F1 Racing Championship

With the new F1 season having just kicked oft, we're bound to see an influx of F1 games hit the shelves over the coming months. And first out of the pit lane is Ubi Soft's FI Racing Championship. As far as F1 games go, it's a fairly competent attempt at recreating the high-speed action of the real thing. It's a slickly designed simulation, which otters a lasting challenge and has plenty ot user-friendly options. However, its major problem is that the AI is ludicrously aggressive. At times, races deteriorate into a destruction-derby-type farce, as opponents barge you out of the way and send you skidding across a gravel trap with your nose cone and tyres in tow. You can turn the damage off, but let's face it - you can only ram your way to victory so many times before it gets boring.

Setting The Pace

Customising F1RCis made easy by some excellent difficulty setting options, which allow you to break yourself in as quickly or as gently as you like. However, once you've turned off all the driving aids, F1RC becomes fiendishly challenging. In fact, it's so hard that unless you're a diehard F1 nut, you'll probably find it more annoying than enjoyable, as you'll initially spend more time in the pits repairing your car than you do racing.

Generally the presentation is pretty impressive, with TV-style banners showing the distances between you and the cars in front and behind. Although, for some strange reason, you're rarely given this information when you cross the start/finish line, which is when you really want it the most.

Graphically, it's superior to both GP3 and EA's FI Championship: Season 2000, and while this is hardly a major achievement, F1RC is currently the best-looking F1 game around. It also runs on a pretty low-spec machine - we tried it on a Celeron 400, and while it hardly ran like a dream, it was more than playable.

True To Life

F1RCs claim to fame is that it's the first F1 game with 100 per cent accurately recreated circuits. Forget Crammond and his camera-wielding cronies; every track has been modelled using a GPS. So if you actually give a toss about this kind of thing, rest assured that as you bomb down the back straight at Hockenheim, it's exactly the right width and length, and bears an excellent resemblance to the real thing.

It's also good to see that the AI can make just as many mistakes as you, with each driver being modelled on their performance from the 1999 season. More experienced drivers such as Michael Schumacher are less likely to make a mistake than newbies when you're pushing to overtake them. However, it's somewhat of a rarity that they'll use blocking manoeuvres, as each driver tends to just stick to the racing line.

Fairground Attraction

Unlike GP3, you can comfortably play from a behind-the-car viewpoint as well as an in-cockpit one, which is good news for those of you who prefer a more arcadey experience. Once you get used to the handling of the cars, you'll find that F1RC an be hugely satisfying. The only problem is, you may not last that long.

Despite its versatile customisation options, the game desperately needs a tutorial (along the lines of that seen In F1 Championship: Season 2000) to teach you the subtleties of driving an F1 car, or to just stop you from making a fool out of yourself when playing in multiplayer (split screen and LAN).

F1RC also has several other serious shortcomings. Firstly, some of the rule interpretations are baffling. You can blatantly cut across huge swathes of the circuit without getting penalised, only to be given a 10-second penalty for accidentally over-running a corner. Pit communications are decidedly average, and as I've already mentioned, you're constantly being pushed off the circuit.

If you're desperate to drive round in circles while other vehicles crash into you, then go to the fairground and have a go on the dodgems. However, if you're a true F1 fan who's looking for a new challenge and you can ignore the over-exuberant Al, you'll find F1RC is a fairly entertaining and rewarding Grand Prix game. Just don't expect anything amazing.

Ubi Soft's returning to the F1 circuit with FI Racing 2. Along with a freshly minted PlayStation version, the game's additions include 16 tracks, new stats, souped-up crashes, and new drivers to the lineup. Gamers who prefer a heavy sint emphasis will find plenty of realism as well as high-octane speed. Of course, we'll have to wait and see whether that's enough to help F1 Racing 2 emerge from the pack on the clogged console racetracks...