Well, I made a clean install and patched it. My first impressions after 2 hours on free practice and bits of race are ...well err.. positive. I had none of the problems that I experienced when I installed the game for the first time a week ago. The graphics were really good and po was reasonable (120 on the grid and 80 or so in the race). The "feeling" of speed while driving (combination graphics, sound and ff) is now close to f12002..ie. very good.
My wheel works ok. In the pit lane the wheel behave s a little weirdly.. off centre to the left (I have pulls to left switched off). This is particarily noticeable in Monaco. Otherwise the wheel works noticeably better than before. Gear change down is still sometimes slow (I'm comparing to F12002, where it's really fast-as it should be). Not as slow as before (sometimes I had to hit the paddle 3 times before it reacted and sometinmes I changed down more than I intended). FF is now much much better. It is strong (even at 50%),the wheel is nicely stiff. The feedback on the bumps, kerbs etc is more noticeable and there is more feedback (I think) from the car physics. Still not close to F12002 though.
On a general note I have to say that the graphics ..including the car graphics have begun to impress me. Replays are so beautiful and look so real. The impression of speed is increfibly good. This is one area where F12002 loses. The graphics engine gets overloaded in replays and fps drops (this was even worse in f12001). In races this is really awful (when most of the grid is visible) even with my specs. GP4 is superb in this respect.
The AI seems to have improved and the lovely accurate and detailed tracks are a delight to the eye. as you can see I am almost converted. Must get a solution for the controller (esoeciually gear change) though.
Larry
AMD 3000+,Epox EP-8RDA,Ram 1536mb 333 DDr, Rad 9800 pro omega 2.4.96, dx9b, Audigy, MOMO FF,winxp