F1 06 is a pretty faithful recreation of the sportFormula One has changed a bit since I watched it on the BBC quite a few years ago. While many people would argue that the changes have made the sport even more niche than it was, with genuine excitement now even rarer than a successful British driver, it still has a huge number of followers - many of whom could be described as fanatical. Sony's Formula One 06 is the latest game to attempt to nail the sport in video game form, and although a little rough around the edges, it could well be the best option for console gamers wanting a Formula One fix.
If you're not an avid follower of Formula One, F1 06 will seem pretty overwhelming at first. You can set a number of driving aids to help you out (with everything set to 'on' a chimp could probably set a decent lap time), but to get any sense of actual racing you need to go in head first, and turn the driving aids off. Until you've got the tracks memorised it's a good idea to leave the racing line on, as this gives you an idea of when to brake and the correct line to take a corner. Even with this turned on to help, to get to a level even approaching good will take a lot of work, but it's surprisingly addictive.
AdvertisementRacing an F1 car is so unforgiving that simply making it around a circuit without going off the track brings a sense of achievement. Once you can do this with regularity, you can then move on to shaving seconds and then tenths of a second from your best time. If you get into the groove you'll fall into something similar to a hypnotic state, with laps flying by and times all falling within an almost unbelievably close range. You have to be dedicated though, and get used to the rather twitchy controls - on both the PlayStation 2 and PSP.
Racing itself is a totally different skill, with the presence of other drivers on the track forcing you to focus even more intently than when hot lapping. AI drivers show signs of realism, but even on the hardest difficulty you can unrealistically move through the field, particularly on the first lap. It's certainly an area that hurts the overall racing experience, especially as the promised online play is missing from both versions of the game. Still, actually winning races is very challenging, but dedicated F1 fans will be disappointed about the ease at which the midfield racers can be passed.
Racing itself is a totally different skill, with the presence of other drivers on the track forcing you to focus even more intently than when hot lapping.
The career mode, which lets you work from the bottom, through the different racing teams until you're the best driver in the world, is where most players will get their money's worth, but a number of other modes are available. You can jump straight into a race, go for a new best lap time or attempt a stand alone World Championship. Races can be set to be as long as you like, so players who wish to race for a few hours can do so, and you can save mid race and come back to it later - a very handy feature.
Many players who aren't really prepared for the depth the game offers may well find the seemingly basic task of qualifying a little too much to take. You get all the practice and qualifying sessions that you would in real life, plus something called Race Car Evolution. This mode allows your race team to set up the car to best suit the circuit. Performing a number of laps while settings are tweaked gives you a good race setup, without you having to tinker with settings yourself. It's far easier than manually setting up your car, but can take a long time and is probably far too much work for many players.
I'm not an expert, but everything seems as up to date as it could be for when the game shipped. You get all the drivers, teams and courses, plus what seems to be an accurate representation of the rules. A number of bugs (the severity of each will depend on how important you see them to be) have unfortunately made it into the final game, and these can cause a headache. For the most part Sony's London Studio has done a great job, but the little bugs do stick out from time to time.
The visuals are pretty impressive given the number of cars on screenDifferences between the PlayStation 2 and PSP game are minimal, with Sony doing a great job at making the PSP version a very close port of the PlayStation 2 game. Visuals have obviously been downgraded, but the frame rate remains pretty smooth, and the commentary seems very comparable. The big negative as far as the PSP game goes is load times. Starting the PSP game takes a long time and loading a race can take about 30 seconds. The analogue stick on the PSP is also pretty useless for a game that requires such precision. The d-pad is a much better alternative, but simply can't give as much control as a good analogue controller would.
With online play totally absent (along with the cross-platform online play), PlayStation 2 players are left using split-screen if they want some multiplayer action, while PSP owners are left playing on their lonesome. The expected PSP to PlayStation 2 data synchronisation is included, so you can transfer your career from one system to the other, but that's about it.
Formula One fans don't have a better console alternative to Sony's latest effort, and while it's by no means a perfect recreation of the sport, it does a lot of things very well. Casual fans might be best advised to stay away unless prepared to invest a lot of time into learning circuits and how to drive the incredibly powerful cars. The lack of online play is a bit disappointing, especially as the mode was removed without so much of a word from Sony, but there's still plenty of game to get stuck into. A number of small bugs are unfortunate, and there's no doubt that the PlayStation 3 game will be what fans wanted the PlayStation 2 version to be, but at least that game has a very strong base to build on.
