Grand Prix Legends

The Good
The setting itself already makes for a great racing game. Like the company itself states, it was a time when driving skills really made the difference, not the machine. It's challenging, hyper-realistic, and also a very enjoyable. The graphics are a beauty (3Dfx, that is) and the sound is awsome. High production values in this one.

The Bad
The graphics require an incredible computer to run properly, and without one you'll be stuck with blocky graphics or slide-show races. Also, the hyper-realism would scare away the casual or novice player (this game is hard), which is a shame because it could have attracted many nostalgic non-gamers. And don't even think about trying it without a good steering wheel, because no ordinary joystick or keyboard can make the cut in this one.

The Bottom Line
An incredible racing game, but only recommended to the hardcore players.

The Good
The first (and to date only) game to take on historical racing, this game creates it's own niche in simulations. With an exquisite physics model that has yet to be surpassed, this game offers the hard-core sim enthusiast the purist racing enviornment seen to date on the PC. Later patches for the game have added D3D support for later-generation cards, bus-speed patches to allow for processors over 1GHz, and force-feedback support. The force-feedback is particularly lovely, providing a 'springy' feel in corners, and doing much more than the usual 'shake over the kerbs'. And of course, the ability to race at the old Spa and Nurmbering!

The Bad
The INCREDIBLY steep learning curve will daunt all but the most enthusiastic. Without a wheel (or at least a stick) and pedals this game is all but unplayable. Graphics as provided are mediocre, even in 3D mode. A wide fan community exists to supplant this, but then the game slows dramatically. The AI cannot be adjusted, meaning you're always racing against the best of the best. Sounds are unspectacular at best (can be patched).

The Bottom Line
If you are interested in pure racing, have a wheel and pedals, and a tremendous amount of free time, you can't go wrong investing the money and disc space to this game. If you are a casual,?weekend racer, however, you may want to leave it on the shelf, unless you REALLY like spinning out often and being passed a lot.

The Good
I'm a car nerd. I love driving full stop. I've always had an admiration for the older F1 cars and this game stands alone in that it doesn't model current F1. The first time I gingerly pulled out of the pits at Monza in a Lotus 49, I knew I had discovered Nirvana. It just felt right - a very hard thing to describe and an even harder thing to find in a driving sim.

The Bad
It can be a little disconcerting installing GPL and all its associated patches for those not well versed in such chores. You could liken it to installing a fresh, out of the box Half Life - theres a lot of patches and a lot of mods to harvest from the internet.

Its also a pretty difficult sim to get to grips with (no pun intended) In choosing 1967, its almost as if the developers looked through the history of F1 and said "Right, which era had the most difficult to drive cars?" :)

A steering wheel and pedals are required to experience it to the full, although this is only a drawback if you've not already got one ;)

The Bottom Line
Grand Prix Legends is an accurate simulation of the 1967 F1 season. 1967 was a special year for Grand Prix racing, for a number of reasons. It was the first year of the full return of 3000cc engines (up from 1500cc) It was the last year before downforce became standard - these 400bhp monsters ran no wings! It was also the last year that cars were run in the colours of the country or team they represented.

The names of the drivers who participated in this classic season reads like a whos who of 1960s motorsport: Jim Clark, Graham Hill, Dan Gurney, John Surtees, Jackie Stewart, Lorenzo Bandini to name but a few - 1967 really was a time of Grand Prix Legends.

The race circuits of 1967 were very different from the chichane-littered circuits of today. No ample runoffs and gravel traps in sight here, mistakes can be very costly.

No mind-numbingly boring sterilised racing circuits - lots of fast corners, lots of overtaking possibilities. Grand Prix Legends even models the awesome Nurburgring. The 'Ring is a 14.5 mile, 170 corner mother of all laps! Spa is another featured circuit, with a frightening 150mph+ average lap speed.

The teams were varied, and most of the main contenders are represented in Grand Prix Legends, comprising: Lotus, Cooper, Eagle, Ferrari, Brabham, Cooper, Honda and Brm. Each car having its own distinct characterisics and power, the difference in "feel" from chassis to chassis is huge. These cars have to driven on the very edge of grip to go fast - you steer with the throttle not the steering wheel 90% of the time.

Grand Prix Legends was developed by Papyrus and released in late 1998. It immediately raised the bar for racing simulations several notches, so much so that its still considered the best by many, even 5 years down the line. You could say its the Half Life of racing sims.

A big part of the reason for this longevity is the massive contribution of the editing community which has evolved on the internet over the years. Every single piece of the original graphics has now been updated to take advantage of faster systems, the latest cars are almost photo realistic.

The release of track-editing software a couple of years back means there are now over 300 additional tracks available freely on the internet. Ever wondered what a 60s F1 car would be like at the Le Mans track? Wonder no more! Snetterton, Goodwood? They're out there too. In fact theres not much that isn't either already out there or work in progress, with well over 300 tracks available.

Another reason GPL has stood the test of time is the quality and stability of the online racing. Its quite possible to race up to 19 other drivers from all around the world on a 56k analogue connection. Due to the global nature of the internet its always easy to find someone to race. Be warned though. Online racers expect a certain level of competence and courtesy. Its not wise to jump in and attempt online racing if you can't string more than half a lap together without spinning. Once a level of consistency is acheived offline, online racing can commence.

GPL and system requirements: GPL can run quite nicely on a wide variety of systems, providing addon graphics are kept to a realistic level for the system. I started running GPL in mid 2000 on a system comprising of a AMD K6-2 450 and a Voodoo 2 12mb with 64 mb of ram. It ran acceptably at its max 800x600 resolution and was improved further by the addition of a Voodoo 3 and more memory. This gives an insight into the entry level sytem for GPL. More power is nice, but providing you run sensible detail levels and track/car graphics the above system will do the job just fine. I'm sure many have and still do manage with far less. Of course, the very latest graphical updates out there will push even the latest graphics hardware out there. If you've got a fairly powerful modern system your visual immersion will be that much greater. 1ghz and a 64mb Geforce 3 upwards means you're having fun - 2ghz and a Geforce 4 and you're flying! I currently run it on an Athlon XP2700+ and Geforce 4 Ti4200 - this allows me to run at 1280x1024 with all the latest texture-heavy updates. It looks stunning I can tell you, wish i could post some screenshots

It costs a fiver now - what have you got to lose? Oh yeah. 50 quid on a steering wheel/pedals :)