5punk

Formula One: Championship Edition - PS3

Introduction
This is the game they talk about on the telly, which the new F1 drivers use to learn the circuits now that testing is banned. One of the best collection of circuits in any racing series and some damn fast cars. It's based around the 2006 season, so there's no Hamilton or Vettel yet, and both Schumachers are still racing.

Gameplay
In Quick Race, Time Trials, Race Weekend and Championship you select an existing driver and 'be' them for the duration, but in Career mode - which spans five full seasons - you enter yourself, first having to trial at a lower team to get your first drive.

A full race weekend in this game really highlights how much the testing ban must be hurting the teams in F1 now, as it is extensive. On Friday there are two hour-long (real time) practice sessions where you go through a series of adjustments on the car - there's only just enough time to get them all done fully, but you can skip ahead if impatient. On Saturday there's another hour of practice, followed by the three knockout qualifying rounds, then the race on Sunday. You really get a chance to learn the circuits during the testing, though it can seem at odds if you select a short race length (as low as 3 laps). Pit stops must be made depending on selections or strategy.

It features the usual array of selectable driver aids, auto-braking, big green line to follow etc to tune the game to the level you find challenging.

Sights and Sounds
Looks pretty good and represents what you need to see without being state of the art. Car damage is well done with bits breaking off realistically and they have some great sounds in there with the cars sounding like a bag of spanners if you meddle too far in the setup.

Stuff that sucks
The pit stops are awful. Pit lane entry is hard enough where not only can you get jammed against the sides if you miss the entry a little, but some cars seem to stop right in front of you. The worst bit about them is stupid "interactive pit stop" QTE though - you have to press all the buttons when they pop up around the car to make your lazy bastard mechanics do anything. Not realising this, I went from 1st to 11th.

There's a bit of randomness in the job offers. Supposedly on passing the trials you get a job offer as second driver, however Toro Rosso still didn't want me, Midland F1 offered me the #2 seat, but Super Aguri offered me the first driver position.

Conclusion
Not flawless, and comparatively old - its replacement is due in September.
This game is all about the circuits. Ordinarily in a racing game I'll want to do as few laps as possible and there'll be tracks I hate, not so here. I almost see it more as a tool to learn the circuits and actually enjoy doing the practice laps - after all, depending on the realism level you've selected, the bit they normally show on the telly of your weekend may be very short indeed.

Score : 8/10

Formula One: 2011 - PS3

I didn't review last year's version, since apart from getting rid of the dreadful pitstops, there wasn't a lot to commend it.

This year's version (F1 2011) is much the same as last year's, but probably offers enough improvement that it's finally comparable to SCE's 07 game reviewed above.

Built by Codemasters using their rally game engine F1 2010 was much-criticised for fake lap times posted by cars out of your field of view as well as several stupid bugs and some horrible textures on car decals.

F1 2011, seen by some as a bugfix with tweaks, addresses most of these - most noticably the graphics, which are very much more impressive. The pixellation on the decals is gone and when it rains instead of just a few puddles, you get a fully reflective surface - which looks especially impressive in the two night races. It still looks a tad cartoony to my eyes compared to watching a real race on the TV, but it's certainly the best example graphically I've played on a racing game on the PS3 - even the mighty Gran Turismo suffers from some truly horrid pixellation issues where smoke/fog is involved.

The bugs I will have to wait and see, but the tweaks don't offer a massive amount. The crumbly Pirelli tyres, KERS and DRS all feature, but it terms of driving only really serve to make things more complicated - even in the easiest driving mode KERS and DRS have to manually activated, with predictably catastrophic results if you activate them somewhere stupid like on a bend.

The difficulty is high, as it should be, but doesn't seem very balanced between circuits, or between qualifying and racing - which almost feel like two different games. I've struggled to qualify above last at most circuits by a margin of between 2 and 5 whole seconds, yet in the race am pretty easily able to take a few places then keep up with what are supposed to be much faster cars. I even managed a rather unlikely win at Kuala Lumpur for Team Lotus - which would have no doubt delighted the owners, but shouldn't really be happening if there's any semblance of simulation in there.

I have been blocked on my qualifying laps by cars which have no right to be going as slowly as they are, since it was near the end of the lap and they didn't pit. Other niggles would be the inconsistency of the driver aids - the braking/anti-lock assist has you absolutely crawling around corners if you don't get the line right, but that same auto-braking system has you braking massively later than any of the AI drivers having you plough into the back of them if you're not careful. The AI doesn't seem to make any particular effort to avoid ramming you up the arse, either - but of course never takes a penalty for doing so.

The only all-new track is India, which is a fairly decent track, Bahrain (which was easy, but rubbish in the game) is dropped from 2010 and Hockenheim switched for Nürburgring (neither as much fun as their historical versions). The 07 game had both the German tracks, the snore-fest Indianapolis, Imola (nice) and Jerez as a test track (quite good), but lacked of course the newer circuits (Valencia, Abu Dhabi, Korea) and notably Spa (excellent). Silverstone is noticably different in the later games and pretty confusing if you're used to the old layout - you'll find yourself in a head-on crash if you try to enter the old pit lane, but it's actually a nicer drive than it was before.

As I said in the first review, this game is all about the tracks, so on that alone is a good buy. It's the only place you can drive India and the new Silverstone and Spa in the rain are joyful experiences.