F1 Race Stars PC Review

The official licencing for this game is what is going to sell it, without the familiar faces and names I don’t think this game would have much of a leg to stand on. That’s not to say it’s a bad game because it’s not. Although it’s not exactly amazing either, at least not in my option.

Codemasters have made better racing games in their history, this much is obviously but what we have here wasn’t intended to wow the fans of titles like GRID and DiRT. This is clearly a game for a younger audience, or a more immature audience (like me). While I did have fun playing it I can’t exactly see my self as the sort of person who would rush out and buy it, or play it for any considerable length of time. Its a good game to fire up for a cheeky bit of multiplayer silliness, a coffee break title that is fun in small doses or when your taking a break from a more demanding title.

The graphics in the game are well presented, even with the black border issue I mentioned before it’s not exactly hard on the eyes and the colourful design is sure to go down well with a younger audience. Its easy to pick up and play too but overall the mechanicals of it feel a little uninspired and it lacks the ability to apply the same skills that made games like Mario Kart such a success. With no power sliding mechanics to master, everyone is on a level pegging and there doesn’t feel to be a massive difference between the slower (but still actually fast) 1000cc karts and the 3000cc karts.

Do I recommend this game to everyone, no not really. Although there is definitely an audience our there that is going to love this game, my 6yr old son for example seems particularly entertained by it thanks to it’s easy controls and cartoon styling, yet he has little knowledge of who any of the people in the game are, rendering their inclusion pointless in that respect. If the game didn’t have the names and faces of real F1 stars I don’t think many people would look at it twice.

It does have a great selection of fun and well varied tracks that make it good value for money, but my final point has to be that while this is an entertaining game, it’s just your average arcade racer with well above average presentation.