It has been awhile since I have played that game and I do remember needing to adjust the sliders. But with those adjustments I remember getting realistic games.
It is a bit like FPS98 which was the best football sim ever - if you played that game straight out of the box it was actually pretty bad - but all the mods and 3rd party utilities made it great. Too bad current game devolpment really limit 3rd party stuff now.
I love playing HC, it is a great deal of fun - but I am not getting anything close to a realistic game and that is frustrating becasue the rest of the game is so enjoyable.