GPL

Ah yes, Grand Prix Legends, probably the most difficult to drive racing simulator out there
But let’s start with the history, released in 1998 by Sierra Grand Prix Legends was designed by Papyrus Design group, already having a strong reputation in the Racing Simulation scene. The game even marketed as “The definitive motor racing simulation” on its box. The game itself focuses on the Formula 1 Season of 1967, a turning point in Formula 1 history, as this was the last year of the typical cigar tube design featuring no front or rear spoiler and thus having no extra downforce with a doubled engine force from last year, with a 3 liter engine matching up to 400 HP with only about 1000 pounds of weight. Making them one of the most dangerous and difficult to drive racecars ever. The game features all teams and tracks from the 1967 era, aswell as most of the drivers, though due to licensing issues, Papyrus was forced to change the Cooper and Honda models to a fantasy brand and slightly changed look. Aswell as changing the French grand prix track to the Rouen-Les-Essarts instead of the Lemans circuit due its very uninteresting visuals. Papyrus also had to do some changes to the drivers, as it was normal to not participate throughout the entire season, or race cars of a different class during the event, eventually having the team remove Jackie Stewart due to licensing issues and changing the vehicle of Jean-Pierre Beltoise, making him an F1 driver for BRM.
With about 200.000 sold units, in the end, the game didn’t sell well, not only due to the F1 being a rather uninteresting racing sport in the US, or the extreme difficulty of the simulator. It also had extremely high hardware requirements, making it almost unplayable for most Computers of 98, at release the game only supported two rendering types, 3DFx and Rendition. This all was changed due to patches, now even accepting direcd3d and OpenGL. Therefore most of its sales were dated as late as 2004, as this game recieved a fully patched demo that was mostly shipped with video cards or in game magazines, boosting the sales. These patches are seen as mandatory for anyone wanting to enjoy Grand Prix legends, as they add force feedback, Support for CPUs faster than 1.4ghz, a more realistic standard ride height and better rendering software support.
Most of the gameplay you will see is shot with already all of the patches installed and having installed a community patch to include mirrors for all vehicles and more detailed track objects aswell as cars. Starting up in the menu, the game gives us the option via the arrows on the bottom of the screen to either run training, a quickrace, championship or a multiplayer match which, via mods is to this date playable and enjoyable as the netcode is very well made, making the cars not rubberband or jump all over the track as you usally see it these days. Starting up a training lap, the game jumps to the track, damage and vehicle selection. The track selection features all 11 racetracks from the F1 race calendar in 1967, except for the French grand prix, as Ive already mentioned. On the left we can set the damage our car receives from bumping into things from off to realistic, making contact, as expected, almost always ending your race and having you send back to the pits. The car selection on the other hand is kind of intressting, the main difference between the rookie vehicle and the grand prix car is the engine power, technically making these vehicles Formula 2 or 3 cars.  The quickrace lets the player pick between a few difficulty levels, not actually changing any of the drivers skill but the damage and length of the race, same goes for the championship having the player compete in all races throughout the season and adding up their points in a scoretable. The Multiplayer works local area network and online with up to 18 players, as mentioned there are still players and even week or monthly leagues to compete in. the AI Driver skill does not change throughout the difficulty setting, as they always try to adjust to the players skill level, making it so he usually drives in the first or second third of the driver field. While trying to making for an intense and challenging race, compared to todays standards, the AI in Grand Prix Legends is rather sub-par, as the AI sometimes doesn’t put up any challenge whatsoever or unintentionally bumping into the player as they too struggle with the very slippery driving controls.