Formula One 05 PS2 Review

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When Sony took the F1 license exclusively not much was said especially when you compare it to when EA announced NFL exclusivity. Is it because F1 is just so far behind NFL in status, or was it a case of F1 games just being the same old every year anyway? A bit of the former a bit of the latter but ever since Sony took it exclusive, Studio Liverpool have been trying their guts out to make a superb F1 game and they may have finally succeeded. In the year that F1 is coming back to the fore of competitiveness in the real world, the game just may have cracked the big time as you can tell this is a labor of love for Studio Liverpool and not a job.

Of course the first and foremost task of any racing game is to simulate whatever field it is representing. In the case of an F1 game the main thing to simulate is the World Championship, but other options include career mode, single race and TV mode. The single race weekend is fairly self explanatory with practice, qualifying and racing all being part of it on one of the twenty tracks featured this year. TV mode is kind of cool where you can setup a race to watch as you would on TV to predict upcoming races with the real world grid etc but most of the gameplay comes from the improved, but still disappointing career mode.

In the career mode you are tasked with taking on a weak team, impressing the rich teams and ultimately becoming world champion across a few seasons. To get to the peak of the game you have to win sixty races which is just behind Michael Schumachers record so Liverpool really don't want you finishing this game easily. After starting off with either Minardi, Jordan or Red Bull Racing (depending on how well you can race in a trial), you race through a championship and if you impress, you will receive offers throughout the season to move on. Of course depending on where you are determines how competitive you are so getting to a rich team quick is the aim.

We have a few problems with career mode and that is it doesn't go far enough in terms of managing a driver. Sure you have contracts and a manager but other than that it's just tacked on to a world championship. It would have been nice to see more options such as changing managers or fighting for positions with team mates like in a football management game but alas we may have to wait for PS3 for that. There is no commentary in career mode and for some reason you have no communications between you and the pits either. Career mode is fun, but needs improving for the next game.