F1 2000

"A great PSX F1 game"

It was with some trepidation that I approached EA's F1 2000. I have been an F1 fan for over a decade so any F1 game is worth a shot, but EA have a record of making EA stand for ''Easy Arcade''. I decided to bite the bullet and pick the
game up. Best Playstation purchasing decision I've made in a while. It even has Jacques Villeneuve in it. I'm no fan of his, but this if the first game that he has appeared in due to wacky licencing issues. It's also the only F1 game I've seen this year based on the current season, which means you get to go racing at Indianapolis.

When you start the game you are greeted by a less than stellar intro involving the Benetton team (who were consultants on the game). Once the main menu is loaded, one nice touch is the little boxes to the side of it showing snippets of F1 cars in action. You have standard options here. A quick race, a race weekend or a full season.

The quick race mode is your standard ''GO race'' mode, but one nice touch is you can set a custom grid. Want to stick Mazzacane on pole position? Go for it. I find it interesting to dump the likes of Hakkinen at the back and see how they
do.

Race weekend is what it says. Pick a driver (You can't change the names, nor can you move drivers to other teams, so you'll be driving as a real driver in their 2000 ride forever), pick a circuit, then take part in a full event. Practice, Qualifying then Race.

Full season is as it implies. Race over a full 17 race season based on the 2000 championship. In both full season and race weekend modes you can set your strategy for the race, the number of laps etc... There are 4 difficulty levels, and I think all but racing novices will want to start on the hard level. I'm finding the hard level a touch easy. You can also adjust the race length. 4, 8, 16 laps, or half or full distance. Since there's no in race save feature, I think anyone who drives the full distance feature is very brave.

So how does it play? Like a DREAM! From the in car view, with cockpit and steering wheel that actually moves, the game is phenomenally good. It just feels like you imagine an F1 car would. There are other views, and from the outside views you can see more of the track and get TV style banners at the bottom telling you gaps and the like, but I find these incredibly distracting, so I race from the cockpit view. Only letdown there is the fact that you don't
get any information. Over a 16 lap race I think my pit radio informed me about 4 times what the gap was to the driver behind me. Not good. There is also the occasional glitch. When I was racing from an outside view, a caption came up
showing me 15 seconds from Coulthard. My pit radio then informed me I was 45 seconds behind... Also I was told Michael Schumacher had retired when it was actually Ralf. These are minor glitches and I guess could be construed as a
simulation of ''heat of battle'' conditions. Mistakes do get made. Another glitch was in the last 3 laps at Monaco, the echo type sound in the tunnel got stuck on over the 3 laps. Very odd receiving an echo on a wide open piece of track...
One final annoyance is when I won a race, during the next race Jim Rosenthal (see below) told me Mika Hakkinen scored a superb win in the last race. Hmm... None of these glitches truly detract from the game though, they just add a little tarnish to an otherwise polished game.

Pitstops are played out nicely. In quick race mode a simple drive through the pits (which is automated for the most part) repairs damage, whereas in the race you can change tyre types, set your fuel stops etc...

If I had one complaint, it's the crash damage. There is hardly any. I deliberately tested this, slamming into a wall at Indianapolis at over 200mph. My front wing got broken, that was it. No amount of damage seems to put you out of
a race. At least it hasn't me yet, and I've spent hours playing the game.

Also the rules implementation is a touch wacky. The 12 laps in qualifying, you can drive your 12th lap flat out and set a time, since you automatically appear back in the pits afterwards. Irritating, but forgivable. One minor flaw in qualifying, regardless of the 107% rule, where a driver has to be within 107% of the pole sitters time, cars outside that still get to race.

So, the scores on the doors?

Graphics: 8/10

The graphics in this game are very nice. Cars look how they should, and details trackside are very nice. I just wish they'd made the countdown markers for some corners more visible. The in-car graphics are terrific and really add
to the game. At the start you get heat haze coming up from the cars in front just like in reality. There is an replay feature where you can replay the last few seconds of race.

Sounds 10/10

The engine sounds a terrific. The pit radio is very good, though there are a few glitches with it, like when you're told to pit for fuel on your fast qualifying lap. Minor problem though. One area I did like is the crowd sounds.
Yes, there are crowd sounds here. As a race progresses they appear to get more ''excited''. The crowd noises get more noticeable over the course of a race. Cheers, airhorns.. Also of note, the introduction to the race by ITV's Jim
Rosenthal. It's mildly repetitive, but again adds to the atmosphere.

Controls 9/10

Simple controls. Auto or manual gears. Cars handle well. It's incredibly easy to spin the car if you're not careful. That adds to the game in my opinion. Controls are spot on.

Gameplay 9/10

Best F1 game I've played since F1GP on the Amiga back in the early 90's. Setup changes are noticeable. (If you want some fun, in a wet race, pit and put dry tyres on.) Cars handle how I imagine F1 cars would, with probably a bit more
grip than in reality.

Story ?/10

You drive the championship and make your own story.

Pros:

Great gameplay.
Great sound.
Only F1 game that covers the 2000 season that I'm aware of which means Indianapolis. Also Villeneuve is included, which means no ''Driver X'' or any ofthat nonsense to ruin the atmosphere.
Cars handle nicely, and setup changes have a noticeable effect.

Cons:

Few audio glitches.
Lack of information when using the cockpit view (gaps etc...)
No real info in practice session as to your speed in comparison to other drivers.
Race ''highlights'' feature pretty pointless. Seems to be overly fond of Minardis.

Would I recommend this game? Well to the non F1 fan it may be of limited appeal. It's a good driving game, but if you're not an F1 fan, your mileage may vary. If however you ARE an F1 fan, then this game is a terrific purchase.
It's a little liberal with what you can get away with (walls + 200mph = broken wing), but the cars handle well, the general presentation of the game is nice, and the sound is fantastic. Heading down the fast tracks like Hockenheim,
or the oval section of Indianapolis at full revs brings tears to the eyes. The sound is beautiful. It seems to rain a lot during the season with realistic weather on, but given some of the races this past season, that could be
considered realistic. The only real ''reality'' problems I have is there are a lot more identical qualifying times between drivers, which is a very rare event, and also if Jenson Button is controlled by the AI, his performance is
nothing like his true performance this past season. Minor complaints though that don't really take anything away from the game. Where is counts is the racing. One problem with a lot of games is the AI is either too good, or to easy. (GT2
springs to mind.) This game is perfect though. A final 3 lap battle with Villeneuve at Hockenheim was one of the best fights I've ever had in a racing game.

I give this game 9 out of 10. In fact why am I wasting time writing this when I could be playing?

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/00, Updated 11/01/00