Being a big advocate of F1 racing, I have always wondered if there would be simulation to surpass Ubi Soft's masterpiece, F1 Racing Simulation. Not only did the sim give almost an overall complete package for all types of simracers, but also break the mold in high-performance 3D graphics and sound in the Window gaming environment.

Low and behold, Ubi Soft comes out with the sequel, Monaco Grand Prix Racing Simulation 2. Finally, arriving in the United States, I take a look at this sim and place my thoughts onto it.

Formula 1 racing, the creme de la creme of all motorsports, the arena where a driver can be worshipped as a God or joked as a jester. With legendary drivers such as Clark, Senna, Stewart, used every once of wit and talent to conquer and win the world's renowned tracks. Where money and the effortless strive to make an innovative technological advance to just to a gain a hundredth or two on the track. Dominance, consistency, and a thick bank roll are the key to success to winning a F1 championship nowadays.

With my several months of getting acquainted with Monaco Grand Prix Racing Simulation 2, I have ascertained a nice knowledge about this simulation. I know I could've put a fast review as soon as I received the product, but I felt it was unjust for the United States F1 crowd since the MGPRS2 wasn't available in the States back then.

The first key question that comes to mind was, "will MGPRS2 continue where F1RS left off?" My answer is in some ways as the sim does continue in the same traditional fashion as F1RS, but in other ways it does not. What you first notice there is no longer a F1A license in MGPRS2, but don't fret as there are various fan based sites with binaries that contain modifications that will bring MGPRS2 with up-to-date F1 offerings.

As for the eye candy department, the predecessor's print is still evident and using the same tried and trued Direct3D and GLIDE APIs. MGPRS2 is still looking beautiful as ever. Ubi Soft was the first developer to bring "wet racing" and "dynamic weather" to the table and it's evident in MGPRS2. It's a delight to follow a car in the wet and get blinded by rooster tail. Just be sure to watch your braking points! How about traveling to Hockenhiem and at one point the track is dry as a desert, yet the other parts of the track is wet? That is surely added realism. The infamous sun flare is here to show off the vibrate and lively colors. Gone are the days of miniature resolutions in MGRPRS2 as Ubi Soft has provided you with vast amounts of resolutions to your liking, from the pixelated mundane resolution back in the days of VGA to the drop dead gorgeous 1600x1200! This is one of the few simulations to date that you can't really tell the visual difference between GLIDE and D3D. My oh my has D3D and developer's motivation have improved.

Just like in F1RS, there is support for DirectSound3D and A3D. There is also force feedback implemented in the sim, though the effects are a bit weak - regardless how I sent my gains with the force feedback wheel(s) - and I feel that it's missing a few elements as you drive throughout the track.

If you haven't noticed the onslaught of nostalgic racing since late last year, MGPRS2 also has it with replica of racing in the 50's. But only providing you with one track - which I hope there will be a track add-on - you drive these bicycle-wheeled wonders through its paces. Even with their outdated technology, they are truly a blast to drive and in fact, very fun.

Also, there is a career mode in MGPRS2 which is a nice touch if you wanted to portray an upcoming driver in the world of F1 Racing.

So how are the physics and the AI? Physics that can make or break simulation. MGPRS2 gives you all the driver's help options for the arcade to the hard-core simracer. The physics have been carried over from F1RS and you still have the six-degrees of freedom. Which is nice if you happen to catch some air. They only problem I have with the physics, just like in F1RS, is the impression when driving, the physics feel as though are you are driving with the front two wheels, ala front wheel drive.

When tuning your airplane-on-wheels you are practically given every tweak that would make other games in this genre incomplete.

As you race around the track, the AI are bit of a challenge. The AI aren't bad or astounding, but aren't average. They are sort of in-between average and above. You can say that the AI in MGPRS2 surpass a lot of games in this genre, yet I still the best AI is from Microprose's Grand Prix 2.

How does it run? The system(s) used during the review were of the P2 variants raging from the Celeron 300A overclocked to 450, and a P2-450. For owners of Socket 7 systems, I used a K6-233. When speaking in terms of framerate, the P2 450 and 450A didn't even whimper at resolutions of 1024x768. When I reset the clockrate of the Celeron back to it's 300A, there was some slowdown, but not so evident that it would be drastic to your driving. On the other hand, on the 233 system, there were more slowdowns encountered, hence the slower processing power. Again this was at the mentioned resolution. Graphics cards were the Voodoo2-SLI and TNT.


BOTTOMLINE

As F1RS lacked some features, MGPRS2 filled the void. With it's lavishly, vibrate graphics and great gameplay, MGPRS2 continues to set the standard for the F1 racing genre. Let me not to forget that Ubi Soft does have an online gaming service running. So I hope to see you on there.