GTR - An Appreciation

GTR - A Sim to Believe In

(Part Preview, Part Review)

I'm amazed at the outpouring of negativity surrounding SimBin's "GTR" (for
the FIA's "GT Racing") by people who haven't played the game...even some
from people who haven't bothered to play the demo! And among those who have
actually played the game, a lot of the complaints are picayune, like the
game doesn't strictly follow the FIA's insanely complicated rulebook, or the
track marshals' booths aren't the regulation size.

The truth is, it's a great game. Yes, it has some rough edges, and thus far
it's only available--legally--in Germany (time-frame for U.S. distro: Feb.
or March), but no, it's neither broken nor a simple mod of EA's Formula 1
Challenge (altho SimBin has licensed ISI's "Motor 1" physics engine, along
with all that rococo FIA livery). The bottom line is that GTR comes closer
to an authentic racing experience than anything else that doesn't require a
Nomex driving suit and a 5-point seat harness.

I've driven almost three thousand laps of GTR, both online and off, for an
assignment from Car and Driver, and as someone who's put six years into GPL,
beta-tested a myriad of PC and console games, and raced both real-world cars
(Trans-Am, SCCA Nationals) and every kind of racing simulation there is
(beginning with Dave Kaemmer's original Indy 500), I'm here to tell you that
GTR is the best thing to come roaring down the track--for car guys as well
as computer geeks--since Papyrus' NASCAR Racing 2003...and GTR makes NR2003
seem positively crude by comparison.

Through the good offices of Ian Bell, who oversees SimBin's development team
in London, I was able to obtain a pre-release of the English-language
version, eventually patched to ver 1.2.3, and I've since unofficially
downloaded several 3rd-party tracks (including a 24-hour version of the
mighty Nurburgring). To put it plainly: I love this game. Yes, it's got
more bugs than the Okefenokee Swamp in August (the menus are a mess, the
replay system is frustrating, the multiplayer is iffy, and there is a
surfeit of small annoyances), but overall it's hard-co deeply immersive,
very satisfying, and full of promise. Sure, I signed a NDA, but Ian said I
can vent my impressions of the game, so here goes.

First of all: the cars. There are a slew of them, from the mundane (a
gaggle of Porsche 911s...altho a 3rd-party GT1 is lurking in the wings) to
the exotic (the widely-unknown Gillet Vertigo Streiff, a Belgian bolide
named after an obscure French F1 driver of the 80s) to the awesome (the
Corvette C5-R) to the sublime (a trio of Ferraris) to the ridiculous (a BMW
*hatchback*, ferchrissake, and a neo-deco Morgan 8 Aero that looks like
something out of "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow"). The Morgan not
only looks funny, it sounds funny: when you spin the key it coughs fitfully
to life, belching and spluttering like the 18-cylinder radial of a P-47
Thunderbolt.

Arranged into a bewildering array of mismatched FIA-sanctioned classes (the
Morgan competes against the C5-R), the 18 or so cars in GTR all feel
different, handle different, sound different, and have different
personalities. Surprisingly, the front-engined cars are easier to drive
than the rear-engined cars, but among the Big Guns, only the front-engined
Prodrive Ferrari 550 Maranello and the theoretically antiquated Viper GTS-R
are able to keep up with the fleet Saleen S7-R (tricky to drive) and the
surprisingly muscular Lamborghini Murcielago (a pussycat to drive).

The Corvette C5-R is also a sweetheart to drive, despite its brutal looks.
The C5-R ver that comes with the game has an overly fussy paintjob, but as
with most of GTR's cars, you can download alternative skins, including that
of the famed # 63 Corvette that won its class at Le Mans. The Lister Storm
that was in the "press" demo along with the Morgan is still there, and a
blast to drive, if not quite competitive.

My favorite car turned out to be the oddly-named Vertigo, which looks like a
cross between a Panoz Esperante and the old wooden-chassis Marcos. The
Vertigo is powered by a 342-hp Alfa V6, but it's really no match against the
bigger cars in its class. A sweet ride, very smooth, no vices, no drama,
easy to wheel around the soaring, swooping Nurburgring. And despite the BMW
Z3M's econo-car looks, it has 380 horsepower under the hood and enormous
tires and is capable of great big hairy powerslides. The Morgan, with its
460-hp BMW V8, is also a hoot to drive (even if it feels like it's still got
a sliding-pillar suspension with about the same front-end geometry as a 1936
Volkswagen). It's a great ride; all elbows and a**holes. The only thing
missing: a silk scarf.

