was the track. It has a track that is shaped much like the Albert Park circuit, but when I'm driving it I don't get the feeling that Albert Park is where I am. Call it the immersion factor or whatever, but for me anyway it just doesn't capture, I guess, the spirit of the event. Yes, the car feels like a car and the track feels like a track but it doesn't feel like the Australian Grand Prix. I got comfortable with the car and decided to do some quick races so I put myself at the back of the field (where a Minardi is supposed to be) and proceeded to race. Visions of CPR again. The AI is interesting, not as bad as CPR (the undisputed leader in AI that sucks) but certainly not good. I thought having the guy on the radio was kind of cool at first but he soon revealed how stupid he was "So and so is in the pits, he's obviously on a two stop strategy" when in fact the reality is that so and so obviously has a problem because it's only a 5 lap quick race you moron, or "Good job you've just moved up to 10th place" when I passed somebody in the pits, so the novelty of the radio wore off rather quickly. Don't get me wrong though, it does have redeeming qualities. The car model doesn't seem half bad, and the sensation of speed is there, so I went to bed last night thinking that maybe this thing will be OK. Second (and final) Driving Impression: Got back in my Minardi this evening and decided to do a Grand Prix at Melbourne. Ran the practice session and sat atop the leaderboard but I'm thinking that surely they are going to blow me away in qualifying because I wasn't that fast, heck I'm not even comfortable with the car yet. Take the extra fuel out of the thing and run a qualifying lap 4 seconds quicker than anything I'd run before, I'm thinking that it's an anomaly. I go out again and beat the time that I had just set. Crap, it's not an aberration. How is everyone else doing? I take a look at the table and I'm on the pole, 3 seconds up on Coulthard. I decide to finish out the session to see how everyone does. I take pole by 2.5 seconds over Coulthard in my Minardi! That's it! It's over! I'm taking it back tomorrow. Final Thoughts: Like too damn many of these so called sims, this game has potential. But, as someone once said, if you put some potential in one hand and some ***in the other what do you have? Unfortunately only a handful of crap. I only hope GP3 will be the 5 star sim/game that I so desperately crave. This one definately is not.

Pat Dotson <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...

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> Don't ask me why ISI didn't straighten this out > before release. I think I could fix this myself > in a day or two. > > > That's it! It's over! I'm taking it back tomorrow. > > It wouldn't be a bad idea to hold onto it for > a week or two and see what develops.

I'm certainly quite capable of editing some of the files, waiting for some 3rd party utilities to appear, and who knows I might end up with a game that's half playable. But the point is that ISI/EA should have shipped the game right, right out of the box. I've already returned it. Call me callous if you like but over the years, having wasted alot of hard earned money on crap that wasn't worth the CD it was burned on, I've become more and more intolerant of half-assed efforts at racing sims. My time is too valuable to be cruising around the web looking for a patch for this and a fix for that unless, of course, it's an improvement on an already excellent sim.

Todd Dry wrote: > > brake pedal doesn't seem to have any feel (travel), it's either all on or > all off. Now I've read somewhere that the braking in modern F1 cars is much > like that so I accepted it and carried on. The next odd thing I noticed was That can be adjusted easily enough. It would be nice if it was easier to do, though. > Second (and final) Driving Impression: > wasn't that fast, heck I'm not even comfortable with the car yet. Take the > extra fuel out of the thing and run a qualifying lap 4 seconds quicker than The problem is that the AI is using a really bad setup with a full fuel load for the race and qualifying! > anything I'd run before, I'm thinking that it's an anomaly. I go out again > and beat the time that I had just set. Crap, it's not an aberration. How > is everyone else doing? I take a look at the table and I'm on the pole, 3 > seconds up on Coulthard. I decide to finish out the session to see how > everyone does. I take pole by 2.5 seconds over Coulthard in my Minardi! The AI goes up to %120, BTW. Things get a lot better if you make the AI setup the same as yours. Then they are pretty tough to beat, and run better lines and speeds. Don't ask me why ISI didn't straighten this out before release. I think I could fix this myself in a day or two. > That's it! It's over! I'm taking it back tomorrow. It wouldn't be a bad idea to hold onto it for a week or two and see what develops. -- Pat Dotson IMPACT Motorsports http://www.impactmotorsports.com/pd.html

