F1 - FINAL CODE REVIEW
Filed under: F1 Three Speech February 7, 2007 @ 5:25 pm
It may strike you as being a niche product that doesnt sound as though it would be one of the killer games the PlayStation 3 so desperately seeks, but Formula One Championship Edition is nevertheless one of the very best launch PS3 titles and dedicated petrolheads, at least, should start to get pretty excited about it.
After our visit to developer Sony Liverpool, we posted video showing the games most obvious talking points its lush rain and dawn lighting effects, the next-gen AI and the jump-in multiplayer games but what is it actually like to play?
Structurally, it offers few surprises, which is what you would expect from a Formula One game; after all, you want the experience to be as much like the real thing as possible, and because F1CE is a next-gen game, it offers more realism than you will ever have experienced in an F1 game (even those made by the legendary Geoff Crammond). So when you jump into the game, you can opt for a Quick Race, a Time Trial, a Grand Prix Weekend, a World Championship or a Career.
Time trial lets you jump into any car on any track, and thats where you get the cute dawn effect, which makes the usually ugly racing circuits on the F1 calendar appear rather beautiful. An added touch is that the sun gradually rises as you work your way through a lengthy session. Quick Race is pretty self-explanatory just choose your circuit and which driver you want to be, and see how many places you can make up from the back of the grid over six laps (the default setting for Grands Prix in F1CE, although you can change it). A Grand Prix Weekend adds all the practice and qualifying sessions, but the real meat of the game lies in the Career and World Championship modes, which are identical except that, in the former, you race as yourself, rather than choosing which driver you want to be, and must work your way up from a small team to a big one.
Before you dive into Career mode as long as youre not a novice its a good idea to tweak a few things. By default, all the driver aids are turned on, and the ones that nanny you the most also prevent you from putting in really quick laps. I chose to turn off the brake and steering assistance, and ditch the red-orange-green racing line indicator for so-called BTA markers, which show you where to brake, turn and accelerate for each corner and, effectively, teach you the basics of effective racing, as you should always finish your braking before a corner, turn in at the right time and accelerate at the right point mid or post-corner. If you do an ARDS Test (which gets you a racing licence), you will find BTA markers on whichever circuit you take it at.
The initial Career mode screen is an email inbox containing a greeting for your agent and, as is customary, you can pick a team to test for (from a rather unedifying list of Squadra Toro Rosso, Super Aguri or Midland). You will then have to lap a track in under a certain time, and youre up and running.
At Bahrain, the first GP of the season, you learn what the drill is for a Grand Prix weekend. It starts off by fettling the car (dubbed Race Car Evolution by the game) in the two sessions (if required) of Friday practice. This setup session is pretty crucial, as it allows you to familiarise yourself with the circuit and also lets you improve the car quite dramatically. At first, you run with new tyres, worn tyres and different fuel loads effectively to set a benchmark lap time (at any point of the process, if you drop all four wheels off the road, you will lose that lap). Then you are given the chance to see what effect tinkering around with aerodynamic downforce, suspension settings and toe-in/out have on lap times. The aerodynamic evolution of the car is particularly important.
Once youre happy with the cars setup, you get a chance to see how fast you can lap in Saturday practice, then its time for qualifying. Bear in mind that F1CE re-enacts the 2006 season, so qualifying is a three-stage process. And that also means you get to pit yourself against Michael Schumacher its particularly satisfying when you beat him. Plus the historic Imola and the glorious Suzuka (rather than the dull Fuji) are still on the calendar.
On the Easy difficulty, you basically get an inordinately fast car I had no trouble consistently qualifying my Squadra Toro Rosso on pole. But you get plenty of things thrown at you in the races, most notably rain, which really does make proceedings very tricky indeed. You do have to alter your lines to get out of the spray thrown up by other cars, and obviously grip levels go way down. Rain will randomly appear in qualifying sessions, too, which spices things up. The AI governing the other drivers is impressive, too
When you start winning races and getting pole positions, you acquire items, such as trophies for your cabinet and unlocked cars (the first one being a 1960s Honda). And then you might be ready for a bit of online play which, in F1CE takes a rather innovative approach: the races themselves are long, but you can drop into them at any time, ousting the AI, so that you dont have to wait around in lobbies.
In general, Formula One Championship Edition is a triumph accessible to beginners but sufficiently authentic to thrill the most demanding of Formula One anoraks. Whether it will move people to want to buy PS3s remains to be seen, but it will be a compulsory purchase for the more discerning PS3 owners.
By Steve Boxer