racing and flying

F1CS2000 is an excellent game. The set up menu covers all the aspects of real racing. And what you change effects the handling and speed of your car. The training mode is a must if your new to F1.
The circuits are realistic and the graphics are good. I recommend a steering wheel with pedals. I iue the Cat2 and it really adds to the realistic feel of actually driving. And don't cut corners or drive like a NASCAR driver or you will get a 10 sec. stop and go penalty or worse case you will receive a black flag.
I highly recommend this game.

F1 2000 is the best F1 sim I've seen since Psygnosis's F1 '97. The handling is precise, with all the understeer that is talked about with current F1 cars and the braking is okay. Although it has an annoying tendency to lock the wheels when braking at slow speeds. I like being able to specify pit strategy for all the sessions at the start, but it would be nice to be able to modify this while in the pits (you can change your pit window during the race, but that's it) when testing different fuel loads. The driving views are excellent, especially the in-car angle and the courses are realistically depicted (which is expected) and rendered quite smoothly. Car damage is depicted well, although it is still possible to T-bone a wall and not lose anything from the car or change the handling characteristics. Basically, this game is well suited to someone not interested in serious F1 racing, but who wants to have a fun evening pounding around a few tracks.

For those that are into super realistic F1 simulations, you may want to wait for another version. This game has several annoying bugs in it and has the feel of an advanced beta. Here are a few of the problems I've encountered:

1. Sound. There are multiple bugs in the sound, most notably in Monaco, where the echoing engine sound in the tunnel gets reversed with the normal engine sound after a couple of laps into the race. Secondly, the engine sound occasionally disappears entirely when starting a lap in either practice, qualifying or a race and will only come back after restarting the game.

2. Playability. It is ridiculously easy to win regardless of the level of difficulty. Normally, a perennial backmarker like Minardi should never be able to challenge McLaren, yet it is easy to take pole in any race and lap the field with any car. Part of the reason for this, is the game never pushes the other cars even close to their cornering limits, having them brake at least 15 m too early in some cases. Finally, the game slows everything down when cars are in close proximity. This makes it extremely hard to play, as you have to use an entirely different set of braking points when you are near other cars as opposed to when you're driving alone.

3. Weather/Tyre type. The car handling doesn't change noticably from dry to wet weather. The only real difference is that there is more wheel spin when you put the hammer down from either a standing start or when moving slowly. Directly related to this is the fact that you have no control over tyre type when going into the pits. The track could be bone dry, but if the race started out wet, you have to stay on wets all throughout the race (or practice/qualifying).

Overall, this is a decent sim, but needs a fair amount of work. I eagerly await F1 2001...

F1 Championship Season 2000 is an excellent step up from the former F1 2000. Both games are enjoyable, but most importantly, they're both driveable, unlike virtually all the F1-based games for PSX (except the Greatest Hits game Formula1).

Those who have previously played F1 2000 will instantly recognize that F1CS2K is largely based on its predecessor. However, the physics engine has been updated, including new car set-up options (such as Rear Spoiler). Due to the upgraded physics engine, it is difficult to use the same driving approaches in both games, but F1CS2K's physics engine actually increases both playability and believeability... and overall survival at Monaco!!

However, F1CS2K provides more features than its predecessor. For those just beginning with F1 racing games, Training Mode is absolutely important, allowing the player to both learn the courses (including corner/segment names) and receive visual and auditory tips and feedback concerning each course's corners and tricky areas. Scenario Mode is great for everyone from novices to experts, challenging all players to raise their skill level as they progress through its fourteen stages of real-world F1 racing concerns, from simply finishing at or above a certain position, to coping with problems such as engine misfire.

The visual detail is quite impressive. Clouds are reflected on the shiny surface of the cars. The grooves on the tires attract the eye. There are still some minor pop-in issues as certain textures/patterns come into view, but this is really barely noticeable, especially when contending with a large pack of traffic.

The sounds are better overall. Most impressive is the higher-pitched sounds of the cars, closer to actual F1 engines. This higher pitch also carries further, allowing the player to better hear other cars located elsewhere on the circuit. The team radio provides more information, which can be of great benefit to the attentive player.

My only major complaint is the French-language option of the game. I speak fluent French, but the voice heard over the radio is extremely difficult to understand. This is not simply an issue of divided concentration (focusing on the race and focusing on the voice); the problem is the voice-acting itself.

One tip which will definitely help in playing virtually all racing games: Buy or rent any game of the Gran Turismo series and complete all the license tests. Among other things, the license tests will teach how to handle different types of cars and how to approach different types of corners in both flat and hilly conditions. The latter is especially important to F1 racing; for example, the Interlagos circuit itself has 90-degree corners, J-turns, chicanes, and severe elevation changes, including the deadly left-hand steep-downhill Turn 1 at the end of a lengthy stretch of flat-out acceleration.