Too bad Todd, I'm really enjoying it. Have you turned the driver aids off ? and the AI goes up to 120%. I'm like you a modern F1 junkie and I consider this the best I've played substantially better than the F1RS series. I had a great race last night against the AI at Melbourne Regards Mike Stick with it for a while Todd a lot of people are working on add-ons and AI improvement. On Mon, 27 Mar 2000 21:57:52 -0800, "Todd Dry" <[email hidden]> wrote: > to give it a mini-review.

Todd Dry wrote: > all off. Now I've read somewhere that the braking in modern F1 cars is much > like that so I accepted it and carried on. Set the brake-bias toward the rear. You can use the '[' and ']' keys for on-the-fly changes. 48/52 to 46/64 works well.

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> Second (and final) Driving Impression: > Got back in my Minardi this evening and decided to do a Grand Prix at > Melbourne. Ran the practice session and sat atop the leaderboard but I'm > thinking that surely they are going to blow me away in qualifying because I > wasn't that fast, heck I'm not even comfortable with the car yet. Take the > extra fuel out of the thing and run a qualifying lap 4 seconds quicker than > anything I'd run before, I'm thinking that it's an anomaly. I go out again > and beat the time that I had just set. Crap, it's not an aberration. How > is everyone else doing? I take a look at the table and I'm on the pole, 3 > seconds up on Coulthard. I decide to finish out the session to see how > everyone does. I take pole by 2.5 seconds over Coulthard in my Minardi! > That's it! It's over! I'm taking it back tomorrow.

You can change the qualification setups for the AI. I tried to find the message on RAS that talked about this but couldn't. I did find the file by poking around in the F1-2000 folder though. I qualify with a normal race setup using the "Buzzin' Hornets" (sorry forgot the name) car and can't get passed 10th! LOL. That was during my first 2 hours with the game. If your removing fuel for qualification, maybe remove fuel for the AI too. I know you shouldn't have to do this, but its just a suggestion. On the other hand, maybe don't decrease your fuel for qualifying so no changes are required? -- Jason Monds http://www.proracingclub.com - Pro Racing Club! (N3, GPL) http://members.home.net/stuff.mondsj/csp - Car Sim Project (Please remove 'no extra spork' when replying)

In the default.vhs file you can adjust the brakes so there's more travel. I have mine set to 8000 and now I can push right to the floor and then ease off when the car slows. All the cars are equal when your driving it, this way there's not advantage if you like a lower team. And I have noticed that I am great at one track but not another. The thing that I hate is the AI crashes to much and the track looks so narrow. When a car is beside me I never think I have enough room and either I or the AI hit. Todd Dry wrote:

