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Race through a career, awesome

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: February 15, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Way to go, I finally find a game like NFS that you can race on your own as your career. I played it and it was thrilling. The graphics, game, cars, handling and others are also perfect. Support F1, buy it or you will be sorry.

Not that evolved.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 8 / 9
Date: September 08, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I came to this game after a long drought from F-1 on the Playstation, since I used to have a PS1 Formula 1 game in the late 90's, I believe by Psygnosis. I picked F1 Career Challenge for PS2 up at half price, and while it's fun, I feel rather disappointed. I'm a little surprised if this is an official F-1 game. It definitely doesn't feel as sophisticated as I'd expect, 5 or 6 years after the last F-1 game I owned.

Some observations after a couple days with it:

The primary draw of this F-1 game over others is its basis on a career. You start as a rookie, and hopefully work your way up to the top tier teams. It's something I haven't seen since an old Ayrton Senna game for Sega I had. Very fun.

That being said, however, the racing feel is a little lacking. First thing I noticed is that the cars seem way too prone to sliding and skidding. Regardless of technique, touching the brakes almost always results in squealing and smoke. In regards to handling, sure I would expect tyre adhesion to be a delicate issue at speed, but even running slow, with partial throttle, it would get squirelly. I even had it spin out on me under 60mph a couple times. With that much rubber, the cars should behave a little stickier. And a big annoyance... every time I steer, it seems to lift off on the throttle. Was that a function of Traction Control, I don't know, but if so, where's the option to turn off the TC.

Usually, as software develops, more features are woven in. This title seems like it's been abstracted instead. In a great racing game, for example, armchair drivers want to see lots of useful data. Speed and tach... all this game shows is in a small digital readout in the upper right. A string of lap times and intervals would be a reasonable expectation, so you can tell if you're improving on your times, or how you're spaced from the guys ahead and behind. The old PS1 F-1 '97 (I think it was '97) had great, Speed Channel style timing graphics. Career Challenge seems a bit short on the timing data.

As for tuning, the options seem really simplified. Same goes for the racing. The races seem to be preset lengths of about 8 laps, and the team picks your pit strategy for you, i.e. pit on lap 5. I'd much rather see the old '97 mode, where you can pick your race length, how much fuel you want to take, tyre choices, etc, so you can make your own plan, and if you tyres are holding out, you can just go for it. Damage modelling seems a little strange too. I see other cars losing wings, etc, and breaking down on the track, but I can smack a wall at over 100mph, and just keep going.

Qualifiying is a bit disappointing. They start you out in the middle of a hot lap, and stop you when you finish the lap, and you can do that 3 times. I much prefer to just let me go out and run sequential hot laps without interruption. (Much better way to get in the groove, I feel.) The only plus is that they actually do let you make tuning adjustments in the pits between runs.

And while I will say the graphics look great, some of the tracks seem a little flatter (less elevation difference) than I expect.

One last gripe... ready to start a race, cars lined up on the grid, crowd roaring, red lights coming on before the start... and you can't even rev the engine up. The engine won't throttle up until the race starts. For anyone who loves F-1 or has ever even seen a start, that just does not feel right at all.

That kind of sums it up. F1 Career Challenge satisfied my F-1 thirst a bit, especially since I paid half price, but overall, it fails to feel right when you're at the controls.

(I continue to wish that the Gran Turismo gang would get an FIA contract.)

ITS A GAME!!!!!!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 22
Date: September 03, 2004
Author: Amazon User

