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I'm on the eleventh lap of my qualifying run at Barcelona - my lap times have been dismal, despite a significant amount of chassis tweaking during the test sessions. There will be no pole for McLaren in Spain unless David fares better than I am.
The 2001 McLaren is a wicked fast machine, solidly-planted with tons of grip, yet still nervous and twitchy, like all modern F1 cars. The car responds to my inputs instantaneously, demanding a smooth hand at the wheel. Heading into the Curvone Renault segment, I feel the car dance on the edge of the friction circle as the tires fight for grip. I can hear the tires scrubbing against the tarmac, and I can feel the g-forces tugging at my head and neck as I feather the throttle to strike a balance between grip and acceleration as I sustain a delicate four-wheel drift throughout the turn.
Once I pass the apex I'm back on the throttle, accelerating hard and running through the gears as I charge towards Curva Repsol. I brake hard and slip down to 2nd gear, then run back through the gears quickly for a short burst of acceleration before dropping it down into 1st gear and braking hard again for the tight Curva Seat segment. This is a slow turn, and it takes patience with the throttle to prevent an unwanted spin. I successfully negotiate this turn, hitting the turn-in and exit points dead-on, then its back up through the gears again in quick succession as I accelerate on through the two shallow left-handers on the way to the sharp high-speed right-hander at Curva Campsa.
Suddenly ahead of me one of the blue Prost cars spins - Burti, perhaps? It's a slow, lazy kind of spin, and I wonder for a moment what caused it. These left-handers are a tricky but relatively fast section of the track, and judging by the spin, I assume it was either caused by a mechanical failure, or he was tapped from behind by another car that has already left the scene. Either way, his car is occupying my entry line into the fast left-hander that opens up into the uphill segment that leads into Campsa.
I see that my mirrors are filled with the blue-and-white of one of the Williams cars, which means I only have a fraction of a second to decide on my evasive maneuver. The blue Prost car is still in motion, slowly drifting out across the track. I am already off the throttle - far earlier than I normally would be for this corner - and I make my decision: Rather than risk diving deep inside and riding the curb, I move to the outside of the turn and softly brush the brakes, slowing a bit more as I commit to the less-than-ideal line on the outside of the turn. This is a calculated risk, and I hold my breath for a moment, hoping that I have correctly judged the motion of the Prost car. If not, then I run the risk of connecting with his rear wing as I attempt to slide by. My gamble pays off, thankfully, and I get back on the throttle hard as I see the car slide past my vision on the left, its engine obviously stalled.
I accelerate hard on the uphill segment going into Campsa, hoping that the blue Williams car didn't get enough of a run on me during my evasive maneuvers to pull off a pass. This may only be a qualifying lap, but like all true racers, I hate to be passed, regardless. A quick check of my mirrors tells me I have nothing to worry about - the Williams driver was not as successful in evading the stalled Prost car, and there is now a second blue car stalled on the track behind me.
I shift my focus ahead once again and blast through Campsa perhaps a few clicks slower than I typically have been taking it so far today, but thankful for what I had avoided. I press the McLaren onward, running the Mercedes engine to the redline before each shift as I hustle down the straight towards the sharp left-hand La Caixa turn. Still a bit shaken from the previous close call, I brake a bit too early and I'm surprised as I suddenly notice my mirror filled with the menacing red of one of the two Ferraris.
Since we both just passed through the mess created by the Prost spin just before Campsa, this lap will be no good for either of us as a qualifying lap, but that doesn't mean that the opportunity is wasted. I would guess that the Ferrari pilot wants around me in order to set himself up for a good qualifying run on the next lap. I know I don't have a chance at the pole, but I can still take advantage of the opportunity to do a little racing with my Ferrari-powered competitor. This will give me a chance to test the Ferrari's mettle here in Barcelona, and if I can deny my competitor the opportunity to have a clean run on his next qualifying lap, then perhaps my teammate can place his McLaren on the pole ahead of Ferrari.
