F1 Challenge '99-'02 (F1C) is the latest and in fact the last F1 simulation made by ISI / EA. ISI will concentrate their efforts on the NASCAR series from now on, so will F1C satisfy the simmers' F1 needs? Read on to see what my thoughts are. First a couple of words about ISI's history. ISI's previous F1 sims, and especially F1 2002, are probably best known for their modifiability. A lot of 'mods' have been released for F1 2002, GT Racing 2002 by SBDT probably the best known and most popular of them. So buying one game actually gets you a couple of different type of sims. This hasn't changed with F1C, and there are actually improvements which make the life of the modders even easier than before. It's easy to say that the ISI sims are the most easily modifiable. The basic physics engine of F1 2002 is also very good, proved by the comments of professional racers and car builders. The biggest negative points in F1 2002 and previous versions have clearly been the lacking multiplayer support, some bad tracks layouts and poor replays. In this review I'll try to concentrate on these areas and see how they have been improved, if they have been improved at all.

INTERFACE AND NAVIGATION

If you're familiar with F1 2002, then you'll be familiar with F1C's menu interface, too. After installation you will choose some options like resolution and a couple of other graphics settings. Launching the game the first you'll be asked to create a new driver ID, and choose a team and one of its two drivers. And also the season / year. Yes, like the name of the game suggests, there are four season incorporated in F1C; 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002. There are not only cosmetic changes between the four seasons, but all the cars handle differently from season to season. You'll notice that the 2002 cars have much more grip and power compared to the 1999 cars. Also some of the tracks have been changed during these four years and these changes are also in F1C. But more of this later on in the review.

Like I mentioned all the menus are pretty much identical to F1 2002. In graphics options there are about 10 different settings you can adjust to increase your frame rate or eye candy. In sound options you can adjust the number of effects which also has an impact on the frame rate. You can also change the volume of music, engine, sound effects and speech. One thing I would have liked to see here is a master volume adjustement, but it's not a big deal after all. There's also a rules menu where you can among other things change the rate at which fuel is burned and how quick the tyres wear. This is useful if you do a short race, but still want to do pit stops for fuel or tyres. In the difficulty menu you can toggle about dozen driving aids on/off along with adjusting the AI strength.

Controller support and controller settings are really important in racing sims, because if you can't get your controller working like you want then you won't be enjoying the sim no matter how good it is otherwise. Luckily the controller support was quite good already in F1 2002 and as you might have guessed it's the same in F1C. There are a lot of settings you can change, and this can actually be quite confusing at first if you don't know what to adjust to get linear steering for example. The controller setup in Papyrus' NASCAR Racing 2003 Season for one is a lot easier, but once you have figured out what to change in F1C, things work out fine. The important thing is that you can adjust the settings in F1C in many ways, and you can use two different controllers at the same time. You can also turn on force feedback effects in the menu, and there are a lot more settings in your .plr file that you can play with to get the force feedback to your liking. I've heard that you can't get more than two controllers working at the same time in F1C, which is of course a big shame if you want to use a shifter and separate wheel and pedals with some kind of a mod for example. Other than that the controller support is well done.

The replay feature in F1 2002 was one of the areas that many people were hoping would be improved for F1C. Checking one of my laps for the first time in replay mode I was happy to see that the car looked much smoother and more natural going around the track. A good improvement on F1 2002, but it still doesn't look as good as the replays in N2003. The TV cameras around the tracks are now positioned more realistically and this also makes viewing the replays better. Now it's also possible to view other cars in offline or multiplayer races when they are out on the track. You still can't cut and save replays during a testing session, nor view a lap you just did. The whole replay along with the fastest hotlap from your testing session or race is only saved when you leave the track. So even though the replays are improved there's still some way to go before reaching Papyrus' level.

PHYSICS AND CAR SETUP

Now let's get to the most important thing in a sim; the driving. Even though the physics engine in F1 2002 was already one of the best we had seen, there were some problems with the physics numbers for the F1 cars. You had ridiculous grip in high speed corners, allowing you to take them at much higher speeds than in real life. This was clearly the biggest problem, and was the reason for the unrealistic laptimes at all tracks. Fortunately this (along with a couple of other things) has been fixed in F1C. You now need to use a realistic gear and speed in the fast corners. My impression is also that there's more understeer now than before. This is especially true with the '99 cars. I can remember the drivers complaing about understeer back then, so ISI and everyone involved in tweaking the physics have done a great job here. As a result the lap times have also become slower and are now really close to the times achieved by the real F1 drivers.

In the slower corners the differences to F1 2002 aren't as noticeable, but that doesn't mean there are none. The car just feels better in general during corner entry and the apex. It's a bit more neutral with the right setup and doesn't understeer as bad as in F1 2002 sometimes. On corner exit you need to be more careful with the throttle, and get back on it smoothly. In F1 2002 I was able to floor it quite hard without consequences. I also find that I'm using lower gears more in F1C compared to F1 2002. In F1 2002 I used to take most of the hairpins in 2nd gear and that allowed me to get hard on the throttle in the exit. In F1C this doesn't seem to work as well. I find that the car turns in much better in a lower gear. For example, now I use 1st gear in the hairpin and last corner at Magny-Cours. This is also true in medium speed corners, and from watching the F1 races on TV and viewing on board clips I feel that F1C is more realistic in this way. You also need to watch your downshifting more carefully now, as you can really upset the car downshifting too quickly into 1st or 2nd gear. The car feels much more alive now too. I can feel the car bouncing and sliding a little when I go over the kerbs. It's also possible to catch small slides now better than before using opposite lock. In F1 2002 a better way was to turn more into the corner to catch a slide. This still works in F1C too, but to me opposite lock is the more effective way of catching slides. No amount of opposite lock will save you from big slides though, like if you're too aggressive over kerbs.

