It's Formula One '99 mark 3... (Formula One 2001 (PS))

Member Name: The_Cat

Product:	Formula One 2001 (PS)
Date:	07/07/01 (45 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Nice commentary, Murray Walker!, Still a slick drive

Disadvantages: Rehash of older versions, Murray Walker!, Too many little niggles

Let me make one thing clear - I love motor racing. No, I worship at the altar of motor racing. I also love motor racing games, stretching way back to the likes of Crazy Cars and Stunt Car Racer on the Amstrad. For these reasons, I feel well qualified to make the following statement: Do not, under any circumstances, pay £30 for this game.

Why? I'll get to that in a minute, but first, lets get to the good stuff (and to be fair, there is plenty of it). As the name suggests, there are 2001 stats, so if you want to recreate Juan Pablo Montoya's heroics at Interlagos, you can. The graphics are some of the best yet in a PSOne racer, though there is a noticeable lack of detail and lighting effects on computer-controlled cars. Murray and Martin are back with the best commentary in a racer since Formula One '97, and the handling is still as crisp as in the last two editions. Weather has some effect on the car's handling for the first time since '97 (or '98, if you still accept that that hopeless excuse for a game actually exists). Oh, and there's a competition that could give the fastest drivers a chance to go to the Indianapolis GP. Even fast drivers who cheat, like about 5 of Britain's top 10 seem to have, by missing out the Bus Stop chicane at Spa and seeing if the game notices, which, bizarrely, it sometimes doesn't. Before you ask, I can be 3rd quickest in Britain with a cheaty time, but my legal time has me in about 15th place.

So why did I say not to pay 30 smackers for it? Easy - because it's a cheap rehash of Formula One 2000, which wasn't too unlike Formula One '99. The handling is essentially the same, the tracks look exactly the same, the arcade mode is different, but also a waste of time, the two-player mode suffers from slowdown when more than three cars are on the same screen, and the loading quiz still doesn't always register your answers. Even worse, there are still basic game
play flaws, like the way computer cars always pit in a 10-lap race, leaving you to win every time. The way it's impossible to overtake without hitting the other car. The way that the whole game is still as easy as feeding Bernard Manning a seven-course meal. And the way that some drivers are wearing the wrong helmets - Montoya has the colours of Button, last year's Williams driver, Button wears Alex Wurz's (at Benetton last year) helmet, Burti has Johnny Herbert's helmet. Oh, and Burti is still at Jaguar, with Mazzacane still at Prost and De La Rosa nowhere at all. Minor niggles, but all smacking of half-hearted programming.

Formula One 2001 isn't a bad game - it just seems too similar to Formula One 2000 and Formula One '99 to warrant paying full price, especially if you own either 2000 or '99.

Summary: