Title: Formula One 2001   Developer: Sony   Type: Racing Simulation
Absolute PlayStation2
...
 

FORMULA ONE 2001

"Sony have had a real “hit” or “miss” time with their Formula One series of games… its either brilliant or dreadful. Find out which way this years version has gone."
Formula One 2001
Click Here for ScreenShots
 
...

HomeFormula One 2001

PS2 Readers Reviews
 
If you have played this PS2 game long enough to have formed a solid opinion on it, then why not send us your own personalized Game Review using the form below.
 
..
PS2 Review SUMMARY and SCORE
Richard Yardley  "My Sole Reason For Buying A Psx Many Years Ago Was For Formula One By Psygnosis. Four Years Later And The Process Has Been Repeated And Again I Am Not Disappointed.

This, For Me, Is One Of The Most Realistic Racers Out There. Sorry I Don't Think Racing Against 5 Opponents In Gt3 Counts! The Controls Are Difficult But Then These Are State Of The Art 200 Mph Motorcars!! This Is A Game About Driving On The Edge Not Driving Down To Asda In Your Mum's Ford Fiesta!! When The Controls Are Mastered The Satisfaction Is Tremendous. From The Way Some F1 Drivers Describe Driving An F1 Car This Game Feels Exactly How I'd Imagined It To Be. Unforgiving, Twitchy And Nervous Like Trying To Ride An Irate Rhinoceros. This Game Is Wonderful Because It Punishes Slovenliness. Turn Off All Driver Aids On The Hardest Level And This Is The Closest You Are Going To Get Sitting In Your Armchair With Your Scooter Helmet On. Thank Goodness We Have Said Goodbye To F1 Games Where You Could Forever Smash Into Barriers Or Opponents At Undiminished Speed Without Much Consequence Like Some Crap Stock Car Race In Bradford! The Ai Is Great Too. The Drivers Are Hard. This Is, After All, F1. They Defend Their Line And Are Very Aggressive, Which I Personally Think Is Spot On.

It Does Have A Few Glitches. Qualifying Is Particularly Annoying. It Seems That You Cannot Get A Good Time Early In The Session And Then Quit Hoping It Will Be Kept For The Grid. If You Are Playing Full Length Races Then You Have To Sit Through The Entire Real Time Qualifying Which Still Takes Forever When You Press The Speed Up Button. The View From Behind The Car Is Also Crap But Then The View From The On Board Camera Is Stunning. It Makes You Feel Totally Involved. The Gearing Is Also Very Difficult To Get Right But Then This Adds To The Games Longevity. I Can Imagine Playing This Game For Months And Months.

If I'm Honest The Only Reason This Game Infuriates Is Due To My Own Incompetence. It Is Difficult And Will Take Time To Master. It Is Rewarding When You Get It Right. If You Are Looking For A Challenge And A Sense Of Realism Then I'd Definitely Splash Out 40 Big Ones On One Of The Best Racers I've Played. In Relative Terms As Good As The First F1 Game On The Psx."
Graphics  15/20
Playability  43/50
Sound  9/10
Lastability  20/20
87%
Last updated on 2001-12-14 and based on views after owning/playing for approx 52 days.
..


..
PS2 Review SUMMARY and SCORE
Daniel  "What Could Have Been A Great Game Is Let Down In Some Areas.
To Start Off With I Must Say That All The Teams And Drivers Are There From The 2001.
Each Car Is Customizable To Your Own Liking. You Can Customize Things Like Wing Ange, Dampers, Antiroll Etc To Get The Perfect Setup, Also You Can Turn On Or Off Automatic Gears, Traction Control And Abs Brakes. Turning Of Traction Control And Abs Is Good But You Have To Learn How To Control Your Car Which Can Take Time.
The Racing Is Good But Learing Each Track Is A Must Because You Go And Race. If You Brake To Late Your End Up Raming The Car In Front, And If You Brake To Early Your'll Get Hit From Behind Or Passed, But Once You Learn The Braking Points Its Easy To Go Around With Out Crashing Into Everyone.
The Car Handling Is Good And You Can Spin Out If You Do Things Like Put A Wheel Over On To The Grass Which Is Quite Cool. The Graphics Are Nice But The All The Tracks Look To Pristine, And Shiny And New.
The Thing That Disapointed Me Was The Fact That Your Car Can Be Over One Lap Up To 2 Secounds Faster Than The Other Cars And So Its Easy To Qualify On Pole, And Then Usually Dive Away From Everyone During The Race.
The Programmers Seemed To Think Minardi Would Do Really Well This Year As They Seem To Be Regually In About 12-14th Place. They Also Seemed To Think Rubins Barichello Is A Crap Driver As He Just About Always Qualifys In The Bottom 10 When.
The Ai Is Ok As They Always Stick To The Racing Line, And Battle It Out With You.
The Most Disapointing Thing That I Think Ruined The Game Was That None Of The Other Cars Ever Crash Out Or Take Pitstops Which Is Quite Poor, For Example In Real Life At Monaco Usually Only About 10 Cars Finish, However In The Game Every Car Finishes.
And The Fact That The Others Dont Pit Really Ruins The Race Because You Loose A Large Amount Of Poistions. The Pitstops Them Self Look Good, But Not As Good As Ea Ones Though.
The Sound Is Good As Each Car Has There Own Engine Sound And Its Sounds Real Enough. There Is Commantry By Murry Walker And Martain Brundle But It Is Very Limited And Can Be Off Puting When Racing At 200km So.
The Replays Are A Good Feature So You Can Watch Your Great Passes Or Crashes.
Multiplayer Is Fun As You Can Race About 6 Bots As Well.

