F1 06 Review

F1 06 is a pretty faithful recreation of the sport

Formula 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.

Racing 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 screen

Differences 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.