Anyone tried Johnny Herbert's Grand Prix Championship?

I would never have tried this but for its inclusion in a controller box. Just pulled this freebee out of the TM Force GT carton and took it for a spin. Having driven GP2, F1RS, and GPL I was intrigued, but skeptical. First impression is one of being pleasantly surprised. In car graphics are outstanding compared to the others. The feeling of movement and speed around the track were the best of an sim yet. I found it very easy to get up to speed in this sim, at least with the visual and FF cues. After about 20-30 laps DRIVING MODEL feels maybe a bit on the arcade side, but a lot of fun. It seems possible to drift the car. SOUND is weak to this point, but then F1RS is abominable. CONTROLS setup easy. Using TM Force GT FF wheel - no problems. MENUES basic, but well thought out. Can't comment yet on AI or car configuration. There are settings for Wing, Tire compound, Brake balance, Steering lock, Fuel load, and Gear settings. The usual realism cheats are available. but not needed. TRACKS- Spa looks beautiful and seems reasonably accurate, although I find no two sims interpret the same track equally. Elevation changes are evident. This is not a modern era GPL by any means, but great fun so far. Anyone else tried it? -- [danblake at bigfoot dot com]

I HAD the demo, deleted that piece of horrible ***within a day though ;-) The game is nothing but arcade feeling. Is there a crash model cause it must be disabled in the demo. The car sticks like glue to the track, I can't spin in hardly when I drive careful. And I didn't find it all that fun

Ai is the big killer, its horrible. They are just ***ous ***s that block no matter what. Unfortunate because the same people made castrol superbikes and that was very nice. Also some of the tracks like China? What the hell is that? I must have missed it when the F1 circuis went to China in 98? ilmore.

It looked to me more like it was 95's tracks in 98 style cars. China is Aida, which was the Pacific Grand Prix (last race at Aida was 95), it's also in Japan...but can't have 2 races under 1 countries name. Didn't it have Adelaide too?

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> Ai is the big killer, its horrible. They are just ***ous ***s that > block no matter what. Unfortunate because the same people made castrol > superbikes and that was very nice. Also some of the tracks like China? What > the hell is that? I must have missed it when the F1 circuis went to China in > 98? > ilmore.

-- Jon Van Ginneken "I try to do my best every day. If, at the end of the day I know I did the best job I could do, I am satisfied." --Alex Zanardi

Agree on the tracks, although one has to say that Spa is done quite well. Agree on the AI. It's horrendous. In a nutshell, when approaching another car to pass, the car in front starts weaving ***ly from side to side. This happens when you are within 2-3 car lengths. Just as you move to one side or the other to pass, the offending car veers into your path - every time. It might be realistic to have this behavior once in a while, especially when approaching back markers (lower echelon F1 drivers), but this occurs on every pass in exactly the same fashion. Reminds me of NASCAR when the cars in front of you bob and weave constantly. Isn't the idea to be as smooth as possible? Also - sound is buggy (engine sounds disappear after three laps), and to my ears sound similar to touring car series. On the other hand, it is easier to guess shifting points by listening to the sound as compared with F1RS. This is a good thing, because you have no dash or shift indicators. The tiny rev meter displayed on the lower right hand side hits the red area when the engine sound is about 1/2 way through it's audible rev range. I drove Imola today for more comparison to F1RS and what I can remember of GP2. I will say that at least for my eyes, the graphics are superior to F1RS. Make that far superior. I noticed that the track is very narrow in F1RS, and appears about right in JHGPC. At slower speeds in F1RS it is almost impossible for me to judge how fast I am going, but not so in JHGPC. This is important to have a more precise gauge of braking points and traction limits. [Rant Warning] A lot of people are probably scratching their heads saying why bother with this low end arcade style sim. The answer is because it does a lot f things right. Some may feel that the cars have too much grip, but that's what F1 cars have. They generate a lot of Gs, then go at a very high limit. Using visual or FF queues vs. seat-of-the-pants makes it very hard to drive effectively. That's why I don't mind a little "extra" grip in this sim. Call me shallow or limp wristed, but this thing begs for more development. What it could have been with better AI, sound, instruments, and accurate tracks. Right now a _very_ fun diversion from the others. Loading Brazil... >It looked to me more like it was 95's tracks in 98 style cars. China is Aida, >which was the Pacific Grand Prix (last race at Aida was 95), it's also in >Japan...but can't have 2 races under 1 countries name. Didn't it have Adelaide

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>too? >> Ai is the big killer, its horrible. They are just ***ous ***s that >> block no matter what. Unfortunate because the same people made castrol >> superbikes and that was very nice. Also some of the tracks like China?

What >> the hell is that? I must have missed it when the F1 circuis went to China in

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>> 98? >> ilmore. >-- >Jon Van Ginneken >"I try to do my best every day. If, at the end of the day >I know I did the best job I could do, I am satisfied." > --Alex Zanardi

>Loading Brazil... Now what the hell have they done with Brazil? Ouch! Inserting F1RS now.

Dan Blake wrote It's quite bad in Ubisoft titles also, especially without any banking or simple track camber <g> ;-) -= Fran?ois Mnard <ymenard/Nas-Frank> -= NROS Nascar sanctioned Guide http://www.nros.com/ -= SimRacing Online http://www.simracing.com/ -= Official mentally retarded guy of r.a.s. -= May the Downforce be with you... "People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realise how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world."

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> Dan Blake wrote > >Now what the hell have they done with Brazil? Ouch! > >Inserting F1RS now. > It's quite bad in Ubisoft titles also, especially without any banking or > simple track camber <g> ;-)

But... oh, whatever! ;^) <mumbling: "comparing JH's marketing gimmick with F1RS, that's so silly..."> l8er ronny -- A healthy "*** you" to Eidos for voluntary and unlawfull censorship of *** German video gamers! (Daikatana) |\ _,,,---,,_ I want to die like my Grandfather, ZZZzz /,`.-'`' -. ;-;;,_ in his sleep. |,4- ) )-,_. ,\ ( `'-' Not like the people in his car, '---''(_/--' `-'\_) screaming their heads off!

Ronald Stoehr wrote silly..."> Hehehehehe I was comparing the track accuracy with their game engine. Ok I want to confess something : Im having fun at the Ubisoft Game Service with MGPRS2. -= Fran?ois Mnard <ymenard/Nas-Frank> -= NROS Nascar sanctioned Guide http://www.nros.com/ -= SimRacing Online http://www.simracing.com/ -= Official mentally retarded guy of r.a.s. -= May the Downforce be with you... "People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realise how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world."