PLZ post F1 Challenge review

[WENJIE WU w]

Hi..

I just saw the game in E.B.
Can someone please post a review for this game.

Thanks

[Mark & Michelle Wood]

In <524ddu$c...@kernighan.cs.umass.edu> w...@el0.cs.umass.edu (WENJIE WU

Here is my review/opinions on F1 Challenge (US) for Saturn :

F1 Challenge is a 1 player game loosely based on Formula 1 racing. You
can choose from 5 cars/drivers and 6 tracks and play in 2 modes, arcade
or time attack. There are 3 difficulty settings (easy, normal, hard)
and 3 fixed controller configurations. You can also choose to save to
internal or cart memory on the option screen. There are 2 playable
views : in-car which shows the nose and front tyres but no steering
wheel and chase view which shows directly behind your car. There is
also a rear-view picture-in-picture that can be turned on or off and is
available from either view. Instrumentation is on the screen in either
view also and shows speed, tach, fuel, laps, and position. Each race
in arcade mode is fixed at 8 laps. There is no qualifying so you
always start in position 24. There is a course 'radar' on screen at
all times which shows your position along with the top 4 other cars.
Prior to each race, you can set up your car--five positions for each
the front and rear wing, two choices of tyres (long-life or high-grip),
and the amount of fuel (20 different settings). The only gearing
choice is manual or automatic. In time attack mode, there are no other
cars, no car set up is available (only transmission choice and
car/driver choice) and the rear view window isn't available. In arcade
mode you get a lap time but in time attack you get lap times plus times
for each section of the course.

Choosing your car is a little different, as you are choosing a driver
as well from 5 of the top F1 drivers (Hill, Shumacher, Alesi, Hakkinen,
and one other that I didn't recognize so I can't remember, sorry).
Each shows a picture of the driver and a 3D turning view of his car,
Alesi in a Ferrari, etc., just like the real thing. I can't say at
this point if it really makes a difference which you take other than
the engine note (Ferrari has a high pitch, Bennetton a low one, etc.).
Three of the courses are real ones, Hockenheim, Suzuka, and Monte
Carlo, while three are fictional, Neo City Novice, Neo City Advanced,
and Neo City Expert. The Neo City courses are the same course with
sections opened up and sections closed but they each feel like a
different course. Each course also has a pit area. You can drive into
the pit at any lap (or forego it altogether) but once you enter pit
road the cpu takes over and your view automatically switches to in-car.
You have 10 seconds to make your choice of tyres and fuel but no wing
adjustments are allowed (only before the race). Once your pit is done,
the cpu drives your car out to the track and automatically switches
back to chase view if you were using it before you entered the pits.
There isn't any racing season. You race one track and then your game
is over. If you place first, you get to watch a victory lap with the
camera view circling around your car and the music is different. The
ending is the same for all difficulty levels and for either
transmission type. There is no replay feature.

Graphics are very much like Daytona or Sega Rally. Lo-res texture maps
and unfortunately it has late draw-in (pop-up?) almost as much as
Daytona did. The cars look nice with a lot of sponsors on them. The
in-car is nice in that you see the front tyres and the names actually
start spinning faster and faster from a stop. The tyres still have a
polygonal look but the texture maps hide it somewhat. The rear-view
mirror slows the speed (framerate?) somewhat but as you can toggle it
on and off it is still a nice feature, you can use it to 'glance' in
the rear-view and then switch it off to get back to speed. With the
rear-view off the game moves fast. There are some flashes off the rear
of other cars (like in real racing) and smoke will come up if you skid
(or dirt if you get off-road). None of these effects are outstanding
but get the job done.

Sounds and music in the game are standard. Some screeching/banging
sound effects and a good engine sound with each of the 5 cars sounding
different, too. I am not a music major so I can't classify it, sorry,
but it is not rock or techno and there is no singing. It didn't get on
my nerves and it seemed appropriate enough.