The kerbs is another thing that is quite different to F1 2002. Ride them too hard in F1C and you're in the wall. Quite a few people have complained that they're too unforgiving. This might be true in a couple of places, as touching a kerb even at very slow speed leads to a spin really quickly. But overall I'm very happy on the effect the kerbs have now. Take for example Magny-Cours and the two fast chicanes there. Now you need to be very, very presice on where you put the car there. In F1 2002 it was possible to ride the kerbs really hard without any trouble. Now if you try the same in F1C you'll be going backwards on the gravel in a hurry. You can still touch the kerbs just a little bit without upsetting the car at all. You can also control your car better with the steering and your right foot. If you turn in a fraction of a second too early, and ride the kerb more than you want, you should get off the throttle and straighten the steering. This will usually be enough to get you out of trouble with only a little loss of time.

The force feedback in ISI sims has always impressed me, and I think it's the best we have including Papyrus sims. And now it's even slightly better with the improved physics in F1C. You can feel understeer, oversteer and the bumps on the track including kerbs. It's hard to describe, but it's just the feeling of the road that makes it better than in any other sim. Some other sims give you a good sensation of understeer and oversteer too, but otherwise they feel dead compared to the FF in F1C. Going through the second chicane at Magny-Cours gives a great sensation of the FF. First you go downhill, then uphill, over little bumps and kerbs, and you can feel all this through your wheel. Braking a little too late and too hard for a slow corner, and changing down the gears quickly, you can feel the rear tyres locking and sliding a bit. The FF is fantastic, and one of F1C's strongest points.

Due to the changed physics the car setups are a little different, too. Your F1 2002 might just work, but more likely it will be undriveable and certainly won't get you near the lap times you will achieve with a tweaked setup. First of all you need to run the front and rear wing a bit closer together to make the car stable through fast corners. You can also use lower wing now at the faster tracks without affecting the lap times too much. A good example is Spa, you can choose to run close to maximum downforce settings which will get you through Eau Rouge flat out. This isn't the fastest way to get around the whole track though. A better way is to run less downforce to have more speed down the straights. You'll have to lift off in Eau Rouge, but you'll be faster overall. And it's more realistic as well.

In F1 2002 you were able to run maximum camber on the rear tyres and get good grip with it. This also seems to be improved a little in F1C. I'm not noticing a big difference between running maximum camber and something I think is realistic (-3 degrees). I'm not sure if a camber setting of -6 degrees at the rear shouldn't make the car behave really badly, so maybe it's still not completely right. But at least it doesn't give a big advantage anymore.

There are also differences in handling and setting up the different cars, and also a noticeable difference between cars from different seasons. Some things are easy to notice, like some cars having six gears while some have seven. The different teams' cars all handle a little different; some have a bit more understeer, some are better over kerbs. And of course the difference in engine power. The cars from the earlier years have a little less power, and like I mentioned before, the '99 cars especially are prone to understeering more. After switching from a '99 car to a '02 car, you'll notice the big increase in grip. This mostly thanks to the better tyres. It's great fun to drive a couple of different cars, not to mention cars from different season, around a track and feel the differences in handling and lap times.

Tyre wear is much improved. In F1 2002 the tyres got bad really quickly, and lap times got slower towards the end of a stint. In real life the fastest laps are usually done on almost empty tanks and worn tyres. This is what happens in F1C, too; you get faster as fuel burns off. The soft tyres might last a bit too well at some tracks, but it's a nice improvement to F1 2002, and leads to more realistic pit strategies.

Telemetry is the same as in F1 2002, and the best in any sim so far. It's really helpful in tweaking some aspects of the setup, like tyre pressures, ride height and suspension settings. It can save you from a lot of guessing and once you learn to use some of the basic telemetry features you will have no trouble making a good base line setup for each circuit.

I haven't done much driving on a wet track, but from what I saw things are similar to F1 2002 in this respect; very good. You need to be really, really smooth to keep the car on the track never mind achieve good lap times. The braking distances are naturally longer, and out of the corner you better keep your right foot under control. The car needs to be straightened out before starting to accelerate hard. And even then the rear end will step out if you're not careful. There are three types of wet weather tyres, and it's important to choose the right tyre for the conditions on the track. You'll also need to make some changes to your dry setup, to get better grip on a wet track. Things like softer suspension settings, and moving brake bias to the rear. There's also a drying racing line, so the driving in wet weather feels realistic to me. One negative point is that the grip is the same all around the track, there are no patches or rivers of water across the track. The wet weather graphics could also be better. The track surface looks much better in the GPx series. The water spray behind the cars is much improved from F1 2002 though, and now you'll have a difficult time seeing anything if following close behind a couple of cars.