I'll begin by telling you that I like racing games, simulation games. That's why I bought my PS2. I currently have:- Gran Turismo 3
- Formula one 2001 (Sony)
- F1 2002 (EA Sports)
- Nascar Dirt to Daytona.
I'm a big fan of F1 and CART. I never miss a F1 or a CART series grand prix and watch NASCAR when I can, from time to time.
Gran Turismo 3:
Excellent graphics and sound, excellent framerate, deep gameplay, lots of cars and tracks, wonderful replay mode!!, wonderful simulation but... stupid AI. It seems you are racing against wonderful cars driven by ghosts that dont see you in the track, cars that are racing a different race, they hit you, they aren't aware you are there racing too. I finally got bored, because I play alone. If you race against your friends that's other story.
Overall: Wonderful but very stupid opponent AI.
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Formula one 2001:
Regular graphics, excellent framerate, regular sound, good opponent Artificial Intelligence. You feel you are really racing against people. Engaging. It feels like a real simulation. Good Physics, When you lose control of the car, it feels like the real thing. Not very deep, it doesn't have replay mode, and easy in the long term. Yes, now I can beat M. Schumacher in the profesional level with a Bennetton car!!!!!!
Overall: More than Good, but regular graphics and Easy in the long term.
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F1 2002:
Very good graphics (not like GT3). I love the cockpit view, the sense of speed is very good too. Good framerate, sometimes regular. No replay mode. Regular sounds.
The bad side .... Some flaws (when playing with FIA rules you always get a time penalty for nothing!!, it's a very known flaw ). It feels like an arcade game, not a simulation, and bad AI. You opponents crash, crash, crash with you all the time. The car feels the same, no wonder if you have full tank or not. If the car lost his front or rear wing the car feels the same, no changes at all!!! Bad physics, trust me.
Overall: Dissapointing. It needs better sound, better physics and better AI, even though the graphics are good.
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Nascar Dirt to Daytona:
Decent (good) graphics, great sound, lots of tracks, excellent physics, replay mode from several angles!!!!, really engaging and... YOU FEEL YOU ARE RACING AGAINST REAL DRIVERS!!!!!!!!. Very good AI. The programmers did a wonderful job. The drivers see you, react, brake and move, you are really in a race, that is so cool. Cars move in a real credible way.
You have crashes, very good crashes!!!! Your car get damage, so you must drive carefully if you want to win and selected the "full damage" option. If the car is damaged you see it's damage and feeeel its damage. Are you a good driver? Put it at 105% in the difficulty setting and try to win. I might say: try to not be the last in the pack. This game has levels for everyone, that's something I like, because I know that no matter how much I improve my skills in the game I will always have a level of diffficulty (there are 10 or 11 levels) that will make me race against very good drivers. Challenges, career mode, deep, deeep, deeep gameplay. For me is the best game of the racing titles I have.
You have many tracks, many drivers to choose from and you can race with trucks, modified cars, cup cars and dirt cars. Some races are in the day and some in the night.
The bad side: sometimes the framerate is bad and graphics could be better. I know it's difficult to improve both things at the same time, but, if that guys could do that, the game would be the best racing simulation experience I know for the PS2. That's why I give it 4 stars instead of 5. Don't take me wrong. You feel the speed and graphics are good, but sometimes the game feels little slow, and in replay mode sometimes it feels slow. I understand. There are 43 cars in the track, but they should try to improve framerate.
Overall: Very good invest. It must be in the collection of any real racing fan, specially if you like NASCAR. It's difficult to get bored with this simulation.
