Choddo
28-07-2000, 22:56
This is a copy of a mail I sent to Gamespot UK earlier, but I think you fellas have probably gone through a lot of this too, so I wanted to post it here... oh, and I haven't even got my force feedback wheel yet so I'm really looking forward to the additional problems with that :D
First - the sound, in spite of the hard work sampling Arrows engines etc, is extremely poor from a technical perspective. There is absolutely NO sound from any other cars, as far as I can tell!! Compare this to Grand Prix Legends, where you can hear an overtaking car's engine screaming as they try to push past you. It really does leave you feeling strangely isolated in the middle of a pack of cars heading for the first corner. And what happened to EAX / A3D support?? Not that it matters if you can't hear the other cars, I guess...
Second - the network multiplayer is probably great - but how many people play multiplayer games on a network? Mostly at work, I would guess, but of those, how many have 700MHz & a GeForce to play with? My laptop at work is 700MHz with a Savage IX 3D chip, and I wouldn't want to play GP3 on it which leaves us with two options;
a. The internet. Erm, no internet option as far as I know - back to UT then ;-)
b. The classic seat swapping single PC option with a bunch of mates... which still works very well... BUT why doesn't it remember the driving aid settings for each player? I had to keep swapping hte setups as we changed players tonight.... and when you've got a sliding keyboard shelf where you push the keyboard behind your steering wheel... getting to the F-keys is a HUGE pain in the arse :) PLUS it doesn't let you switch on/off steering assist during those 5 seconds of auto-control... grrrr.
And the lack of support for the MS sidewinder paddle gear shift is bloody criminal!! It assumes you've only got 4 buttons on your wheel, when they all have 6 or 8 these days, and the gears are 7/8 on that. Using the Sidewinder 4.0 driver control panel, though - you can set those two paddles to emulate Shift & Space so it will still work (I got this half set up and I think it'll work) - anyway, it just (amazingly) after 4 / 5 years smacks of a game that is brilliantly engineered (the frame rate puts F1 2000 utterly to shame) and very poorly playtested. I suspect that the playtesters set the game up how the wanted it and then just enjoyed playing it ;-)
Anyway, enough of a rant for now. Got to beat that lap time on Imola...
Chods
First - the sound, in spite of the hard work sampling Arrows engines etc, is extremely poor from a technical perspective. There is absolutely NO sound from any other cars, as far as I can tell!! Compare this to Grand Prix Legends, where you can hear an overtaking car's engine screaming as they try to push past you. It really does leave you feeling strangely isolated in the middle of a pack of cars heading for the first corner. And what happened to EAX / A3D support?? Not that it matters if you can't hear the other cars, I guess...
Second - the network multiplayer is probably great - but how many people play multiplayer games on a network? Mostly at work, I would guess, but of those, how many have 700MHz & a GeForce to play with? My laptop at work is 700MHz with a Savage IX 3D chip, and I wouldn't want to play GP3 on it which leaves us with two options;
a. The internet. Erm, no internet option as far as I know - back to UT then ;-)
b. The classic seat swapping single PC option with a bunch of mates... which still works very well... BUT why doesn't it remember the driving aid settings for each player? I had to keep swapping hte setups as we changed players tonight.... and when you've got a sliding keyboard shelf where you push the keyboard behind your steering wheel... getting to the F-keys is a HUGE pain in the arse :) PLUS it doesn't let you switch on/off steering assist during those 5 seconds of auto-control... grrrr.
And the lack of support for the MS sidewinder paddle gear shift is bloody criminal!! It assumes you've only got 4 buttons on your wheel, when they all have 6 or 8 these days, and the gears are 7/8 on that. Using the Sidewinder 4.0 driver control panel, though - you can set those two paddles to emulate Shift & Space so it will still work (I got this half set up and I think it'll work) - anyway, it just (amazingly) after 4 / 5 years smacks of a game that is brilliantly engineered (the frame rate puts F1 2000 utterly to shame) and very poorly playtested. I suspect that the playtesters set the game up how the wanted it and then just enjoyed playing it ;-)
Anyway, enough of a rant for now. Got to beat that lap time on Imola...
Chods