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BRUCE wrote at 09:16 on 08 August 2006
i WILL BUY THIS GAME! BUT i HAVE A FEELING THAT I WILL ONCE AGAIN BE DISAPOINTED WITH DAMAGE, HOW EASY IT IS TO PASS CARS AND THE FACT THAT NONE OF THE AI CARS MAKE STUFF UPS. LOOKING FOWARD TO IT.
tHE ONLY REASON I WILL BUY THIS GAME IS BECAUSE I AM A HUGE F1 FAN AND I LIKE GAMES. F--K THEM SONY BASTA-S FOR KNOW I WILL BUY THE GAME EVEN THOUGH ITS CRAP.
Dear Sony.
Please don't let this game be crap.
Yours with hope.
Bruce
WHO WOULD CALL A KID BRUCE ANYWAY!
Brad wrote at 12:10 on 09 August 2006
Mate, I've got it and the damage is 100 times better than 05, tapping wheels with another car usually causes the wheel to vibrate which affects the handling. The difficulty has also been ramped up, on hard with all driver aids off, you will find it difficult.
I can't stop playing it, its more entertaining than the real life F1 (not hard that tho)
cameron wrote at 22:39 on 12 August 2006
this game is in my oppinion quite a long way better than the last F1 game.It is more exiting and easy to get into.Im hooked into it.
We finally have a good F1 game for ps2
Kiroquai wrote at 23:32 on 12 August 2006
I disagree with the last statement, as F1 06 is most certainly not a good F1 game. Does it improve on previous installments? Yes, in some areas. The handling is sorted. The career mode has been fleshed out a bit and is still absorbing.
The bad points? First, the AI. I understand the PS2 has its limits and they have tried to install AI mistakes into this one, but have any of you watched the AI during a first lap? Some cars suddenly deviate off on some sort of preset 'mistake' line and then slam on the brakes and grind to a halt on the grass. They bump into each other ineptly. They come to a standstill behind someone and get bored, so they accelerate into the back of them and cause a double retirement.
Talking of first laps, how easy is it to gain positions? It's like taking candy from Yuji Ide's baby. None of the AI seem to engage that crucial driver aid known as a brain for the first lap and are pathetically slow, meaning a guy starting last in a Super Aguri can very easily be in the top 8 by the first turn.
Other bugs continue to appear. The AI are completely uneffected by rain during qualifying and will quite happily set times quicker than they were setting in dry practice. The pause and rear view buttons occasionally seem to be disabled by the game, usually as a precursor to a crash between qualifying sessions leaving you no option but to reset. All of them add up to completely cripple the game.
It could have been good, no doubt. The handling is 'proper' now, the damage has improved, and the modes are a step in the right direction. You just have to hope that Studio Liverpool do actually have SCEE's insistance on rushing the game out for the mid-season and the limitations of the aging hardware to blame for the errors which have been made. The PS3 version of the game, something which won't suffer from either problem, will show us how much of an excuse both are. Last season's game was flawed, but the core game was sound enough. This season's game should never have seen the light of day in its current state and the obvious lack of play testing just add up to make you wonder exactly why you spent £30 on an unfinished product.
mike wrote at 22:20 on 13 August 2006
I have the game and its brilliant.Icant stop playin it.C'm on ferrari.Sheumy to win the title.
Ben_J wrote at 17:06 on 15 August 2006
kiroquai, you've put me off the game now. Some people say nice things about the game, others say horrible things (like you). But your last comment made my mouth drop in dissapointment. I've only just right now ordered the game for £29.99 off some website and reading your comment has put me off. Hopefully your wrong or it's just a terrible bug in YOUR game but if it's true I might even cry. Ive played most F1 games and there's always something that they all lack. Clearly we all know what that 'something' is. Then I read things which made me think is this new F1 game going to be the best? And is the 'something' going to be presented in this seasons game? So I became quite happy after reading them. I still think though that the game will be good (because at first I thought '05 was good and people say '06 is better than 05') but your comment has put me a little off. I like the fact though that most people love this game and few of you dont agree but can make some nice points on it. I'm just going to have to pray now that it's good.
Alonso to win the title
Button next year! ;)
Kiroquai wrote at 11:41 on 17 August 2006
Ben_J: The game is not too bad really - chances are you'll enjoy it :-). The problem is that there are a lot of silly little bugs.