The race is on as we move through the slow, tight right-hander that is Curva Banc Sabadell. It has been a trying weekend for me, as I am struggling for speed more than I have here previously. In 2000, I was able to turn laps here in the 1:20.166 range - easily as fast as Schmacher's pole time. Now, in 2001, I am almost 10 seconds off my pace, even though the car and the engine are better overall, I feel as though I am struggling with some new learning curve now that has more to do with me than with my machine.
I enter Sabadell a little too hot, and I can hear the tires scrubbing as they fight for traction, dancing at the limit. I fight to hold my line and I see the Ferrari behind me duck inside, then to the outside. I feint with a blocking move to the outside as wait for the apex to get back into the throttle; the Ferrari pilot sees the opening he has been waiting for and gets into the throttle before I do, powering past me on the inside. He powers away and I hold my breath as I get back on the power myself while my two left tyres are still riding the curb. I chase him through Curva New Holland and hope for clear track for both of us as we head down the main straight towards Curva Elf.
My nerves settle as I brake hard for the first turn and carry a smooth, fast drift into Renault, gaining on the Ferrari as we both get on the power heading into Repsol. I don't know if I was going in too hot or if the Ferrari braked early, but suddenly I find myself closing in far too fast on his rear wing and I have to get on the binders hard. This upsets the delicate balance of the car more than I had intended, and the rear end snaps around as I pitch it into the tight right-hander a little too close to the limit of traction.
Tyre smoke surrounds me as I snap-spin, and then I find myself spinning off into the sand, kicking up an impressive cloud of dust. I see two cars emerge from the cloud cautiously, unsure of what awaits them as they enter the turn. Unlike the Prost car on my last lap, I at least had the decency to park it in the sand, well off the track. I can see the Ferrari in the distance, braking for Seat and then accelerating away. Later in the garage I learn that I had been following Schumacher, who won the pole here today.
I was not so lucky, coming away with a 12th-place position on the grid.
While the above could be an excerpt from Mika Hakkinen's memoirs from the 2001 season, what you just read is actually my own personal account of one of my most recent qualifying experiences with EA's upcoming F1 2001 title. The level of intensity that I experienced during the qualifying session above was demanding in a way that is seldom seen in a PC-based simulation. Based on what I've seen so far, F1 2001 may be perhaps the most realistic, intricate, and immersive racing game ever.
TEST CONFIGURATION:
Primary System:
- Processor: AMD Duron 700
- RAM: 128 MB PC100
- Video: Visiontek GeForce256 (not overclocked)
- Audio: Built-in (MSI K7T Pro2 motherboard)
- Game port: Built-in (MSI K7T Pro2 motherboard)
- Game controller: TSW2
INITIAL IMPRESSIONS:
Developed by Michigan-based Image Space, Inc. (ISI), F1 2001 represents what I consider to be the first next-generation F1 simulation to come to market. Last year we saw several second-generation F1 sims, PC-based titles that featured intricate physics modeling and advanced 3D accelerated graphics - titles like F1 2000, Grand Prix 3, and F1 Racing Championship. These three titles defined the current state of modern F1 simulations, with each bringing something different to the party. None of these second-generation titles really represented the full state-of-the-art in racing simulations, with all of them coming up short in some way or another.
From a physics standpoint, I always felt that F1 2000 - along with its sequel, F1 Championship Season 2000 - led the pack in terms of physics modeling. Ubisoft's F1 Racing Championship featured amazing photo-realistic graphics and GPS-accurate tracks, but the track surfaces themselves were surrealistically smooth and its physics modeling was also so unpredictable that it made me doubt the existence of any reality-based grip parameter in the game's physics engine. Grand Prix 3 featured an amazing implementation of changing weather conditions, but the main reason for its success is arguably the fact that it was the long-awaited sequel to Grand Prix 2, and as such, it was accepted with open arms by the hordes of rabid Geoff Crammond groupies.
