Amazon.com: Grand Prix 4: PC: Video Games

24 Reviews

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

Average Customer Review

3.5 out of 5 stars (24 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, December 1, 2002

By	Michael (Park Ridge, IL USA) - See all my reviews

I have been playing the GP series since GP2. They just keep getting better. GP4 didn't disappoint me. I have had no problems installing or running the game. For those who have, a patch and a FAQ are now available ...

The most noticeable improvement of GP4 over GP3 is that the tracks are now synthesized from GPS data. The bumpiness is more evident and the elevation changes very apparent. Use of a Force Feedback wheel adds a great deal to the experience. The focus of the Force Feedback in GP4 is on providing feedback on what the car is doing. For example you won't feel the wheel vibrate over rumble strips, but you will feel the back end of the car step out if you step on the gas too hard. It's quite amazing. Be sure to switch the "Centering Force" of the FF wheel off, or you won't feel this kind of effect.

GP4 is for people who want a racing simulation more than for gamers looking for a quick thrill. GP4 attempts to provide the skill challenge of driving an F1 car. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your heart condition) nothing can simulate the phyisical stresses of driving one. If you want to try driving an F1 car for little money, this is the one.

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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great potential, but has technical difficulties, March 21, 2003

By	Markus Egger "www.MarkusEgger.com/blog" (Spring, TX United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I got this game a while back after having eagerly awaited it for quite some time. Unfortunately, I couldn't really start playing it right away, because the computer I had at the time seemed to have trouble running it (or so I thought). I now got myself a new computer (P4, 1GB ram, Radeon 9700, 3GHz,...), but things didn't get much better.

Both systems had trouble with the graphics. With the Radeon 9700 for instance, the pit lane (the actual road) seems to hover 2 feet above ground, making the car look as if it was a submarine in surface mode. About 1 inch of the tire (the top) sticks out of the tarmac. So does the cockpit. I am always afraid that I might go over a bump, and the road might spill in, making the car sink entirely.

Seriously: These types of graphic problems aren't much fun. There seems to be some great potential. The pit crew seems to be animated great for instance, except they are in tar up to their hips. The cars themselves look great. The scenery and the road on the other hand appears to look better in F1 2002 (and I didn't like it much even there...).

For some reason, I also never get the impression that I am driving very fast. I can do lap times comparable to the ones I drive in F1 2002, but it still seems much slower. (And no, that's not because of the submerged mode... on the main course, I am above ground... I guess it works like water skis: Once you are fast enough, you surface...).

I also had difficulties on both systems to set up my steering wheel. Things just never seem right. There is not a lot of "direct feel" for the road here. In fact, the steering input seems to be translated in some weird fashion depending on the speed the car is driving at. While I could see why this is done, it appears to be done in a backward fashion. Going out of the pits, I can just barely turn out of the garage without hitting the far wall. On the road, it is very hard to "push" through turns, because the car always seems to have enormous understeer (no matter how it is set up... unless I am plain too stupid). Well, actually, I am not sure if it really is understeer, because although one can see the front tyres turn, they do not seem to turn quite far enough. But that might just be a graphics problem. Things get really weird in reverse: I can turn the wheel fully to one side, and see the tyres at an angle, but the car goes straight back! Hu?

However, all of this might just be configuration related. I see that other people love the game, and if I could make it through a lap without that damn understeer, I think I might like it too. Perhaps my other computer was too old, and my current one is too new (DirectX 9 and all...). Try it out for yourself, but make sure you can return it if you have to...

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15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars F1 2002 EA Sports, January 9, 2003

By	J. Oglesbee - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

F1 2002 is probably the best and most realistic racing simulator available. If you can master it, you will be rewarded with an experience as close to the real racing experience as you can get. This is especially true if you can play in front of a large high quality wide screen HDTV and a good sound system. It will leave you worn out, just as the real experience does. After racing professionally for over 30 years, I find this game terrific. The learning curve is very high and the options are daunting. If you start slowly and progress systematically you can do it! The manual is poor in explaining what all the possible changes actually do or even how to do them. Setting up instructions for the controller, wheel- keyboard or pad, is especially lacking in detail. A good wheel is certainly necessary for any real effort. Would you try to drive your car with a left/right arrow key? At racing speeds? The two Logitech Momo wheel sets are excellent and most apprpriate for this game. The cheaper one is, argueably, even the best, although properly mounting the things may require a hammer and nails!