F1 Challenge 99-02 (PC, EA, General)

By PETER ELEY

Formula One racing is possibly the most exciting and glamorous sport in the world. Drivers need nerves of tungsten, and nanosecond reflexes. The rewards for those who make the grade are enormous, the risks deadly.

Few people have the ability to drive a carbon-fibre shell housing a squillion horsepower at 350kph just centimetres off the tarmac.

The challenge for any software developer is to construct a game that mirrors the real thing, without making it impossible to play for a critical mass of buyers.

F1 Challenge 99-02 manages to combine a realistic simulation of the sport with a game that is easy to pick up and play.

EA's racing games to date have focused on a single season, but F1 Challenge 99-02 lets players jump in and race as any driver on any track from those four seasons.

Why change from the usual yearly update? It isn't clear, although there have been some licensing glitches with the sports controlling body and this is possibly the last F1 title from EA.

If that is the case, the series will go out with a bang, for this game is the full package.

It has superb graphics, a whole garageful of ways to tune and tweak your car, statistics for Africa, and best of all, a racing model where practice and fine-tuning pay real dividends.

The only thing missing from previous EA F1 games is a full career mode, but with so much else going on, you won't really miss it.

Don't expect to install the game, boot it up and cut up Michael Schumacher on a tight bend at Monaco. The game doesn't work like that. You will need to put time in on practice laps, and spend time with braking, gear change and steering options set to dummy level before taking on the best the sport has to offer on a level playing field, or rather, track.

* Email Peter Eley