Really have to give +100 to Biggles who has put this game in its rightful context from the very start of this thread (and continues to do so after 500+ replies!)
I bought Ferrari Challenge about 3 weeks ago and was initially very impressed - the feel and force feedback were rough, raw and surprisingly "realistic". The loss of feel due to understeer is a star feature, the FFB seems to be working constantly and the gritty feel of it translates extremely well. Diamond in the rough?
You bet!
One of the biggest issues that I've had about Gran Turismo is that PD polish their final product too much, their search for perfection ends up with a perfect car - perfect sound, perfect looks, perfect handling. But anyone who's raced any sort of car in real life will attest to nothing being quite so surreal. PD need to learn how to introduce an element of octane into their product, they need to envelop themselves in some serious down and dirty race environments where the stink of burning rubber hurts their nostrils, the smell of unburnt fuel stings their eyes and the crackle of open exhausts make their eardrums bleed.
The circuits on FC (I have not driven them all) are surprisingly good - perhaps not as accurate as a PD model, but you'd have to be paying ludicrously close attention or know the track in great detail to notice the difference. Some of the backdrops are gorgeous, the detail is rather impressive and for a developer like System 7 (with no backing from MS or Sony) to pull this game out of the bag.... it's well worth a looksee.
Perhaps it's just my inexperience with the game, but I'm finding offline (arcade) to be very difficult. Running a 5 lap race around Monza, starting from last and finishing 4th constantly is tiring, hehe. But that's just my own ineptitude I guess. Still though, you'd expect beginner level (ha!) to be a bit easier!
Ferrari's do become tiring. But they are great fun. I've noticed that the 348 has a terrible gearbox that redlines during every shift and takes about a week to engage in gear, hehe. I wonder if this is true of all 348's that are driven flat out?
BTW, I won't venture online until I've conquored offline properly and I'm confident enough of being able to race side-by-side without ruining another persons racing experience!
Thanks for the +s Aero!
I pretty much agree with all your comments. I wouldn't say that the tracks in FC are particularly "accurate", however. That kind of attention to detail really is PD's forte. The arcade look to the graphics & the rather fanciful treatment of the tracks is the thing that puts many people off FC IMO, & leads them to assume that the physics must be similarly arcadey.
With regard to the Single Player in FC: I would definitely stay away from Arcade mode. Arcade puts you in 16th position & then gives you 5 Minutes (not 5 laps) to get to the front (shades of GT
). This is a recipe for bad racing IMO, since in order to make that even remotely possible it requires the AI to drive like a bunch of morons. Forcing the player to work his way through 4 races in Easy & Intermediate level just to get on to the harder levels is then adding insult to injury. I suspect a lot of people who have complained about the AI in FC may have been stuck in Arcade mode.
I strongly suggest Challenge mode when you are starting out. This puts you in a 430 Challenge car, not by any means my favourite car in FC, however it allows you (in the Options menu) to set a longer time for the races, anything from 5 to 45 (!) mins for each race, allows you to choose the level of AI difficulty, gives you a qualifying session to work your way up the grid before the actual race starts, & allows you to start the second race from the finishing position of the first race. This means you are not constantly having to fight your way up from the back of the pack in a very limited amount of time, gives you more time in each race to learn the tracks, & means you are not constantly racing against slow & moronic AI drivers.
Also, bear in mind that it is possible to unlock most of the other cars just by successfully completing the 3 Challenge series.
The Trophy mode gives you 10 min races, but also allows you to work your way up the grid in each successive race in the series. Quick Race allows you to set the length of the race, the number of opponents, & the level of the AI.
Personally, I set the AI on Expert from the start, gave myself longer races to familiarize myself with the tracks, & by the end of the 3 Challenge series had unlocked most of the cars.
There are a lot of quirky features about the various cars, which you will discover as you unlock them. How true to RL they actually are, I'm not sure, but many of the cars are really interesting to drive & there is a surprising amount of variety there, in spite of the fact that they are all Ferraris.