SimHQ.com - Motorsports Zone - F1 Challenge '99-'02

F1C has spicier menu graphics than it's predecessors. The menu's do retain the same layout and structure as F1 2002 with a few meager exceptions and one notable missing feature that was in F1 2002. There is no "Driving School" mode in F1C. Evidentially EA believes it's either not necessary or their customer base for F1C includes such an overwhelming number of carryover F1 2002 buyers, that having the Driving School mode inclusion is superfluous — and maybe they're right.

Still, remember back when you were a first time user of the F1 series and you left the pits, attempting to accelerate to no avail because you couldn't get out of first gear? Did you speak a few choice words then go back into the controls setup and check your settings? Did you finally figure out to press the "L" key or did a friend advise you? The manual still doesn't advise you what to do, even though the key guide (it's inside the manual and not a separate card) clearly indicates the "L" is for the speed controlling "rev limiter". Sure you should RTFM, but you still need to know to use the "L" at that point. Imagine how easy it would have been for ISI to add a narrated 1 minute AVI or MPEG file to orient first time drivers.

Not including the additional mode saved some measure of development time and cost, and let's be optimistic and think it was time applied to the revamped and improved physics.

What you do have new is the four year F1 season option to select. Below is the Jordan Racing Team for the 1999 to 2002 seasons. Each image shows a composite how the teams, cars and one of the tracks have changed. The menu's correspond to the teams main color scheme (in this case, bright yellow) and help to set off the overall theme. No career mode, but having all four years is reason enough to grab F1C off the store shelves. The mid-2001 season changes to driver assignments and the rules are not reflected in F1C, so not everything is exact.


1999 Racing Season	2000 Racing Season

2001 Racing Season	2002 Racing Season

There are places on the Internet where F1 purists will extrapolate every nuance that ISI missed in their track constructions. Some claims that off-camber turns are backed incorrectly, etc. etc. It may be true in full or part but it's obvious ISI made a major effort to clean-up the tracks. And yes, they did clean-up the graphics too from earlier years (as well as incorporating the new physics). But how does it look compared to F1 2002? Here are a few comparison screens (that are large files!). Note F1C's subtle color in trees and sky, and the repositioned items trackside.

Little difference at Eau Rouge except for colors and the wheel. 318 kb

The images above shows Spa from F1 2002 and F1C, the 2002 season. Note the difference in the colors on trees, sky and the remarked Toyota steering wheels. The power shutoff has switched sides on the cowling.

Menus - Roses and Thorns

Now we get to an area of the entire EA F1 series that represents a problem — the unevenness of the menu option selections.

The main menu is the same as F1 2002. You select "Players", "Options", "Replays" and "Accept". Each of these has multiple sub-menus and selections. The Options menu selects the same selection grouping as before: "Difficulty", "Rules", "Controls", "Display" and "Audio".

ISI has continued the terrific slider bars for the car setup. The four basic sliders get you up-and-running, and show the car's overall speed and cornering abilities. There is no value attached to the sliders beyond "Low" and "High". That works well and you get a sense of measurement with the incremental markings.

So why did they not use this same approach in other menus? Settings go from "Low" to "High" and in some menus extend from "High" to "Full". Full doesn't strike me as the next incremental step from High. In other settings, such as the car damage and opponent strength, the settings go from 80% to 120%. Why 80 to 120? 80% percent of what? Why not follow the "Low" to "High" approach or give us a meaningful value such as 0 to 100%, or 0 to 5 increments? In the Difficulty Section you'll find "Damage Multiplier" which starts at 20%, "AI Drivers Strength" which starts at 70%, and "AI Drivers Aggression" that logically goes from 0 - 100%. If there's a positive in this it's that most of us have become accustomed to the menu's after this many versions. It would be nice to see some enterprising modder take on the menu interface as a project. Look what SP3 did for F4.

Another menu gripe is the control settings. Reading the manual isn't much help in this area. There is an endless procession of sub-menus and settings. So much so that items of true value can become lost in the maze. F1C supports split axis (using Control 1 and Control 2), but it can be a challenge to configure. Adjusting the deadband settings can make a tremendous difference, especially if you're using force feedback, but it's trial-and-error getting the settings adjusted.

While critical of some of the menus, I'll praise the car setup screens. Very well done and a great "next step" to tuning beyond those four driving sliders. You can really adjust the setting's in minutia, and clearly see the difference on the course. That's good because you'll be fiddling with the damping settings a lot getting the car balanced out. More on setups later in the driving impressions.

F1C has new code for their Multiplayer Mode along with the included Gamespy Multiplayer System. EA does not host it's own gameplay. If you're thinking an F1 version of the online NASCAR Racing 2003 Season, forget it. At least until things get rolling along. The times I been in F1C multiplayer via Gamespy have produced very few races with very few racers. I must admit to some disappointment at the lack of activity I've seen with the in-game capability. As an alternative to Gamespy, check out F1RST II. They have a lot of activity going on for the F1x series, and that includes F1C multiplayer racing and add-ons. One other point...there are no AI drivers in the multiplayer mode so you're running against only "real" drivers. This may or may not be a big issue for you depending on preference.

Unfortunately, the UDP and TCP ports reference information is not listed for F1C (as it was for F1 2002). For a thorough discussion on multiplayer connections in F1C, look here. The F1 of Scandinavia Forum has a terrific ports discussion for F1C.

The audio setup menus are the same as F1 2002 with one significant exception. They've added a selection for "Number of Effects". The menu goes to red if you get crazy with the settings and go beyond your sound cards capability. Supposedly. My onboard sound on the Asus A7N8X Deluxe is terrific. The setting goes to a red after the value of "16". I've yet to find out what happens if it's pushed to "20". Does it cause distortion? A slowdown? A meltdown? No idea and I haven't found any documentation yet to clarify the question.

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