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Does anyone know where I can download the patch?

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: October 19, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I just got this game, but it crashes so much it's almost unplayable, I have heard there was a patch released that fixes the problems, can anyone let me know where to find it? Thanks

Need to be quick to race against the pros.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: July 31, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game is XP compatible as stated in the game's install guide. Anyways, you can forget winning any races with an automatic tranny unless you are using the beginner level. The game has scalable realism so u can have antilock brake and steering assist even if it's not available in real life. The force feedback adds an awesome component to any driving game. Use the default setting or tweak your ride to get an edge in pursuit of the checker flag. 17 race tracks all over the world with variable weather just like in real life. Save your video replays and show your friends how you became champ. Or race against your friends over the LAN or net in multiplay. Very entertaining.

Great F1 racing game!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: October 04, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This game is one of the best racing game I have ever played. It is very addicting and it has all the good stuff. I played this game over and over for about a year now and I'm still not tired of it. This game is great. The graphics are tremendous, the controls are easy, and the sound is pretty good. I think the best part about this game is the mods. I only have one of the mod, but that's the only one that I play. I don't even play the F1 2002, I play the mod. The game itself is super good, but if there is mod for it, that means this game is a must have. Also, you don't need a fancy computer to run this game. The system requirement is small and this game is amazingly FUN! I gaurantee you that you will have fun with this game. This is one of the best racing sim if not the BEST. So get this game right now!

Fun Simulation, Great Value

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 8
Date: July 09, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This is the F1 2002 version of the game which I purchased in July. EA has recently come out with a new 99-02 version of the game which according to many is not a huge improvement. The 2002 version of the game is well supported, has LOTS of mods (ability to load differnt cars, tracks, adjust physics, etc) and has set the benchmark for F1 racing sims. Oh, and its 13 bucks. The 99-02 version will probably become the eventual standard and I may switch at some point in the future.

I am not a big gamer, but years ago enjoyed Need for Speed 2. I spent long hours perfecting my skills and I set an online world record for some of the tracks. If you are the kind of person who likes to squeeze every last bit of performance out of your car and seek the best times, this is the ultimate game. It is more of a simulation than an arcade game, but it is playable and very fun once you learn car control.

I have a background in SCCA autocross racing so I know a little bit about racing physics. The physics engine is truly realistic. When you take a turn too fast, you will push and scrub off speed. Trail braking works as expected to lighten the back of the car and help rotate. The traction circle seems to be in force and the condition of the track and your tires effect your stickiness. Trade a pair of warm tires for some new cold ones in the pit and you will feel mildly reduceed handling. Weather effects the surface and overall traction is depicted accurately. Cars travelling on the ilne reduce moisture so that on wet trrack days your trtaction is best on the line. An impressive visual and physical experience! Track gradiations effect your traction and there are some off-camber and downhill turns that act as would be expected. While you cant necessarily "feel" what the car is doing, it will sometimes squirm when it is lightened and reacts realistically to over-ambitious inputs. The sensation of drifting is there and also pushing and scrubbing off speed is accurately depicted. I have only been driving one car and havent experienced oversteer excecpt after trail braking (havent gotten this down yet) Even though I cant feel the car, I know what it is doing. I've never driven an F1 car (and probably never will), but this simulation acts the way I would expect an F1 car to act based on what I know.

On the down side, because you are racing on a computer screen, it is difficult to look ahead because your field of view is limited and (depending on your resolutions), items in your direct field arent discernable until they are too close. This means that alot of doing well on a track is a process of remembering the trrack and what is coming -- you cant always rely on visuals alone. For instance, it is hard to see a decreasing radius turn. For that matter, it is difficult to discern the radius of many turns because the whole turn is not on screen. I wonder if I had a better graphics card if this would help a little bit.

There is no outrageous throttle steer like arcade driving games. No jumps. If your expectation is to race like the dukes of hazzard, you will be disappointed. However, because this is an F1 simulation, it has a definite feeling of speed and requires lighting quick reflexes.

The grgaphics are FANTASTIC and approach photorealism. My graphics card is several years old (1.4 AMD + Radeon VE dual head) but handles everything well. The only problem is at the beginning of the race when the full grid is on screen, the refresh rate drops. I havent experimented with lowering resolution to fix this problem. Sound is also excellent.

I am not an F1 or racing fan, but this game is making me one. I was watching speed vision and I chuckled when I saw that F1 2002 uses the same on-screen timing/position graphics and car cams as speedvision does.

Car set-up is highly adjustable although I havent used this feature yet. There is a driving school mode which teaches you the best line for certain tracks as well as accel, braking points. Very fun!

There is online play (which from what I understand requires a fast server with HUGE bandwidth), but for hot lap competitions, go to www.findthelimit.com. There is a telemetry program that allows you to upload your races to their server. So while you are not competing in races with other players directly, it is very competitive and there is an elaborate scoring system. You too can vie for the world championship.

It seems that this program and perhaps F1 racing in general is more popular in Europe.

I first tried using this game with a joystick but then went out and bought a USB steering wheel (Logitech Wingman GP). The wheel is necessary to do well. (and cost 3 times as much as the game!)

Highly recommended!

Worth it!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: June 16, 2003
Author: Amazon User

What a great formula sim. The real treat of this game are the free mods that give you way more replay value than you could have imagined. How does adding GTA3 cars and tracks sound? Grab it and look up the mods. You won't be disappointed if you're a racing fan.