In comparison to the 2000 F1 offerings, EA's upcoming F1 2001 represents an entirely new generation of F1 simulations. While F1 2000 and F1 Championship Season 2000 both shared a significant amount of software code with of ISI/EA's previous Sports Car GT game engine, F1 2001 represents is a more revolutionary step.
LET'S GET PHYSICAL
F1 2001 features an all-new game engine that was designed from the ground-up to operate more efficiently and perform more realistically than its older siblings; the physics engine itself is much more sophisticated, running at 200 Hz, compared to 50 Hz for its F1 2000 / F1 Championship Season predecessors. Basically, the frequency of the physics engine determines how fast or how often the physics calculations occur within the game. A game with a 10 Hz physics engine only calculates physics variables 10 times per second -- which severely limits the number of variables that can be calculated usefully (engine inertia, tire inertia, suspension movement, vehicle mass, etc.). A higher frequency physics engine allows you to do more sophisticated calculations, and to calculate more physics variables -- this results in greater realism in the simulation.
This means that the F1 2001 game engine can calculate more physics parameters per second than F1 Championship Season ever could. Thanks to this dynamic increase in the game engine's number-crunching power, ISI has included new vehicle dynamics in the F1 2001 game that are reportedly based on pure mechanical physics (beams, joints, springs, etc.).
As impressive as F1 2001's physics engine is, F1 fans will be even more thrilled by the level of detail that is included beyond just the physics.
For example, people on the Internet have been clamoring for things like accurate launch control in F1 2001, and hardcore F1 fans will be delighted that details like this have indeed been included (launch control is called "throttle assist" in F1 2001 some reason, but it serves the same function). You will also find true standing starts in F1 2001, and you are in control of your car even before the red lights go out - which means that you can now have false starts in F1 2001, something that was previously impossible in EA's earlier F1 offerings.
The best part of the revised physics engine is probably the newfound responsiveness of the cars. Four-wheel drifts are now a thing of beauty, and I find myself tossing and "twitching" the cars into a corner, just as I watched Juan Pablo Montoya toss and "twitch" his way to the pole at Spa last weekend. Grand Prix Legends is only other simulation I know of where it's possible to "dance on the edge" while sustaining a four-wheel drift in the same manner you can with F1 2001. Even without a Force Feedback wheel, you can still "feel" the car's grip limits, and once you learn how to feather the throttle properly, you can use that as an enhancement for directional control in the turns. You don't just point and squirt to go fast with F1 2001 -- you have to caress it and coax it along properly if you want to go truly fast.
Unfortunately, Force Feedback is something that I cannot comment on here, because it is not implemented in the beta version that I am using for this review. If ISI puts as much effort into the Force Feedback implementation as they have everything else in F1 2001, though, it should be a significant improvement over its predecessor.
WEATHER OR NOT
Dynamic weather is also included, allowing you to choose from random, season 2001, sunny, overcast, rainy, and monsoon conditions. Weather effects include fog, rain, wet tire trails, rooster tails off the tires, lighting changes and sky that moves from clear to overcast.
Wet and monsoon conditions come complete with falling raindrops now, in addition to the fog and spray effects. The raindrops are so big at times that they will make you blink, and there is a definite noticeable difference between the intensity of the raindrops when changing from "raining" to "monsoon" conditions.
The "changing" conditions will give you just that - the possibility of changing weather conditions that may go from dry to wet or vice-versa, accompanied by track conditions and racing lines that will dry out or become wetter over time, depending on the varying conditions. The track remains wet after it rains, and it dries at a rate depending on track temperature and the number of cars on track.
Geoff Crammond's Grand Prix 3 is widely viewed as the current benchmark for dynamic weather modeling, but F1 2001 may now be the leader in this area.
PUTTING THE "I" IN "AI"
The version that I have for preview purposes is apparently a mid-production beta version, as there are several tracks missing, and the readme file indicated that the AI is only fully-implemented for Magny-Cours and Catalunya. I have a lot of trouble finding a good, competitive rhythm at Magny-Cours, so I decided to focus on Catalunya. I actually like this track quite a bit, and my personal best there would have put me ahead of Schumacher's pole speed for the 2000 race, so I felt that this would put me in a good position to test the mettle of the AI in F1 2001.
