After shaving some graphical settings and fixing the awful initial feel of the
MSFF wheel, I finally got some proper track time in GP3. I'm used to a lot of
centering force and understeer to keep the car in control, and needless to say
the initial 'no-resistance' feel of the wheel in GP3 was just unbearable. But
one pull of the power cord later the centering force was back and I could
actually consider driving this thing :)
Another gripe is that the brakes feel way too sensitive. It takes just a small
stab to lock them, which is kind of annoying but you get used to it after some
laps and it's actually controllable after some control tweaking.
Next up: graphics. Since I haven't bothered upgrading my Banshee, it's maximum
640x480 for me and at first it turned me off quite a bit. Actually now that I've
gotten used to the graphics, they remind me of F1RS (in a positive way), just
less bright and more atmospheric. The cars look like they were glued on but who
cares, I'm only going to see them for a short moment before I zoom past anyway
;) I finally settled for something that gives me 60-80 PO in bright weather, and
100-110% in rain and traffic.
Now for some track testing. Nurburgring was the same as usual except that the
last version I played didn't have the penultimate chicane anywhere near as blind
and tight. Melbourne was almost exactly the same as F1RS except that the shadowy
spots under the trees look nice. Not my favourite track. Montreal had one
chicane I can't remember being so tight so it must've been changed after 1998.
Hockenheim was pretty narrow and that's all the track testing I made.
Then the racing. Novice race at Hockenheim, nothing fancy just a few quick laps
in qualifying, easy pole and then to race. Starting is just as easy as in GP2,
though the framerate with the TV view was really bad when I replayed it
afterwards. A couple of spins later, I actually got to pass people as I came
from eighth to fourth in a mad dash (granted, they are slowpokes on the
straights but 'twas fun).
My take on the alleged GP 2.5 issue: While GP3 certainly is built on all those
features and quirks of GP2, it certainly _doesn't_ drive similarly. With all
that downforce, great speeds will nail the backend down, causing understeer and
that "riding on rails" feeling, which I feel is justified. In low speeds the car
is more "real", and will spin (uncanned, if I may add) if overdriven. To me it
feels like a cross-over between the easy going of GP2 and the advanced model of
SCGT.
The weather and atmospheric effects are great, zooming through the Hockenheim
forest section with light drizzle falling, then a minute later to the clear and
sunny stadium section. Just like in the real GP! Didn't really have the time to
try rain driving yet...
