car set-up: detailed enough for a psp, not for a hardcore F1 nutter.

graphics: Decent for the Psp, framerate judder when all 20 cars on the grid.

car handling: poor, hard to control with a d-pad, they should not make the cars as twicthy on the psp version to take into account the fact you cannot play the psp game with a wheel.

AI: ridiculos behaviour, too much erractic braking a swerving. could have been coded much better.

gameplay: poor, it’s very hard to win a race even when you qualify from the front row becasue of the sensitivity of the d-pad. They should’ve really made the psp f1 cars less twitchy to accomodate this.

penalty system: relaxed penalties I get penalised for either a slight bump or not even blocking the AI on their ho-lap, the AI get no penalties for doing the same things as far as I can see, even though they can frequently ram up your rear end around many corners.

major bug: fuel and tyre wear – ok, you play a 25% distance race and you’re on a 1 stop strategy, but i run out of fuel on my penultimate lap?? pitstops are the major issue in this game, either the man holds you there for an eternity, or they make you pit twice even though you’re on a 1 stopper because they somehow managed to get not enough fuel in your car to last you the end of the race. This can happen in every race, and ruins the enjoyment value. Bring back the manual pit-stops where you press the buttons and do it yourself like F1 06, instead of leaving yourself in the hands of the AI in the game for your pistops. Bring back the user control in pit lane.

Conclusions: wait for f1 2011 this year, and get it for pc or another console.

Still asking myself why I traded in my F1 2006 for this. I preferred everything about F1 2006 compared to this, even though it’s not as up to date, but it had a much better game engine, AI, and I preferred the tracks they had on the F1 calender which they had back then anyway. I’m not much of a fan of the newer tracks, with the exception of Singapore which is awesome to race at.

The previous F1 2005 game was ok as well but the car simulations were not as good as F1 2006.

Now Codemasters have developed F1 2009 for PSP and its got one big flaw. The cars are seemingly drifting/sliding all over the place, you just cannot play this game. I do not know what codemasters think this is meant to be but its simply not anything I can use for more than 2 minutes.

It might start up quicker and there is no prolonged car setup nonsense as in F1 2006 but whats the point of the game if the car simulation is so bad.

I might be wrong – maybe this is meant to be realistic, in that case no one can is ever going to be able to play the game.

If you want a cheap formula 1 game option you will buy it on a console. since the only way to play Rfactor to a decent quality would set you back about £200 for a decent graphics card another £100+ for a wheel to play it properly.

Nonsense. You can play RFactor on full details at 1600×1050 running at 70+ fps with 30 cars on screen on a 4670, a £50 graphics card. A basic wheel will set you back £30/40.

You could get a PC for £300 with a monitor and buy a £50 card. Or you can get a Wii for £150 and buy a 20″ TV for it for another £200. Shockingly, thats the same price…

Plus you’re getting an actual simulator. Not a faux sim like this, Dirt, or GT. Yes, the AI does suck at the moment.

I’ve got GT on my PSP and it moves so slow it feels like you are driving at 40mph not 140mph. Plus you can simply cut every corner by driving on the grass, which seems to give just as good grip as the road.

If they aren’t for sale here, then Bernie and all these fans who complain that Americans don’t like F1 have nothing to complain about- how do they expect people to develop interests in the sport when the game is kept away from the world’s biggest consumer market?