I wonder how good Grand Prix 4 is? (Geoff Crammond's Grand Prix 4 (PC))

Member Name: TheDrowningMan

Product:	Geoff Crammond's Grand Prix 4 (PC)
Date:	18/08/03 (270 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Looks like its a really awesome game

Disadvantages: Doesnt work unless you have the mother of all computers., Compatible only with a select few graphics cards

Now, as you may, or may not have read in a previous review, i was a big big fan of Grand Prix 3 (go find the review, cos i suggest you use it, youll see why in a min.) Well, in 2000, an add-on for GP3 arrived, the 2000 season. Well, this is where things started tripping up. I thought 'great, a stop gap while i wait for GP4 to come out' and opened the box, eagerly awaiting the new elements that this add-on might give me. Well, the thing didnt play. My spec was more than enough, but they didnt make the game compatible with any graphics cards except the top 3 at the time. Oh well, the GPaedia was nice.

So, along comes GP4, and i looked up the spec before i bought it, and i met the recommended requirements, i just prayed that they hadnt made the same mistake they made with GP3 2000. Well, i bought it, installed it, and did it work???? 'Geoff Crammond's Grand Prix 4 for PC boasts an all new graphics engine' is what it said on the box, yeah, one that doesnt work with anything!!!!!! It ran at a measly 1 frame per second, and that would be great if i had some kind of eye problem where i could only open my eyes once a second, then it would look fine, but i dont, and it doesnt! Even with all the options turned off, making it look like the game harked back to the early 90s and GP1, it ran at a pitiful 4 or 5 frames per second!

Well, my mate had just bought a new laptop, and his spec was more than double the recommended spec on everything it said. Did it play it??? no, as he hasnt got one of the mere 15 or so graphics cards that are actually compatible with the 'all new graphics engine'. So, what to do? Go out and spend another 2 or 3 hundred quid on a super new graphics card, just to play one game??? no, i think ill just stick to GP3 thanks.

I know from what i actually saw, that the game looks like it has all the niceties of GP3, with some cool add-ons, like a dynamic pit crew. but what good is it if it runs slower than o
n
e of them minardi things???

So, heres my tip. If you dont have the best computer in the world, which also has one of the golden selection of graphics cards, then stick to GP3, and wait for the next installment, in the vain hope that it might work with the majority of machines.

Its a real shame, because i know GP4 has the potential to be one of the best, if not THE best, Grand prix games ever, but its no good if the masses cant play it, know what i mean Geoff??

Summary: