1 2000 Championship Season

I'm not a gear head, but I love to race. Actually, I'm a recovering Nascar for Mac, addict. I've been clean ever since we (Me and my buddy Mike Riso) shut down the Red Line Racing League. I haven't touched a steering wheel in a couple of years. Why? What happened?

History Lesson : The game got old. Don't get me wrong, Nascar for Macintosh was a great game. Developed by Papyrus around 1996, it was a port of the first Nascar game (now a part of the Nascar Racing Series for PC that is owned by Sierra). You would not believe the community that developed around it. There were leagues (MACAR was the original) and there were conversions of tracks and car sets, all created to lengthen the life of a single game. But, in the end there was never an update and the game essentially died.

2002 A New Birth : Just when I thought I had gotten the racing bug out of my system, I ran across some information about a racing game being developed for Mac. Could this be true? I checked around, did some searches on Google and it turned out that it was true. The downside? The game was based on F1. I love racing but I was used to Nascar style racing with beating and banging on short tracks and drafting on the superspeedways. The only time I had ever even seen F1 was when I was flipping through the channels and hit Speedvision. The only other open-wheeled game that I had played was Indy Racing 2 for Mac and I was terrible. The cars seemed so delicate. One bump and the day was done.

Delays : I found the site of the company that was doing the port. Feral Interactive. The site became a daily must visit to see of there was any news. So, I started to get excited. I even started to watch some F1 races to see what it was all about. Then the ship date came and went. Then there was another scheduled ship date (Nov. 8). The day was marked in iCal. Checked the web site. Nothing. Waited a couple of days. Nothing. I was bout to give up hope. Friday Nov. 15, I was getting ready to go to Chicago for the weekend when I decided to do my daily ritual and check the Feral Interactive Web site. It was different. There was an update. Another delay. November 22, MacExpo London.

In addition to the delay there was a surprise. Like a gift left under the Christmas tree. A downloadable demo. With much anticipation I downloaded the 45 MB demo.

Gentlemen, Start Your Engines : I installed the demo and loaded the game with no problem. I was just minutes away from racing again on my Mac…

About the Demo : The demo comes with one track, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, home of the US 500. You can choose from one of six drivers and can only run a six lap quick race. All of the car set up options are available (shocks, gear ratios, wings, etc). Multiplayer action is not available in the downloadable version but will be available in the full version. Other modes that are not available in the demo are Driving School, Test Day, Grand Prix and Championship. All of the video and audio settings are available for tweaking as well. Other options include the ability to change the strength of the AI drivers and their aggression.

Playability : I really didn't know how I would like the game. Now I do. I love it. I've run about 20, 6 lap races so far and have improved my lap times greatly. The game is challenging but can be fun right out of the .sit file.

Starting Your Engine : When you run the game for the first time, it is set with all of the driving aids on. These include Braking Assistance, Steering Assistance, and Shifting Assistance. Your damage is also set to zero. Playing the game like this is more like Arcade Mode. You can get out there and tear it up without worrying about a DNF. To me, this is fun but not conducive to replayability. If you can beat everyone right out of the box then what is the point?

My suggestion is to turn all of that off (well except maybe the damage) and get out there and really try to master the course. I started with the AI at the lowest strength and gradually am working them up as my skills increase.

Realism : The realism of the game is what will make it shine, and last. Tire wear, fuel usage, mechanical failure. Racing is not just about going fast. It's about strategy and getting the most out of your car. I'm sure that once the full version ships, this game will test your ability to not only race a car, but also test your ability to set up a car for race day and for a championship run.

Misc. Information : There are four types of weather that you can set for each race. They are Wet, Dry, Overcast and 2000 Season (which uses the exact setting that were in place during the 2000 F1 season). Wet is tough, but looks awesome. It is very easy to spin the car on a dry track, let alone a wet one.

You can set up two controllers and a keyboard for use with the game. I'm currently using my keyboard but am now on the lookout for MacOS X, F1 compatible racing wheel.

Replays are also available in the demo version. Want to watch your lap to see where you are losing time? Turn on the replay system and watch the race from any angle.

Final Thought : I give this demo a 10. I would like to have more tracks (but then again, I'd like to have the full version!). The demo has definitely increased my anticipation for the full version. I expect to see some F1 leagues cropping up shortly after the new year, maybe sooner.

For More Information or to get the download, click here.