Gameplay is this game's strongest point. The car controls nicely (I
played it with an arcade pad but it supports the Arcade Racer according
to the manual). The wing settings and tyre choice actually make a
difference in the amount of control versus speed. The amount of fuel
(weight) also effects your speed. An odd thing, you never need a full
tank of fuel to complete 8 laps around even the longest courses. You
will need to pit, though, as after about 3 laps using high grip tyres
your control starts getting loose, after 6 laps you won't be able to
control in the turns and the other cars will start passing you. The
long life tyres last a little longer at the cost of less control early
on but they still won't last the whole race. Running into things
doesn't ever make you crash or flip but it does slow you down and wear
out your tyres faster. Note that there is no indicator for tire wear
other than how your car controls and no one will prompt you when to pit
other than a low fuel light. You will need to make one pitstop but
fortunately so do the computer cars. I didn't lose much ground going
into the pits, either, unlike games like Virtua Racing where it's
generally suicide. Anyways, it's nice to see a game that practically
requires a pitstop (even if you don't wreck) although you can finish
the race without one, you just probably won't win. I never crashed
hard enough to flip or spin (I don't even think you can) but you can
collide with walls and other cars and I liked the way my car reacted.
If I hit a car ahead of me, I didn't spin-out and neither did he unless
he was leading into a turn, then he would spin-out with smoke coming
from all four tyres! The worst I ever got was slid sideways when a cpu
car hit me from the side. You can drive the wrong way although I was
never bounced in that direction, I just wanted to see if you could.
Overall, crashes are more like Sega Rally but the driving isn't as
powerslides are not the way to drive at all, rather slow controlled
turns as each game is a different sport. In fact, it's hard to slide
at all on new tyres. The courses require a lot of gear changes which I
really liked. The computer cars are mildly competent and don't go out
of their way to block you or run you off the road. They have to pit
and slow for corners or each other also.

Generally, I liked the game. It was fun to play and has replay value
as any good racer does. It isn't just a copy of other games, either.
The tyre wear and changing amount of control during a race plus the
pitstops are a nice feature. The control was good but different from
other games, also nice. The graphics are generally good (before Sega
Rally I would have said great). The difficulty settings are good--easy
is, well, easy, normal is good for learning and hard is challenging but
not impossible. I would like to have seen a 2-player mode. Also,
longer races would have been better with cautions for wrecks and
changing weather (rain and rain tyres). I would have liked to be able
to set my gearing also, at least a couple of choices. A full
complement of F1 drivers on the course would be cool, too. A season
mode would be nice with points standings and all. I would like to
control my car in the pits, also. This is only the second game (the
other is Virtua Racing) that I liked the in-car view since you can see
part of your car but I still prefer the external view even though it's
like the 'chase' view in Virtua Racing and not the 'float' view (my
favourite).

Overall, the driving/control is good, graphics/sound are okay, options
are average at best. I had fun playing it.

Skid

[Mark & Michelle Wood]

Here's my review/opinions of Robo-Pit (US) for Sega Saturn :
(I have only played/demoed this game for a short time, btw)

Basically, it's a 1 or 2 player (split-screen) 3D game of fighting
robots. In 2 player mode, the screen is split so that player 1 is on
the left and player 2 is on the right. You have a choice of 3 views,
chase, float, or first person (you can only see your robot's arms).
There are different arenas with obstacles in them but there is an arrow
showing which way your enemy is. Some obstacles (rocks/trees) can be
picked up and thrown at your enemy. The robots themselves are
generally on the 'cute' side with cartoonish eyes and bulb shaped
bodies. The action is pretty basic, move, shoot, swing an arm or
weapon, defend with an arm or weapon, jump. Overall the gameplay was
on the boring side, IMO. Graphics are flat polygons and the arenas are
generally so, too. Control is pretty good with little slowdown but
again there isn't a lot of special technique to the game.

The one really interesting feature of the game is the robot building.
You can choose from several bodies, legs (or wheels, springs, etc),
eyes, and each arm/weapon plus the colours of them. You start with
only about 5 choices for weapons but can earn more by defeating cpu
opponents equipped with better equipment. Also, your parts can be
improved (faster or better turning for the legs, more punch in your
punching arm, etc). Unfortunately, all the parts are not immediately
available for 2-player mode so you have to earn them in 1-player mode
first. There are (I think) 100 cpu opponents so by the time you have
played that much you will be too good for anyone else in 2-player
(unless they have the game also I guess).

Honestly, I can't recommend this game as the action was just too basic.
The robot building was also too basic although that would probably
improve as more parts became available--but I doubt I would be
interested enough to play that long and I doubt the new weapons would
be that much better. The robot-building is the only feature this game
has over the soon to be released Virtual On which isn't enough to make
it a worthwhile purchase.

Skid