In my preview for F1CS2K, I had this to say about the AI:
"There's no need to fear tepid, timid AI, either -- as I've said, it was fairly easy for me to dominate with the AI drivers strength set to 80%, but when I cranked the strength and aggression up to 100%, the AI left me in the dirt, and I found myself struggling to do just keep up. Even with the aggression set to 100%, I still saw no indication of first-lap pileups or any other AI blunders that became the trademark of the AI cars in F1 2000. ISI may have set a new high water mark for open wheel AI performance with their work in F1CS2k."
In comparison, I found that in F1 2001, with the AI strength set to 75% and the aggression set to 50%, I have trouble qualifying higher than 12th, and I am struggling to turn in lap times below the 1:29 mark. Even with a considerable amount of "seat time" so far in F1 2001, my lap times at Catalunya are a far cry from my personal best 1:20.166 in F1CS2K, despite the fact that I'm essentially running the "same" circuit in both sims. This seems to be a result of the advanced physics modeling, which is significantly more demanding - and rewarding - than F1CS2K. The only thing that I can really compare it to in terms of driver workload is the grandaddy of all racing sims, Grand Prix Legends. Physics fans are going to love this one, I think - F1 2001 is definitely a significant improvement over F1CS2K.
Qualifying aside, the AI seems to run well - if you can manage to outbrake the AI going into a corner, they will diligently hold their line, driving as if their careers depended on them bringing their expensive F1 hardware home. The AI does make some occasional mistakes, which adds an element of realism to the game. I also witnessed several wild scrambles to avoid stationary AI cars that were left standing at the starting of several races -- which shows that ISI even went so far as to model the start problems that we've seen this year in F1 due to the new launch control systems. Annoyingly, this also happened to me on a couple of occasions, proving that ISI is subjecting the human players to the same sort of mechanical and electrical failures as the AI.
Thankfully, the addition of a new "restart" feature allowed me to easily restart the race just by pressing the "Y" key on my keyboard. With this new feature, there's no need to exit the game, go back to the track menu, and reload the track just because you had an unfortunate "off," which makes practice session and quick races a LOT more fun. I haven't tried running a Championship Season yet due to the missing tracks and incomplete AI in my test version, but the "instant restart" feature is disabled in the Driving School mode, and I would guess that this would be the case in Championship Season mode as well.
THE EYES HAVE IT
The graphics engine also offers a similar improvement over F1CS2K's graphics engine. The graphics setup routine is all-new for F1 2001, and it basically runs some background tests to determine what graphic settings will result in the best performance for your particular system. This setup works very nicely - the graphics settings that the setup routine selected for my system ran very smoothly and at the same time, the graphics were very pleasing to the eye, with good levels of detail enabled overall. You can still alter the graphic detail levels from the in-game menus, but I found that the setup routine gave me a good balance that erred on the side of performance, which would definitely enhance playability for midrange and low-end systems.
My first impression was that F1 2001 may fall a bit short of the "photo-realistic" graphic quality that is found in Ubisoft's F1 Racing Championship title. After checking the setup menus, I discovered that the graphics auto-configuration routine had scaled back a lot of the graphic details. I cranked almost everything up to full and found that F1 2001 really doesn't give up anything to F1RC at all. Even with the detail levels set higher than the game's recommended settings, I still found the video performance in F1 2001 to be exceptional -- definitely better than what I see on my PC with F1CS2K, and even smoother than its main competitor, F1RC.
With the scenery ticking by at full speed, F1 2001 has an "organic" quality to it that seems to be lacking in F1RC. When watching television, I find that videotaped presentations feel somewhat sterile, and that they lack a certain "warmth" that comes with events that are captured on conventional film. In the same way, F1RC has always had a similar sterile "video" quality for me. With F1 2001, I find that the graphics come off a bit less sharp than F1RC, but they have a "warm" quality that ends up feeling more immersive overall to me.
