EO Sports F1 - 2002 game anybody?

After years of playing GrandPrix 3 and 4 I finally caved in and switched to F1 2002 Challenge as my fav game has not received the same amount of updates and tracks got way out of line.

Now I'm trying to set things up for the 2004 season and realize I have no idea in how to change the drivers' names in the game. Can anybody help?

I know how to change one driver to a player's name, but that's not what I need here: I need to change the cc cars drivers names.

 

Wow, quite a few responses for what I thought might get me zilch. So one by one:

Pete, try Grand Prix 4 (used to be Microprose, now is Hasbro, which successfully killed it off, which is what Hasbro normally does to a good game). Physics are supposed to be the best. F1 99-02 Challenge is very close in its physics to GP4. If you don't like GP4, well then only a real 250 LM replicar can save you...


Rob, my F1 2002 (as well as the 99-02) works just fine on my XP box. Took a bit to find the proper steering wheel driver, but anyway. Shouldn't be an issue at all if you use MS' wheel.

Jordan, many thanks for this. I'll try it out. I was afraid it would be a file by file thing. Darn. We have so many driver changes. Oh well.

Aawil (your screen name cracks me up, there is a village in Switzerland called Aawil and I used to drive through it twice a week), I'm sorry. One of my best buddies (the one who made the FGP3 DVD) is heartbroken over my switch. Here is the rationale:

- EO uses a lot better graphics than GP4.
- EO has almost caught up to GP4 in physics and AI.
- In general there have been a lot of improvements by EO which are missing in GP4 like e.g. the pit traffic light at the end of the pit lane. If you ignore it, you'll be penalized. Just small stuff that makes it a bit nicer.
- Much better sounds and information from the pitlane. I like to drive with the least clutter in the sky (like in a real racecar), but I'm missing the information on where I'm at. So pitlane radio is important.
- Most important: The updated tracks. As much as I loved the highspeed Hockenheim, it is silly to keep driving that. Similar issues go for the new first and second turns at Nuerburg, Monza and Hungaroring.

Now I could have all that with GP3 and the upgrade packs (there is no track editor for GP4), but it comes at a price:

- For one once you start 'cracking' the game, you loose realism. I'm sorry to say that as I wrote a few tracks myself for GP3 (e.g. Fiorano). But it is true: Just writing a track doesn't do it. You also need to write the setup files for the cc cars, their ideal line, the grip of the track etc. If you don't, the human player always wins at a selfmade track. That's why it is better to leave things they are in the box.
- The graphics in GP3 are two generations behind EO.
- All the add-ons slow the game down to a crawl. I could just get the latest PC, that's true. But I don't have to using EO.

And the final argument: EO and FIA will continue (I think) to make upgrades to the game, so eventually we will get Bahrain and Shanghai etc. But not so for GP4.

Of course all this would be a mood point if Hasbro would get their act together and come out with GP5. But I doubt that will ever happen.

PS: For the time being I will drive Bahrain on GP3 though. GP3 is not dead on my box for occasions where I like to take out an ancient car and/or track.

 

True. The steering wheel in GP is the same for all cars. You can change its design though. However since it also serves as the game's menu, that becomes rather unpractical when driving e.g. a F1 car from the eighties: You loose your LCD display and have no clue what to do when in the pits. And a turbo era car with LCD steering wheel just doesn't look right.

 

Thanks Jordan, that did the trick. Well almost: The voice in the headset does not name the new drivers, which is a bit annoying as you'd like to know who just dropped out etc: "lost a wing" as opposed to "Zolt Baumgartner lost a wing."

Luckily the game is smart enough to handle existing names in different cars and the ones I care about from a WC competition perspective are all known to the speech synthesizer.