SimHQ.com - Motorsports Zone - Review: GTR: FIA GT Racing

The AI has been criticized but I must admit to not finding it to be that bad. I set the AI to race "clean", instead of the other available options; "aggressive" and "plain mental". When the AI are set to race cleanly they will go to great lengths to avoid hitting you unless you do something completely unpredictable. Another little trick you can employ is to let the AI have the line if they are clearly faster than you. This is even more important if you are still learning the track and the braking zones. These two precautions help a lot in ways of keeping the AI off your back. If they do hit you, try to take a look at the situation from the replay perspective and see if you didn't cut off the AI driver at the wrong time. Many times I've been "hit" by AI in sims like GPL and NASCAR and when reviewing the incident I discovered to my embarrassment that I was at fault, usually "shutting the door" too late on the AI. The only exclusion to this rule is Mr. Surtees in GPL. He will always have his way!

The AI do have a tendency to come to a complete stop if they see their line blocked though. They don't look for or use alternate ways of passing an obstacle like a stationary or near-stationary car.

Starting a 24 hour race at Spa, I just drove the start myself and immediately let the AI driver take control. One of the many innovative new features in GTR is that by pressing the "i" - key, your artificial co-driver can take over the driving duties. Then I went to watch a television feature about The Doors, and came back 45 minutes later only to find that the weather had changed from the dry and fair conditions that were present at the start to a typical downpour in the Ardennes. My AI co-driver had retired to the pits, not because of the change in weather, but because I had started the race with very little fuel in the tank! So you have to keep an eye out and be ready to intervene.

Replays

A point that has been in dire need of some careful attention in precious ISI based games like the Formula 1 series by EA has been addressed by SimBin and the replays in GTR are a pleasure to watch. The masters of replay in terms of quality and ease of use are still Papy, but in GTR you can now enjoy watching your replays, change cameras and fast forward / rewind. The only small things that annoy me a bit is that, apparently it is impossible to get rid of the huge GTR logo in the upper left hand corner of your screen when you select "full screen" replay mode, and it is not possible to sit in the cockpit when viewing the AI. Furthermore you can't sit in the cockpit watching yourself, or other drivers from the in-car view.

GTR lets you view the proceedings on track while you're sitting in the pits. You can view all other cars from trackside TV-style cams participating in the event. A very nice thing to have, and it helps improve immersion.

Tracks

The tracks in GTR are very realistic and look very very good. They have been modeled with the aid of GPS data, satellite data, photographs taken by SimBin, as well as telemetry data from real FIA GT race cars.

All tracks used in the FIA GTR 2003 season are present and modeled to the same degree of meticulous attention for detail and accuracy. The tracks included are: Monaco, Estoril, Magny Cours, Anderstorp, Barcelona, Oschersleben, Pergusa, Spa, Brno and Donington.

The mantra that is often quoted by any developer is that the use of GPS data is a guarantee for realism of the highest order.

To be perfectly honest with you I'm skeptical about just relying on the data and then jumping to the conclusion that if the data is right, the result must be right.

After all, the commercially available version of GPS is still inaccurate to some 4 feet — if I recall correctly. To assess differences in topographical levels, uphill and downhill sections as well as bumps and camber in the track you still need good topographic and photographic information to back up the GPS data.

The camber in the tracks seem particularly well done in GTR. They feel right and the only way of telling how realistic they are would be to visit each track in person. I originally thought that especially Eau Rouge looked a bit off in GTR, especially the radii of the sweeping turns left-right-left seemed to be to less constant than other versions of Spa I have seen, including studying the real track from television broadcasts. So I decided to conduct a highly unscientific experiment.

Recently I got hold of a copy of GP4 which also has tracks designed with the help of GPS data.

In GP4 Spa-Francorchamps felt a bit on the short side; turns coming up with frightening speed and the lap is over before you can say "Francorchamps". The Eau Rouge section did look a bit closer to my idea of what it should look like though.

The same track has been converted from GP4 to netKar, and in the Formula Renault and F3000 cars in netKar, the length of the track feels more "right".

In GTR, the track length feels very large.

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