The best thing about GTR is probably the sounds. This is the first sim
where the cars sound like cars, not a bunch of disparate .wav files
ham-fistedly juggled by the game engine to produce car-like noises. The
engines sound like what they are (L4, L6, flat 6, V6, V8, V10, and V12), the
gear-whine is true-to-life, the on-and-off throttle response is correct, and
the slicks don't squeal like passenger-car tires, they scuff the way they're
supposed to (and skitter when pushed hard). Even axle-tramp is modeled. At
least it's all good from inside the cockpit. The outside "car-by" effects
are less convincing, and the sound of the AI cars is reminiscent of Peter
Ustinov's mouth noises in his immortal "Grand Prix of Gibralter" from 40
years ago.

And the tracks? As Jon Stewart would say, "Mmmm...not so much." The 10
tracks that ship with the game replicate those on the FIA's GT Championship
calendar, but other than the modern Spa, they're either emasculated,
chicane-infested versions of once-great tracks (like Monza), or boring,
dull, flat modern tracks (like Magny-Cours). A trickle of 3rd-party tracks
(sure to become a flood) includes several versions of the Nordschleife
(nobody's got it right yet), a terrible version of Le Mans (somehow running
endlessly downhill, like an M.C. Escher painting), and two really neat small
tracks, Sweden's Falkenberg and Germany's Norisring. The most dramatic
scenery: the 24-hour race at Spa, where you go from day to dusk to night to
dawn to day (not smooth segues, unfortunately - there are awkward pauses for
scene changes, as if in an amateur theater production ). Driving at night
is a new experience...and particularly harrowing.

The cars don't simply drone around these these tracks like marbles in a
chute. They feel alive. They interact with the surface. The tracks
themselves are wildly uneven, in some places billiard-table smooth,
elsewhere washboard bumpy, especially in the braking zones. You can feel
the suspension working and the tires dancing. The grip changes not merely
according to the temperature (and weather - rain is modelled), but, as the
track "rubbers in" and marbles build up, from your first practice laps,
through qualifying, to the duration of the race itself. "Intense" just
barely begins to describe it. There's so much going on that's missing from
other sims: the exhaust headers spit flame on the overrun, brakelights
flash, clag clatters against the undertray, and you can use an IR
head-tracker to look around the cockpit.

Until something better comes along, the best test track is Spa, and the
critical turn is Eau Rouge. Depending on which car you drive, and how it's
set up, Eau Rouge can either be a dream or a nightmare; as graceful as a
Patty Wagstaff hammerhead stall or as scary as going over Niagra Falls in a
kayak. Doug Arnao, a real-world racer (he won an SCCA Solo Championship in
a wicked tube-frame Porsche) who helped me write "Four-Wheel Drift" (the GPL
strategy guide), and formerly a denizen of this forum, has tweaked GTR's
physics model and was responsible for the default setups, which are aces.
Also in the credits: over 200 FIA-licensed drivers whose input was solicited
for the driving model, and a couple dozen real-world teams who vetted the
gameplay.

The gameplay involves competing with up to 56 reasonably well-behaved AI
cars on the track (the starting grid at Spa goes back up and around La
Source) or up to 30 cars online. Theoretically. Most of the online races I
saw had less than 20 cars. I've seen up to 60 servers on the matchmaking
s/w that comes with the game, and the pings were usually in the 100-125
range. Most of the servers have been in Germany, obviously, and while
SimBin seems to have licked the old ISI problem of the game pausing for a
fraction of a second whenever a new player joins (now you can only join
during practice, not qualifying or the race itself), there remains a bunch
of stubborn anomalies in the Net code, steadily being erased by Ian Bell and
his staff of code monkeys in London. There have been several patches,
updates and "hot fixes" since the game was first released, including a
"save-game" feature that works in mid-race, and while not all the problems
have been solved (or even addressed), I get the distinct feeling that SimBin
cares about their customers and is working hard to make them happy.

What more could you ask?

Well, they could lose the reviled StarForce protection scheme.

--Steve Smith

Steve,

You are dead on, as someone that ordered from Germany on the first day I
have truly enjoyed GTR. There are some bugs, but it's far and away the best
thing going right now. Now I only hope that more Yanks will get it so it's
not 5 of us online late night PST.

