Grand Prix4

The good old FIA has been fairly indiscriminate with games publishers in the past, doling out licenses to all and sundry. As a result there is no shortage of officially endorsed F1 racing titles across all platforms. Those in the know will tell you that Geoff Crammond's games are the ones to beat though. Grand Prix 3, excellent game though it is, did receive some stick for not pushing the format of the extremely long in the tooth Grand Prix 2 as far as it perhaps should have done. The graphics were jazzed up, but the whole front end, all the options and the general feel remained very much GP2. Not that this was all bad, since GP2 still drives at least as well as any other driving game on the market despite being six years old.

For Grand Prix 4, the menu system has been completely redesigned to give it a more contemporary look while retaining the basic structure of old. Experienced players will therefore be able to find their way around right away while new players are never more than a couple of clicks from getting out onto the track. The in-game graphics engine has also been completely rewritten, with hardware-only features like T&L, full screen anti-aliasing, environment mapped cars and environment sourced reflections in wet conditions. You'll even notice heat haze from the engines. Of more interest to hardcore Grand Prix fans is the news that for the first time in a Crammond game the teams all have their own individual car shapes - GP2 and GP3 only supported a single, generic shape. This could be altered using third party editors but only one shape could be used at any time. Speaking of which, we're assured the code will once again be easy to get into and edit which is good for the online communities.

The background buildings and scenery have more depth than before too and we are even treated to animated crowds rather than the non-descript patchwork used to populate the grandstands in previous versions. The data for the game is based on the 2001 season, and all 17 tracks raced on have been recreated using Global Position System for co-ordinates, while video footage and photographs provide accurate visuals. Also impressive are the new fully motion-captured animated pit crews - no longer is the car serviced by a static array of cardboard cutouts. Each member of the pit team is fully modelled in 3D and smoothly animated as they carry out their allotted tasks.

Standard game modes include Quick Race (single race), Non-Championship (a full race weekend) and Full Championship Season, while a helpful new gameplay feature is the Quicklaps option, an arcade mode that gives you a rolling start and discards the outlap, allowing you to hit the grid at speed. The idea of this is for up to 22 players to compete in turns to see who can get the fastest lap. However it's also handy when setting up the car. Not having to do an outlap every time you want to test an adjustment against competition will save you an awful lot of time if you're into tinkering with the set-up. Car modification options are, as always, extensive to say the least. Once again there are three levels of set-up depending on how deep you want to get. The game also promises a selection of driving aids that include auto-braking, throttle assistance, steering help and an indestructible mode. Handy.

A good deal of the improvements in this version relate to ambience. The new graphics, car shapes, crowd etc have been mentioned already, but the sound has also been considerably beefed up. Radio chatter from the pits will inform you of important events in the race. Also crowd noise is included, so prepare for the roar as you swing into the final straight with packed grand stands on either side! As if that wasn't enough of an ear-bashing you'll even be able to hear all 22 cars as they rev up on the grid waiting for the away.

GP4 is very much an evolution of GP3 in the same way that that game was very much an enhanced GP2, and at the moment there is still no career mode, or online options other than modem to modem. A LAN connection for up to eight players, a serial link between two PCs, plus a split screen two-player mode completes the otherwise comprehensive multiplayer options.

Geoff Crammond's Grand Prix 4 isn't due for release until June, which still gives the team plenty of time to refine it, though from what we saw at Infogrames' recent demo it looked impressive enough to keep the fans happy already.



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=!!!!Michael S. and his team Ferrari rulz!!!=
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