Over the years the appeal of a Formula One game has gone from something like the eager hype-fuelled anticipation surrounding Grand Theft Auto San Andreas or Halo 2 to something more akin to going to the dentists. Don’t believe me? – Then just ask anyone old enough to remember the first Psygnosis’ (now Studio Liverpool) Formula One game on the original PlayStation back in 1866 (1996). The decline in popularity of the F1 game can be attributed to several possible causes; Maybe it’s the fact that Michael Schumacher has made the driver’s championship a forgone conclusion for the last few years, maybe (for us Brits anyway) it’s because there haven’t been any really successful British drivers since Damon Hill, maybe it’s because the likes of Gran Turismo, Colin McRae Rally, Project Gotham Racing and most recently Forza Motorsport have given us much more varied and exciting four-wheeled speed thrills… Or maybe it’s just that recent F1 games have been a bit… umm… crap?
Anyway, much in the same way that this year’s real F1 championship has unexpectedly turned out to be rather interesting and different, F1 ‘05 has arrived and it’s actually rather good. Your first outing will inform your senses in no uncertain terms that the feeling of speed and power is way better than it's ever been before, thanks to excellent raucous engine sounds and visual vibration effects (although you can turn these off if you prefer a smoother ride) - and the game runs at 60fps too – even with 19 other cars in front of you –and they all seem to have individual designs and paintjobs that are as up-to-date as possible too. The biggest improvement on past offerings (from both Studio Liverpool and EA) really hits you as you actually feel like you're driving a monstrously powerful and agile car (rather than steering a camera around the familiar F1 scenery that we all know and love and hate). The handling can get very lively but still controllable depending on settings, and you can even hang the tail out with control if you drop the traction control to about 45% - with the tyres locking up just when they should and a sensible level of damage, F1 cars have never been so much fun to drive – and F1 game has never been so enjoyable whilst still managing to supply you with all the practice sessions, qualifying sessions, tuning options and other technical wotsits.
The opposing AI is also reasonable, they have the odd crash and mechanical failure during longer races, and clearly battle for position rather than form a neat queue – as you’re lapping backmarkers they get of out your way too (so I guess the realism stops there). The cars’ handling and performance varies and they have a realistic ‘pecking order’, although the Ferraris in F1 ’05 easily out-perform their real counterparts this year. Difficulty settings seem well-sorted, with ‘Easy’ being nice and… easy (you’ll win the Championships with Jordan or Minardi in your first season, to a reasonable test with ‘Medium’ to some seriously demanding racing on ‘Hard’. One personal hobbyhorse of mine, F1 ‘05 also has the best in-car F1 view ever (complete with animated driver’s hands/arms and detailed steering wheels & cockpits), which I've been using on all the familiar circuits, despite the fact that it has the excellent ‘above-the-driver’s-head-on-the-roll-over-bar’ cam like the previous games (and the EA ones). Flags and penalties are also handled in a more sensible way if you should cut a corner or stray too far off track, and a rev limiter cuts in for a proportional penalty period to punish you on the move rather than giving you a race-killing black flag. The rain effects are also rather well done, with loads of spray from the cars in front making wet races as scary and slippery as you'd expect.
After a typically stylish intro backed by Muse, the options you’re given include instant race, two player split screen, test sessions, race weekend (on any of the circuits, with all the sessions), world championship (single season as a real driver) career (5 seasons driving as your own alter-ego), and online... Now after last year’s disappointing ghost races and text chat only, I wasn’t expecting much from this year’s, but boy was I wrong – up to 10 (yes, TEN) racers can go head to head with solid cars or with collisions turned off and with voice communication! Like Moto GP on Xbox most online races seem to be set up with no collisions due to the realistically violent, race-ruining nature of most contact, but there are hardcore racers out there who prefer to ‘keep it real’, and I suspect that as drivers improve more will play the game full-contact. You can set up races up to 20 laps, choose circuit, car, flags/rules on/off, assists on/off, choose weather, decide on the min/max number of players and password protect a game if you want to play with mates – rather than just going through the motions with the online game, Studio Liverpool have outdone themselves and should be highly commended.
F1 ’05 also gives you a reason to dig the EyeToy camera out as it allows you to make your own Digimask™-modelled face and fit it onto your alter ego driver. Creating one that looks enough like you to actually use takes marginally longer than the development of some games, but if done correctly the results are spookily good and anyway, it allowed me to see what I’d look like if I lost six stone and about twenty years.
As for controls, you have the standard X for throttle and ‘square’ for brakes, and the level of control is excellent. Unfortunately as with past games you still have to mash the X button to maintain full throttle, and with our new PS2 pad long races can be real thumb-achers (although you can use the right stick for throttle/brakes if you prefer). F1 ‘05’s steering allows for real finesse and accuracy, and worked well with joypad or our Logic 3 steering wheel. Pit stops can be requested with a press of ‘select’, and if ‘interactive pit stops’ are turned on then the animated pit crew’s actions (fuel hose, “GO” board etc) are controlled by you, and just like the real thing, you can save vital seconds with a good stop. Depending on joypad setup you can also adjust brake and traction control settings on the move, wringing every bit of speed out of your car, altering the brakes affects the way the car will turn in to corners, and lowering the traction control makes the car more likely to spin under heavy acceleration whilst giving you vital speed out of corners. As I’ve found out on many occasions though this should only be attempted when you know what the effects will be, and adjustments made on a straight, or you’ll be picking gravel and armco out of your teeth for weeks. I f you’re a rookie you can have all the assists on you want (ABS, steer-assist, speed indicator line etc.), and sensibly these can be turned off as you improve through a season.
Replays are of the “instant” variety, called up from the pause menu and only last 25 seconds or so. This might seem disappointingly short, but as just about every other replay mode in a F1 game ever made seems to bug up, this is definitely an improvement, and while the views lack the camera shake, focus pulling and other eye-fooling trickery that make the likes of GT4, McRae, Gotham and Forza look so good, they do show how highly detailed the cars are, and you can save any particularly memorable ones to memory card.
Formula One '05 is the only official F1 game around now and it does the license proud with its slick presentation, clean menus, decent loading times, a competent commentary by James Allen & Martin Brundle (yes, I hate James Allen too but he's not the game's fault) and some nice bonuses like a secret test track, unlockable helmets and classic F1 cars (although why you can’t use these in anything other than practice laps is somewhat mystifyingly daft). At the chequered flag this the best F1 console game yet, and if you have a network adapter then this is the online racer that the PS2 has been crying out for.
NeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeoOooooooooowwwwwm!!!
|
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