Chad


"Steve Smith" > wrote in message
...
> GTR - A Sim to Believe In
>
> (Part Preview, Part Review)
>
> I'm amazed at the outpouring of negativity surrounding SimBin's "GTR" (for
> the FIA's "GT Racing") by people who haven't played the game...even some
> from people who haven't bothered to play the demo! And among those who
> have
> actually played the game, a lot of the complaints are picayune, like the
> game doesn't strictly follow the FIA's insanely complicated rulebook, or
> the
> track marshals' booths aren't the regulation size.
>
> The truth is, it's a great game. Yes, it has some rough edges, and thus
> far
> it's only available--legally--in Germany (time-frame for U.S. distro: Feb.
> or March), but no, it's neither broken nor a simple mod of EA's Formula 1
> Challenge (altho SimBin has licensed ISI's "Motor 1" physics engine, along
> with all that rococo FIA livery). The bottom line is that GTR comes
> closer
> to an authentic racing experience than anything else that doesn't require
> a
> Nomex driving suit and a 5-point seat harness.
>
> I've driven almost three thousand laps of GTR, both online and off, for an
> assignment from Car and Driver, and as someone who's put six years into
> GPL,
> beta-tested a myriad of PC and console games, and raced both real-world
> cars
> (Trans-Am, SCCA Nationals) and every kind of racing simulation there is
> (beginning with Dave Kaemmer's original Indy 500), I'm here to tell you
> that
> GTR is the best thing to come roaring down the track--for car guys as well
> as computer geeks--since Papyrus' NASCAR Racing 2003...and GTR makes
> NR2003
> seem positively crude by comparison.
>
> Through the good offices of Ian Bell, who oversees SimBin's development
> team
> in London, I was able to obtain a pre-release of the English-language
> version, eventually patched to ver 1.2.3, and I've since unofficially
> downloaded several 3rd-party tracks (including a 24-hour version of the
> mighty Nurburgring). To put it plainly: I love this game. Yes, it's got
> more bugs than the Okefenokee Swamp in August (the menus are a mess, the
> replay system is frustrating, the multiplayer is iffy, and there is a
> surfeit of small annoyances), but overall it's hard-co deeply
> immersive,
> very satisfying, and full of promise. Sure, I signed a NDA, but Ian said
> I
> can vent my impressions of the game, so here goes.
>
> First of all: the cars. There are a slew of them, from the mundane (a
> gaggle of Porsche 911s...altho a 3rd-party GT1 is lurking in the wings) to
> the exotic (the widely-unknown Gillet Vertigo Streiff, a Belgian bolide
> named after an obscure French F1 driver of the 80s) to the awesome (the
> Corvette C5-R) to the sublime (a trio of Ferraris) to the ridiculous (a
> BMW
> *hatchback*, ferchrissake, and a neo-deco Morgan 8 Aero that looks like
> something out of "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow"). The Morgan not
> only looks funny, it sounds funny: when you spin the key it coughs
> fitfully
> to life, belching and spluttering like the 18-cylinder radial of a P-47
> Thunderbolt.
>
> Arranged into a bewildering array of mismatched FIA-sanctioned classes
> (the
> Morgan competes against the C5-R), the 18 or so cars in GTR all feel
> different, handle different, sound different, and have different
> personalities. Surprisingly, the front-engined cars are easier to drive
> than the rear-engined cars, but among the Big Guns, only the front-engined
> Prodrive Ferrari 550 Maranello and the theoretically antiquated Viper
> GTS-R
> are able to keep up with the fleet Saleen S7-R (tricky to drive) and the
> surprisingly muscular Lamborghini Murcielago (a pussycat to drive).
>
> The Corvette C5-R is also a sweetheart to drive, despite its brutal looks.
> The C5-R ver that comes with the game has an overly fussy paintjob, but as
> with most of GTR's cars, you can download alternative skins, including
> that
> of the famed # 63 Corvette that won its class at Le Mans. The Lister
> Storm
> that was in the "press" demo along with the Morgan is still there, and a
> blast to drive, if not quite competitive.
>
> My favorite car turned out to be the oddly-named Vertigo, which looks like
> a
> cross between a Panoz Esperante and the old wooden-chassis Marcos. The
> Vertigo is powered by a 342-hp Alfa V6, but it's really no match against
> the
> bigger cars in its class. A sweet ride, very smooth, no vices, no drama,
> easy to wheel around the soaring, swooping Nurburgring. And despite the
> BMW
> Z3M's econo-car looks, it has 380 horsepower under the hood and enormous
> tires and is capable of great big hairy powerslides. The Morgan, with its
> 460-hp BMW V8, is also a hoot to drive (even if it feels like it's still
> got
