Review:
F1 Championship (Season 2000)
Reviewer/Editor: Mike Dixon
(6/2/03)
Mac publisher: Feral Interactive ($50 direct from Feral)

Racing games are few and far between on the Mac. But, over the past few years, Mac game publishers have brought games like NASCAR 2003, SpyHunter, and now F1 Championship 2000 to the Mac, finally ending a drought of racing games on the platform. But like all games, especially ones with 3D action, the faster the computer you have, the better the game will perform. It also doesn't hurt to have a wheel/pedals too, and with Mac OS X, you now have a nice choice of game hardware to make racing more fun on the Mac.

While F1 Championship 2000's minimum system requirements indicate a 333 MHz PowerPC G3 (purple iMac, in other words) as a workable Mac for this game, don't believe everything you read. Even my relatively new iMac G4 with 17-inch display (800 MHz G4 processor) had a hard time running this game smoothly. Racing games need a minimum G4 processor at 733 MHz (in my opinion) for adequate game play.

F1 Championship runs in Mac OS 9.1 or Mac OS X (10.1.3 or later), and this review is based on the game's performance solely under Mac OS X 10.2.6. In order for the game to run more smoothly (more fluid), I had to adjust the game's quality settings to reduce the amount of detail in various things like shadows, buildings, etc. One of the biggest improvements was to reduce the number of opponents racing with you. My computer did best with 12 other cars on the course, instead of 30. Your computer may or may not need adjustments.

I played the game using the keyboard. This is something that many Mac users have grown accustomed to, since there have been virtually no game wheels that work with the Mac. Now that Mac OS X is out, there are many wheels out there that work with the Mac. Unfortunately, I didn't have a wheel to try with this game and I wish I did...using the keyboard to drive is not ideal, and can be very painful over many continuous hours of gameplay.

I have to be honest, I am not a racing fan. Sure, I live in North Carolina, but NASCAR is not on my list of things to watch or follow and neither is Formula 1 racing (which is what this game is all about). However, I do enjoy computer racing games, so I had hoped that my lack of Formula 1 knowledge wouldn't diminish the game's experience. Certainly, a F1 fan would enjoy this game more since it refers to various well-known F1 drivers and racing crews.

This game is based on a console (i.e.: Playstation) game, but I was amazed at the amount of details and adjustments you could make to your vehicle. Most of it was way over my head, referring to gear ratios, differential lock, weight bias, spring rate, and other adjustments you could make to your car. Luckily, there were several settings that made it easy to jump right in and start driving. Automatic transmission, reducing the rules and "invulnerability" were my favorite settings (no shifting required, no penalties for cutting corners, and my car couldn't get damaged). The intelligence level of the other drivers could be adjusted as well, from conservative to aggressive. Even at the lower setting, it was hard to keep up with these drivers.

Practice, qualifying, warm-up, and race time: it was all fun, but challenging. The game comes with a driving school where you can hone your skills before hitting the circuit. I recommend the driving school wholeheartedly! In the championship game mode, you race at every Formula 1 track worldwide over the course of a season, gaining points if you finish near the top. Like NASCAR, the one with the most points wins.

Graphics were quite good, but will look a lot better if you have a very fast Mac. I had to reduce the quality of the game's graphics in order to play the game smoothly. Therefore, the game looked more like an arcade game rather than a realistic F1 race. You will race in various weather conditions, from sunny and hot, to cold and rainy. Racing on a wet surface is darned near impossible if you attempt to keep your pedal to the metal. The sound effects, except for the car's engine sound, were quite good. The car's engine sounded artificial. The game also supports network gameplay, although I wasn't able to test it. Each gamer must have their own F1 Championship Season 2000 CD-ROM to play.

In Mac OS X 10.2.6, the game ran flawlessly.

I'm sure many of you are wondering why we're reviewing F1 Season 2000 instead of Season 2003. That's the nature of Mac game development: we get them later rather than sooner...but we get them nonetheless. The game's graphics do show an outdated quality to them (compared to the newer games of today), but it is still quite playable (much more so than NASCAR 2002 for Mac, which requires even more computer horsepower). Overall, I'd recommend this game to any Power Mac G4 733 (or higher) owner interested in racing Formula 1 vehicles. It's a lot faster and more difficult than NASCAR in my opinion, and it's a true (but fun) challenge for any race fan. Visit Feral Interactive for more on F1 Championship Season 2000 for Mac.