The problem is that they all seem (or most seem) to stem from using the new 'Race Car Evolution' mode. It's actually a really good thing and with a little tweaking can be a great mode for an F1 game; you use practice sessions to do laps testing different setting the team put on bits of your car and then you say whether the settings have improved or worsened the car for you, thus honing the setup. No F1 game has done this to date, and it's really quite good.
Problem is, it causes a lot of bugs to crop up. The game crashing one is by far the worst, as the lack of ability to save during career mode race weekends means you risk losing an hour of testing (you can't save setups either).
The thing that makes F1 06 so frustrating isn't that it's a bad game. It could have been a really great game as so much has been improved (particularly the handling) since even F1 05. Studio Liverpool actually listened to peoples' opinions on forums and took the suggestions on board and tired to do something about it. Unfortunately it seems that SCEE didn't give them the chance to test it properly.
Then again, it could be the hardware. The PS2 is aging a bit now and coding something with 22 cars running at the same time with reasonable graphics is putting a big strain on the console. People say Gran Turismo looks much better etc etc, but when you take into account that GT4 limits itself to 5 AI cars on circuit maximum and all of those with pretty much no AI at all, F1 2006 does seem to be pushing the boat a little. On the flipside of course there was IndyCar Series, which had very intelligent AI but pretty naff graphics. Seems Studio Liverpool were trying to find a balance between the two.
Despite all the errors it is still better than F1 05, but the bugs in it frustrate me. Is this what the 'Playstation Era' has bought us up to expect? Half-finished games rushed out without proper playtesting? If so then it's a bad thing.
Oh, and Schumi FTW ;-)
Eduardo Brazil wrote at 09:07 on 23 August 2006
slow motion 2006
why this game, is so slows, sometimes you just can't make a curve.This is the only down in the f-1 06 the rest is ok.
Sam wrote at 16:21 on 28 August 2006
What
This game is fun, the fact that you can be involved in a 10 car pileup is great the AI is like real people and sometimes like inexperience newcomers which does get abit annoying but i one tuch retirement makes it all worth while.
Alex wrote at 18:21 on 30 August 2006
should i buy it
i dnt no if i shod buy this game. i have f1 05 and its getting really boring, because of the damage thing,(you never get damaged)the fact that you can over take neally everyone before the first turn, and that when any of the other cars go into the pitstop the macanics etc are never there and the cars just sit there for a bit and then drive off
Could someone tell me if it is does the same as what i have mentioned^^^^^ and if it is worth its money.
formulaonemadman wrote at 18:26 on 30 August 2006
u get damage whole front wing comes off and the back wing u losse tyres they burst if u have crashed and they come off slighly making yer car slower and harder to control sometimes u get through about 5 or 6 cars at the start depends where u qualified and sometimes when u go round a corner they turn in on u and spin u out and u might get a penalty if u cut corner usally for about 6 seconds and more depends how bad it is and even if it was not your fault pitstops are good u see all the people in work and u have 2 press the buttons to let them do their job but u cant presds each button 2 early otherwise u get a time loss hope this helps
p.s it is worth getting u get somme good crash replays!!!
mark wrote at 16:36 on 31 August 2006
CLASS
The game is the best
spitz wrote at 22:22 on 31 August 2006
it can be better but...
playing this game can fun but i feel it can do a lot better. the bugs sometimes give u a headache, but overall not a bad game. grand prix 3 on the pc is my fav f1 game but this is a close runner.
schumy has the title in his grasp!
jb93 wrote at 21:23 on 06 September 2006
some aspect are worse than 05
in someways i agree with kiroquai i think the first lap does need to be improved but the ps2 has its limits. I've had the game 2 weeks and have found it easy and the bugs can give you a headache but the handling and damage are much better. i think that qualifing in the wet needs to be improve and maybe the commentary and cab communications but otherwise i think the game is worth buying
Redbull121 wrote at 13:48 on 03 October 2006
if you ask me this is the best of all the f1 games it has stunning graphics and the lifespan is fantastic. Although it is very easy to damage your cars this stops you going mad so you have to drive properly.
will you all tell me what you think
formulaonemadman wrote at 19:00 on 03 October 2006
9 out of 10
Redbull121 wrote at 13:56 on 06 October 2006
formulaonemadman2 are you online
Redbull121 wrote at 13:57 on 06 October 2006
if you are i have just sent you a privite message
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