Screenshots :.
Formula One 2006
PS2
Matt
14-05-2007
"Bit too close to the tail-end Charlies, there."
"Not bad - moved up to the mid pack now."
"Alonso finds himself mired in the pack"
"Fisi seems to be leading here. That's all kinds of wrong."
When it comes to profitable franchises in gaming, one need look no further than Studio Liverpool (nee Psygnosis) and their annual Formula One games which have been scattered exclusively across Sony’s three Playstation formats since 1996. One of the world’s most popular sports on the world’s most popular format could only spell success, and year after year the most recent games flies off the shelves quicker than a Renault F1 car off the starting grid.
That being said, the games have never quite satisfied everyone. Formula One is a deceptively difficult sport to carry off properly in the form of a video game, and whilst many of the games to date have offered the player a good amount of fun and enjoyment, diehard petrol heads have consistently shrugged off the games as nothing more than arcade titles. Last year’s entry took some big steps towards attempting to remedy those accusations, and Formula One 2006 finds Studio Liverpool striving for an even sharper edge of realism.
Needless to say, this all takes place against the backdrop of the 2006 Formula One season. All circuits are present and correct, and the majority of the drivers are in their correct seats. If you happen to be a fan of Yuji Ide (come on, I’m sure someone is), Juan Pablo Montoya or Jacques Villeneuve then there is no need to despair, as the game was released prior to all three getting the big axe which means your favourite can still be raced as or against in their various teams. Also updated for this season are the new qualifying rules that have seen the Saturday afternoon grid-filler divided into 3 separate eliminators, whilst tyre changes now make a return after a year on the backburner.
The biggest addition to the game this season is the race engineer mode, which allow the more patient racer to gradually set his car to his individual driving tendencies by zooming round and round each circuit and seeing how a series of preset changes make his vehicle perform. Areas such as camber, brake balance and wing levels are all offered, and as such it is an ideal way for a newcomer to get a feel for the effects that changes to certain areas of their 750 horsepower bathtubs have on the handling on circuit. If you fancy yourself as being a bit of a technical whiz kid from the get go the game provides you with all the options to tweak various parts yourself.
The cars themselves handle as close to genuinely as you would guess a Formula One car to handle, feeling pleasingly weighted and allowing you to take smooth, realistic racing lines, whilst for the simulation freaks out there the cockpit viewpoint has been tweaked to vibrate and focus more convincingly which makes driving from the driver’s eye view a challenging proposition. Tyre temperature now plays a crucial part in your racing, and the game encourages you to use your warm up laps to weave around and get as much heat into your four rubber feet as you possibly can to maximise the grip available on the laps which count. It genuinely works too; a lazy out lap will see you struggling to hit the apex into the first turn of the next, and precious time will seep down the drain as you struggle to make your car not handle like it’s a ten-tonne boat.
The racing itself is a mixed bag, with your opponents flitting between being inspired and mildly cretinous seemingly at will. Certainly the most crippling of all these faults is the tendency for your rivals to queue up off the starting line and then proceed in a slow-moving snake towards the first turn, much as if they had been waiting in line to find a parking spot at the local Sainsbury’s. Even when qualifying last on the hardest difficulty setting it is more than possible for you to end up in the top five exiting the first corner, which certainly dents the sense of achievement when you score championship points in something like a Super Aguri or a Midland.
Other than this, the game seems littered with bugs as if it was only finished in time to allow it a week or so of quality assurance. Split times present themselves to three decimal places, but you’ll soon notice that each and every last number is a zero. This may be a minor point, but happenings such as the game randomly skipping the warm-up lap and crashing completely during some qualifying sessions are more serious and really should not have made it into a final product. Graphical glitches often rear their ugly head too with drivers’ helmets completely disappearing at times, leaving anyone watching with the strange sight of a parade of seemingly radio-controlled cars zooming around the circuit.
This is a real shame, as obviously this year Studio Liverpool have tried to implement as much as they could to satisfy the customer. The career mode makes a very welcome return and adds depth, with a third driver contract at the lower teams seeing you undertaking different test sessions on the Friday of each Grand Prix weekend and private sessions in between. It is certainly the most rewarding way to play the game, and winning the title with Ferrari or McLaren having climbed your way up the ladder from the likes of Toro Rosso offers a genuine sense of achievement. Elsewhere the Quick Lap mode again offers you the chance of unlocking classic cars if you manage to beat the best preset times.
