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Who says you have to grow up? Here at SI.com's Game Room, our staffers review the latest sports video game titles to hit the market and welcome your feedback.
  
2/27/2007 12:44:00 PM

Review: Formula One Championship Series (PS3)

By Paul Ulane

Serious auto racing games have always faced an uphill battle: how do you make driving in circles exciting to a group of gamers accustomed to cartoonish violence and non-stop action? Heck, when it comes to racing, most gamers would rather put the pedal to the metal with fictional lug nuts from the Mushroom Kingdom than strap into the driver's seat as a skilled Formula One professional.

But the designers of Formula One: Championship Series have no interest in pleasing the fair-weather racing fan. Their solution for the newest Formula One sim: go after the purists. No game has dedicated this much effort towards duplicating the feel and experience of F1 racing. The realistic approach will hook serious racing fans, while the sparkling look and high def visuals will attract curious gamers.

Formula One: Championship Edition
Formula One: Championship Edition :: SONY
So how does it all come together? With all of the pre-race exercises, getting started in the five-season Career Mode in this game might be harder than starting an actual career in F1 racing. Tune-ups, practice runs, time trials -- like we said, they guaranteed realism and delivered.

Luckily, there's Quick Race mode. It's here where you can hone your craft as one of the circuit's official drivers before creating your own character. A long list of driving aides -- from stability control for help with spinouts to visual aides that map the correct path to take into turns -- will help to get the wheels rolling. As you continue to pick up on the game's subtleties, you can shed the aides one at a time. Being able to adjust the difficulty of so many variables adds an element of replayability not normally associated with racing games.

While Career mode shows just how hard it is to rise in the rankings, there are better modes with more of what we all want: actual racing. Grand Prix Weekend mode offers the best of both Career and Quick Race modes. Start in practice by setting your car according to that weekend's particular track -- weather, track conditions, and maximum speed all factor into the car's settings -- then fight for pole position for the big race. Now it's on to the main event.

Formula One: Championship Edition
Formula One: Championship Edition :: SONY
Once you're racing, the game's highlights begin to pile up. The glaring sun on your windshield in front of an empty stadium during a morning time trial, the rain drops shifting direction on your windshield according to your speed during a mid-race downpour -- the HD flourishes practically transport you on to the track. A lot like EA's Fight Night, once you gain command over the controls, you'll want to try out the first-person experience from inside the car for even more eye-popping visuals. And that's just the looks.

The eight-lap races will have you on the edge of your couch for the duration. The artificial intelligence competition isn't afraid to bump you out of a turn or cut you off on a straight away. You're also on the clock in the pit, needing to press buttons in a certain order to activate each crew member. Plus, thanks to a licensing agreement, everything is legit in Championship Series, from the cars, to the drivers, to the tracks. Sorry, Mario Bros., you'll have to qualify just like the Schumacher brothers.

When it comes down to it, F1: Championship Series shoots for the hardcore F1 fans, but has something for gamers, too. Get over the initial test runs in Career mode, and you'll soon find that while NASCAR makes SportsCenter, F1 is where the real drivers roll.

Ratings System (1 to 10)
Game Play: 7
There's a fine line between being brutally realistic and losing your gamer's attention. F1 straddles that line. If you want to race as someone else in one of the more forgiving game modes, you're all set. If you want to rise through the ranks, you better get comfortable.
Graphics: 9
There are hardly any flaws in the look of this game and that's saying something considering you spend the entire time hurtling through turns at breakneck speeds. The view from the driver's seat is terrifying and exhilarating at the same time.
Replayability: 8
Between the numerous game modes and visual aides, there are plenty of ways to shift into overdrive. This game holds up better than most repetitive racers.
posted by SI.com | View comments |  

Comments:

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Posted: 4:50 PM, March 05, 2007   by Anonymous
As Monotya showed, NASCAR is where the real drivers roll. F1 is exciting, but its really just a money and technology contest. In realty, only about 3 or 4 cars each weekend have a chance to win. Game looks cool though.
Posted: 12:41 PM, March 06, 2007   by Anonymous
Amen to the last poster. F1 cars are so technologically advanced a trained monkey could drive them. F1 is an engineering series, not a driving one.
Posted: 12:24 PM, March 07, 2007   by Anonymous
Every review of this type should provide one key piece of information. What system are we talking about? Sony? XBOX? Computer? From the graphics credit I am thinking PS3. But it may be available for multiple game consoles. Please tell us.
Posted: 4:22 PM, March 09, 2007   by Anonymous
NASCAR is the "sport" to watch if you are easily amused. Driving around in a circle does not require nearly as much skill as making left and right turns, braking and shifting. NASCAR is boring. It is only interesting when they are on a road course because that is where actual driving skill comes into play. I do agree that F1 is not as interesting as it could be because of the technology. But, REAL racers make left and right turns.
Posted: 9:45 PM, March 11, 2007   by Anonymous
Shut up, crash-up derby lover, engineering isn't your thing...we get it. Montoya wrecked expensive cars while in F1 and since a F1 team's tire budget for a single race equals your sport's yearly team-wide budget, F1 team owners know that wrecking is not racing. I'm still a huge fan of Montoya's.

I found this a poor review. As another said, what platform? Compared to similar games? What company made the game? You're reviewing a video game! We need specs! Now I have to look elsewhere...bad reporter! Bad!
Posted: 12:49 PM, March 12, 2007   by Anonymous
Sounds like World Circuit for the PC with better graphics.

No thinaks, I will stick with the PC.
Posted: 5:01 PM, March 12, 2007   by Anonymous
Go to a Best Buy and on the PS3 demo unit go under the videos icon and they have a video of it on there.
Posted: 8:45 PM, March 12, 2007   by Anonymous
It says in the title that it's the PS3.
Posted: 12:10 AM, March 13, 2007   by Sean
um its for PS3 it says right in the top line!
*smacks forehead*
DUH!
Posted: 12:19 PM, March 19, 2007   by Anonymous
Hey guys, notice the "PS3" in the review title?
Posted: 12:25 PM, March 19, 2007   by Anonymous
It takes super license to qualify to sit in a formula1 car and drive it and it takes way more talent and driving skill to run a F1 car. Btw, go and check formula 1 rules. It has no electronics other than traction control.
Posted: 8:07 PM, April 01, 2007   by Anonymous
Montoya didn't show much in F1. He started pretty good but end up being a failed promise. Always a candidate to champ, never a real contender. Unlike NASCAR in which is only running around, which isn't as hard to adapt as F1, is more spectacular than real racing. People go to NASCAR to se a car crash and not to see a car races(because that's boring). By the way, the NASCAR cars compared to the F1 cars are crappy. a F1car can achieve speeds that a NASCAR can only dream. F1 has real manufacturers: FERRARI, RENAULT, BMW, TOYOTA and private teams, that really know what they're doing and the dificulty in a track which isn't all around is very diferent. You have to know when to brake, acelerate and seting up a car. 1 of the most expensives cars in the world is McLaren F1, which is the world's fastest production car ever built achiving the speed the speed of 240 mph/380kph without any work done. Montoya is good but he isn't great. Came to America to the money not for the reputation.NORTH AMERICA does enjoy the reals sports they like a twist. Football (American Football) is everything legal(or nearly?), NASCAR is more crashing than racing and ICE HOCKEY is nice but even better is a ice hockey fight(and players in the fights are punished with a 2 min ban, other sports they would be punished with a ban for months/year)
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