> a sliding-pillar suspension with about the same front-end geometry as a
> 1936
> Volkswagen). It's a great ride; all elbows and a**holes. The only thing
> missing: a silk scarf.
>
> The best thing about GTR is probably the sounds. This is the first sim
> where the cars sound like cars, not a bunch of disparate .wav files
> ham-fistedly juggled by the game engine to produce car-like noises. The
> engines sound like what they are (L4, L6, flat 6, V6, V8, V10, and V12),
> the
> gear-whine is true-to-life, the on-and-off throttle response is correct,
> and
> the slicks don't squeal like passenger-car tires, they scuff the way
> they're
> supposed to (and skitter when pushed hard). Even axle-tramp is modeled.
> At
> least it's all good from inside the cockpit. The outside "car-by" effects
> are less convincing, and the sound of the AI cars is reminiscent of Peter
> Ustinov's mouth noises in his immortal "Grand Prix of Gibralter" from 40
> years ago.
>
> And the tracks? As Jon Stewart would say, "Mmmm...not so much." The 10
> tracks that ship with the game replicate those on the FIA's GT
> Championship
> calendar, but other than the modern Spa, they're either emasculated,
> chicane-infested versions of once-great tracks (like Monza), or boring,
> dull, flat modern tracks (like Magny-Cours). A trickle of 3rd-party
> tracks
> (sure to become a flood) includes several versions of the Nordschleife
> (nobody's got it right yet), a terrible version of Le Mans (somehow
> running
> endlessly downhill, like an M.C. Escher painting), and two really neat
> small
> tracks, Sweden's Falkenberg and Germany's Norisring. The most dramatic
> scenery: the 24-hour race at Spa, where you go from day to dusk to night
> to
> dawn to day (not smooth segues, unfortunately - there are awkward pauses
> for
> scene changes, as if in an amateur theater production ). Driving at night
> is a new experience...and particularly harrowing.
>
> The cars don't simply drone around these these tracks like marbles in a
> chute. They feel alive. They interact with the surface. The tracks
> themselves are wildly uneven, in some places billiard-table smooth,
> elsewhere washboard bumpy, especially in the braking zones. You can feel
> the suspension working and the tires dancing. The grip changes not merely
> according to the temperature (and weather - rain is modelled), but, as the
> track "rubbers in" and marbles build up, from your first practice laps,
> through qualifying, to the duration of the race itself. "Intense" just
> barely begins to describe it. There's so much going on that's missing
> from
> other sims: the exhaust headers spit flame on the overrun, brakelights
> flash, clag clatters against the undertray, and you can use an IR
> head-tracker to look around the cockpit.
>
> Until something better comes along, the best test track is Spa, and the
> critical turn is Eau Rouge. Depending on which car you drive, and how
> it's
> set up, Eau Rouge can either be a dream or a nightmare; as graceful as a
> Patty Wagstaff hammerhead stall or as scary as going over Niagra Falls in
> a
> kayak. Doug Arnao, a real-world racer (he won an SCCA Solo Championship
> in
> a wicked tube-frame Porsche) who helped me write "Four-Wheel Drift" (the
> GPL
> strategy guide), and formerly a denizen of this forum, has tweaked GTR's
> physics model and was responsible for the default setups, which are aces.
> Also in the credits: over 200 FIA-licensed drivers whose input was
> solicited
> for the driving model, and a couple dozen real-world teams who vetted the
> gameplay.
>
> The gameplay involves competing with up to 56 reasonably well-behaved AI
> cars on the track (the starting grid at Spa goes back up and around La
> Source) or up to 30 cars online. Theoretically. Most of the online races
> I
> saw had less than 20 cars. I've seen up to 60 servers on the matchmaking
> s/w that comes with the game, and the pings were usually in the 100-125
> range. Most of the servers have been in Germany, obviously, and while
> SimBin seems to have licked the old ISI problem of the game pausing for a
> fraction of a second whenever a new player joins (now you can only join
> during practice, not qualifying or the race itself), there remains a bunch
> of stubborn anomalies in the Net code, steadily being erased by Ian Bell
> and
> his staff of code monkeys in London. There have been several patches,
> updates and "hot fixes" since the game was first released, including a
> "save-game" feature that works in mid-race, and while not all the problems
> have been solved (or even addressed), I get the distinct feeling that
> SimBin
> cares about their customers and is working hard to make them happy.
>
> What more could you ask?
>
> Well, they could lose the reviled StarForce protection scheme.
>
> --Steve Smith
>
>

