Prepare to qualify...

Monaco Grand Prix. Sunny. 73º F.

5 minutes before the race:
I've been asked to step up in Shinji Nakano's shoes and drive the no.15 Team Prost car. The Mugen-Honda V10 is good, but nowhere close to the Ferrari powerplants. My crew's been tweaking the spoilers all weekend, trying to correct the slight understeer while maintaining top speed. Not good enough for a pole during the qualifying - Schumacher's got that - but I've earned a respectable third spot in the starting lineup. The flag drops. I floor the accelerator, hearing the characteristic screaming whine of a high-toned Formula One race car.

LAP 23
I'm in the lead, frantically trying to hold off Schumacher. All that's on my mind right now is the red No.5 car. Glance in the rearview. Schumacher fakes trying to pass me on the outside on the hairpin. I bite. He blows by me on the inside and starts pulling.

LAP 75
After a spin out on Lap 53 I fight my way back to being four seconds behind the new leader, Frentzen. My crew chief's been barking over the radio that the front suspension's shot, the tires are worn, and that the pit crew's waiting for me. Round the last hairpin and blow by the pits. I can picture my crew chief, watching my insane bravado with slack-jawed surprise. There's no way I'm pitting with three laps left and Frentzen in my sights - even if it means driving this car into the ground. If this baby'll just hold together...

Wow. This game really gets your juices flowing. F1 World Grand Prix is the newest driving game out for the N64 right now and is a respectable racing sim. Every attempt was made to re-create the 1997 Formula One season - from driver qualifying and finishing times to weather conditions on the track. You can choose to be any one of 22 drivers (Jacques Villaneuve's name is conspicuously missing, replaced by a "mystery" driver on the Williams team.) and select from 17 beautifully detailed tracks. Racing modes include exhibition racing, an actual season, or time trial.

In addition, there is a "challenge" mode with three types of scenarios. In this mode, you are faced with the actual situations that various drivers on the circuit encountered in the '97 season. In the "offense" scenarios, you are expected to gain as many positions as possible. In "defense", you have to maintain your position, usually against faster cars. Finally, in the "trouble" category you attempt to finish the race as best you can with a variety of mechanical problems (such as worn brakes, a gearbox stuck in second, and even losing a wheel!). Skill points are awarded depending on how well you finish. A very creative and innovative feature of the game.

Like the other Formula One titles out for the PC, mastering this game isn't easy. But hey - no one ever became a badass F1 driver overnight. Unfortunately, there is no tutorial for you newbies out there so it's pretty much sink or swim. The manual is sadly lacking in driving tips (I got some help from the Gran Turismo reference manual of all places) and also light in explaining the features of the game. I've never analyzed the telemetry of an F1 car before, so this option went completely over my head.

The graphics in this game are solid. The cars are done beautifully, although sponsor decals are a bit sparse (Can't have those evil tobacco companies advertising on games the little kiddies might be playing.) . Schumacher just doesn't look right tooling around in an all-red car without "Marlboro" pasted all over it. Other than that, the detail in this game is top-notch. Your car kicks up small divots of grass when you go for that unexpected ride across the lawn and the rooster tails of spray that fly off your wheel in wet weather vary according to the wetness of the track. After stopping in the pits to get fresh tires, you can even see the little stickers pasted on them. Warning flags are given for straight-lining chicanes as well as passing other racers on a caution. It's the details like these that make this game a real eye-pleaser as well as giving it a real "sim" feel.

As beautiful as the graphics are, it appears that Paradigm bit off more than it can chew. Screen updates slow down considerably when the camera captures an entire field of cars. You can almost hear the processor huffing and puffing for breath.

As much as I enjoyed playing this game, some of the other flaws are serious enough to hold it back from a higher grade. Although the car physics are decent on the Champion (highest) skill level, the car's handling just doesn't look right; it's too arcade-ish. At times it looks like the car is floating just slightly above the track, and during spin-outs the car acts as if it's on top of a lazy susan. On the easier settings, the handling is unrealistic and arcade all the way.

Going into the pits may be a necessity, but it is one of the weakest parts of the game. Your pit crew are all paper-thin 2D cardboard cutouts that don't even move. To make things worse, you have to enter the pit in the cockpit view (so you never actually see anyone working on the car) and someone places a huge "BRAKE" sign in front of you (after you've already come to a complete stop) just so the front jackman wouldn't have to be animated. As if this isn't bad enough, it takes the same amount of time to refuel as it does to repair a broken front wing, replace a wheel that got sheared off, put on fresh tires, AND refuel.

Multiplayer is a joke. The game only supports up to two racers, but even this is hardly worth playing since you and your opponent are the only two cars on the track! Interestingly, the screen is split in half vertically instead of horizontally like Diddy Kong. This game should've stayed as a one-player offering instead of trying a half-assed attempt at multiplay.

After playing this game for a while, you get the feeling that developer Paradigm put so much emphasis on making F1 World Grand Prix look so thorough graphically that everything else was left to simmer on the back burner. Still, this is a respectable attempt at a driving sim, weaknesses and all. While this game should be much better than it is, let's hope that it serves as the building point for forthcoming N64 racing sims and not the benchmark.