The video quality of F1 2001 may not strike you immediately, though - I have been working extensively with NASCAR Heat, and I have always found Heat's graphics to have a sharpness that rivals F1RC in many ways. Compared to the sharp graphics that I had become used to in NASCAR Heat, I initially felt that F1 2001 lacked somewhat in terms of crispness. The F1 2001 graphics were a striking improvement over F1CS2K, to be sure, but I have to admit that I was initially somewhat underwhelmed by F1 2001's eye-candy overall. The graphic engine seems to be very tolerant, though, so even though the auto-config routine gives you some very usable graphics settings, you'll probably still want to adjust the graphic settings manually to find what works best for your system.
One thing that did strike me was the sense of speed in F1 2001 -- the sensation of speed is very, very good, and that was aspect of the new graphics engine won me over immediately. This alone may also have something to do with why my lap times are down so much now compared to what I was able to do in F1CS2K. It's now downright scary to come into some corners as hot as I can in F1CS2K, so I find myself braking earlier than I usually would in a sim . . . which just adds to the overall realism compared to what I'm used to seeing in other modern F1 sims.
The more time I spent with F1 2001, the more I came to appreciate the graphics. There's a definite sense of balance to the graphics in F1 2001, a blending of sparseness and detail that come together to give you a definite sense of "being there" that is missing in many other games. Even with its somewhat dated graphics engine, I've always had that sense of "being there" in GPL, whereas games like F1RC have left me with the feeling that if I am there, then I'm watching it all happen through the viewfinder of a video camera. Like GPL, the graphics in F1 2001 give me that feeling that I'm "there," not sitting in my desk chair watching images scroll by on my monitor.
This will give you an idea of just how immersive I found the graphics to be in F1 2001: While running some casual laps in the wet at Spain to grab the screen shots you see accompanying this article, I found myself thinking how much I enjoyed the smells after a good rain -- then I found myself inhaling deeply in order to take in the clean, cool smells around me . . . until I remembered that it's just a game. Keep in mind that this occurred while I was just tooling around the track, looking for specific points to take screen shots -- not running at 10/10th for an extended period of time, thoroughly immersed in "the zone."
Other graphic improvements include three different and very usable cockpit views -- the standard in-cockpit view, a "bumper cam" view, and an elevated view that looks much like the perspective from the airbox camera minus the driver's helmet. The two non-cockpit views come complete with external overlays for speed, gear, RPM, and all the other info that would normally be found on the excellent steering wheel display in the cockpit view. The cockpits are modeled differently for each car now, and they come complete with varying layouts and an accurate depiction of each team's unique steering wheel.
The pit crew is animated and fully articulated. I didn't see any team members hanging over the wall with pit boards, as is done in the PS2 version, but I frankly feel that this is a minor detail that won't be missed while you're running at speed anyway. As far as extraneous details like the animated pit boards are concerned, I'm glad that ISI decided to focus instead on the speed of the graphics engine, rather than unnecessary eye-candy that really doesn't add anything to the racing itself. The payoff comes in performance, and F1 2001 is all about performance.
MAKING TRACKS
Several tracks are missing in the beta version that I have, but based only on the tracks that I have seen so far, it's obvious that ISI has expended a significant amount of effort on the tracks for F1 2001. Some track layouts seem similar to their F1CS2K counterparts, but the level of trackside detail is much improved in F1 2001. At the same time, there are places where the track layouts seem significantly different than the F1CS2K representations, and where these changes have occurred, the F1 2001 tracks now seem more true to their real-life counterparts.
Indianapolis in particular seems like an entirely different track compared to the USGP track in F1CS2K. I have had several opportunities to walk the infield segments of the Indy track in person, and when I did so in May of 2001, I took advantage of the opportunity to study the Hulman Straight segment and the curbs in the "Mickey Mouse" segment of the track in particular, just to see how it compared to the USGP track in F1CS2K.
