1/14/98: The following was last revised in mid-December, when I was still feeling rather hopeful and benevolent towards CPR and anticipating the patch that was yet to be released.
Since this Conclusion was written, I've spent some serious time on Ubi Soft's F1RS, which dramatically altered my standards for a contemporary racing sim. The arrival of the patch and my subsequent review of the patched CPR made me realize how seriously deficient CPR really is in the most important aspects of a racing sim, and how starry-eyed I was about CPR's potential when I wrote this.
Look for a dramatically revised version of this page soon. As soon as I can tear myself away from F1RS.
Hmm. On second thought, don't hold your breath.
By now, especially if you've read my page on CPR bugs and design flaws, you are probably wondering if I am a bit schizophrenic. How could any one person have such wildly divergent feelings about one program? Does she love it, or does she hate it?
But that is the nature of this beast. It evokes awe, excitement, and amazement. At the same time, it evokes frustration, disappointment, and scorn. That a single application provokes such dramatically different responses - in myself and in a large body of intelligent, dedicated, passionate sim racing fans - is a telling insight into the current status of this sim.
CPR has great potential. It can be a great sim. The menus are beautifully laid out and logically done. The car setup options would make any armchair race engineer drool. The vehicle dynamics engine reaches a new level of sophistication. Management of network connection is excellent, holding out the promise of superb racing with friends from all over the world.
The graphics and sounds are awesome. The dynamic behavior of the chassis, with leaping, juddering, smoking tires, coupled with the vivid sounds and the intense sensation of speed, is so exciting and real, it can make your palms sweat and your heart beat faster.
There are moments when this sim is absolutely delicious. At Long Beach, now that I've hammered out a drivable setup, I have moments where I am able to fling the car through the turn 1, 2, 3, 4 complex as I think it was meant to be done, the inside tires just nicking the curbs, the car squirming a little under throttle, engine wailing as it went up through the gears out of turn 4...Ah! It is beautiful!
But then comes turn 5, and the steering bug forces me to proceed through here in a series of arcade-game-like twitches. If I'm lucky enough to make it onto the straight without hitting the wall, I've got to work really hard - nudging the steering fast but gently and very accurately - to make it to turn 6 without snagging the concrete. Again in the turn 6-7 complex, once the car is leaned into the corner it's great, but the steering bug, combined with relentlessly excessive front brake balance, makes it almost impossible to properly place the car for the hairpin.
A variety of other bugs and questionable design choices plague this sim. Along with a variety of behaviors which undermine my confidence in the overall accuracy of the vehicle dynamics engine and detract from the pleasure of driving a race car on the limit, these issues give the impression that CPR was released well before it was really ready, in time to meet an arbitrary commercial deadline. Confirming this impression was a retail release scheduled so soon after the beta release that it would have been all but impossible to incorporate any significant changes in response to feedback from the beta testers.
The problems I've discussed here prevent CPR from taking a place among the best serious racing simulations, in my estimation. However, I would recommend to friends that they buy it if they like arcade games or their priority is online racing and they can live with the various shortcomings. I am eager to try the upcoming patch, which addresses several of the most widespread complaints, including the steering bug.
1/14/98: At this time, I would not recommend to anyone that they buy CPR. To put it bluntly, in its current form, CPR is a terrible simulation. Viewed as an arcade racer, it is far less satisfying than Ubi Soft's Pod. I never thought I'd be favorably comparing an arcade racer to a racing sim, but, well, there you are.
CPR has enormous potential, and there are strong indications of serious intent on the part of both Microsoft and Terminal Reality to make this sim one of the very best. I very much hope they succeed.
Be sure you also review opinions from early reviewers of the beta version who found many problems, as well as a positive perspective from an articulate and knowledgeable fan of the sim.