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Sim Reviews, Jan Kohl Click on screenshots to enlarge.
Excellent Sim
Good, but needs work
Should've stuck with Tetris
TOCA Touring Car Championship by Codemasters
Requirements: P120, 24 Meg RAM, 2 Meg video card, 2 meg soundcardThis is the updated review of Codemasters TOCA Touring Car Championship. It is a review of the game as opposed to the original demo.
First thing I want to note is that you MUST have a decent computer, or don't even bother making the 8 Meg download. If you don't have a fast graphics card (I'm running Stealth II S220) and a P166 or better, you might as well go back to Indycar or something else.
The full version! Finally get to race all the track, and let me tell you, my previous stint with just Donnington was just a small portion of the cake..this is extreme fun for a arcade-type race game. After having driven many of the other arcade ones, and basically throwing them into the dead software repository, this one has a permanent place on my computer...and not just because it's touring cars! Like I mentioned in the demo, the ontrack action is very realistic, only not having a decent amount of chassis setup for the car, and arcade damage keeps this from being a full blown simulator.
As before, this setup was just as easy with Win95. I had absolutely no problems with the install, however, it's recommended with gameplay to shut down all external Win95 programs to give yourself the most memory available. I have run it with background applications running, but I've got 32 meg ram, so it really presented no problems.
The rest of the tracks are all superb, both in accuracy and layout. Not being familiar with the actual tracks, they all seemed to be pretty accurate from what I've seen on TV, with exception that they give you both the Donnington short course and Grand Prix course. The off-camber chiqanes at Knockhill are great, and the rest of the tracks are superb. My favorite is Brand's Hatch and Oulton Park, sure wish there was some way to put those into the NASCAR 2 realm! Speaking of Brands, it's very bumpy...overly so, I think, judging the difference between my incar in the sim, and the incar shots I have of the real race. All the circuits are immediately recognizable, I saw the spot where John Cleland went flying off at Brands 3 years ago, and where he punted Patrick Watts at Thruxton. There is one fantasy track that they put into there called "Lavaland", a surreal world of elevated roadways and lava. Not even worth mentioning really...they could have modeled another of the British circuits even if it wasn't in the touring car schedule...such as Castle Coombe on the south coast.
Again, I must mention the AI, very superb, and very aggressive. You'll definitely feel a bump in the rear if you get off pace any. However, I noticed some unreal movement with the AI cars several times, some strange bouncing at Brands Hatch, almost as if they were cartoon cars...not good. And unfortunately, I must mention again that joystick support is very poor..the car is very hard to control, no matter what setting you have it on. You need a wheel with this one. As well, get a digital controller, as with analogue, you'll need to use the Audi always to avoid wheelspin off the line, and poor control. You can drive a 4wd much easier than a 2wd with a joystick.
Sounds are prefect as well, with the gravel spitting off the floorpan as you slide through the sandtraps, the the "budda-budda" bumping of the rumble strips. As well, you may wonder, how did I run all the tracks? Well, try typing "JHAMMO" as your name in the race, and you'll get to run all of them without waiting for the annoying leap in points to get you to the next track.
F1 Racing Simulation by Ubisoft
Requirements: P120, 24 Meg RAM, 2 Meg 3d video card, 2 meg soundcardWow...with all the hype I had heard, I figured this would be an excellent sim...and I was right! This is a review of the demo, and I'll wait eagerly until I can get my hands on the full version.
Setup - was very easy. The demo installed, no problems whatsoever, and I've heard people say you need a 3dfx card to run it, but my Stealth II ran it no problem. There are some small problems with tiny black vertical lines while racing, but believe me...you don't notice them. I've not touched up the screencaptures so you can see what I mean. However, like I said, at 180 mph, you don't even see them.
Interface - 90% of the demo has been disabled, you get one track, Monza, and no options for car setup or anything. However, they've made it so it's almost foolproof, you get a very good idea of what the full version WILL do, with plenty of car setup menus and a fairly unconfusing interface. You can adjust virtually every aspect of the car in the full version, and race settings as well.
Well, let's get to business...the racing! All I can say is "WOW"! The racing is spectacular, the graphics are tremendous, the sound, the experience...excellent. Being this is a demo, there are several niggling faults which I cannot judge until I play with the full version. However, the feeling you get screaming down through the trees at Monza, right on the tail of another car is extremely satisfying, especially when you outbrake him into the next corner!
The graphics are superb, and framerate seemed very stable no matter how many cars were in front of me or behind. The car handling seemed to be pretty good, although rather touchy. However, since I'm still searching for a decent controller, the joystick was the number of the day again. This time, though, F1RS really does a great job with any controller...I was able to dice it in the corners and slide around cars no problem within a few laps...unlike some of the other racing sims I've run recently.
With the demo, you get arcade damage and arcade setups, even if you have "realistic" checked on the startup menu. Bounce off the wall and go for it again! The AI seemed to be pretty mundane, after a few laps of practice, it's no problem keeping them in your rear view. (Speaking of such, the mirrors do not work on the demo). As well, I found that the car was very touchy, and it seemed to be even more so when there were other cars near. It's hard to decern where the edge of control is, you may get some telltale signs, but probably not...suddenly a big screech and you go around. As well, there's no correcting it either...once you hear the tires scream, face it, you're going to be staring into oncoming traffic.
Sound was rather ho-hum I thought...rather canned and computerized. The downshift engine noises sound cool, but other than that, it was so-so. The annoying "arcade" starting lights could go as well...I can see them just fine from the distance. However, this should not be construed as a bad sim...just some annoying little things. The racing in the sim is fantastic. You start from the front of the grid, but it's much more fun to let a bunch of cars pass you, then go for it!
