Formula One '05 - Great Gameplay, awful realism, so frustraiting (Formula One 05 (PS2))

Member Name: Palmer89

Product:	Formula One 05 (PS2)
Date:	20/09/09 (55 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Gameplay, the actual driving of the car, Authenticity

Disadvantages: So many niggly problems, out of date, realism, most things

As a huge Formula One fan I had gone far too long since playing my last racing game on any sort of console, the last PC game I had was Grand Prix 3, the last ps2 game I had was F1 04 and I have never had/there has never been an F1 game released on the 360. So, what with having my old PS2 still lying around I decided to go to CEX and try and find the newest F1 game. Formula One '05 happend to be that game (unable to find '06), so, how did I get on with it?

Formula One '05 has the authentic license to name all 22 drivers, all teams and tracks as fell as a few extras to make this game more realistic. Of course, one downside to this game is that it is now 4 years old, the drivers and teams have changed drastically, the rules have changed drastically as have the commentators and tracks, my laptop isn't powerful enough to mod games so this is the best I could get. The game itself is actually pretty good, I have played better and more enthralling games such as the Geoff Crammond games but this game is very easy to pick up and play. One problem I have with the game is how easy it is, even on the very hardest difficulty. Racing a championship as BAR I won all races other than 1 race where it rained (and for some reason the rain on this game doesn't affect the AI) or those races that I retired from, those races that I won, in almost all of them I lapped 2nd place man. One big problem is that the AI are all schedules to stop 3 times, no matter what race, what weather etc. In each and every race they stop 3 times, this means that they are going to be alot slower, the fuel load isn't taken into account during the game so there is no speed differential and yet they stop more times than me. Not to mention the pit stop being pretty poor from a human aspect, yet it's good to have and the interactive pitstop is great but human pitsops take about 2/3 seconds in the game, this isn't the case for the AI cars or in real life.

So yes, this game is far far far too easy, I forgot to mention that in all of those races I started 22nd and last in order to make it slightly more challenging, so starting last and winning the race by over a lap is not exactly a difficulty game. As such half the races it felt just like going through the emotions for the sake of it, 10 laps in, in the lead with another 50/60 odd to go can get a bit boring sometimes (ok, my fault for doing 100% races but I went for the realism aspect...). Another problem being that the AI is so perfect, linear and uncompetetive, they never make mistakes, or if they do it's mistakes that they all make and over the top (such as the exit of turn one at Monza where all the cars go wide), another problem is when lapping, they don't get out of the way until the last minute and often make you change direction or hit them, not to mention how idiotic some of them are, going onto the grass about 10 meters to avoid you lapping them, a nice balance would be good please. They also never really overtake one another, numerous times a Renault or Mclaren was stuck at the back because they wouldn't or couldn't overtake the Jordan or Minardi, not very realistic now.

The graphics are very nice, the cars are delightful and the tracks are perfect down to a tee to their real life counterparts, one problem I had however was with the changable weather, when the weather was dry the clouds moveds, the sun shine brighter or duller which I thought was pretty cool, however when the rain starts coming in the sky suddenly changes without warning, literally within a second or 2 the sky changes from clear to black, no clouds in the distance warning of this, if only the changable conditions were accurate and you could see the clouds roll in instead of suddenly appearing.

Another thing that was good and bad at the same time is the commentary and the radio, first of all, I think it's damn good to have the commentary on it, however during career mode this wasn't possible (I suppose no commentary is better than Martin Brundle voicing out 'Player 1...leads'. However even during championship mode the commentary is far too linear, there's only about 4 phrases that they say in total and after a 70 lap race these can really grate on you, likewise with the team radio, it's a great implimentation and adds to the realism but it's so infrequent and only chirps in when talking about a pitstop or the weather, in other words about 2 times a race, and this is also very very linear. I know commentary must be hard to get right but come on, it must be possible to get better and more fluid commentary than this, it's a problem football and racing games have had for a long time, whoever gets it right will be a rich man. I understand it's not possible to have a real life style commentary as it's almost impossible for the computer to understand whether you've done something really wrong or not in an F1 game but surely they can make it fairly fluid and much less linear?

The game has many modes, Timed sessions where you try and beat a certain time to gain either gold, silver or bronze medals, world championship where you take over from a real life driver or a career mode where you yourself are propelled into one of Minardi, Jordan or Red Bull and make your way up the grid in order to become world champion. I started with career mode and loved it, however after a few races of no commentary it really starts to get a little boring. World championship was much better, able to hear something other than an engine even if it was slightly robotic. The timed test sessions were pretty good, although these were also a bit too easy, on most I beat the time on my very first lap and the only problem one was Suzuka. Not to mention the instant race and 2 player modes available as well as the ability to play it online with anyone from the world.

There are also many options and extras to this game, during a world championsip, race or career mode you can most of the time choose the weather, what driving aids you use so if a real beginner can use all the driving aids available, I used none but the anti-lock brakes, just because I like to attack the corners, something you can't really do without it. During the car setup you can tweak almost anything although I usually left this alone other than tweaking what tyre type to start on and whether to go for a grippy or speed setup. You can also choose when to make your pitstop and how many to make.

Overall, I do like this game, but only because I'm an F1 fan, and even being one there are so many faults with this game to pick out it's unreal, I'm not even sure why I like this game, it's just because I love to play and F1 game and this is the best and most up to date I could find, it's very easy, it's playable but there's so many little things that just don't add up and although enjoyable to play it's impossible to forget all of the things that are wrong with this game. the gameplay itself is very good, the driving of the car around the track is brilliant to be honest, the control, graphics and general gameplay as you race is great. But thats about it, if only they could iron out the rest of the problems they'd have a great game. if only the drivers were slightly harder, if only they stopped twice not three times, if only the pit stops were realistics, if only the commentary and radio was better etc.

These are not impossible things to change, they should have really been basic and I look forward to the new game by codemasters in the near future with optimism, I love F1 games, this new one will be up to date, brilliant graphics and hopefully all of the above problsm ironed out, this game is very cool to play, it's great to drive in but it's just no fun from a competetive point of view or from a realistic point of view. Hopefully the new codemasters game will be brilliant.

Summary: So frustraiting, this game could have been so good.