Winning Formula ?

Post by **Neohound** » Wed Mar 07, 2012 8:13 pm

Is there anything more pleasurable than unwrapping a sealed Dreamcast game ? Er, don't answer that ! Well I finally got a couple hours spare and decided to give this a whirl. I've been anticipating this for some time so I guess it was bound to be somewhat anticlimactic. Firstly, the graphics are not what I remember from World Grand Prix 2 and are disappointingly lo res with some very compressed looking textures. The car models are ok (apart from the comically hexagonal wheels) and the courses do look similar to their real life counterparts, but overall the graphics look very dated. I started with the Australian GP, which is a converted public street course, and found the hundreds of dots making up the road markings to be very off putting. If anyone has played Monaco Grand Prix Online then you'll know the standard of graphics I'm referring to. They do the job, but really, when you consider the Dreamcast is capable of producing graphics of the calibre of F355, Le Mans 24hr, Vanishing Point etc, F1 Racing Championship looks like a blot on the landscape. As a Dreamcast graphics junky myself I found it very disappointing and incredibly dated.

Unfortunately there are gameplay aspects which also really spoil the game. In Arcade mode especially, I found the AI to be nonsensical, dumb and plain wrong ! There are good bits though. The frame rate is very smooth for the most part and the handling, especially in simulation mode, is very good. In fact I'd say the realistic handling does go some way to saving the game as it can be very exhilarating and rewarding. Providing you put in some practice in the free run mode then the actual races can be tackled in earnest.

I haven't played enough of the game to really judge it's quality over, say, a season of GP racing, but so far my initial thought is that, if you're a fan of Arcade type racers, then there are many more obvious games out there on DC to try out. On the other hand, if you like 'open wheel' racing, and prefer simulation type games, then this could be the one for you.