F1 2000 has now reached patch stage 1.09 but, in its case, patches are not just to improve performance and bugs, but also to update how the cars and the tracks look.
Jean Alesi's F1 career started in the USA, on the now extinct Tyrrel team. He did great, ending up on 2nd place (!), after a hard fight for the 1st spot, against Ayrton Senna! I guess the Tyrrel was as weak as the Prosts are these days...
Indianapolis @ USA is not part of the F1 championship, but it is a circuit where you can TEST on F1 2000. The same for Malaysia.
These small details and the fact that the game does deliver on high spec machines, asked for a re-evaluation.
F1 2000 is one of those games COMPLETELY dependent on hardware. Your opinion of it completely depends on what machine you run it.
Well, weeks ago, prior to my dual P3 PC (check the 130700 update) I tried it and I didn't like it... It was slow and it didn't look good, on a P3@600, with a GeForce 256 DDR. I felt the need to run it at 640 x 480, to cut on the cars' detail, on the viewable distance and on many other options, in order to achieve a satisfying frame rate - I simply can't play a game that renders less than 25 fps...
Things have changed. On my new machine, this game is just great! While it is still miles away from GP Legends, it scores #2 on my ranking for Formula 1 games! Why such a dramatic opinion shift?
Having tested F1 2K on two very different PCs, it is easy to spot the most obvious benefits of my current hardware spec: the dual P3 @ 733 / 133 boost the software A LOT and allow you to stretch ALL THE DETAILS to the max (except for rear-view mirrors, that I still don't use), and the 3DFX Voodoo 5 5500 AGP enhances the game's graphical quality, even when running with same exact options I used prior to the evolution!
The dual Pentiums top advantage is allowing ALL the 22 cars to be visible at the same time, if needed. From what I can understand, doing the maths for the 22 vehicles was just too much for the P3@600 - notice that the software renders just 5 cars by default! Now, I can opt for the whole bunch!
As for the 3DFX Voodoo 5, the aforementioned quality gain is most present on the cars' wheels. Instead of blocky polygons, no tire cuts, and horrible smoke effects, now you get very realistic Bridgestone rubber and "true smoke" - not GeForce's blocky white clouds!
These observations are from the in-car-view - I don't play other ways - but of course they remain, no matter how you enjoy Electronic Arts' latest FIA license.
Again, my new hardware was quite a revolution for F1 2000! Unfortunately, Hypersnap DX 3.61 can't help me taking snapshots of the game, so I can't show you how better it looks. Does anyone know how to grab F1 2K screens?
Austria - A1 Ring - great circuit! At least it has the ups and downs that tend to disappear out of the calendar... This region of Europe is fertile on "it climbs, then it falls hard" circuits.
Hakkinen is back to the championship. I am sorry I can't show you pictures of his car on F1 2K, but the damn game doesn't allow to take action pictures.
Nick Heidfeld and Jean Alesi are Prost's drivers. Prost is the most intelligent manager you'll ever find, but his two mates were the dumbest, last weekend, at Austria... they crashed against each other! Poor Alain Prost...