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And look again at the screen shot above. Tthe speed and your current gear are written in grey on the upper right not where you really want to look during a high speed race! All in all, the graphics are good enough. The sound effects are more of the basic stuff with one notable exception: there is dual commentary provided by Murray Walker and Martin Brundle. The former is particularly well known in the United Kingdom for his TV commentary on Formula 1 races, so for British customers this may add a big recognition factor.
I am a huge fan of live commentary for sports games, my personal favourite being Actua Soccer 2 , but car racing games leave me the least convinced about commentaries. Race one round with F1 97 and you know the geographical surroundings and the names of the turns. After a couple more rounds I got annoyed by the repetitive commentary big time and turned it off. Furthermore, I had sound problems with my engine noise in simulation mode which I couldn't resolve.
The average graphics and sounds are accompanied by average gameplay. The arcade mode is entirely obsolete it's simply not any fun to race around in a Formula 1 car in this way here. The driving model is similar to Sega's racing games, but since Formula 1 courses are not looking very arcade-like, it may be a problem related to the genre of the sport rather than the designers of the game themselves.
I lost interest before I even saw all the courses. If you are generally interested in arcade racing, why not go for Ultimate Race Pro or even one of the titles from Sega. They're better, faster, and more fun to play than this one. The simulation setting called Gran Prix Mode makes the game a little more interesting. You can play around with the most common features of a Formula 1 car and try to win a single race weekend or the whole season.
These tuning features are designed for beginners and intermediate drivers. They are appropriate for people who either lack the understanding of advanced car setup or don't have the time to go through hours of car adjustment. For me, it's a similar problem as in Andretti Racing. Why should I bother to play with my wings or tyres when I know that there are games available which offer far more realistic setups? Problem is, the driving model follows these limited tuning options.
The worst aspect of it is the usage of brakes. Imagine racing on Hockenheim, lots of straights with topspeeds and some nasty chikanes. Normally, you would have to spot braking points to slow down in time, but in this game all you have to do is release the throttle and the car loses all of its speed in a second. Strangely, this occurs only if you use the cockpit view but then you wouldn't want any other view in simulation mode. Don't pay for this game. If you want a serious Formula 1 game, take home Formula 1 Racing Simulation instead.
If you are looking for a good arcade game, choose Ultima Race Pro. And if you can't really decide what you want, I suggest Andretti Racing , which offers better graphics and better gameplay. It's also old enough that you can probably find it in a bargain bin or second hand. Formula 1 97 is not a totally bad game, it's just that there is nothing in it that's really worth your money. It may be a nice chip-in though, if you can get it bundled with a 3D card.
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