F1 2001 'Back on track' aka READ THIS and I will love you lots unless you're a man.. obviously (F1 2001 (PS))

Member Name: Del_Boy

Product:	F1 2001 (PS)
Date:	30/10/01 (357 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fast, Frenetic, Fun

Disadvantages: Needs a decent PC to run it on, Hopeless without a steering wheel

F1 screams out of the pit lane for another year, this time however it doesn't lock its wheels and crash against the wall as the previous effort F1 2000 did. Instead it stands proudly atop the upper podium with its celebratory bottle of Champagne spraying it on all and sundry.

If F1 2001 were a driver it would be Michael Schumacher hated in some corners but a winner through and through. Bright, brash and a tad arrogant it sweeps away the competition with nary a trace of humility.

So what are the qualities that bestow this level of greatness upon F1 2001, there are many. Graphics have been suitably enhanced and worthy of mention is unlike F1 2000 this graphics engine is a lot more streamlined and as such will work on PCs of the moment instead of F1 2000s virtual inability to work with even the most modern PCs of its era. Graphics wise even on the lowest settings it will impress, when you start to up it to its maximum settings however that is when you will start to stare at the screen with mouth agape.

This is the only F1 game out at the moment that uses the previous seasons data (that means it's the newest folks). Because of this it means that not only do you get all of the tracks from last season you also get all of the cars and the official rules are all incorporated perfectly.

The tracks are all pretty much perfectly modelled with a few slight inaccuracies that means some of the tracks have the wrong height properties. This is slightly noticeable on the Interlagos (Brazilian circuit). However the programming team aim to rectify any slight inaccuracies in feature game patches. For non-F1 fanatics however you would be extremely hard pushed to find one noticeable failing in the track-modelling department.

Cars are without fault in the looks department - the relevant sponsors logos are all present and correct. Though tobacco advertising is out, so instead of for example, Benson & Hedges on the back wing of the Jo
rdan you have Bitten Heroes instead. Jordan do that in normal Grand Prix when they are unable to use B & H, they substitute the name for something else, Buzzing Hornets is another one they use.

The feel of the cars is perfect, perfect that is if you own a steering wheel. If however you plan to play this game using a keyboard or joy pad then it's a different matter. Before I purchased a steering wheel, I tried to play this game using an analogue controller I found it to be a near impossibility. I find it hard to fault the game for this though, as you can put certain driving aids on that will enable you to play it using a pad or keyboard at the expensive of some of its realism.

Thankfully F1 also has the amount of set-up options that whilst being par for the course in many games of this type on the PC, are still very important to have. They are also implemented extremely well, you do get a feeling that the tweaking that you are doing is having some profound effect on the feel of the car. To test your set-ups it is recommended to take your car onto the test day, this enables you to test the car as much as you wish without having the pressure of other cars on the track to crash into you as you wobble your car about the track!

What's an F1 game without realistic physics, lets face it the big draw for most people in F1 is spectacular (and thankfully mostly non fatal) crashes. The physics engine for this game is perfect and reacts exactly as you would imagine that it would act if that scenario were recreated in real life.

Something that is often overlooked in games such as this one is the sound. The sound for this though is excellent, before each track you get a run down from Jim Rosenthal, he also gives a rundown of the cars as well. When you are out on the track the only sound you hear is, the other cars, your car and your pit crew giving you a run down of what is happening to other cars around you. Information such as posi
tioning of other cars, failures, crashes, flag situation etc are gleamed from your Pit Crew.

To help out your learning process there is a new driving school section of the game that allows you to get into an Arrows two or three seater and drive around sections of some of the courses. The driving line will be colour coded green means you can go fast and accelerate, red means brake hard! You are then given a medal depending on how fast you did the course, Bronze, Silver and Gold medals are all their to obtain; though you will have to be very good in order to obtain the latter one.

Conclusion:

All in all, a game that is much better than it's predecessors, whilst that may not be the greatest compliment in the world, the last ones let's face it were pretty dire - it shows that the developers listened to feedback garnered from the last release.

Rating:

5/5


BUGS
*****

Certain aspects of this game are due to be improved via a patch.

1. If you own a force feedback steering wheel, force feedback will not work as standard, though will be incorporated into the patch due out within the next few weeks.

2. If you are one of the many that own a GeForce graphics card, then you may be experiencing woefully sub-par graphics performance at the moment. This is due to Nvidia releasing new graphics drivers after this game went into production. There is a fix to enable performance to get around 4 times better though:

First of all download unofficial patch 1.045 from:
http://www.jensonf1.com/f12001/index.html

This patch brings your copy of the game up to the standard of the US release. The European release is version 1.044 which is inferior.

Then download Nvidia driver's version 7.58:
http://www.reactorcritical.com

Install those drivers, then download Fraps version 1.5 from:

http://www.fraps.com

Fraps is a frame rate
measuring application that is in no way related to, or made for F1 2001. Someone by coincidence found out that using drivers 7.58 enhanced graphics performance in this game. Running Fraps in the background then gave them another 10-15 FPS increase.

This bizarre situation will also be resolved in the patch due out in the next week or two. This will fix all GeForce glitches hopefully ;)

I hope this review has been of some aid to you when deciding whether or not to purchase this game.

Please note: This game requires a CPU in my opinion of over 500mhz, and will not work at all on Voodoo 1, 2 or 3 graphics cards due to inadequate Direct X8 support. I have read that there is a workaround if you have a Voodoo 3 - however it isn't a wonder solution and still may not work.

Note
****
Despite what the title says, this is a review of F1 2001 for the PC not the Playstation. This opinion was in the PC catagory, so I am posting it here.

~Update~

The patch for this game has since been released and is available from www.ea.com and follow the links for the F1 2001 game.

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