RE: BMW Driving games....

[David Cullen <dcullen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Ok, there was a simulator thread a while ago that this really pertains to.

This doesn't have any BMW's in it but it is the only driving game that I
have found that I think is worthy of the genre simulator. I've tried a few
driving games and thought pretty hard about buying a playstation just for
gran tourismo since I had heard so many good things about it. Well, my
search for a realistic driving game is over.

The game I am talking about is "Grand Prix Legends" for the PC. It is a
1967 Grand Prix season game. You can download a demo from www.papy.com or
www.sierrasports.com. The one at Sierra is 12 meg and is an older demo that
won't work on win98. The newer demo is 18 meg (I know, 2 hour download--but
its worth it) and works on win95 or win98.

My first test of a driving game is to head into a corner at the limit and
snap off the throttle. Whoa, must have been a fluke, the tail end beat me
into the corner. Let's try that again. Wow, same thing. Ok, lift this time
but get right back on the power. Rear starts to come around then settles as
I get back on the power. This is too cool. Get on the power hard, man o man
now wer're talkin, back end starts to come around. I'm playing the demo for
quite a while which comes with the Watkins Glen track and I've been having
trouble keeping the car stable as I near the braking point coming into the
"round house" turn. I don't know if the track is the same now since in the
game it is supposed to be as it was in 1967. Anyway, it finally dawns on me
what the trouble is. The car is slightly understeering as I come around
"the speed trap" at 160 mph and when I have the car straight or what I
thought was straight and lift to brake for the "round house," the car comes
left, which I correct for but now the car is transferring weight onto the
left side as I brake and I'm all over the track. Man o man, talk about
details, this is great. It took me a few more tries to get it right. I went
out and bought the game the next day. $45 at my neighborhood CompUSA.

This is the SIMULATOR Duane was talking about. You will really need a
steering wheel and pedal set to play this game but I think it is well worth
it. This is like having a car control clinic in a box.

And talk about the importance of being smooth, as an experiment I tried
driving the Ferrari as hard as I could to see what my time would be.
1:11.04. (The Ferrari seems to be the best handling of the bunch.) Next, I
try again just concentrating on being smooth and not scrubbing off too much
speed in the turns. 1:10.47. And let me tell you, driving hard was wearing
me out, every turn was opposite lock left, opposite lock right and a fight
to stay on the track. Driving smooth actually seemed boring by comparison
but I beat my time by .5 seconds.

The only thing lacking in this game is actually feeling the G's and maybe a
better brake pedal so you could tell how hard you were pushing it.

Try it out. You hear me Duane?

David

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