HELLO0000!!!EVERYONE HERE IS LIKE DYING TO BECOME A FORMULA 1 DRIVER, EVERYONES SOOOOOO INTERESTED IN BECOMING ONE, DESPERATE OR SOMETHING, TRYING TO SMART YOUR ASS THROUGH SET UPS AND AND WING ELEMENTS AND ALL THAT F1 STUFF. ITS A GAME WHAT DO YOU EXPECT, THE PEOPLE WHO MADE THESE LETS YOU DRIVE AN F1 CAR THE EASY WAY, WITH ALL THE AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSIONS OH YEAH, YOU CAN BEAT SCHUMACHER WITH THAT, JA, AN F1 CAR ISNT THAT EASY TO DRIVE. HELLOOOO IE THATS WHY ITS KINDA LIKE ARCADY???? IT JUST GIVES YOU THE SENSE OF EXCITEMENT, NOT THE REAL PRESSURE, DO YOU REALLY THINK ITS THAT EASY TO PASS A GUY NAMED MICHAEL SCHUMACHER. THESE ""GAMES"" ARENT SUPPOSED TO BE LIKE THE REAL THING, THEYRE JUST GAMES TO MAKE YOU FEEL LIKE AN F1 DRIVER, DRIVING THESE REAL LIFE LIKE F1 CARS ON TV. YOU THINK YOU CAN HOLD YOUR POSITION ON TRACK, OH YEAH YOURE SO SCHUMACHER LIKE, DO IT IN 75 LAPS, WITH THE 3 STOP STRATEGY, AND THE AI INTELLIGENCE, MAN PUT IT TO THE MAX. OH NO DONT FORGET, DO LAPS CONSISTANT TO EXACLTY 1:19:650. ANYWAY, HOPE THIS GETS INTO YOUR HEAD. THERES 20 DRIVERS ON THAT GRID AND YOURE NOT 1 OF THEM, YOURE JUST A WANNABE LIKE MILLIONS OF OTHERS PLAYING A VIDEO AT HOME. STOP PRETENDING AND JUST PLAY THE GAME.

Robert Scott Brimer is dumb.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 12
Date: August 29, 2004
Author: Amazon User

F1 2002 italiano di F1 Deutschland. Ea have made it. Robert Scott Brimer is dumb and not a racer He said Formula one 2001 is good and that is rubbish.

The WORST F1 game by Ea

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 12
Date: August 19, 2004
Author: Amazon User

That kid who said this game is good. get the hell of the internet. The graphics are very poor. the F1 cars crash into you. Ea is the crappest games company ever. they never did anything bad on Burnout 3 whch WILL be released in september. F1 Challenge '99-'02 is an excellent game. when i have it. i will stick to that. Just avoid

What, this is a great "game", Relax everyone!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 17 / 18
Date: June 20, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Wow, A bunch of people have complained about how this game sucked. I bought it and I dig it. Here it is! Everyone seems to say stuff about how the game cheats, or it's not realistic... ITS A GAME!!. EA's not doing the Microsoft thing and advertising this as "As Real As It Gets".. You know why? because it's a game, and not a F1 simulation. I race carts, gone through racing courses, and am a huge fan of F1 (and live it Italy currently) I will tell you this game is obviously not as sense invigorating but you know what?

This is a pretty cool game. There is no such thing as an F1 Simulation for a game console just yet. Real fans of F1 such as myself recognize that we will always be able to say bad things about computer games. But they cannot be too realistic because driving requires feel, sensation, and view depth which cannot be trasmitted by a computer (yet). Get over it.

EA can't be blamed for not developing this game too much better, because F1 isn't a big sell in the United States and they are a business that needs to sell and profit. Sucks but that's life! Maybe Sony will do a better job (we hope) since they have a more international Market for thier products. But look at the game again; This is one of the best F1 Games ever made.. Without a doubt.

best game ever!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: April 12, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This game has great graphics! I, for one, love F1. I know the tracks, and LOVE to race. I think some people know nothing about racing so they think it's dumb, but it's a great game. The race car drivers do crash into you, that is really how it is in F1.

The WORST F1 game ever

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 7
Date: February 22, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I bought this game understanding the idea behind it. Boy do I wish I had spent my money on another game. Sure the graphics are great, but that doesn't make up for the sad game play. As most everyone else has noted, the other drivers seem to be on a mission to crash into you, or they manage to get through a pit stop much faster than you do. I don't know if anyone at EA is an F1 fan, but if they are, they sure didn't do the sport any justice by releasing this piece of junk. I'm four races from the end of the game, and once I'm done, this game is going in the trash where it belongs.

Can anyone out there make a great F1 game?

not good at all

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 1 / 4
Date: February 15, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Well what can I say....It's easy,it cheats it's horrible.Im still waiting for a good F1 game.

Not bad, but it cheats!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: January 03, 2004
Author: Amazon User

The career mode is interesting, and makes the experience more fun than the traditional F1 games. The game isn't hard to master after a little time, and you can find yourself scoring podium finishes consistently by the 2002 season. The main problem that I have with the game is this: numerous times while leading the race, I have pitted at the same time as the second place car. The pit graphics enable you to see down the pit road a portion of the time, and while I'm pitted, the second place car will simply drive through and take the lead. It is extremely frustrating, and they generally have a significant enough lead that it is generally impossible to retake P1. All-in-all good, but I wish that EA would have fixed that before release!

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