Official Formula 1 Racing Developer: Lankhor Publisher: Eidos Interactive Category: F1 Sim System Req: P233, 32Mb Ram, 300Mb HD, D3D/3dfx card, Win95/98 Might look like: Monaco GPR Date posted: 23 June '99 Written By: Geert - This game was reviewed on a AMD K6 200 Mhz, 72 Mb Ram, Sb Live!, a Voodoo2 (12 mb), Win98 - A little Introduction Michael Schumacher, Damon Hill, Mika Hakinnen and driver X... When you find those names in a racing game, you can be sure of one thing: the company which has released this game has done a serious effort to make the game as real as possible. The FIA doesn't give their official license away for nothing, only hard cash makes the difference. Now, Eidos Interactive's new F1 racing game has done the thing that Ubisoft and their GP Racing Simulation 2 couldn't accomplish. But the question is: 'Is it as good as Monaco GPRS2'? Inside OF1 Racing! Hey, before you start ... who's X? In most cases, X is the unknown. In the F1 games world, X is always J. Villeneuve, the only F1 pilot who took an own copyright on his name, so games couldn't abuse (hmm) his name. What's wrong 'bout using your name in a game? Isn't it a bit of extra publicity that you get? Damn, those Canadians are sometimes really really weird... :) The Menu is divided in 2 sections, a system menu, where you can adapt the controls and other choices. There aren't many options to change, so this part is quickly done. Lankhorn has added an option "system" where you can see your system specs. Although, the systemspecs that their program detects, because the program didn't find my SoundBlaster Live! Really odd, because in the game I can enjoy fully 3d sound, so why doesn't it find my sound card in the diagnostics? However, the system menu isn't so important, and I fully concentrated my thoughts on the race menu. First thing to do: choosing a driver. Give in your name (maximized to 8 characters) and you will automatically placed in the car of driver X. If you choose another car, driver X will be called Williams (hehe). When choosing your race-team, you'll see a nicely done 3d showroom whereby the car is presented with the two drivers next to it. If you like to know more facts on a certain team, there are plenty of statistics and results to read through. A car is placed in a category from 1 to 5. McLaren Mercedes and Ferrari have a number 1, and drive a lot faster than cars like Tyrell or Minardi, to say something.    How many potentially great games have been corrupted by bad controls? The number must be great, and on one hand OF1 racing has also some slight problems with the controls. The game suffers a great deal from sticky controls. Don't try the game with a gamepad, it just won't go well. The car reacts too extreme on the pressure of the buttons. Press too hard on your gamepad button and there you go... If you haven't a steering wheel attached to your desktop, you're designated to use your keyboard. Even with the keyboard, the first five - ten hours (depends from person to person) you'll spend your precious time on learning how to handle your car. The reward, however, is beneficial. The keyboard touch is the most balanced for this game, and when you have some hours exerciced, you'll surely will enjoy that way of control (however, you'll get painful fingers as well :) ). Next Page Up Previous Page If you want to review your favorite game, or if you work with a computer game company and want your products reviewing, mail info@playdevil.com. All contributions are welcome. Any problems and/or suggestions are always appreciated on webmaster@playdevil.com Nothing of this entire Site, animation & logo's included, may be reproduced, stored, saved, transmitted, in any form or means, electronic, written or otherwise without the prior permission of PlayDevil. Other Logos & Names are Copyrighted Material of its respectful owners. All Rights Reserved. PlayDevil Productions © 199/8-199/9 "rip your own stuff"