Summery: The Racing Is Good But It Is Mainly Let Down By The Fact That None Of The Other Cars Take Pitstops Or Crash Out And The Fact That Your Car Is A Bit Faster Than Everyone Else.
Apart From That It Is A Solid Racing Game, But You Should Try It Before You Buy."
Graphics  11/20
Playability  33/50
Sound  5/10
Lastability  11/20
60%
Last updated on 2001-12-12 and based on views after owning/playing for approx 21 days.
..


..
PS2 Review SUMMARY and SCORE
Ari Vaisanen  "Not Steerable, At Least Not With The Traditional "dualshock2" Controller. No Feeling At All. One Other Thing Is The Fps, I Get A Feeling They Left Out Every Second Frame, Because Everything Runs Too Fast As _opposed_ To "grand Turismo 3" Where The Fps Feels Like It Is Somewhere Up In 40-50 And Gives A Real Natural Driving Experience. Electronic Arts, Shame On You!"
Graphics  7/20
Playability  10/50
Sound  5/10
Lastability  3/20
25%
Last updated on 2001-10-23 and based on views after owning/playing for approx 4 days.
..


..
PS2 Review SUMMARY and SCORE
Loretta Mattie  "Formula One 2001 Is Geared To The Hard-core Racing Fans And Gamers. Patience Is Required, Which Isn’t One Of My Finer Points. There Is Somewhat Of A Learning Curve Because These Rods Really Simulate Formula Control. It Would Also Be Very Helpful To Understand The Technical Aspects Of F1 Cars. Knowing How To Adjust The Car’s Attributes Can Have A Big Impact On The Outcome Of Challenges. Tweeking Things Like Fuel Load And Aerodynamics Can Really Shave Some Time. Remember It Only Takes A Second Or Two To Loose A First Place Standing. So Practice, Practice And Practice!!

Fortunately, There Are A Series Of Options That Can Assist The Player In Adjusting To Gameplay. Skill Levels Can Be Adjusted And There Are Quite A Few Shortcuts By Going Off The Track. This Couldn’t Happen In Real Life Of Course Because The Car Will Be Damaged But In The Good Old Ps2 World….anything Is Possible.

The F1 Cars Were Sweet Looking And The Sound Effects Of The Cars Were Decent. I Think It Will Appeal To The More Serious Racing Fans Though. Tinkering With Attributes Is Not My Thing. I Like To Jump Right In The Seat And Ride But This Is Only One Girl’s Opinion. If This Is Your Kind Of Thing, You Will Like F1 It Is A Decent Game."
Graphics  13/20
Playability  39/50
Sound  6/10
Lastability  15/20
73%
Last updated on 2001-10-23 and based on views after owning/playing for approx 7 days.
..


..
PS2 Review SUMMARY and SCORE
Rich A (mavm)  "Well I Have Managed To Tear Myself Away From My Ps2 For A While To Write This Review For The North Americian Version Of Formula One 2001.

The Gameplay Is Quite Good, With All The Drivers And Teams, And One Thing That Is Probably Not In The European Version, They Have The Frentzen-alesi Team Swich, So Frentzen Now Drives For Prost In The Game, And Alesi Drives For Jordan. All Of The Tracks Are There, And They Look Quite Realistic. The Tires Pick Up Gravel And Dirt, Or Grass, If You Go Off The Track.

