My Verdict [Archive] - Racerplanet Network Forums

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Y2kGoofball
05-16-2002, 03:01 PM
Well I purchased V8 Challenge on Thursday ... thought I'd give it a week for people to settle down and stock to be re ordered.

So much for people complaining about CPU speed and stuff. I am running the game on a Celeron 566 Mhz, 4 MB Intel Graphics Card, 64 Mb Ram, Creative Labs sound card and it runs fine. I dont know about the 'warm up'. Before a race it shows the cars at the end of their warm up getting into postion. For some reason mine is choppy for some cars, and less choppy for others. I dont know why - quite poissibly the graphics card because its under reccomended specs?

Anyway the game runs fine with all detail set to Normal with a 150 % track view, or High setting with a 100 % track view.

So far I'd agree with everything Acca has said.

The graphics are 150%, with the exception of some good teams:") . Dont expect DJR or Craig Lowndes 00 Motorsport in the game. The teams included are pretty much HRT, Rick Kelly's HYL, KMart Racing, Paul Morris, Brad Jones Racing (OzeMail), Briggs Motorsport and a few others.

Thats ok though ... because my mind is made up and I'm going to do some textures of missing teams to replace some of our least fav V8 Supercars.

Break lockups ... Well it took me a while to get used to it on my Thrustmaster wheel. You are supposed to tip the break to start breaking, depending on how far you puch it in determines the brak lockup. This is a quite good resemblance to a V8 Supercar.

I think ppl have had problems using the keyboard, which I could understand. You really need a wheel for this game. I havent tried the keyboard yet but I could imagine becuse it doesnt register how hard your puching the key it reads it as being pushed fully - resulting in a break lockup

Black Flags is a major problem ... simply tip someones car and you have a drive through penalty. Another pain is the pits for the penalty ... you can have 4 worn tires, stuffed gearbox and just about blown engine, drive through the pits for your penalty, and come out with all work done on your car.

Pits ... good try. Drive through at 60 K's (well between 57 to 59 K's because it resembles a real V8 going through - not at exactly 60). Get half way and the screen goes black. Next thing your driving out of the pits. And all pit times seem to be the same. At least Toca World Touring Cars on the PS had varying pit times depending on what had to be done - and you could select them.

The drivers seem sometimes to be a bit dumb - like Bright who spun out of 8th place for no reason, or Skaife who always seems to be third - they seem a bit better set ont he Hard setting.

Overall I like the game and wouldnt get rid of it at all. The wait was worth it if you forget all th epicky parts of the game.

I rate it 9 / 10 - missing 1 for the little problems. You would DEFINATELY need a steering wheel, good speakers, and a lot of patience.

Y2k

AccadaccA
05-19-2002, 05:45 PM
Well written mate -^
I just had 3 power blackouts within two minutes. The first saw the loss of my mile long reply to this as it was in "Preview Reply". Grrr. Had my lady not phoned and it would have been posted.
Anyway I'll try to repeat that lost post.

Due to my recent upgrade my steering wheel of 6 years was recently unbolted from my puter desk. I can actually see the whole keyboard ... wow the function keys exceed well passed F4. :look: There's another eight of 'em all of a sudden. :rolleyes: heh
The wheel just wasn't recognised by Windows any more with this recent motherboard & CPU upgrade. :(
So I have been forced to play V8Challenge the with a keyboard and although I am far from being used to driving a keyboard (perhaps not the best to judge) the game was cerntainly not made for it. I had to constantly use the left/right arrows just to steer straight. Lining up any decent straight of Bathurst still meant alternating left/right a dozen or so times. The bump on top of mountain straight will throw you if steering at the same time so if using the keyboard in V8 Challenge be sure to line yourself up prior to it.
I will also add that it is not impossible to race this game using a keyboard. I was playing it (on & off) for a few days steering with arrow keys.

The next step up in controllers was my Saitek SP550 joystick... or sould I say "joyless-stick" as I am a newbie to controlling joysticks. This is the third I have bought over the years but it too will have a place just collecting dust with the other two.
Maybe it's the brand or perhaps just because I am unfamiliar with joyless-sticks but I had to do the same left/right consistancy along all of the straights. I decided after a day or two of trying that I would put the game aside until I got another steering device.

A few days later Santa came in the form of Dave (D Man) with his old wheel (& pedals combo) the Act Labs RS. :hat:-^ Top bloke award 2002 without doubt.
Well it was a bugger to get working. It took us many hours before Windows 98 would recognise that a game device was indeed connected however it wouldn't register as an Act Labs RS (even with the latest drivers) so I got it going as a Thrustmaster T2 in the control panel. The game picked that up as a Sidewinder. :rolleyes:
Anyway the game doubled in value with more a realistic controller device but it just wasn't the same as my ol' Trusty Thrusty (Thrustmaster Formula T2) which I used to for over 6 years.

The newer wheel has buttons and paddles where as my ol' faithful has a gear stick that I don't have to follow around the wheel to find. Taking my eyes of the screen through corners to gear change is unwise. I ended up having to race Bathurst in an Auto. YUK!!!
Maybe it was the presence of a newer wheel in the house I don't know but when I tried my ol' Trusty Thrusty again it was immediately recognised by Windows and it worked in the game. Again thanks to Dave (later that night) for suggesting that I try it as his Act Labs gave me so much trouble at first but I had eventually beaten it perhaps my wheel will give in too.
Well I'm happy to announce that my ol' Trusty Thrusty is proudly bolted onto the desk (blocking half of my keyboard) again. All I did was plug it in at the same Control Panel settings as the Act Labs wheel (remember it was calibrated as a Thrustmaster T2 anyway) and it showed up as "OK".
I did have to recalibrate it as the ol' girl is worn but I can now push out better lap times and I feel so much more comfortable doing so on a controller I am use to.

I put a few hours into V8Challenge lastnight and did a few under the 2:10 bracket with the better of two 2:06's being a 2:06:50 :D

You won't get even close to these times with the game straight out of the box. The car setup is a vital issue even more so than the controller you use.
Each track will require different setups (naturally) and although on first impressions we thought that all cars were the same as far as handling and performance go but maybe not. It could just be a coincidence but both dave and I have found diffent cars gave us different times. Like I said, it could be a coincidence.

So as not to wreck any decent (or favourite) team colours I painted the Big Kev Commodore which then gave me the best lap times. heh Maybe it was just my flames paintjob :D

Y2kGoofball
05-20-2002, 10:55 PM
Acca ...

your upgrade ... do you have nay of the ex parts left floating around?

Im looking at doin an upgrade on our old 200 Mhz system to anything i can so i am looking at getting some cheap parts if possible

BTW - Well written

Y2k

AccadaccA
05-21-2002, 08:54 AM
Y2k : Sorry mate I built my son a puter with my half decent, left-over parts. Mainly my ol' 300 CPU, mobo, video card and case. The rest was basically his old system (686 120+) and the power supply which came with this new case.

Y2kGoofball
05-22-2002, 02:59 PM
Thats ok ... thats pretty much what I'm starting to do, only the parts arent decent!

I'm planning on doing a computer rebuild now with new parts &(

Y2k