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> Ok, I'm a modern F1 sim junkie and my rather large habit hasn't been > properly fed in quite some time. Sure I bought F1RS and MGPRS2, raced them > quite a bit in fact, but they were little like methadone to me. I've been a > bit down about GP3 since I found out that the cars will not perform any > differently. In fact, I've been so down on GP3 that I probably will not buy > the thing unless this newsgroup gives it a 5 star rating, warts and all. I > was really hoping F12000 would be the big winner and I anxiously read the > posts in this ng over the past week or so looking for a hint. Well, as most > of you already know, those posts have been about 50/50 for and against which > is more than a little disconcerting for a junkie like me. How can everybody > be so split on the thing? I decided to find out for myself, cruised down to > my local EB yesterday and picked up a copy. Played it for about 4 hours > yesterday, about 2 hours this evening, and unfortunately after what happened > this evening I'm finished with it. I'll explain what happened in just a > bit, but first I want to give it a mini-review. > > First Impression: > My first impression was "Oh crap it has music and pictures of attractive > women with fake breasts and tight shorts this is going to suck." But I > decided to go for a drive anyway. I setup a profile, got rid of the driving > aids, set the AI at 100%, and off I went. > > First Driving Impressions: > So I selected a Minardi (Keep that in mind) and went to Melbourne for a test > session and my first thought was "Hmmm, this is different" not good, not > bad, just different. When I thought back to other racing sims/games to > compare it with, the closest one it came to in my mind was CPR, the > disastrous Microsoft foray into the racing sim genre. For example, the > brake pedal doesn't seem to have any feel (travel), it's either all on or > all off. Now I've read somewhere that the braking in modern F1 cars is much > like that so I accepted it and carried on. The next odd thing I noticed was > the track. It has a track that is shaped much like the Albert Park circuit, > but when I'm driving it I don't get the feeling that Albert Park is where I > am. Call it the immersion factor or whatever, but for me anyway it just > doesn't capture, I guess, the spirit of the event. Yes, the car feels like > a car and the track feels like a track but it doesn't feel like the > Australian Grand Prix. I got comfortable with the car and decided to do > some quick races so I put myself at the back of the field (where a Minardi > is supposed to be) and proceeded to race. Visions of CPR again. The AI is > interesting, not as bad as CPR (the undisputed leader in AI that sucks) but > certainly not good. I thought having the guy on the radio was kind of cool > at first but he soon revealed how stupid he was "So and so is in the pits, > he's obviously on a two stop strategy" when in fact the reality is that so > and so obviously has a problem because it's only a 5 lap quick race you > moron, or "Good job you've just moved up to 10th place" when I passed > somebody in the pits, so the novelty of the radio wore off rather quickly. > Don't get me wrong though, it does have redeeming qualities. The car model > doesn't seem half bad, and the sensation of speed is there, so I went to bed > last night thinking that maybe this thing will be OK. > > Second (and final) Driving Impression: > Got back in my Minardi this evening and decided to do a Grand Prix at > Melbourne. Ran the practice session and sat atop the leaderboard but I'm > thinking that surely they are going to blow me away in qualifying because I > wasn't that fast, heck I'm not even comfortable with the car yet. Take the > extra fuel out of the thing and run a qualifying lap 4 seconds quicker than > anything I'd run before, I'm thinking that it's an anomaly. I go out again > and beat the time that I had just set. Crap, it's not an aberration. How > is everyone else doing? I take a look at the table and I'm on the pole, 3 > seconds up on Coulthard. I decide to finish out the session to see how > everyone does. I take pole by 2.5 seconds over Coulthard in my Minardi! > That's it! It's over! I'm taking it back tomorrow. > > Final Thoughts: > Like too damn many of these so called sims, this game has potential. But, > as someone once said, if you put some potential in one hand and some crap in > the other what do you have? Unfortunately only a handful of crap. I only > hope GP3 will be the 5 star sim/game that I so desperately crave. This one > definately is not.

Since I can find pictures of attractive women with fake breasts and no shorts all over the web I'm not too interested in seeing them in my F1 sim. But that wasn't really the point. The statement was more about this is the kind of thing you would expect to see in a typical arcade racer. Don't get me wrong though. Pit Babes are fine (most definately), but they shouldn't have been the high point of the sim ;) Doug Gordon <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:8btjqj$gdn$[email hidden]...

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> In article <[email hidden]>, > "Todd Dry" <[email hidden]> wrote: > > >My first impression was "Oh crap it has ... pictures of > >attractive women with fake breasts and tight shorts this is > >going to suck." > > Frankly, after reading this your post lost all credibility with me :-). > In fact, my first reaction was to run out to EB to get a copy and fire > up that intro sequence :-). EA Sports' motto is "It's in the Game", and > Pit Babes are definitely part of F1! > > Doug G > > > Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ > Before you buy.