If You Don't Have A Gt Force Wheel You Are Best Off To Use The Analog Sticks To Drive, But The Gt Force Works Great With This Game.

There Is Tire Wear In The Na Version Of The Game, As Well As Failures, Both Computer And Player (in My First Race 3 Computer Players Had Failures) And All The Computer Cars Pit. (i Watched To Make Sure That They All Did, Then Wrote Down Who Pitted When). The Computer Controlled Cars Follow Several Different Lines Through The Corners, So The Ai Is Slightly Better Than Gt3, But It Is Difficult To Pass The Computer Cars As They All Seem To Brake Too Early So You Have To Be Careful Not To Run Into The Back Of Them. Setting Up Cars Is Not Too Difficult, I Spent 10 Minutes Working A Setup That I Knew Would Work At Magny-cours And Then Grabbed The Pole By 2tenths Of A Second.

The Graphics Are Nothing Special, A Definite Improvement Over The Psone Graphics Obvously But The Advertising On Signs Around The Track And On The Cars Themselves Is Somewhat Blurry, Much Like The Advertising Signs In Gt3 Multiplayer. But The Cars Are Free Of Jaggies, Something That Was Addressd For The North Americian Version, And There Is No Pop-up, Or Slowdown, Which Is Good. The Pitstop Animations Are Fairly Good As Well.

The Sound Is Okay, But Nothing Special. The Sound Effects Of The Cars Running Through The Gravel And Over The Rumble Strips Is Quite Good, But As In All F1 Games The Engine Sounds Aren't Any Different Between The Cars, But It Still Sounds Pretty Good. The Sound Is One Area That F1 Games Have Never Gotten Quite Right, With The Engines But Hopefully In A Future Version They Will. The Comments From Murray Walker Are Few And Far Between, But That's Okay, As I Feel Commentary Is Best Left Out Of Simulation Games. The Pit Commentary Is Okay, As They Tell You If They Are Ready For You To Come In To The Pits, After You Initiate The Stop.

There Is Lots Of Lastibility Here As There Is A Good Multiplayer Game, As Well As Having Several Difficulity Settings And Driving Aids.

To Sum It Up This Is A Good Solid Game That Will Be Awesome To Anyone Who Loves Formula One Like Myself."
Graphics  11/20
Playability  48/50
Sound  9/10
Lastability  20/20
88%
Last updated on 2001-10-05 and based on views after owning/playing for approx 2 days.
..


..
PS2 Review SUMMARY and SCORE
Rory  "F1 2001 Very Nice Game Too Look At - The Graphics Are Quite Tasty - Especially When You Consider There Are 22 Damageable Cars On The Track At Once.

However This Does Not Make Up For The Games Short-comings, And Considering This Game Was Held Back Until Studio Liverpool Got It Right There Are Far Too Many. The Car Set-ups Take Forever To Sort Out And Get Something That Is Driveable And Fast. The Commentary Is Poor - You Can Drive For 10 Laps And Not Hear A Word From Murray Or Martin. The Timer Clock Is Rubbish - I Mean For A Grand Prix Simulator How Are You Supposed To Plan Your Pit Stops (when The Only Info You Get Is That You're 10+ Seconds Ahead Of The Next Car).

Then There Are The Rules Of F1. If You Cut A Corner And Gain A Place You Will Obviously Be Black Flagged - But If You Cut A Corner To Lap Someone (not Gaining A Place) This Game Still Black Flags You. Next Are The Blue Flags - When Someone Is Behind Attempting To Lap You, You Get Shown A Blue Flag - You Must Let Them Pass Before Seeing 3 Of These Flags - However In F1 2001 I Drove Around The Track For Several Laps Just Trying To Find A Passing Opportunity To Overtake Lapped Cars. So Why Don't The Cpu Cars Get Blue Flagged?

Then There Is The Opposition Ai. The Other Drivers On The Track Are Thugs - They Will Gladly Wipe You Out When Passing/lapping, They Have No Problems About Exiting The Pits (on To The Racing Line) When You Are On A Flying Lap And There Goes You Qualifying Time.

There Are Some Great Things About This Game - I Feel It Is The Best Driving/racing Game Yet For The Ps2 - But The Above Problems Are So Extreme As To Force Such A Low Overall Score."
Graphics  11/20
Playability  33/50
Sound  9/10
Lastability  11/20
64%
Last updated on 2001-10-02 and based on views after owning/playing for approx 7 days.
..