In racing terms, Formula One 2006 is much like the Honda F1 team’s actual 2006 season: much potential and hype, but a disappointing end product. Several improvements have certainly been made to the game and you can see that the guys over at Studio Liverpool have made a big effort to chuck in some new features, but the limitations of the aging hardware have played against them and leaves the game running out of fuel shortly before the finishing line. What the game does show, though, is that with a bit of time and the extra processing power that the Playstation 3 will offer, the future could be very bright for the series indeed.
That being said, the games have never quite satisfied everyone. Formula One is a deceptively difficult sport to carry off properly in the form of a video game, and whilst many of the games to date have offered the player a good amount of fun and enjoyment, diehard petrol heads have consistently shrugged off the games as nothing more than arcade titles. Last year’s entry took some big steps towards attempting to remedy those accusations, and Formula One 2006 finds Studio Liverpool striving for an even sharper edge of realism.
Needless to say, this all takes place against the backdrop of the 2006 Formula One season. All circuits are present and correct, and the majority of the drivers are in their correct seats. If you happen to be a fan of Yuji Ide (come on, I’m sure someone is), Juan Pablo Montoya or Jacques Villeneuve then there is no need to despair, as the game was released prior to all three getting the big axe which means your favourite can still be raced as or against in their various teams. Also updated for this season are the new qualifying rules that have seen the Saturday afternoon grid-filler divided into 3 separate eliminators, whilst tyre changes now make a return after a year on the backburner.
The biggest addition to the game this season is the race engineer mode, which allow the more patient racer to gradually set his car to his individual driving tendencies by zooming round and round each circuit and seeing how a series of preset changes make his vehicle perform. Areas such as camber, brake balance and wing levels are all offered, and as such it is an ideal way for a newcomer to get a feel for the effects that changes to certain areas of their 750 horsepower bathtubs have on the handling on circuit. If you fancy yourself as being a bit of a technical whiz kid from the get go the game provides you with all the options to tweak various parts yourself.
The cars themselves handle as close to genuinely as you would guess a Formula One car to handle, feeling pleasingly weighted and allowing you to take smooth, realistic racing lines, whilst for the simulation freaks out there the cockpit viewpoint has been tweaked to vibrate and focus more convincingly which makes driving from the driver’s eye view a challenging proposition. Tyre temperature now plays a crucial part in your racing, and the game encourages you to use your warm up laps to weave around and get as much heat into your four rubber feet as you possibly can to maximise the grip available on the laps which count. It genuinely works too; a lazy out lap will see you struggling to hit the apex into the first turn of the next, and precious time will seep down the drain as you struggle to make your car not handle like it’s a ten-tonne boat.
The racing itself is a mixed bag, with your opponents flitting between being inspired and mildly cretinous seemingly at will. Certainly the most crippling of all these faults is the tendency for your rivals to queue up off the starting line and then proceed in a slow-moving snake towards the first turn, much as if they had been waiting in line to find a parking spot at the local Sainsbury’s. Even when qualifying last on the hardest difficulty setting it is more than possible for you to end up in the top five exiting the first corner, which certainly dents the sense of achievement when you score championship points in something like a Super Aguri or a Midland.
Other than this, the game seems littered with bugs as if it was only finished in time to allow it a week or so of quality assurance. Split times present themselves to three decimal places, but you’ll soon notice that each and every last number is a zero. This may be a minor point, but happenings such as the game randomly skipping the warm-up lap and crashing completely during some qualifying sessions are more serious and really should not have made it into a final product. Graphical glitches often rear their ugly head too with drivers’ helmets completely disappearing at times, leaving anyone watching with the strange sight of a parade of seemingly radio-controlled cars zooming around the circuit.
This is a real shame, as obviously this year Studio Liverpool have tried to implement as much as they could to satisfy the customer. The career mode makes a very welcome return and adds depth, with a third driver contract at the lower teams seeing you undertaking different test sessions on the Friday of each Grand Prix weekend and private sessions in between. It is certainly the most rewarding way to play the game, and winning the title with Ferrari or McLaren having climbed your way up the ladder from the likes of Toro Rosso offers a genuine sense of achievement. Elsewhere the Quick Lap mode again offers you the chance of unlocking classic cars if you manage to beat the best preset times.
In racing terms, Formula One 2006 is much like the Honda F1 team’s actual 2006 season: much potential and hype, but a disappointing end product. Several improvements have certainly been made to the game and you can see that the guys over at Studio Liverpool have made a big effort to chuck in some new features, but the limitations of the aging hardware have played against them and leaves the game running out of fuel shortly before the finishing line. What the game does show, though, is that with a bit of time and the extra processing power that the Playstation 3 will offer, the future could be very bright for the series indeed.
7/10