Cart Precision Racing published by Microsoft/developed by Terminal Reality
Reviewed by Ken Baugh
My Test System used for this review is a Dell PII-300 with an STB Velocity 128 Riva AGP, SB AWE 64 sound card, 64 Meg SDRAM, 17-inch monitor and Thrustmaster T2 wheel/pedal combo.
I REALLY was looking forword to Cart Precision Racing. Racing sims are my #1 favorite type of game and as much as I love Nascar 2, ICR2, and GP2, it is time for something new. I thought this game was going to be it. It isn't, at least not yet, although with a good (and I mean good) AI patch this game could be the "game of the year". Well, it would give Longbow 2 a run for its money anyway! Like Enemy Nations and ABC"s "Road To Indy" it doesn't even come close to its full potential due to poor AI. More on that later.
Let's look at the features that the game has to offer; there are many! The garage/ setup options are great. There are too many to mention so let's just say it leaves ICR2 and GP2 in the dust, as far as the tweeking you can do to your car. You could spend dozens of hours on each setup alone. Here is a look at just a few of the car setup options.CPR Garage Jpg
The replay is here but it has no sound. It does allow you to see the replays in the same views as you can use while driving a race. The game and replay views are the typical ones; cockpit, full screen, behind the car, in front of the car...views, nothing new here. It also has the typical driving aids which are useful for beginners. There are several realism options such as pace lap (you watch while the CPU controls your car), head panning, pit stops (watching your pit crew run around is very cool), tire wear, crash damage, max field size, race length, car performance, and temp effects. Like I said, lots of options.
The graphics aren't bad although they are not as detailed as I would like. They aren't 3dfx glide quality but for D3D they are decent, although the framerate is a typical D3d slideshow at full detail. At least Terminal Reality included lots of detail settings so that the game should be playable on everything from a P133 (witn min detail, no textures) on up. Here are the benchmarks I was getting. I took them both with the STB 128 Velocity Riva and Canopus Pure 3d and there was no differnce at all. The 3dfx card was a bit more stable but the speed weas the same with both.
D3D-Full field of cars, dash on, steering wheel off, sky off, cars only in mirrors, good (faster) detail=28fps average. Low=21. High=33. By turning the dash off and running full screen the framerate increases to an average of 33fps.
D3D-Everything at max detail, everything on=15 fps average. Low=10. High=20.
No-3d-acceleration-Best detail-Everything maxed out-13 fps average
No 3d-acceleration-good detail, textures off=31 fps.
These are not good framerates considering we are testing this game on a PII-300 that typcially gets 3d framerates of 50-60 fps in max detail in nearly every other game!
The bottom line is that the graphics look nice but D3d once again rears its ugly head. Can you say 3dfx patch?
There is music but what's the point in a racing sim? Turning it off increases your frame rate a bit, which is what counts anyway! Besides, the racing sounds here are very well done. The turbocharger kicks in when changing gears and the engine sounds very beastly! The tires screeching...are all quite good. One of the games finer points.
O.K. this is supposed to be a sim, right? There are no yellow flags, your car is on rails during the pace laps and when entering/exiting the pits, and it's easy to win almost every race with no practice; sounds pretty arcadish! Actually it is a sim, there were just some poor game design choices made, along with some very weak AI. The damage model needs some work. You can hit a wall at 200mph and sometimes you aren't damaged at all and other times you only lose a wing or a wheel. The AI is not as bad as in "Road To Indy" where the cars are oblivious to you and mow you down if you are in their path. No, the CPR AI simply slows on the straights from 200 to 100mph for no apparent reason, causing many rear end collisions. On the oval tracks, this is especially bad. In any given race there will be dozens of wrecks, lap after lap. Racing with the damage enabled is nearly impossible with these idiot drivers. NASCAR 2, ICR2 and GP2 AI looked brilliant compared to this. The AI is also very passive. You can drive around some of the road courses at 40 mph and the other drivers all bunch up behind and never pass, like they are afraid or something!
Here I am holding up the entire field. They have room to pass but they don't!
This game has a wonderful interface. The screens are laid out well and in a very logical and easy-to-use manner. I hated the control at first as it seemed overly sensitive. With a little tweaking and advice from the APEX website, I was able to get this in sync. I have found that for my T2 wheel/pedal setup, the game works best with the speed sensitive steering and non-linear set almost to max. Others have reported just the opposite though. Guess it depends on your setup. Also if you disable poll interrupts in the joystick config you will eliminate possible pausing problems.
The paper documentation is 52 pages thin and not very useful. The online documentation is much better and Bobby Rahal gives some useful though generic tips with his racing school. Better paper manual please!
To sum it up, this is a very frustrating game if you are playing against the CPU drivers-especially on the oval tracks, where its a demolition derby and with damage enabled you better pray for your life! I'm tired of companies releasing games that obviously aren't finsihed. These AI problems surely showed up in beta testing, yet here we are waiting for a patch.
Tell us what you think of this review (or write your own ) at thegamers@gamepad.org
Here are some screenshots. All are in D3d with STB Riva 128 AGP card.
CPR 2 Jpg
CPR 3 Jpg
CPR 4 Jpg
CPR 5 Jpg
CPR 6 Jpg
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