Formula One 99

I've always felt that most F1 games put too much emphasis on aesthetics and not enough on game-play. Personally I don't care if my car has 30 adjustable points or if all the correct licenses are present. At the same time I know hardcore F1 fans want all that stuff and more. F1 '99 does a fine job of keeping all the details of the '99 F1 season in order while offering driver-friendly vehicles and adequate Al. Psygnosis has made a point of softening its traditionally strict car control to attract more casual racing fans. While not quite as arcade-like as Ubi Soft's Monaco Grand Prix, control is definitely easy to learn and master. Interestingly enough the digital pad works much better than analog. When using analog the cars will occasionally drift to the right side. Digital is straight as an arrow, however. On a negative note, two-player is really mundane and at times downright unplayable. It's split-screen, one-on-one with no other cars on the track. Some of the wide-open courses are tolerable while others, like Monaco, are horribly confusing. In the end, despite the mediocre two-player, I really like the game. The gameplay is as fun as Monaco Grand Prix's but unlike that game, you get all the fancy F1-licensed teams and tracks. F1 '97 still tops 'em all but for a really fun and sim-accurate racing game Fi '99 fits the bill.

Having never been a fan of Psygnosis' Formula One series after Bizarre Creations left the franchise, I was pleasantly surprised with Formula One '99. I had trouble with the game until Dean advised me to use the D-Pad instead of analog, and the car immediately handled much better. I still prefer the feel of Monaco GP but Formula One '99 has all the names and licenses so it's a give and take. It's nice to see this franchise back on track once more.

The overall look and feel of F1 99 is more 'game' than 'sim', which is unusual for this series. Thankfully though, it captures enough of the spirit of the sport to hold fans' attention. The 1999 season is ably re-created (except for the last few races) so you can pretend you're Eddie Irvine getting screwed by Ferrari if you want to. My only major complaint is the two-player mode which suffers both graphically even if there are only two of you racing.

Past Formula One offerings were truly something, but then things went downhill for a couple of years. Thankfully, the series is back on track with this year's version. Controlling your racer is much less strict than in years past (kind of arcade-like, in fact) and the graphics and frame-rate are about as good as they can get at this point. Surprisingly, I had better luck using the digital pad to steer than the analog stick. This is one to look into.