Well, here I am, writing another review to the most hotly-discussed sim of 2000 (and 1999, in anticipation), maybe ever. GP3 is not what you would call an easy game to play, it falls more into "Oh my god this is so real I wish I was better at driving" category of driving sims.
Just quickly let's go through the more mundane stuff, briefly though -
Graphics: Not bad, not groundbreaking, but well done, no jerkiness in most parts, even on my slower PII 266.
Sound: Disappointing, not much changed from GP2, from cockpit the only sound is that of your own car, and you can't hear the others/grandstand/pit crew.
Multiplayer: Big disappointment, I don't know what it is, LAN games are all that is available, or the Hot Seat mode, where you swap over every so often.
Menu: Again, not groundbreaking... but simple, easy, fast - all that menus are supposed to be.
Learning curve: With its plethora of options, difficulty levels, and driving aids, it should be okay for players of all skill levels - well, almost :)
And so far you'd be wondering what on Earth this has to do with the "Rainmeister".., and also why you would ever buy this mediocre game. Well, let's get onto the gameplay, the feature that really matters - GP3 has no other driving sim has ever had - dynamic weather conditions. You'd start driving in Hockenheim, with your wing settings to the lowest to suit the long straights of the circuit, you'd be happily leading... and then, drop, drop, it'd start to rain on the circuit!
It offers rain, different grip levels according to how damp the track is on its various parts, and four different types of tires - dry, intermediate, wet, and monsoon. It's up to you to find out how much grip there is, whether you should stay out or come in for different tires - effectively making it the most realistic, and the most interesting sim ever, growing immensely on the replay value even though its initial impression may not be so great.
Also its AI is very good, and physics well, better than most of modern F1 sims out there.
The new 1.13 patch fixes up a lot of annoying bugs in the game, and the myriad of users' addons and utilities should make this game fun to play for a long, long time, surviving as long on your computer as the famous Grand Prix 2. Provided you like this sort of stuff. Oh, it's based on the 1998 season but that can be easily fixed by downloading couple of files off the internet :)
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