F1 screams out of the pit lane for another year, this time however it doesn’t lock it’s 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.
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F1 Manager (PC)
Addiction is the only word for it. The season starts in 1999 and moves on to 2000. There ... more
is so much detail within this game that users can get in as deep as they like. They may find themselves in the early hours trying to work out optimum fuel levels for the race or sweating out a slow tyre change.All the major players such as Jordan, Ferrari and Williams are represented, and it's a great challenge to put a British driver on the podium. A word of advice, though: users should try to take their eyes from the screen occasionally, have a pit stop. Otherwise, they will have trouble getting anything else done. --Paul Munford
season quite so soon, but eventually every EA Sports title takes to the annual update trail.For statistical die-hards the game is up to date until Spring 2001, which some may perceive as an advantage over Formula OneGrand Prix 3. If your machine is powerful enough, all the visual trimmings to make the race the way it's watched at home can be re-enabled.The radio link purports to be the same as heard by real-life drivers. In real life it's doubtful that common sense is spelled out to the driver like, for example, the necessity of staying on the track. It's another feature that would be tried and forgotten other than for the lap time updates--if you don't have the seconds necessary to read the onscreen displays.Then there is the pace lap, EA's homage to televised Formula One racing coverage. Sadly it's a waste of time when you want to get your hands dirty competing. It's not all bad, however, and the best new feature is the driving school where your general skills are tested, including achieving a certain manoeuvre or distance in a given number of seconds, and graded by shades of medal. As a training mode it's quite effective.That training is affected when set to ultra-realistic and the cars slide across the track as if still in arcade mode. The physics have improved, but in the benchmarkGP3the car's visual reaction fits the handling. If you have the originalEA F1 2000, it's best waiting for the inevitable2001edition for this problem to be addressed rather than settling for this interim update. --Kenneth Henry
keep you in control when playing any racing games, especially the F1 racing campaign with the F1-like design. Get bumps, collisions, crashes, TwinWheel F1 comes with the Immersion-patented TouchSense technology and advanced vibration feedback function and feel every different action feeling that you make in the game.
F1 screams out of the pit lane for another year, this time however it doesn’t lock it’s 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 the 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 it’s 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 graphics engine isn’t without its flaws however, for a rundown of the flaws please check out the section marked bugs at the bottom of this review.
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 Jordan 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, Buzzin’ 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 it’s 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. There 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, let’s 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 positioning 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.
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 you’re 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.
...good, I decided to buy F1 2000, (four wheels are better than two!). Initially i had trouble loading it up but once i was going, brrrrrrrrrrrrooooom, off I went. The superb graphics hit you first. They are the best I've seen on a PC screen. The rubber marks on the track show where the cars have once been, and these change every lap, showing where cars have skidded off tha track. To go with the track is are the environmental factors ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Advantages: the game plaing, realistic game Disadvantages: not exellent graphics and interface
This game belongs to the elite of the sport's games.It is a classical race game with the similar options and game effects.For example you can
choose any types of the plaing game: race, Grand Pri and the whole
season.However, there are few differences, such as four parts of the
Grand Pri(like in the real Formula1): practice, qualification,morning
practice and the race.If you would like to win the whole season you have to know something about technical ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Advantages: great looks, and sound Disadvantages: game play not the best ive ever experienced
...scores as many points as it does in the graphics department. For starters you can configure a number of variables to dumb the game down to a pretty arcade racer or bump up the realism to the die-hard level. F1 2000 offers a number of options to help assist you in driving, such as opposite lock assistance (the computer will make sure you always have enough lock to correct spins). If you think driving a low-slung car at hundreds of miles an hour is pretty easy, turn off all the driving assistance and see how well you do. The very first race I played I decided to crank up the realism to the max and turn off any computer help. The result was my car doing 80-mph donuts before slamming into the wall not fifty meters from the start line. The physics are very dead on, which can be intimidating for casual gamers. By having a host of difficulty options...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Advantages: are it’s brilliant graphics and realism. Disadvantages: it needs a good computer to run the game to the best of it’s ability.
...F1 2000
In my opinion F1 2000 is by far the best racing simulator I have played on. It takes a big P.C. to run the game, but when installed the action comes to life. Racing with the best of Ferrari and McLaren makes the racing action more realistic. To appreciate the graphics to the full you will need a good quality computer and if you don’t have one you may feel disappointed with the game. Once playing the game the slightest steering mistake at speed will send you of the track. There is music playing while racing which creates a great atmosphere. The advantages of this game are it’s brilliant graphics and realism. The disadvantages of this game are that it needs a good computer to run the game to the best of it’s ability. I think that the price is too great for the game....
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Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful
Advantages: Car modelling and physics, Track modelling, Presentation is good Disadvantages: System Hog, Cars control like shopping trolleys, No Murray Walker... could be an advantage for some
...viewpoint it is awful.
I have played this game with a pad - cockpit view playable, external view is slide city, the car constantly slides out.
To be fair there are options you can turn on and mess about with that make this less of a problem, but it never completely disappears. You can turn on all sorts of help from steering assist, braking assist, etc all these help you to control the game a little better.
There are an awful lot of car setup options within this game also, which helps if you are an F1 fanatic. Me, I just use the preset car setups :-)
All in all whilst this game isn't the worst ever it is full of irritations. The statistics and cars are now also out of date.
If you have an excellent computer
Don't mind out of date statistics
Have the patience of a Saint
Know all about car different car setups
Have...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
13.02.2001
29.08.2001
