Grand Prix 3 Review

Don't you like Sundays? I do. It's the only day on which I don't lift a finger, or work on this site...It's not the only good thing about Sunday --- I don't have to watch the faces of other editors in the office (No, we still don't have a good-looking female editor). And if I'm really lucky, the Sunday will be a Formula Races day. I can picture myself with a big greasy stake and few cans of beer in front of the TV, killing that slow Sunday afternoon (yeah, we're lucky here in Europe to have the time of the race fit into that particular part of the day) and nope, you can't beat that feeling.

Looks like its gonna rain...

Michael on the start...

In 1992, Hasbro Interactive released F1 Grand Prix, and four years later Grand Prix 2, so you can say they wasted no time. They made a short 3-month break, and got back to work. But first they had to make Geoff Crammond want to work with them, the man that worked on the first two GP's. Apparently, they regard him as a kind of deity over at Hasbro, since a large part of the credits for the GP2 being sold over one mil. copies goes to him. As the result of their four-year effort, we have a game that will be warmly greeted by fans of the most prestigious motor-sport. A lot of time was spent on relaying the numerous details of this competition. All the teams, all the drivers, all the tracks and all the races of the 1998 Championship Season are presented as realistic as possible, further more, the game is Official F1 Licensed Product endorsed by the Formula One Administration Limited! So, there you have it, except the only outdated fact is that the data is from the year 1998, but it was impossible to dig up the information for 1999, let alone 2000.

This year, just before British Silverstone Grand Prix, the guys of Hasbro Interactive had the chance to, during a break in their intense practice schedule, catch up with the people from the Arrows Team, place them in front of a computer with the final version of the game, and hear accolades. Apparently, both the drivers and their support teams were all amazed at the quality of the simulation... Does that mean that we have the most realistic and accurate Formula One game?

After starting the game, you enter a pre-menu from which you can choose to drive a quick race, or enter the main menu from where the player can access modes seen million times before (practice, full championship season and non-championship race). It would be moronic to describe the differences, but I'll just mention that the championship mode was done "by the book". They consist of friday free practice, saturday free practice, qualifying, and pre race warm-up and of course the race itself. The whole menu system is designed in an attractive manner, the options are easily accessible and there are a lot of them. The only question is how many are you going to switch before riding on one of the 16 offered tracks.

Before entering the tarmac, you will receive final instructions, and the weather forecast. You will see the status of the track and the sky, the chances of rain, so you can decide to make last minute changes, such as tire change or the pit stop strategy. You are also left with the, somewhat anal options of adjusting front/rear wings, brake balance, gear ratios or springs, ride height and dampers for your car. The less apt players/racers will find the default wet/dry settings most helpful.

There are 5 levels of difficulty (rookie, amateur, semi-pro, pro and ace), which automatically determine what driving aids will be available to you during the ride. Starting with breaks and auto-gear, through steering and throttle help, best line and self-correcting spin, to indestructibility. The choice of the gearbox (manual/automatic), the steering and throttle help are the only forms of help available on the highest level of difficulty. The great thing is the additional realism, which is displayed through oil or brake leaks, electrical problems, engine/transmission failure, a flat tire or suspension problems. Basically, the whole simulation system is rebooted, and it was necessary because the rules concerning F1 cars changed. All cars received new physics, and to top it off, a full aerodynamics model is installed. That means the wind resistance and its influence on the speed is calculated constantly. In other words, the car riding behind another one accelerates more.

As far as the playability goes, you can expect problems if you are not a F1 fan. Especially if you lack the experience in this kind of simulations and the will to devote time to the game. Another great thing is the 'save' option that enables you to save the game no matter if you are in the middle of the race or you finished it already. Try avoiding the keyboard as your basic game controller, since the throttle is hard to control and that influences the game badly. It becomes a problem at low speeds, where the slightest pressure on the gas key is resulted in maximum throttle, which leads to wheels sliding, and eventually to the car spinning or turning over completely. This goes for a dry tarmac, so you can imagine what its like on a wet one. You should definitely try finding a good joystick (unfortunately, there are no GP3 support for the extra axis controllers) or better yet, the wheel joystick (force feedback would be juicy). I'll leave the analysis of how realistic the game is to somebody else, since I didn't have time recently to drive a McLaren Mercedes...So, I'll take for granted everything that the people from Arrows and Geoff said about the realism, including that the car has full aerodynamics model and totally new physics.

The opponents are very good. By that, I don't mean that they win every time; rather they drive in a smart way. Their AI is good, maybe the best of the F1 simulations. They know when to slow down, and when to attack, and the killer instinct is balanced. It's as if they have a conciseness that says, "don't wreck the car, you fool". If you suddenly brake, those behind you will try not to collide, who cares about the position...