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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Originality pays off - F1 Career Challenge is the Best, 8 Jul 2003
The developers have obviously spent a lot of time on this and it certianly shows. Career Challenge is the best F1 game to date. With 4 seasons of F1 starting in 1999 and finishing in 2002, this game lasts for ages. All the cars from each season are spot on with correct liveries and colours as they were and even the driver's helmets are exact. You can drive a race from one of the seasons with any driver in the Quick Race option where you can qualify or just simply jump straight into the action. The full settings can be adjusted like Weather conditions, Damage, FIA Rules to name but a few. But on to the Career mode. Create yourself, choose a helmet and then earn your license in a series of tests - which should not pose any problem to newcomers. Then you wait for offers from other F1 Teams who are willing to sign you. You join one and then compete in the seasons, taking part in test days and practice sessions. During the 4 seasons, you will receive new offers from other teams if you have performed well and so you can go from sitting in a Prost in 1999 to driving a Ferrari in 2002. You get special EA points in each race which you can spend on new helmets, engine updates and other such things to enhance your car or just to please the sppearance of it. These points are obtained in the race by your driving skills - such as: complete a sector in a given time, taking bends perfectly and overtaking all give you points. The races are exciting, extremely fast, and the graphics are incredible. The other drivers are prone to making mistakes, like crashing into others or spinning off or taking a corner wide which adds to the realism. The cars reflect real life so that if you are in a Minardi, you are not as fast as the others and you can be overtaken very easily by the top teams, that is unless you defend your position well. This makes the races more realisitic - gone are the days when you can outpace a Ferrari in an Orange Arrows on a straight with no trouble whatsoever (Formula One 2002 by Sony should learn from this game). Basically, the long and the short of it is that F1 Career Challenge is the best F1 game out there. The game appeals to both Arcade players are Simulation players and has a massive life span. Even if the Career mode does not appeal to you, the fact that you can race from 4 different seasons makes the game a lot better value for your money than the usual F1 games. The only criticism is that the game does not feature the 2003 line up but this should not turn you off as the Career mode and the 4 seasons makes up for this. I'm a fanatical F1 fan and the absence of the 2003 data does not bother me in the slightest because the rest of the game is so good. My advice - this is the Best - get it.
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