DRIVING MODEL & Co.
Besides GRID being better in technical aspects, Ferrari Challenge is a much better driving simulation. Although it doesn't come close to GT5
, I find the driving model demanding and challenging - and I really liked the overall feel.
It almost fell like F355 Challenge, but it's not that good to be honest. Maybe I love original F355 to much, but some further tweaking could seriously improve the handling towards Yu Suzuki's spot-on perfect model. I'd say it's somewhere between Forza 2 and original F355 game - somewhere in the realms of first GTR game probably. Which is good at the end I guess
Game instantly recognized my G25 wheel, and clutch seems to be supported, but I managed to shift gears in H-Shift without use of clutch. I guess the final game will come with full clutch-support. However, both steering and pedals are very precise and force feedback does it job spot-on. What I really liked is the feel of braking - the cars goes to serious understeer when braking, followed by great oversteer if you turn-in too-fast. I drove without any assists and I really see strong potential in the FC:TP driving model, especially for online racing. I didn't bother to drive with controller, so no expertise in that area. As I mentioned before, FC:TP blows-away GRID in terms of driving, and I really loved that. Codemasters, learn something from Eutechnyx
But, both Eutechnyx and Codemasters should learn that auto-centering of the wheel after restarting/quitting a race should be mandatory in code, because there are situations when you're not aware that wheel is not centered - and that leads in compromising the race start. That could be very serious issue in online racing and I find that should be fixed ASAP.