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The
eagerly awaited arrival of Formula 1, after much hype and previews
and delays, has finally arrived. Would the graphics stand
alongside TV pictures as promised?
Could a racing game possibly hold your attention for 83 laps of
the circuit - lasting 1h 50mins?
Can you emulate Michael Schumachers fantastic victory in the 1995
Formula 1 Championship?
Will the sound of 26 high powered racing engines sound like you
have actually been strapped to one of the cars or more like a
day-trip to a clothes manufacturers?
Insert the disc, switch on an buckle up and READ ON........
The Build up begins inside a darkened hangar in eerie silence, as
the camera slowly closes in on a formula one racing car, a drum
roll builds to a crescendo raising the tension beautifully: short,
but graphically excellent!
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Formula
1 is a racing game that takes part on replicas of the 1996 Grand
prix racing circuits. The game includes both an Arcade mode and a
Grand prix mode.
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Well
what can I say seeing is believing, Formula 1 is quite simply a
graphical treasure. It is easily the most comprehensive and most
realistic racing game aver to grace Sony's 32 Bit machine.
The 17 (yes 17!) circuits that make up the 1995 Formula 1 racing
season are remarkably realistic, featuring every straight, corner
and bump of the real tracks. Grandstands, advertising hoarding,
even cities on the horizon over lush green fields have been
carefully recreated. the game is almost as much fun to watch as to
play!
If you happen to to veer off the track onto the grass or gravel,
your car goes into a high power spin, leaving the equivalent of
crop circles behind you as you gingerly creep back onto the
circuit. During a wet race special lights come on at the rear of
each vehicle, making them easier to spot in the distance, which is
just as well as the spray is realistically thrown off the back of
each vehicle to block your vision, overtaking become almost
difficult if not impossible to carry out.
During all races in grand prix mode, a transparent bar at the base
of the screen shows how many seconds separates drivers, fastest
lap times and the current race order. The attention to detail,
makes F1 the closest that we have seen to PHOTO REALISTIC
GRAPHICS!
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There's
the roar of 26 engines leaving the grid, jockeying for position
and then the screeching of brakes as you reach the early arrival
of the first corner, the crowd cheers, cars crunch together, the
pitch and volume of the commentators gets higher as the tension
mounts, in the background during all of this you can just hear the
sound of the race course announcer echoing around the grandstands.
For the first time since buying your PlayStation, you can own a
game that really does justice to the sound capability of the
system. The car engine noises are the best yet heard on the
system, when you go off the track you can hear the sound of the
tyres changing from the track to a gravely or grassy sound,
accelerate too quickly on the grass and your engine SCREAMS for
mercy! Switch from an external to the in-car view and the sound
levels are all adjusted to take into account your new viewpoint a
truly fantastic little touch.
The only music appears, when flicking through the many options
screens, the sound of guitar thrashing as you set up your car,
helps with the build up to the start of the race. Psygnosis has
concentrated on getting the in-game sound just right. There's the
brilliant excitable commentary of British legend Murray Walker,
who regularly updates race positions, weather and comments on your
driving skills .... HE TOOK THAT CORNER WELL, and your
errors....... ITS MANSELL, HE'S HIT THE BARRIERS!
There are comprehensive audio options, that will optimize the
performance of your system. There's the option to utilize:
Dolby Pro Logic Surround Sound
Q Sound, Stereo, Mono
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As
we know, stunning visuals do not make good gameplay, so does F1
play as good as it looks?
The options screen offers one or two player linkup and a choice of
Arcade or Grand Prix modes. Arcade is far more Ridge Racer style
of game, beat the clock to carry on racing. Damage and Tyre Wear
can be switched off and braking and steering assistance switched
on to make the game pretty much idiot proof and allow you to
concentrate on getting to pole position as quickly as possible.
The game has advantages over Ridge Racer in that there are 17
tracks, 26 opponents, varying weather, 3 difficulty levels
available, not to mention the fact that there may be cheats on the
way to allow you to MIRROR THE TRACKS and indeed even a SECRET
TRACK to find, thus making the game last far longer than most
driving games.
Grand Prix mode is the real reason for buying the game and with
brake and steering assistance switched off, damage and tyre wear
switched on you can begin to start to experience a racing game the
likes of which you have never played before. You actually have to
DRIVE THE CAR PROPERLY, accelerate on the straights and brake
before entering a corner. If you fail to brake in time then no
power on earth is going to get you round that corner and you might
as well brace yourself for impact with one of the barriers. If you
smash up your car, or mess up your tyres you'll have to crawl back
to the pits for repairs, losing time and race position.
Game modes offer: Single race, Ladder race (chasing a marked car),
Full championship. The memory card can be used to save high
scores, car settings and Championship progress.
Races can be any percentage of a full grand prix race, Weather can
be left as random or selected as wet or dry, Starting fuel load
can be chosen as can the downforce settings. Each race mode can
then be pre-empted by a practice session and qualifying session.
As a 2-Player linkup game this is better still. You can play as a
straight two car duel or with a full grid. There is nothing quite
like playing against a mate to add a real incentive to shaving
hundredths of a second off each lap time.
On the medium skill setting the computer controlled cars will
block you, bash you and slow you down whenever possible, sometimes
coming way off the racing line at the very last moment to give you
quite a fright. At this setting the computerised cars are also
very fast, meaning that you probably wont even qualify in the top
5 let alone win the race!
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Great
games like this just don't happen accidentally, an immense amount
of work has gone into getting every detail right. Quite simply
Formula 1 is one of the BEST GAMES YOU WILL EVER PLAY ON THE
PLAYSTATION, mixing superb graphics with involving gameplay and a
MASSIVE LONG TERM CHALLENGE.
If you aren't bothered about motor racing, you'll still enjoy this
game. If however you are a fan of Formula 1, Indycar, Nascar then
this is your dream come true.....
Well....... what are you waiting for.
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MARTIN |
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GRAPHICS: |
Brilliant |
This
game just gets better and better, we have had some really close 2
player link games and some even closer 1 player games. By now you
have probably heard of the various bugs associated with Formula 1.
It is my opinion that after constant playing for over one month
there are one or two problems that spoil the enjoyment of this
otherwise excellent racing game. If you race a full Grand
Prix,most of the competitors start taking pit stops when the race
is half completed,making it easy to overtake and finish in the top
six.The only way to avoid this annoying problem is to switch off
the fuel. We have also become aware of a few other flaws but my
opinion of Formula 1 after one month fails to dampen as I believe
it still looks and plays way ahead of any other racing game
available on P.S.X. and it is a GAME and not a simulation.It is
not perfect but name a game that is. |
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SOUND: |
Good |
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PLAYABILITY: |
Brilliant |
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VALUE: |
Good |
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OVERALL
9/10 |
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JIM |
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GRAPHICS: |
Brilliant |
I
have owned this game for almost a year and still play it quite
regularly. In my oppinion, this game is easily the best overall
racing game on any format. The feel of the car is astonishing, the
graphics are stunning and the sound is awesome when played through
a good pro-logic hi-fi. This game is worth purchasing a
Playstation for (oh yea - its also the best link cable game
available too). Switch of the fuel and tyre wear settings and
those bugs you may have heard of won't bother you ever again! |
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SOUND: |
Brilliant |
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PLAYABILITY: |
Brilliant |
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VALUE: |
Brilliant |
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OVERALL
9/10 |
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