Friday, September 28, 2007

What it takes to drive an F1 car in F1 2002

There are two kinds of racing games. One is called the Arcade and the other one, the Simulation games. Arcade games differ from simulation games in that they are more tuned for fun racing. Simulation games are also incredible fun – only when one knows how to get the hang of it. One such game is Formula 1 Racing 2002. I’ve done about 1500 laps of that game in my PC and boy, is it fun.

You can better enjoy and do fast lap times in simulation games if you understand the physics of a racing car that you drive. By physics, I mean how the car behaves when it accelerates, brakes and turns.

In F1 2002, you can race the incredibly quick Ferraris and McLarens that raced the circuits in the 2002 season. I neither have not a hint on earth about how F1 cars are to drive for real nor am I under any illusion that the real F1 cars will feel anything like what I race in this game. However, I can tell you how to get the best out of the Formula 1 cars of this game.
Apart from the steering assistance and traction control, I switch off every other assistance that's available in the game. The cars are incredibly sharp at the turn in point. You’ve to enter a corner at EXACTLY the correct speed else you’re not going to make it. This is not the case in sports cars. You can always make corrections to the car unless you over shoot the corner by too much of a margin.
Once into the corner, you’ve to balance the car on the throttle to ease it away out of the corner. If it understeers at the apex, the throttle should be eased off, the brakes feathered and you stab at the throttle bit by bit in quick succession to get the rear end working to hopefully cure the understeer. Since the TC is on, we can nail the throttle past the apex without worries.
I've got so much to share with you but, I am struggling a bit more beyond my expectations to translate my feelings into words. So, I would like you to rest assured that this is just the start of what's going to be a great time writing (and reading, hopefully!) this article.

4 comments:

Chandrasekharan said...

interestin...

Chandrasekharan said...

by da way wat r the aspects which ought to be concentrated while playin simulation games? like as u said traction, steering etc

Srivaths said...

I guess you would enjoy games more in an Xbox 360 or PS 3. Hmmm...how is the idea Mr Ram? ;)

S R I R A M said...

Ok Srivaths, since you insist so much, I don't mind you getting me a PS3 with a steering wheel!