Wowa, way too long to read and digest.

But some initial comments, 25th Feb seems to be the date most on line stores
are touting at the moment for the English launch.

"Yes, it's got more bugs than the Okefenokee Swamp in August (the menus are
a mess, the
replay system is frustrating, the multiplayer is iffy, and there is a
surfeit of small annoyances), "

More bugs ? where?, Menus are a mess, eh? Replay frustrating - really?
multiplayer iffy - when? surfeit of small annoyances - I don't think I'll
buy it then it sounds a load of rubbish !

Um, I'm only a mere player here, but I saw more bugs in HL2, the menus are
no worse than most driving games (and lets not compare it to the almighty
ones here just the run of the mill stuff), replays are fine maybe missing a
few extra controls but 'frustrating'? never. Multiplayer iffy, yes OK 1.2
was odd until 1.2.3, 1.1 was OK too. Then a srfeit of small annoyances - so
small not worth a mention ? so why mention them?

Ah that's better mnaybe I will buy it now.

OK, carry on, I'll go read the rest of your (p)review now.


--
Andi (who thinks GTR is the best thing since sliced bread).

Remove only one zero to reply


"Steve Smith" > wrote in message
...
> GTR - A Sim to Believe In
>
> (Part Preview, Part Review)
>
> I'm amazed at the outpouring of negativity surrounding SimBin's "GTR" (for
> the FIA's "GT Racing") by people who haven't played the game...even some
> from people who haven't bothered to play the demo! And among those who
have
> actually played the game, a lot of the complaints are picayune, like the
> game doesn't strictly follow the FIA's insanely complicated rulebook, or
the
> track marshals' booths aren't the regulation size.
>
> The truth is, it's a great game. Yes, it has some rough edges, and thus
far
> it's only available--legally--in Germany (time-frame for U.S. distro: Feb.
> or March), but no, it's neither broken nor a simple mod of EA's Formula 1
> Challenge (altho SimBin has licensed ISI's "Motor 1" physics engine, along
> with all that rococo FIA livery). The bottom line is that GTR comes
closer
> to an authentic racing experience than anything else that doesn't require
a
> Nomex driving suit and a 5-point seat harness.
>
> I've driven almost three thousand laps of GTR, both online and off, for an
> assignment from Car and Driver, and as someone who's put six years into
GPL,
> beta-tested a myriad of PC and console games, and raced both real-world
cars
> (Trans-Am, SCCA Nationals) and every kind of racing simulation there is
> (beginning with Dave Kaemmer's original Indy 500), I'm here to tell you
that
> GTR is the best thing to come roaring down the track--for car guys as well
> as computer geeks--since Papyrus' NASCAR Racing 2003...and GTR makes
NR2003
> seem positively crude by comparison.
>
> Through the good offices of Ian Bell, who oversees SimBin's development
team
> in London, I was able to obtain a pre-release of the English-language
> version, eventually patched to ver 1.2.3, and I've since unofficially
> downloaded several 3rd-party tracks (including a 24-hour version of the
> mighty Nurburgring). To put it plainly: I love this game. Yes, it's got
> more bugs than the Okefenokee Swamp in August (the menus are a mess, the
> replay system is frustrating, the multiplayer is iffy, and there is a
> surfeit of small annoyances), but overall it's hard-co deeply
immersive,
> very satisfying, and full of promise. Sure, I signed a NDA, but Ian said
I
> can vent my impressions of the game, so here goes.
>
> First of all: the cars. There are a slew of them, from the mundane (a
> gaggle of Porsche 911s...altho a 3rd-party GT1 is lurking in the wings) to
> the exotic (the widely-unknown Gillet Vertigo Streiff, a Belgian bolide
> named after an obscure French F1 driver of the 80s) to the awesome (the
> Corvette C5-R) to the sublime (a trio of Ferraris) to the ridiculous (a
BMW
> *hatchback*, ferchrissake, and a neo-deco Morgan 8 Aero that looks like
> something out of "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow"). The Morgan not
> only looks funny, it sounds funny: when you spin the key it coughs
fitfully
> to life, belching and spluttering like the 18-cylinder radial of a P-47
> Thunderbolt.
>
> Arranged into a bewildering array of mismatched FIA-sanctioned classes
(the
> Morgan competes against the C5-R), the 18 or so cars in GTR all feel
> different, handle different, sound different, and have different
> personalities. Surprisingly, the front-engined cars are easier to drive
> than the rear-engined cars, but among the Big Guns, only the front-engined
> Prodrive Ferrari 550 Maranello and the theoretically antiquated Viper
GTS-R
> are able to keep up with the fleet Saleen S7-R (tricky to drive) and the
> surprisingly muscular Lamborghini Murcielago (a pussycat to drive).
>
> The Corvette C5-R is also a sweetheart to drive, despite its brutal looks.
> The C5-R ver that comes with the game has an overly fussy paintjob, but as
> with most of GTR's cars, you can download alternative skins, including
that
> of the famed # 63 Corvette that won its class at Le Mans. The Lister
Storm
> that was in the "press" demo along with the Morgan is still there, and a
> blast to drive, if not quite competitive.
>
> My favorite car turned out to be the oddly-named Vertigo, which looks like
