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F1 Career Challenge Review
Mark Simons
08/07/2003
EA's last F1 game, do they go out with a home straight overtaking win, or stall the engine in the pits...
A moment's silence please. F1 Career Challenge, will, *sniff*, be the last Formula One game we see from Electronic Arts, at least for a few years, as Sony Computer Entertainment Europe has snatched the license from EA?s iron-handed franchise grip. Will EA go out in a blaze of glory that will see them stick in the minds of F1 fans for years to come, probably not, but this last game isn't too bad...
The game covers the seasons from 1999 to 2002, as SCEE forthcoming ?Formula One 2003? has exclusive rights to this season?s events. The game is focused on an extensive career mode, which pits you at the bottom, having to gain your license and work your way up from the lowly teams to breathing down Michael Schumacher's neck. Creating your character is a bit odd though, we've got used to games that let you customise the smallest details of your character, but here you get a handful of generic character models ? black, asian, white, and erm, we can't tell what the others are meant to be ? great imagination guys, and no women, and women look good in boiler suits, so that should have been reason alone (whenever do you see a female F1 driver ?Ed). The other would be that perhaps there might be women out there who like the sport and don't want to pretend to be a man. Whatever, this isn't the most important part of the game, but it's sort of representative of some good ideas being implemented less than perfectly, which, is perhaps representative of this game as a whole.
If you've played a vaguely serious Formula One game in the past few years you'll know what to expect here; faithfully recreated courses, real cars, drivers, good graphics, good sound effects, some good handling that aptly manages to capture the difficulty of controlling an almightily powerful go-kart. EA have also got a funky interactive pit stop, which appeared in last year's version, you have to brake at the latest possible moment when entering the pit, again a bit before your garage, turn, gear up, then accelerate, but not too quickly as you'll stall. The only problem with the effect is that your pit crews have heads that are too big for your bodies and look like a bunch of monkeys; also as any F1 fan will know, the pit lanes are chaotic affairs bustling with activity in the real-life, once again we?re left waiting for the tumbleweed to blow across in this adaptation.
Once you've passed your license you can embark on a career; we actually like the way EA have implemented this, not having an overarching plot, a la Toca Race Driver, means that the emphasis is placed a lot more on your performance on the track. Mess up too much and you'll find yourself looking for a new employer, it hurts when they tell you you've put in a poor performance, you want to go out there and win it for the monkeys that are your pit crew, looking at them it's a wonder they can fix your car.
On the track is where it matters though and this is where F1 Career Challenge really frustrates. If the framerate were locked at a silky smooth 60fps (or even 30) then this would be wonderful. The graphics are not the most detailed or defined, however they do look rather good in motion. They create a very good atmosphere and with some lovely camera focusing, sun glare effects, reflection, rain, heat haze along with some very good smoke and dust effects you have a game that is a bit rough around the edges, but the overall impression is rather good. It's just that going into the first corner of an F1 race with the framerate stuttering with cars all around you, well it's not that great for smoothly navigating your way through, especially with the twitchy nature of these cars... To be fair it could be that this review comes off the back of some extensive Midnight Club II playing, which isn't the best practice for the precise inch-perfect nature of Formula One, however, when we go play the crisp, smooth, equally challenging F355 on the Dreamcast we have none of the issues that we have with this game...
The artificial intelligence is somewhat lacking in intelligence, these are meant to be representing some of the best drivers in the world and they just don't seem to be that smart. They seem to ram in to the back of you rather too often, and you see them spinning out on corners more frequently than you are used to in the real races. You could argue this makes things more exciting, and it does, but if you want a more realistic recreation of the sport, the opponents in this game don't offer it.
There are some interesting things to liven things up whilst you are in the race, as if racing along at a couple of hundred kilometers an hour wasn't enough. The EA sports card system gives you points for overtaking people in succession and if you hit a hot zone - by traveling fast enough - you then have to race to the end as fast as you can to get some more points. Points means cards, and cards mean little bonuses like new helmets, invincibility and upgraded engines for qualifying, that sort of thing. Wonderful little bonuses I'm sure you'll agree...
As much as we want to enjoy what EA have tried to do with this game there are some nagging flaws that stop this from being as enjoyable as it should be. All of the elements are here for a good game, but this isn't much of a leap over the last version of the title and some fundamental things, such as the framerate really affect the overall experience. There should be no excuse for EA to have a game that is flawed in this way. The most frustrating thing is that aside from this and the intelligence issues, which don't detract too much from the game, most of what EA have here is solid. The handling is good, a little frustrating but you ease into it once you start to think like an F1 driver, the damage model is good, the career mode is very compelling and it mostly looks the part.
If you are an obsessive Formula One fan then you may want to look at this game, but the chances are you already have last year's version. If you like racing games generally then it is hard to pick this over Toca Race Driver or Ferrari 355, the former offering the best racing experience, the latter one of the best driving experiences. Hey why not go out on a limb and try Moto GP 3 for something different.
