For most of the
United States, two words describe automobile racing – turn left. That is the tag
that follows NASCAR circuit racing. The cars go in what amount to an oval,
always bearing left. But that is not what the majority of the world thinks of
when they consider the sport of racing. To the rest of the world, it is very
high-end machines, built low to the ground, putting out a whine akin to a jet
engine and winding through a track that requires left AND right turns, sometimes
in hairpin configurations and even – at times – in the winding streets of towns.
It is Formula 1
racing and Sony is bringing the racing series back to gamers with the release of
Formula One Championship Edition on the PS3.
Sporting a full
on-line racing forum, the game is not your basic racing vehicle. This is a game
where a lot of the work is in the setup, followed by strategic driving – not
always the gutsy high-speed passes. You will need to know when to pit, where
your standing is, what lays ahead on the track and how to manipulate vehicles
and corners to your advantage. And this is just in the single player quick race
type mode. Get into the career mode and you will find yourself the driver who
gets to test all the vehicle setups under some of the more extreme conditions.
It should be
mentioned that F1CE is not for the faint of heart. There will be some
frustration, challenges at even the most rudimentary level in the career mode,
online components, SIXAXIS motion controls, and real-world lighting that will
drive you crazy at times.
Sony Computer
Entertainment’s Liverpool Studios are behind this title. There are the usual
suspects when it comes to the game modes – quick race, time trial, multiplayer,
but the cornerstone is the career mode. In this mode, you will take on the role
of a rookie trying to break into the F1 scene. You begin by running trials and
hoping to catch on with one of the race teams as the test driver. Through your
work on the track, you may be promoted to second driver, and then to the coveted
first driver position. Fail and you will be relegated to driving the tracks
under some of the more ‘testing’ circumstances.
You see, as the
test driver, you do not always get the optimum machine to take a few spins
around the track. ‘Test’ means exactly that. To that end, you will drive cars
that have been aerodynamically altered, that have fuel loads varied, that have
different tires … in short, the crew does everything possible to the machine
that will lead to the right features when it comes to race day – which you sit
on the sidelines and wait for the results.
The caveat is
that if you do well enough in the trials, you may be promoted, or another race
team may come along and snatch you up for one of their driver slots.
Begin on the
easy setting to get a feel for the car. The courses wind from short sprint
straight-aways, to hairpin corners that require you to go slow and then
accelerate madly out of them. There is an optimum line, but with the changing
lighting, sometimes seeing that line of attack is almost impossible.
The game’s
lighting is both a blessing and curse (aka, a source of frustration). The best
lighting of the day is usually reserved for the racing. As a test driver, you
get to run the tests at twilight, or dawn, when shadows can leap across the
track and obscure the turns, or a low sun will glare straight into your eyes as
you round a corner for a dash down a straightaway. And while the F1 tracks are
challenging, it is the street courses that provide the most severe test of
driving prowess. Through it all, you will have your pit crew exhorting you to go
faster, telling you how much time you dropped in one sector, or how wonderfully
you are doing in another. Sometimes what they tell you is just plain inaccurate
… or not what they are looking for. Running a trial as fast as you can,
consistently breaking your own lap times is not always what they want. Instead,
they may be looking for consistent times under the desired lap time.
And just when
you thought that trials were the most challenging, along comes the actual race
with cars bumping, pit stops to deal with severe tire wear from the nudges you
get, or spin outs when you are bumped onto the grass or gravel.
The game allows
the option of using the motion sensors of the SIXAXIS controller to steer the
car. While the game does have challenging AI and deep gameplay mechanics, at
times it can feel a little too deep. Each and every element, it seems, of the
professional racing is captured here. Fortunately, for the more casual player,
you can turn off many of the options – like traction control, wear and tear on
the vehicle, recovery from spins or braking variations – to create a game that
is somewhat more arcade-like in feel. But if you do take on the challenge of the
full-blown racing, then prepare for a workout. As mentioned, you will need to
pay attention to the strategic end of the race. There is tire set-up for fuel
load, and you will have to take the weather into account through it all.
When racing as
the test driver, you may find the graphics problematic at times. The dev team
has decided to create weather conditions that mirror real life. That may mean
coming around a corner and have sun glare blind you, or driving so early in the
day as to be – in places – in darkness, making the track hard to see. These
vehicles do not come with headlights, so driving in bad lighting is a real
chore.
The game’s
graphics are first rate, and the sound is serviceable. There is not much in the
latter that has not been heard before. Sony set up some multiplayer sessions,
which highlighted the need to understand the controls. Ignoring the pit crew
exhorting you to come in, just to take the lead can feel foolish when you run
out of gas half a lap later.
As it stands,
F1CE is not for the casual race fan. This game is geared for the hardcore
driving sim fanatic. It does a very good job but for those that are not deep
into car setup and fine-tuning for weather conditions and so on, this game may
contain more than a few frustrations.
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Gameplay:
8.0
This is a game built
for the driving sim fan that likes micro-managing car setup and doing a lot of
work. The controls are responsive, and the AI is also very good.
Graphics:
8.5
The environmental
effects, while annoying, are very well done. The vehicle physics are also well
done.
Sound: 7.0
This is very
little, if anything new here. The sound is what you have heard before.
Difficulty:
Med/Hard
Concept: 8.0
A tip of the hat to
the dev team for bringing this title into the next-generation of console gaming.
It looks good and reacts well. Much of what is here has been done before, but
this is definitely a next-gen game.
Multiplayer:
7.5
You will definitely
have to know when to pit and when not to pit. While NPC cars ghost in the game,
other player cars have collision on them and you can have a car phase right
through you one time and the next car in line completely put you into a slid
onto the grass and into a wall. There is a solid online element to this game,
though.
Overall: 8.0
The game can be
frustrating at times – especially in the career mode. The weather and lighting
effects can also create a few sore spots when it comes to racing, but the actual
racing is very well realized and the multiplayer is also enjoyable. Just make
sure you understand the nuances of the game before you try to go online.