THE BEST RACE SIMULATOR ON THE MARKET

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: March 26, 2003
Author: Amazon User

If you want to race like an F1 driver with the realisim of a real F1 car than this is your game, buy it it the best F1 racing game on the market, it has all the tracks with an incredible graphics it looks as if you where actually there.

All that and maybe a bag and a half of chips

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: March 07, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Don't get me wrong, this game does have some very fine points, but where it lacks in my opion is the multi-player. It does offer it, but the interface is just..., well, to put it politely, it stinks. Racing sims to me MUST be multi-player. That's all that I am interested in. Because most times the AI is plain stupid..., I like opponents that can think for themselves. It is however fun to race off line..., and sometimes I do. But I find myself un-installing it in between those times. *S*

Best in the series, but could be better...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: January 05, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This is easily the best EA F1 game so far. Many annoying problems in previous versions have been fixed. For isntance, the FIA rules seem to be implemented a lot better, which actually allows you to keep flag rules turned on during the game.

However, there are a number of reasons why I wouldn't give this game a 5-star rating.

For one, the graphics are good, but not truely spectacular. Pit lanes are desserted, giving you the feeling of a test day, rather than an F1 weekend. And in general, although things do look good, one would never mistake what's on the monitor for a real F1 race.

I also wish the frame rate would be higer. I have to admit that I do not have a top of the line computer at this point (it's just over a year old...), but things could be smoother. I would assume that if the frame rate was higher, it would be easier to follow other cars (which tend to jump around a bit). It also seems to be too hard to go straight (going around corners however is quite smooth, allowing you to push hard... assuming you have a force-feedback steering wheel).

Pitstops aren't very spectacular (especially compared to Grand Prix 4). However, there is a great telemetry module. The only problem is that it is hard to make something of all the numbers. Even a die-hard F1 fan like myself has a hard time with all this detail. I wish the simulation would go beyond the driving and give me a team to work with. I would love to have a race engineer for instance, who could help me interpret the telemetry data ("you seem to be maxing out on the straight... perhaps we should change the gear ratio..."). I would like to give input in a more natural way, such as "I wish I had more straight line speed", or "the rear end is a bit loose...", and have the race engineer make appropriate adjustments.

The pit crew does come on over the radion though. But the remarks are pretty simplistic, especially compared to what's possible with in-game commentary in other sports games. Overall, this feature is useful during races, since valuable inforamtion is provided to the player/driver, but things get repetitive very quickly...

One of the most annoying aspects in my mind are the long load times. Even if you race the same track, load times are very long. And while a track is loaded, the same commentary runs every time. Once you went through that process a few times, it gets old really quickly.

I am also missing the ability to speed up the time during practice and (especially) qualifying sessions. It is not realistic to do all allowable laps right away. Instead, one would go out, do 3 laps, and come back to watch the competitors. In previous versions of this game, one could do so quite nicely by speeding up the time. Perhaps I just missed it or something, but I can not find that feature in this version.

I could also easily envision a number of ways to make this game (as well as other F1 games) much more exciting. After all, this is a computer game, and not a true F1 season, so why not do some things that are possible only in simulations? I would love some extra tracks for instance. Who wouldn't want to drive a modern F1 on the Nuerburgring Nordschleife? Or how about running it on the oval in Indy? Or, or, or... Also, it would be nice to be able to drive some older cars.

For my taste, things are also a bit too static throughout the season. Doesn't my team develop new parts? This is a very important aspect to true F1. And in the age of the internet, there could be automated content updates as the real season progresses. Arrows didn't race the whole season for instance. Why couldn't that info come over the internet? How about driver updates? How about the latest pole times set in real life? These types of stats could be updated on the fly easily.

Also, nothing seems to be developing off the track. When Barichello crashes into Ralf Schumacher, why aren't there any news presented about that to me? In real life, this would be a major off-track argument between the two of them. When Fisicella's car breaks down, why don't I see a post-race interview about how annoyed he is at Honda?

Overall, this is a very good game, and the expectations I set here might be pretty high, but all of the things I describe here are possible with today's hard and software. Games from other genres demonstrate that quite well...

Addendum: I have now upgraded my machine to a truely high end rig (1GB ram, Radeon 9700 graphics card, 3GHz CPU,...) and the driving experience is a bit better. Frame rates allow for a more responsive car.

Finally excels to the top levels of Formula One simulation

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: December 26, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I've been a connoisseur of Formula One sims for a long time, from Grand Prix 2 to 3 & 4 by Geoff Crammond, and while Grand Prix 4 offers the highest fidelity to true track mappings via GPS, F1 2002 is the best simulator for it's physics, balance, and detail. Truly fun and exciting for any F1 sim freak!

A Great F1 Sim

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: December 14, 2002
Author: Amazon User

When I first played the demo I was hooked to this game's sense of speed, sound effects, and realism. So, I went out and purchased the game. In my opinion, in order for one to get the true sense driving, the car should give that little "kick" when the gears are switched. That is my favorite part of the game. One aspect of the game I didn't like were the graphics. I have never seen graphics where the diagonal lines are so jaggedy. It's very frustrating. That was at 1024 x 768. I increased it to 1152 x 864 and got an improvement, but I don't get the same framerates and it's still way too jaggedy, and this is run on an Athlon XP 1800+, nForce board, 512 DDR, GeForce4 Ti. Nontheless, I recommend this game to racing fans, especially to those who have a monster system to run it without jaggedness (i.e. 4x Antialiasing, which is impossible for me). The upcoming GeForce FX should do the trick.

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