While the Indy track in F1CS2K seemed like a decent enough representation, I can say for a fact that the details in F1 2001 seem more true-to-life. The section that has changed the most, though, is the Turn 1 area of the F1 track (not to be confused with Turn One of the oval, which constitutes the final turn on the USGP circuit). This is probably where I lose the most time in F1 2001 compared to F1CS2K, and the F1 2001 version seems to be a better representation of the actual track itself.
Look for similar changes on the rest of the tracks in the game, and, based on what I've seen so far, be prepare to be impressed.
SOUNDS LIKE A WINNER
When it comes to sounds, I'm pretty much tone deaf, so I'm no authority on audio quality. As far as engine sounds are concerned, for example, if it sounds close enough to be convincing, then it's typically good enough for me.
As a physics phreak, though, I am very sensitive to how the sounds work together with the physics engine. I can't tell you when the engine note is a few octaves off from its real-life counterpart, but I can tell you in a heartbeat when the sounds don't match up with what should be happening with the in-game physics.
Several things struck me immediately about the sounds in F1 2001. The first thing I noticed is that there doesn't seem to be a tire "squeal" noise anymore -- now when you get excess wheelspin while accelerating, or as you approach lockup while braking, there are no accompanying tire "squeal" sounds to let you know what's going on. After talking with EA and ISI, I learned that the tire squeal sounds may not have been fully-implemented yet in the beta version that I have, so this issue may have already been addressed. I hope so, anyway, because I have a strong feeling that the lack of proper tire "squeal" sounds for wheelspin and braking may have a lot to do with why my braking cues (and lap times) seem to be so far off the pace. This may account in part for why I am struggling to come close to my F1CS2K times.
One aspect of tire sounds that has been nicely implemented is the addition of a tire "scrub" sound. Instead of the "squeal" that you hear in F1CS2K when approaching the limits of lateral grip, F1 2001 uses a "scrubbing" sound that comes into play as lateral forces build. This works very nicely, giving F1 2001 an altogether unique "feel," and it probably does a very good job of modeling the actual sounds that an F1 driver hears in the cockpit. I would love to know how this new "scrub" sound works when coupled with a more pronounced "squeal" sounds for wheelspin and braking forces, but like you, I will have to wait for the final retail product to know about this one. I have every faith in ISI/EA, though, so I'm sure the end result will be very well-done.
DETAILS, DETAILS
They say more is better, and apparently EA and ISI took this to heart because in addition to the amazing new graphics and physics enhancements, there are countless other small details that help establish F1 2001 as the new king of modern F1 simulations. These details add to the overall level of realism -- for example, instead of starting your practice and qualifying sessions from your spot on pit lane, you now begin your practice and qualifying sessions from inside your garage. Once your session is through, you can also back into your garage afterwards, if you want. You will now see cars stalled on the starting grid at the start of races, just like you've witnessed in real-life throughout the 2001 F1 season. The in-car displays on the steering wheels are more crisp, legible, and usable than any I have seen to date. The Driving School mode now includes more tests at more tracks, and the tests I have tried seem more like real F1 driver's tests.
EA has put itself on the forefront with F1 2001, bringing together a variety of new features in a slick, powerful game engine that at this point seems to improve upon its predecessor in all ways. At the same time, F1 2001 seems as though it will be fully-compatible with today's typical midrange systems, with performance that easily outstrips their previous F1 products -- and almost any other racing simulation available, for that matter.
It seems that World Sports Cars is currently the most highly-anticipated simulation, and the advanced hype for that game has served to overshadow a lot of the advanced press for F1 2001, which many people are already dismissing as just a rehash of F1 Championship Season 2000. This means that F1 2001 is well-positioned to emerge as one of the biggest surprises of the year as far as racing sims are concerned, and based on what I've seen so far, this is going to be one pleasant surprise indeed.
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