a
> cross between a Panoz Esperante and the old wooden-chassis Marcos. The
> Vertigo is powered by a 342-hp Alfa V6, but it's really no match against
the
> bigger cars in its class. A sweet ride, very smooth, no vices, no drama,
> easy to wheel around the soaring, swooping Nurburgring. And despite the
BMW
> Z3M's econo-car looks, it has 380 horsepower under the hood and enormous
> tires and is capable of great big hairy powerslides. The Morgan, with its
> 460-hp BMW V8, is also a hoot to drive (even if it feels like it's still
got
> a sliding-pillar suspension with about the same front-end geometry as a
1936
> Volkswagen). It's a great ride; all elbows and a**holes. The only thing
> missing: a silk scarf.
>
> The best thing about GTR is probably the sounds. This is the first sim
> where the cars sound like cars, not a bunch of disparate .wav files
> ham-fistedly juggled by the game engine to produce car-like noises. The
> engines sound like what they are (L4, L6, flat 6, V6, V8, V10, and V12),
the
> gear-whine is true-to-life, the on-and-off throttle response is correct,
and
> the slicks don't squeal like passenger-car tires, they scuff the way
they're
> supposed to (and skitter when pushed hard). Even axle-tramp is modeled.
At
> least it's all good from inside the cockpit. The outside "car-by" effects
> are less convincing, and the sound of the AI cars is reminiscent of Peter
> Ustinov's mouth noises in his immortal "Grand Prix of Gibralter" from 40
> years ago.
>
> And the tracks? As Jon Stewart would say, "Mmmm...not so much." The 10
> tracks that ship with the game replicate those on the FIA's GT
Championship
> calendar, but other than the modern Spa, they're either emasculated,
> chicane-infested versions of once-great tracks (like Monza), or boring,
> dull, flat modern tracks (like Magny-Cours). A trickle of 3rd-party
tracks
> (sure to become a flood) includes several versions of the Nordschleife
> (nobody's got it right yet), a terrible version of Le Mans (somehow
running
> endlessly downhill, like an M.C. Escher painting), and two really neat
small
> tracks, Sweden's Falkenberg and Germany's Norisring. The most dramatic
> scenery: the 24-hour race at Spa, where you go from day to dusk to night
to
> dawn to day (not smooth segues, unfortunately - there are awkward pauses
for
> scene changes, as if in an amateur theater production ). Driving at night
> is a new experience...and particularly harrowing.
>
> The cars don't simply drone around these these tracks like marbles in a
> chute. They feel alive. They interact with the surface. The tracks
> themselves are wildly uneven, in some places billiard-table smooth,
> elsewhere washboard bumpy, especially in the braking zones. You can feel
> the suspension working and the tires dancing. The grip changes not merely
> according to the temperature (and weather - rain is modelled), but, as the
> track "rubbers in" and marbles build up, from your first practice laps,
> through qualifying, to the duration of the race itself. "Intense" just
> barely begins to describe it. There's so much going on that's missing
from
> other sims: the exhaust headers spit flame on the overrun, brakelights
> flash, clag clatters against the undertray, and you can use an IR
> head-tracker to look around the cockpit.
>
> Until something better comes along, the best test track is Spa, and the
> critical turn is Eau Rouge. Depending on which car you drive, and how
it's
> set up, Eau Rouge can either be a dream or a nightmare; as graceful as a
> Patty Wagstaff hammerhead stall or as scary as going over Niagra Falls in
a
> kayak. Doug Arnao, a real-world racer (he won an SCCA Solo Championship
in
> a wicked tube-frame Porsche) who helped me write "Four-Wheel Drift" (the
GPL
> strategy guide), and formerly a denizen of this forum, has tweaked GTR's
> physics model and was responsible for the default setups, which are aces.
> Also in the credits: over 200 FIA-licensed drivers whose input was
solicited
> for the driving model, and a couple dozen real-world teams who vetted the
> gameplay.
>
> The gameplay involves competing with up to 56 reasonably well-behaved AI
> cars on the track (the starting grid at Spa goes back up and around La
> Source) or up to 30 cars online. Theoretically. Most of the online races
I
> saw had less than 20 cars. I've seen up to 60 servers on the matchmaking
> s/w that comes with the game, and the pings were usually in the 100-125
> range. Most of the servers have been in Germany, obviously, and while
> SimBin seems to have licked the old ISI problem of the game pausing for a
> fraction of a second whenever a new player joins (now you can only join
> during practice, not qualifying or the race itself), there remains a bunch
> of stubborn anomalies in the Net code, steadily being erased by Ian Bell
and
> his staff of code monkeys in London. There have been several patches,
> updates and "hot fixes" since the game was first released, including a
> "save-game" feature that works in mid-race, and while not all the problems
> have been solved (or even addressed), I get the distinct feeling that
SimBin
> cares about their customers and is working hard to make them happy.
>
> What more could you ask?
>
> Well, they could lose the reviled StarForce protection scheme.
>
> --Steve Smith
>
>

