The handling etc are still quite decent, but I can’t look at it. You’re driving into a big sky-coloured void with trees and track popping up inches ahead of you. My God, how bad do these look now? Blocky, terrible draw distance, pop up, primary colours, I was always more of a PS person than N64 at the time but I really don’t think these stand up well, even the ones I remember being quite good at the time. I don’t think I realised as a kid that there were actually settings to tone that down…but the fact that you can race four whole seasons of F1 here, it’s actually quite good fun and still in 2021 looks pretty sharp and detailed and has a real feeling of speed…. I didn’t actually like this at the time, I hated the over-sensitive, oversteering handling.
This is the one I’m most excited to have rediscovered, because it’s great. Still, I found this surprisingly satisfying, just squint a bit.
I love the fact that you can turn on ‘98 events’ which basically means the race plays out around you exactly the way it really did, down to the lap AI drivers retire on, qualifying positions, even generally race position - although you feel like you’re not really ‘racing’ the AI, you’re in a big time trial while the pre-determined race takes place around you. Ok so when you first turn this on you’ll have to ignore the fact it’s an absolute blurry mess - you can barely make out the car you’re driving let alone the ones around it which are just black blobs until you’re alongside them - stick with it for about half an hour and suddenly I find it starts to look bearable and actually the trackside detail, draw distance etc are very good especially compared to the old PlayStation games like F1’97 which are sharper but the scenery literally pops up ten yards ahead of you. I love the little touches like stewards jumping out of the way as you approach, can see why this has been so heavily modded to keep it alive because it nails the feel. Deceptively easy to control the car, but the second you make the tiniest error you’re stuck and have to ‘call for help’ (cut scene of a bunch of spectators righting your car!). The graphics are pretty decent - especially in HD on the Xbox360, and the stages are brilliant - Harwood Forest and the ‘Rally of Gateshead’ - that’s my area, I walk the dog round there, and even think I recognise some of the tracks which is pretty amazing for such an old game. I know it’s still held up in some sim rally circles as the best of the genre even now and I’m amazed how well it stands up even now.
Honestly, I’d forgotten all about this one.
Unfortunately the PS2 didn’t survive, mainly because on my way from the car to the house I dropped it in the road, but the other two are in perfect working order and so I set about revisiting some old games to see how they stand up in 2021.
My parents recently turned up with a box full of old crap they’d found in my old bedroom back when I still lived at home (I moved out 11 years ago so it’s taken them a while!) and underneath all the dust were an N64, an Xbox, a PS2 and loads of cables, RF adapters, and games I’d forgotten all about.