Good afternoon to all of you,
this is a very nice topic and I would like to share some personal ideas.
Sorry to be a bit long but points are many and all important, I think without presumption.
Above all, I DO LOVE GP2 in particular (GPx series in general) more than any other title, past or present.
But also above all I do consider any simulation...a simulation: so not the real thing.
With a simulator we will always miss Gforces, body fatigue, risks, etc etc.
That being said I persoally find a huge difference between GPx series of Crammond and many other simulators came out in the '90s/2000s.
Like Indycar, Nascar, GPLegends from Papyrus (well comparable in that era).
To me the main difference on game-enjoyability is tyres management.
The only "thing" attached to the track surface are tyres. In real life and in simulators.
Whatever the car you drive (especially in real motorsport) if you don't get the right temperature-window of usage you will be slow.
Or you will spin, or worse.
Why do I make a point on this matter?
Because if you try a real racecar (even a F.Junior or even a professional go-kart is enough) with a real team working and supporting you (not those promos like "Drive a Ferrari on a racetrack" and then you just get 3 laps if you don't pay more) you get the point.
The limit of any racecar is achieved when (as much as possible) all the 4 tyres are working within their suggested/supposed window-temperature and (as much as possible) the entire - or majority - of tyre-surface is attached to the asphalt.
That gives you the most possible "footprint" on the surface and so the most possible grip and so the most possible speed in every turn...and so the quickest lap (your own or of the entire field).
If you don't believe
me consider that the first thing a mechanic/engineer does, when you go back to the pits, is checking internal-mid-external temperature of all 4 tyres. Or mainly the ones more affected (like at Indy500 for example, the F and R external ones).
If you don't have sensors and telemetry on board, obviously that comes more easy to be read, stored and analyzed.
With that main point in mind you work on car setup and then car behaviour (understeering, oversteering, neutral) accordingly to what you feel as a driver/athlete (we are not all the same luckily also in this sport).
That being said #2: back when GP1234 came out they were not supposed to work on this main and important factor coming from motorsport.
That is a real one in real life, and that affects everything else (driving style, setups, consumption, vertical-"shape"/deformation of the tyre itself, ...).
And to be honest I like this thing: Crammond and his team maybe understood that was more important to give us a sort of "overall" sense about driving an F1 car; more than go deeply into technical matters related to replicate a tyre-behaviour (setups apart that are anyway well made within GPx series).
This point maybe also explains why in GPx we don't have tyre-temp readings, angles of camber, caster, toe...that instead were all included and important factors on Papyrus titles, back then.
I've tried almost all of simulators from GP1 through F1s by CodeMasters, GranTurismo on PS123, SCGT, TIR, various rally-games,...up to almost all modern ones starting from rFactor1, GTR, GTR2, GTLegends, RaceRoom (is free).
Not yet iRacing, AssettoCorsa and Automoblista.
But in general: if you have a game dependent on tyre-temp (and so grip) then the sense is comparable between many titles.
We should open then a check-point on how realistic the simulation of tyre-behaviour is...compared to real life I mean.
I find more enjoyable GPx because it is technical but not too much.
It gives back a decent feedback of "how is" drive an F1 car, as a general sense of car-attitude, without forcing you to go mad on technical matters, not too much at least.
Especially if you play with keyboard and all the hidden helps GP1234 all have to help to keep the correct line.
With pedals/wheel is another story, because changes the way we "feel" the car, but even there the main sense is accomplished.
I've neve thought I could have played GPx with wheel/pedals 25 years after its release and enjoy it more than anything else.
Sometimes I feel we all should sign a "Thank you card" to be sent then to Mr.Crammond that really made this place a better one to live in.
Best wishes to you all.
Stay home, stay safe, stay racing if you live in a country still hardly hammered by f@cking-Covid19.
Cheers.
Marco