Dear Steve. Is fia gt racing available in north america? I played the
demo and i think its the best driving game ever! Im having a hard time
finding it here in Alberta Canada. Thanks for your time. Hans

Noch nicht. They're still lining up a publisher for the U.S.. It's my
understanding that Atari is publishing GTR in the U.K. late next month. EA
has also been mentioned at a possible North American publisher.

Several fans have ordered their copies direct from Germany (there are
3rd-party files to convert the menus and radio traffic to English). There
may also be a U.S. reseller like GoGamer importing them on an ad hoc basis.

> wrote in message
oups.com...
> Dear Steve. Is fia gt racing available in north america? I played the
> demo and i think its the best driving game ever! Im having a hard time
> finding it here in Alberta Canada. Thanks for your time. Hans
>

Andi Cole schrieb:
> Wowa, way too long to read and digest.
>
> But some initial comments, 25th Feb seems to be the date most on line stores
> are touting at the moment for the English launch.
>
> "Yes, it's got more bugs than the Okefenokee Swamp in August (the menus are
> a mess, the
> replay system is frustrating, the multiplayer is iffy, and there is a
> surfeit of small annoyances), "
>
> More bugs ? where?, Menus are a mess, eh? Replay frustrating - really?
> multiplayer iffy - when? surfeit of small annoyances - I don't think I'll
> buy it then it sounds a load of rubbish !
>
> Um, I'm only a mere player here, but I saw more bugs in HL2, the menus are
> no worse than most driving games (and lets not compare it to the almighty
> ones here just the run of the mill stuff), replays are fine maybe missing a
> few extra controls but 'frustrating'? never. Multiplayer iffy, yes OK 1.2
> was odd until 1.2.3, 1.1 was OK too. Then a srfeit of small annoyances - so
> small not worth a mention ? so why mention them?
>
> Ah that's better mnaybe I will buy it now.
>
> OK, carry on, I'll go read the rest of your (p)review now.
>
>
Hi

the hotfix 1.23 takes some fps and gives me some stuttering. I´m playing
with a XP2400, Radeon 9700 and 1 GB ram. I will upgrade to an AMD65 3500
in a few weeks, when the NForce4 boards and the ATI 800XL are
availaible. Here in Germany with a regular DSL line, 128k upload, it is
possible to host for 6-8 people.
I have a TM Enzo FF wheel, it is not supported, so I have to choose the
MOMO Racing wheel in the controller options.
But it is the best racing sim to date.
In the game lobby, I saw a greatergreen.com server, but it was empty
(fuel usage 5x ??).


Michael

Yes, the greatergreen server is in the U.S. and most often empty. I hung
around for an hour waiting for somebody, ANYBODY to show up, and when nobody
did, I decided to run the 10-lap race anyway. Imagine my surprise when I
ran dry on the third lap! It never occurred to me that I was burning fuel
at a 4X rate. No wonder they don't have any takers....

"Michael Ziegler" > wrote in message
...
> Andi Cole schrieb:
> > Wowa, way too long to read and digest.
> >
> > But some initial comments, 25th Feb seems to be the date most on line
stores
> > are touting at the moment for the English launch.
> >
> > "Yes, it's got more bugs than the Okefenokee Swamp in August (the menus
are
> > a mess, the
> > replay system is frustrating, the multiplayer is iffy, and there is a
> > surfeit of small annoyances), "
> >
> > More bugs ? where?, Menus are a mess, eh? Replay frustrating - really?
> > multiplayer iffy - when? surfeit of small annoyances - I don't think
I'll
> > buy it then it sounds a load of rubbish !
> >
> > Um, I'm only a mere player here, but I saw more bugs in HL2, the menus
are
> > no worse than most driving games (and lets not compare it to the
almighty
> > ones here just the run of the mill stuff), replays are fine maybe
missing a
> > few extra controls but 'frustrating'? never. Multiplayer iffy, yes OK
1.2
> > was odd until 1.2.3, 1.1 was OK too. Then a srfeit of small
annoyances - so
> > small not worth a mention ? so why mention them?
> >
> > Ah that's better mnaybe I will buy it now.
> >
> > OK, carry on, I'll go read the rest of your (p)review now.
> >
> >
> Hi
>
> the hotfix 1.23 takes some fps and gives me some stuttering. I´m playing
> with a XP2400, Radeon 9700 and 1 GB ram. I will upgrade to an AMD65 3500
> in a few weeks, when the NForce4 boards and the ATI 800XL are
> availaible. Here in Germany with a regular DSL line, 128k upload, it is
> possible to host for 6-8 people.
> I have a TM Enzo FF wheel, it is not supported, so I have to choose the
> MOMO Racing wheel in the controller options.
> But it is the best racing sim to date.
> In the game lobby, I saw a greatergreen.com server, but it was empty
> (fuel usage 5x ??).
>
>
> Michael

