" Everyone should give this game a try...just, you know, turn off the announcer voices. "

      Title: Formula One 2001 by 989 sports

      Format: Racing for PS2

      Reviewing Monkey: Simi N.

      The Hype: Get behind the wheel of a real Formula One racing car and feel the rush of speeding over the pavement and turning on a dime. Great graphics really get you into the game as the car in front of you goes spinning into the wall and metal car parts go whizzing past your head.

      What This Monkey Thought...

      Graphics: The thing that first impressed me with the graphics in this game are the textures that you will see on your car's wheels. When you drive over some dirt, the dirt gets on your tires, and gets worn off while driving on the track again; the same applies with the grass. Another nice touch is that all of the surrounding buildings, even hotels far removed from the track, are fully 3D rendered. The cars themselves look great with awesome textures, and good rendering and the frame rate is a solid 60 FPS. For the record whoever chose the pictures to put on the back of the box was a moron! The game looks way better than these pictures make it seem, unfortunately the cars don't look as good as those in Gran Tourismo. 4 out of 5.

      Sound: I have to say, I don't really watch racing too often, but I love the high-pitched whine of a huge, powerful engine at high RPMs, and the best part is the Doppler effect when cars go whizzing past you. The sound of the car driving over gravel, and grass is awesome, as is the skidding and crashing sounds. Basically the sounds are perfect for getting you into this game. Unfortunately the commentary is not very good. The voices don't match up really well and there is way too long a pause between the description of the action and the name of the person responsible. And every once in a while you will only get half of a line, like when you hear, "Oh look...." 3.5 out of 5.

      Playability: The game play is really cool, mostly because you can tailor it to the way you want to play. For example if you are really into experiencing exactly what the actual drivers do you get four separate 60 min. practice sessions, followed by a 60 min. qualifying round, and a 30 min. warm up before each race in world circuit mode. But if you don't really care about all that stuff and just want to get to the race you can skip to the qualifying round, or skip it if you don't care about starting in last place and go straight to the real race. As far as the actual racing goes the physics are great, the real damage from collisions is awesome! Tip: Formula One cars don't handle very well in the grass. Also really cool is that if you choose to have a manual transmission you get a button for a clutch which is pressure sensitive so if you press it down all the way there will be a complete loss of power to the drive train. And the absolute best part is that you can use the "Gran Tourismo" wheel in this game, or if you don't have that much money you can use the Pro Racer, which I must say is awesome with this game. 4.5 out of 5.

      Multiplayer and Replayability: Well the game is definitely fun enough; it is full of speed and cool car wrecks. Realistically, yes if you do all of the practice sessions it is a very long game, but if you're that into racing chances are you will play through it many times just to play through the game with the different teams. And of course the multiplayer adds to this. But for most of us once we beat the world championship mode, we won't play through it again, but will probably play quick races or multiplayer a lot. 4 out of 5.

      Story/Dramatics: There ain't no story. 0 out of 0.

      The Verdict:

This really is a solid racing game. Even if you are not a real Formula One fan, you will find this game easy to get into and fun to play. Everyone should give this game a try. Just, you know, turn off the announcer voices.

      The Good: Good graphics, cool tracks, good physics, awesome speed, and it is easy to pick up and play.

      The Bad: The game is too slow in split-screen mode, and the announcer's voice doesn't match up very well a lot of the time.

      The Overall Ugly: You don't need to be a fan to enjoy this game.

      What it's Worth: Market.