Formula One 99
- January 01, 2000 00:00 AM PST
Thinking of F1 racing brings to mind visions of pit crews, speedy little cars and hairpin driving physics that are often more frustrating than fun. In Formula One 99, Psygnosis does the impossible - they offer an F1 racing sim that can be fun for armchair drivers weaned on Need For Speed or Gran Turismo.
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Warm Up The Formula
F1 racing requires a hardcore mentality, more so than any racing genre this side of NASCAR, and Formula One 99 delivers on that count. It contains all sixteen of the world's F1 circuits, all the F1 teams and drivers, and even the voices of announcers Murray Walker and Martin Brundle. You have control over almost everything, from your car's settings and equipment to what features you can do without. You decide how realistic the game will be, from turning off tire wear and damage to removing fuel use and spin-outs. Changing weather conditions make the races spicy and keep drivers on their toes as you switch to rain tires in the middle of a race and then back to dry tires as the race goes on.
What really scores for Formula One 99 is the fact that you can customize the level of realism. This takes the stuffy physics of those super-fast F1 cars and "dumbs them down" for players whose idea of fun isn't sitting there facing a wall after a spin-out. You still get the feeling of sheer speed that F1 involves, but you don't have to worry so much about mundane details that hardcore F1 racers clamor for. This makes it fun for a wider range of racers than any other F1 game.
Fast And Furious Wins The Race
Formula One 99 isn't much to write home about as far as graphics and sound are concerned. The graphics look nice, but they're about par for the course on the aging PlayStation, with texture warping and blocky racetracks with sparse background detail. Soundwise, you're basically hearing the high-pitched whine of the F1 engine, but you'll also have to deal with the repetitive and annoying commentary. By the third Quick Race, you'll be hearing commentary repeated so often that you'll know what the announcer will say before he says it. Lame.
Controls are still touchy, but that has more to do with the nature of F1 racing than anything else. Your car is going so fast that you can't expect to steer like a madman without spinning out. What really works is the analog gas/brake control, which is subtle enough to give you complete control over how your car drives. The control is such that F1 fanatics will enjoy a degree of realism, but others will also be able to hit the tarmac without feeling overcome.
They Changed the Formula
Formula One 99 is a refreshing change - an F1 sim that's accessible to players used to slower, more user-friendly racers like Need For Speed and Gran Turismo. If you're looking into an F1 game, but you couldn't care less about realism, then go for Formula One 99.
