Grand Prix 3 Review

Well, I really praised this game, didn't I, so now well take a look at the part of the game that I didn't like at all: the graphics. They say that GP3 uses mostly the new 3D engine, but the first time I started the game, the impression was poor. I was sure that the game is not acknowledging the Voodoo 3 card and that the game is running on software mode. The quality of textures is terrible (very pixilated commercial boards on the roadside, trees, broken parts of cars...), but the worse thing is that some objects, such as the pit-crew, trees, buildings, spectators and even some of the cars, are presented as 2D sprites! Looks like they forgot to mention that apart from the licensed data from 1998, they licensed the engine from the same year. You see, Geoff Crammond developed the software engine, and the Microprose programmers improved it by adding the hardware acceleration, but in the end we got a game that looks like a PC conversion of a PCX game...

When I say bad, I primarily mean that the 3D/2D engine is very buggy, so you get texture clipping relatively often, sprites disappearing, and such crap... A prime example is when you crash the car, and the race staff runs toward the car to push it off the track. Maybe they should have left it out completely, instead, only half of the textures and models look right. But the thing that made me feel even worse was the frame rate. Even though the minimal hardware configuration recommended is Pentium II 266Mhz with 32Mb RAM, without the 3D acceleration, I wouldn't care to check if it's true. I tried playing the game first on a 400Mhz, 64Mb RAM processor with a Voodoo 3 accelerator, but I got the notion that the fps was not rising over 20-22, I switched to a Pentium III processor overclocked to 558Mhz with 128Mb RAM and nVidia-powered GeForce graphic card. Things settled a bit, but not completely. Even nVidia chips had problems rendering certain situations with adequate fps (like the TV view of the start, when all 20 cars are in the frame).

As far as the number of polygons goes, the cars are on an average level. The cockpit is nicely designed (but the hands on the steering wheel aren't there). In this sequel, the front tires can be seen from the cockpit view, but maybe they shouldn't be visible; when the car is not moving, their texture really ruins the general picture. This could have been done better, since those two wheels are the first impression of the game when you are waiting for the race to begin. When the race starts, the writing on the tires starts blurring, and that looks much better...

But that is not the only visual detail that was developed properly. The rain looks good, and it's fully dynamical. This is an important detail that allows the tactical aspect of the game to be pronounced. It can rain on only one part of the track, or simply change as the wind shifts. If the rain is really hard, the tarmac is covered with a thin film of water, the cars are splashing it around and there is a great reflection. If the rain stops during the race, the track starts to dry, at first were the cars most frequently pass, and later the whole tarmac.

The audio segment is one of the better parts of the game starting with the audio menu (with the picture of Mika Hakkinen in the background, and his fingers in his ears because of the noise level). The 3D sound is supported, the engine sound is pretty realistic, but unfortunately the radio communication with the team is missing.

The on-line bout lovers will be happy to know that there is support for a cable, modem, IPX and TCP/IP connection. Multiplayer on LAN is for 4 or more players. Since I'm afraid to race everybody in my office, we raced only once. These guys really kick ass...but I visited the multiplayer menu several times... Wonder why...Must be the options...

You want to be like Michael Schumacher when you grow up? Well, you have to wait a little, and play Grand Prix 3 a lot, and if you don't care about F1, you should definitely choose another simulation. In any case you wont be missing much if you didn't play this game. Especially since Hasbro Interactive received an agreement with FOA to produce games covering the seasons 1998-2002. It is Hasbro Interactive intention to create a series of industry leading products for each of these seasons and to feature on as many game platforms as is commercially viable.