Steve Smith schrieb:
> Yes, the greatergreen server is in the U.S. and most often empty. I hung
> around for an hour waiting for somebody, ANYBODY to show up, and when nobody
> did, I decided to run the 10-lap race anyway. Imagine my surprise when I
> ran dry on the third lap! It never occurred to me that I was burning fuel
> at a 4X rate. No wonder they don't have any takers....
>
> "Michael Ziegler" > wrote in message
> ...
>
>>Andi Cole schrieb:
>>
>>>Wowa, way too long to read and digest.
>>>
>>>But some initial comments, 25th Feb seems to be the date most on line
>
> stores
>
>>>are touting at the moment for the English launch.
>>>
>>>"Yes, it's got more bugs than the Okefenokee Swamp in August (the menus
>
> are
>
>>>a mess, the
>>>replay system is frustrating, the multiplayer is iffy, and there is a
>>>surfeit of small annoyances), "
>>>
>>>More bugs ? where?, Menus are a mess, eh? Replay frustrating - really?
>>>multiplayer iffy - when? surfeit of small annoyances - I don't think
>
> I'll
>
>>>buy it then it sounds a load of rubbish !
>>>
>>>Um, I'm only a mere player here, but I saw more bugs in HL2, the menus
>
> are
>
>>>no worse than most driving games (and lets not compare it to the
>
> almighty
>
>>>ones here just the run of the mill stuff), replays are fine maybe
>
> missing a
>
>>>few extra controls but 'frustrating'? never. Multiplayer iffy, yes OK
>
> 1.2
>
>>>was odd until 1.2.3, 1.1 was OK too. Then a srfeit of small
>
> annoyances - so
>
>>>small not worth a mention ? so why mention them?
>>>
>>>Ah that's better mnaybe I will buy it now.
>>>
>>>OK, carry on, I'll go read the rest of your (p)review now.
>>>
>>>
>>
>>Hi
>>
>>the hotfix 1.23 takes some fps and gives me some stuttering. I´m playing
>>with a XP2400, Radeon 9700 and 1 GB ram. I will upgrade to an AMD65 3500
>>in a few weeks, when the NForce4 boards and the ATI 800XL are
>>availaible. Here in Germany with a regular DSL line, 128k upload, it is
>>possible to host for 6-8 people.
>>I have a TM Enzo FF wheel, it is not supported, so I have to choose the
>>MOMO Racing wheel in the controller options.
>>But it is the best racing sim to date.
>>In the game lobby, I saw a greatergreen.com server, but it was empty
>>(fuel usage 5x ??).
>>
>>
>>Michael
>
>
>
Yesterday, we joined the greatergreen server and a few minutes later, I
heard my friend crying (Teamspeak), that his fuel is over. A few seconds
later my engine stopped, no fuel.
Then we left the server. I would like to see some US people, if they are
warping in GTR. In Forgotten Battles, we had some US boys flying and
talking with us without problems.

Michael

"You are dead on, as someone that ordered from Germany on the first day I
> have truly enjoyed GTR. There are some bugs, but it's far and away the
> best thing going right now. Now I only hope that more Yanks will get it
> so it's not 5 of us online late night PST."



I will be much happier to see more "Yanks" in the evening, Although my
German has improved greatly!
Excellent Game!

Tiny Lund schrieb:
> "You are dead on, as someone that ordered from Germany on the first day I
>
>>have truly enjoyed GTR. There are some bugs, but it's far and away the
>>best thing going right now. Now I only hope that more Yanks will get it
>>so it's not 5 of us online late night PST."
>
>
>
>
> I will be much happier to see more "Yanks" in the evening, Although my
> German has improved greatly!
> Excellent Game!
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
Evening in Germany, is noon in the USA eastcoast.
And I dont drive late in the night.

Michael