In article <[email hidden]>, "Todd Dry" <[email hidden]> wrote: >My first impression was "Oh crap it has ... pictures of >attractive women with fake breasts and tight shorts this is >going to suck." Frankly, after reading this your post lost all credibility with me :-). In fact, my first reaction was to run out to EB to get a copy and fire up that intro sequence :-). EA Sports' motto is "It's in the Game", and Pit Babes are definitely part of F1! Doug G Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ Before you buy.

On Mon, 27 Mar 2000 21:57:52 -0800, "Todd Dry" <[email hidden]> wrote: >Ok, I'm a modern F1 sim junkie . . .(lots of junk deleted . . . My first impression >was "Oh crap it has music and pictures of attractive women with fake breasts >and tight shorts this is going to suck." Most fun I had at the Formula 1 races I went to in Europe years ago was watching "attractive women with fake breasts and tights shorts." As for the sucking...well...didn't bother me. >Yes, the car feels like a car and the track feels like a track but it doesn't feel >like the Australian Grand Prix. I guess adding aboriginal music and pictures of funny looking kangaroos with fake pouches wouldn't help, or would it? >Second (and final) Driving Impression: Got back in my Minardi this evening and >decided to do a Grand Prix at Melbourne. I take pole by 2.5 seconds over Coulthard >in my Minardi! It's over! I'm taking it back tomorrow. Damn...I think I am doing good when I place within the top 10 places in GPL on any course. To take the pole in your first try??? I want this fucking SIM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Damn man...get a fucking life. Go back to GPL and stop boring me. L. Sobkoviak, who can't find assinine posts in the flight sim newsgroup to respond to.

"L.R.S." <[email hidden]> wrote > Damn man...get a fucking life. Go back to GPL and stop > boring me. > L. Sobkoviak, who can't find assinine posts in the flight > sim newsgroup to respond to. What a life you have.. trolling newsgroup for flames when your own newsgroup bores you, and wasting precious time of your life telling somebody else to actually go get one. Im amazed, could you please enlighten us on your methods to have such a great life ? F1 2000 is the Fighter Ace of Racing sim... with only the arcade arenas. Ha. -- -- Fran�ois M�nard <ymenard> -- May the Downforce be with you... -- http://www.WeRace.net -- People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realise how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world.

Pat Dotson <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...

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> > The AI goes up to %120, BTW. Things get a lot better > if you make the AI setup the same as yours. Then they > are pretty tough to beat, and run better lines and > speeds. > > Don't ask me why ISI didn't straighten this out > before release. I think I could fix this myself > in a day or two. >

That almost sounds like one of those things where the wrong file got put in the version they sent off to the duplicator, or a last minute fix somewhere broke something else. -- Ken's Sig 3.01 "Who is the more foolish? The fool, or the fool who follows him?" - Obi-Wan Kenobi Go #43 and #44! volksy (at) yahoo (dot) com

Got you, didn't I? You know, I used to think while reading this newsgroup, that most of the people in here had a little more sense than those in the flight sim group who believe they are experts at everything. Guess I was wrong (lots of pointless cussing on my part deleted ... I only needed to vent). Hey Bugs...got anything to add? On Wed, 29 Mar 2000 06:32:21 GMT, "ymenard" <[email hidden]> wrote:

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>"L.R.S." <[email hidden]> wrote >> Damn man...get a fucking life. Go back to GPL and stop >> boring me. >> L. Sobkoviak, who can't find assinine posts in the flight >> sim newsgroup to respond to. > >What a life you have.. trolling newsgroup for flames when your own newsgroup >bores you, and wasting precious time of your life telling somebody else to >actually go get one. Im amazed, could you please enlighten us on your >methods to have such a great life ? > >F1 2000 is the Fighter Ace of Racing sim... with only the arcade arenas. Ha.

"L.R.S." <[email hidden]> wrote > Hey Bugs...got anything to add? Mmmmm, what's up Doc? F1 2k is still the Fighter Ace of Racing simulators... -- -- Fran�ois M�nard <ymenard> -- May the Downforce be with you... -- http://www.WeRace.net -- People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realise how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world.