F1 Race Stars (PC)

This is the first attempt by a sport, that takes itself very seriously, to have fun and it's not a bad attempt Basically someone in F1 plc played Mario Kart and thought hey racing can be fun. THe principles are the same powers up, flashing lights etc The Good The races are fun and fast with decent tracks The licensed teams and drivers let you keep your team alignment and play for fun Most of the weapons and powerups are good fun, if just slavishly copied from MK The graphics are really quite good and suitably bright to add fun and silly There are some clever techniques in here, pitsops, damage, KERS, weather and the safety car A good way to waste a few minutes in either single or multiplayer Steam as always works well, I really don't understand the issues people have with it the thing has been around many many years and is very common now. The Bad The AI is overly aggressive and can ruin the races Some races the AI just beats you hands down for no explicable reason The tracks within the game are just a bit boring and lack the fun of other games It all feels a little to forced All round this is a fun and silly game to play that you can waste . It's a good starting point that can be built on into a more successful series. I'd recommend giving this game a go at this price.

A great looking game that is fun to play. I like the caricatures of the drivers and the amusing comments they make throughout the races. The circuits look stunning and will keep you glued to the screen until you make 1st place. Thoroughly enjoyable and highly recommended if you enjoy the less-serious driving/racing games.

What they don't tell you..! Looking at the box is has a big 3 suggesting that the game is suitable for 3 years and older. I bought this for my 7 year old son to play on his PC. However, on installation, the game isn't in the box. Oh-no! You get a disc which installs something called STEAM. This is an on-line service which you must be 13 or older to use!! Okay, so I was forced to lie during the installation.. of STEAM. I also had to set-up an e-mail account for my 7 year old! Just so that he could open the account and receive a confirmation e-mail. Once the online STEAM account is activated, you then have to wait while the game is downloaded. As I said, you don't get the game in the box. I'm not going to go into detail about the game, suffice it to say that this is a rip-off to Mario Kart. The next BIG GOTCHA! is that it uses either a keyboard or an XBOX controller! My old PC controller wouldn't operate the game out of the box. There is a fudge - a workaround... but it has taken some doing (Google XBOX360CE emulator). Not for anyone NOT happy with 'tinkering' with system files though - be warned. (BTW, an Xbox controller could cost £30 - to play a £3 game!) On the face of it, it looked like an absolute bargain. £3 for a game that would have been £30 on a console. I only went down this route after waiting months for a promised Wii version that has not been released. Oh, and two lasts points regarding STEAM. The computer must be connected to the Internet in order to play (a safe feature for a '3' rating!!) and secondly, each time you finish playing and come out of the game you are faced with an advert trying to sell you another game. Google STEAM and see what you think before committing. But one thing is for sure - it should NEVER have been given the '3' rating when you must be 13 to have a STEAM account. Rant over....

Got this for my Dad as a Christmas present. Just as well seeing as you have to register it by Steam which I don't have. (Fortunately Dad does!) But I was not aware of this when purchasing. I would have got the wii version but we hadn't had our wii set-up for a while due to decorating so I got the PC version. Nevertheless the game promised 4 player multiplayer and I assumed you would be able to play with 2 people at the keyboard. This was not the case. There are a set of keyboard controls locked in that you can't change and the only way to add another player is for them to use a console controller attached to the PC, which we didn't have. I was disappointed not to be able to play the game with my Dad. He (rather sweetly) sent off for a console control without telling me so now we can play together but not the whole family as I had thought with 4 player. So I still rather wish I had got the wii version. Thought I should let other customers know as I was unaware of these issues when purchasing. Maybe I missed something but I don't think either of these things were made clear. It is a good game though! Very like Mariokart or Wacky Races! Good for Formula 1 fans after fun but with not so much skill!

The game looks great so I'm only giving it two stars until I can actually play it. The producers thoughtlessly decided not to include USB controller support; the only controller that can be used is an Xbox 360 controller. As a result, I've had to order a USB receiver so I can actually play the game without using my computer keyboard. Seriously, who the hell came up with THAT bright idea? Something else that's annoyed me is this Steam claptrap. Why do I need to download this game after I've already purchased a disc that should have the game on it? When I take this into account, along with the controller issues, I feel like slapping the producers repeatedly. I might increase my rating once I've played the game as it should be played but to be honest, it doesn't deserve it due to the other problems.

Great game hours and hours of fun. But you do need Steam installed to play it. NB: Steam is free to install and free to sign up to in minutes.

More driving should have been put into the game which seems purely power-ups based. This could have been a classic but code masters bottled it.

not good

Buenos gráficos y sencillo de manejar, es un juego tipo Mario Kart, con saltos espectaculares y derrapes imposibles, entretenido para mis hijos. El único pero, es que para poder jugar varios jugadores, necesitas mandos oficiales de Xbox, los mandos universales no los reconoce :(