..
PS2 Review SUMMARY and SCORE
Paul Baker  "Very Good First Attempt For The Ps2. The Tracks Look Very Accurate. The Gameplay Could Be Improved For The Next One As I Find It Very Jerky And Pointy To Get The Car Around A Corner. Sony Have Got A Very Good Game Here But A Bit Of Work Needed On The Handling. I Would Still Rather Play Grand Prix 3 On The Pc."
Graphics  15/20
Playability  43/50
Sound  8/10
Lastability  20/20
86%
Last updated on 2001-09-24 and based on views after owning/playing for approx 14 days.
..


..
PS2 Review SUMMARY and SCORE
Rob Wagstaff  "There Are So Many Little Things That Have Been Left Out Of This Game For "gameplay" Reasons. Like Failures, T.v-style Display, Tyre Wear Etc. If These Were Gameplay Issues Then How Come They Were There In The Psone Versions??

It's Quite Puzzling. But Overall It Is Still The Best Console F1 Game Yet. The Graphics Are Okay But Don't Even Come Close To Gt3 - Which Is Another Thing I Can't Understand - How Can One Game Look So Good And Every Other Game Look Just Average? The Handling Is A Little Arcadey For My Likeing - They Should Have Included A Separate Arcade And Simulation Mode Instead Of Combining The Two. Ai Is Pretty Poor To Say The Least - But Then Again I Haven't Really Seen An F1 Game With Good Ai.

If You Buy This Game, Make Sure You Get The Limited Edition Version With The 2000 F1 Season Review Dvd - Otherwise I Don't Think The Game Is Worth The Money. Next Year's Game Had Better Be Good Or It Will Flop!"
Graphics  7/20
Playability  33/50
Sound  8/10
Lastability  15/20
63%
Last updated on 2001-09-15 and based on views after owning/playing for approx 52 days.
..


..
PS2 Review SUMMARY and SCORE
Tony Fawd  "Why Is It That The Makers Of The Best F1 Game On The Old Playstation Made Such A Mess Of This On The Ps2 ?

The Control Of Your Car Is Horrible And The Intelligence Of The Computer Controlled Cars Is Even Worse.

All The Graphics Have Nasty Jaggy Edges And You Will Have A Splitting Headache After Playing For An Hour Or Two.

Make Sure Your Rent This One Before Buying As I Thought It Was A Complete Dog."
Graphics  11/20
Playability  33/50
Sound  8/10
Lastability  15/20
67%
Last updated on 2001-07-23 and based on views after owning/playing for approx 14 days.
..



 
SEND US YOUR REVIEW:
 
You must include a valid email address, so that we can contact you to let you know when your Review will be featured. We will not list your email address on the actual review for security reasons.

Your full name (put membername inside brackets if your an APi member):

Your email address (Please enter this carefully) :

How long have you owned/rented/borrowed this game:

 
Please include your own personal comments on the game here:

 
What was your overall verdict on this game:
GRAPHICS:
Very Poor - an embarrassment to the console
Nothing spectacular, but still functional
Quality visuals that clearly show the power of this machine
Graphical masterpiece that is amongst the best currently available
Pushing the visual capability to it's absolute limit
This game has graphics that were never thought possible on this console

SOUND:
Makes little use of the CD capacity and audio hardware
Functional sounds that compliment the on-screen action
Quality atmospheric sounds that are highly effective
Music and effects that greatly enhance the overall enjoyment
Sounds like this were never thought possible on this console

PLAY-ABILITY (The way the game actually plays)
No fun to play, control is bad, gameplay lacks ideas
Offers moderate enjoyment but lacks a reason to play regularly
Quality title that has all the features you would expect
Top-notch title with nearly flawless gameplay
Little room for improvement and the best game of its type
Introduces new gameplay aspects not thought possible for this console

LAST-ABILITY
Wouldn't even buy for your worst enemy
Life-span would be a short rental period
Recommended purchase which should offer a weeks enjoyment
Has the potential to still be played regularly weeks from now
This will remain a popular game in your collection for months
You will enjoy playing this game occasionally even years from now


 
VIEW/SEND OTHER READERS REVIEWS:
 
If you would like to check out other reviews written by our readers, or write reviews for other games you have owned or played then CLICK HERE.