Result : 8 - Substance and flash!
 | Graphics: 7 - Nice backgrounds, cars ain't GT though. |
| FMV : 6 - Short and arty. |
| Sound : 9 - Just like the TV. |
| Music : 8 - Collection, can you get it in-game? |
| A.I. : 8 - Realistic, too easy though. |
| Lifespan : 8 - Loads of options, 17 tracks. |
| Gameplay : 8 - Realistically twitchy F1 racing. |
| Adrenaline : 7 - Adding guns would improve things. |
I mainly got this because Klaude Thomas worked on it as the designer, and was pleasantly surprised to find a decent product. If you don't know what Formula One racing is, then get back into your time capsule and don't bother us any more. That said F1 is the more sedate of the racing genres - moderately equal cars, going at high speeds, and a stack of laws means that it has never appealed quite as much as other racing types. I do watch it occasionally on TV, and EA have really done the job of making it look like and feel like watching an on-going race. There is Quci Play (arcade) racing, time trials, and levels of competing in the 2000 F1 season. Car modifications have been somewhat simplified, but to just the right degree. You can vastly affect performance, but you don't need to be a mechanic and have a degree in aerodynamics to understand what is happening. You can choose to play as anyone on the 2000 roster, and for any team (Jaguar and Prost included) - my preference is for Barricello in his gleaming red Ferrari. You can use team tactics, and it has decent pit options, and pre-race qualification. I really like the realism, of the weather, drivers AI and car mechanics (watching Michael Schumacher's engine blow, moving me to 1st place, was sweetness defined). The interface, and visual richness of the menu system is refreshing.
The only let down is that the cars don't look as good as Gran Turismo, but considering you can have all 22 cars on at once, and the feeling of the Driver's-eye view, the total experience may just be more realistic. Two player mode suffers even more, with a reduction in quality, and only two CPU controlled cars. Sound is of TV quality, the guy chattering in you ear seems to have a reasonable vocab, but that may be because he doesn't have to talk as much as commentators in say a soccer game. Gameplay is good, it feels twitchy enough to be real (but not unplayable), and full analogue control makes things much smoother than the last F1 game I tried.
The smoothness of the racing is much more sublime, than say rallying or street cars, getting that perfect line really counts. This is where F1 2000 seems like a quality product, but with much more substance than most F1 racers. It is very well thought out, and it is only technology that fails the ultimate test; looking like a TV show. The only niggling problems are two player mode, which really doesn't match the one player experience. and entering your name for high scores. I hate the slowness of the "arcade style", 3 letter, scroll up/down. Why can't it remember your name, usually only one person plays at a time, or maybe it could just remember the last 5 used names or something?! Another thing that bugs me in racing games is multiple different tables for fastest lap times, position etc. If I do well in a competition race, it would be nice to compare with Time Trial, or Quick Play races too. Have practice session races convert to the Time Trail table, and competition racing wins to the appropriate tables (it should be easier to score on Weekend or Quick Play after all). Something else that is getting more noticeable is the Race Highlights option, it doesn't seem to show very useful, or even relevant events at times, suppose there wasn't enough mem to show the whole race back, but considering GT can show a dozen or so laps in hi-res mode...
F1 2000 is probably the best F1 racer out there. Just bring on those PS2 graphical wonders!
