[Pferdestärke]

The wait Gets Harder!
Here is a friends review on the BMW 1 Series GT4 Demo game.

OK! I got the BMW Series 1 Virtual Drive which is the very latest public avaliable code of GT4 so far. As I can see, it is a code shown on E3 and it is 100 miles away from Prologue. First thing you notice is graphic (will try to post screen shots as soon as I can).

After the intro movie (nice one, and car looks great in motion), the game-driven replay with S1 on Nurb begins. I could only say "They didn't manage to do this, no way". The graphic looks outstanding. High-res everywhere, amount of details around the track is fabulous, and car itself looks great. The resolution of car is the same as resolution of surroundings and sky and lightning are great. Replay looks astonishing.

There are just few options - screen (normal or wide), no music, no replay, nothing else. After the track selection - Nurb, NYC and Costa di Amalfi (Capri) - you find yourself in seat of gasoline driven S1 on start of Nurb. And the hell breaks loose there.

I can't realy imagine how will it look like to drive around the Nurb with 500+ HP cars. The track is exact copy of the Nurb (we knew that from before), but you find yourself realy amazed with the narrowness of the track. Because of that, you have the feeling that S1 eats road, and you even do not pass 200 km/h mark nowhere except on the main straight (final section) - I managed to cope 208 km/h. It takes around 9:20 (with some nice fence kissing) for S1 to go around the Green Hell. And all the writings on the road are there, all the mountains are there, trees, telephone wires, more then 10 different looks of asphalt, more then 10 different looks of grass around the track, darker and lighter clouds, blazing sun, and 10+ variations of curbs (sound of tyres passing the curb at 180 km/h is something unique).

One fact - pictures posted before are not from this demo. There is no time-limit, you're only limited with one lap. You can watch a replay after the race, with the nifty "press-triangle-2-zoom-on-car" option. No specials there.

After you got blown-away with the glympse of future graphic, the race begins. Dials are new ones, with "G-Spot Meter" (indicating G-Force), fuel indicator (not working yet), oil indicator, all as seen before on E3 pics. Lateral movement meter is a nice touch, especially in replay. Hope that final game will bring some data management there. The race begins (no clutch) and then you realise that this is a totally new physics engine. Prologue is arcadey (we knew that too, but it was hard to beleive) in compare to this. Suspension works properly for the first time in the series. When you speed up, suspension of the rear end takes accelration force in the way you feel it, while front suspension takes it while breaking. The view field goes up/down, depending of the movement, and car now reacts on another new feature - track roughness.

Naturally, Nurb is a very rough track. But now (and it can easly be compared with Prologue on NY track), all the tracks are more rougher or better said - now you feel it on the car behaving. On Nurb and Capri car even goes airborne somewhere (we knew that too), and sound of landing is too good to be true. Having a nice surround setup in your room is highly welcomed.

Tyre sound and all the algorythams regarding it are improved. You can't do much drifting because the TCS is always ON (in this demo), but little drifting is welcomed and both physics and sound are great. Tyre squeezing in corners is a pure auditive heaven. Interesting is that game lets you choose between 3 type of tyres - normal, street and arcade. "Racing", although they exist on menu, can't be selected.

Both analog sticks works, didn't try the wheel. DS2 driving is great - car now reacts very instantly and directly, while maintaing the great sense of speed. It is more difficult to cope with slow turns in high speeds then in Prologue, and all of "Wall Riders" can say goodbye to their little hobby - slightest kiss to the fence introduce another new feature - impact penalty.

It is not 10 sec slow-down, it is a total physics and visual treat which is manifesting through screen blurring, shaking and a losing control over car movement on for a short time. As the impact is heavier, the effect will be bigger.

Rear-view mirror is another great feature. It is big, wide, and filled with details. You see everything in it, like you're watching a rear-view on a small screen. It is a great job done by graphics programmers, taking into concern the public-known capablities of PS2.

There are no effects of fire or sparkles.

As you speed up, the sound of wind becomes louder and louder, while engine sound becomes more noisier. On the main straight it is a total wind-blowing vs. engine-roar sound battle. Fantastic job done in sound design.

NY is two times more detailed than in Prologue. Capri looks great. But I just drove one lap of both and get my butt back to Nurb.

After driving few laps of Nurb and watching some replays I started to think how the final code will look like if this is just a demo - (hopefully), 4 months before the final game release - looks like this. Job done here is beyond expectations in every way. And I'm sure that this is not the final physics "Simulation" code, final graphic code and final sound code. Not to mention game structure or anything else which does not exist on this DVD.

Pictures and Screenshots soon.

Welcome to the first ever diesel car in the GT series. It has a great torque, nice sound and nice colours to pick. At 19,000 euros starting price. I find this demo a nice way to enjoy in something I can only dream about - driving a new Beamer around the Nurburgring.