F1 06 gets cross-platform racing

By Tom Bramwell Published 15 March, 2006

Play against PS2 types using PSP.

Sony's announced that its next Formula One game is due out in June WAIT COME BACK! There's something interesting about this one! Studio Liverpool's making the PS2 and PSP versions, and apparently you can compete cross-platform. In other words, if you've got a PS2 version you can play online against someone who has the PSP one. That wasn't to say that Formula One games are boring, by the way. Don't cry.

F1 06 is due out in June, then, and features 2006 drivers/car/teams/circuits/rules/hats probably. There's an 18-race season mode playable online, classic F1 cars to unlock, and the option to play as chief engineer in career mode, apparently. Presumably you switch to the driver for races, unless it's all about "stealthing" Schumacher on the grid and leaping in his car before anyone notices (it isn't).

06 will also include a pressure system which sees you trying to force AI mistakes, prompting big old "race incidents". There'll be a new physics system, and car tuning options that won't rely on an intimate knowledge of all the particulars.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (17) Latest comment 6 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Hunam85 #1 6 years ago

    Its about damn time.

  • login_name #2 6 years ago

    This is a great idea, now all they need is a good game to do it with.

  • bunglebonce #3 6 years ago

    The F1 series has taken a turn for the worse... since probably '97. The first official F1 game that I played on the PS1 was brilliantly detailed, '97 slightly less so. Console F1 games have been too arcadey since then.

  • T4RG4 #4 6 years ago

    I think Sony should let another developer work on F1 again. Surely everyone in that studio is sick of it by now!

  • Sunrise #5 6 years ago

    It would be a massive step if this would be possible for XBOX, Playstation and Nintendo console users to play against eachother with multiformat games online.

    I like your idea Blackdog. A smart developer could use this tactic on lots of other games with a link to reality. Like football...

  • kebab #6 6 years ago

    EG built the online game servers for F1 2004. Ask Rauper how exciting that was.

  • MrGrumpy.au #7 6 years ago

    blackdog, I don't know why you'd want to drive as Fisi you'll have engine mapping problems and never finish the race.

    Seriously though the Sony F1 games are complete rubbish and I don't see the PS2->PSP connectivity something that will make them any better. Until they look at how ISI and Geoff Crammond approached F1 titles they(F1 '0x) will continue to be arcadey gimmics with no substance.

  • AtomicBanana #8 6 years ago

    Until they look at how ISI and Geoff Crammond approached F1 titles they(F1 '0x) will continue to be arcadey gimmics with no substance.

    YES! So true. I miss those games :(

  • Vroom #9 6 years ago

    can we PLEASE have a feicin 360 F1 game? :o(
    Edited by 1 at 15/03/06 @ 21:00

  • Kostabi #10 6 years ago

    In a way I wish EA still had the F1 license, as at least their sports franchises have been on an upward turn lately... Sony just flounder when it comes to F1.

  • andrewfromdoncaster #11 6 years ago

    The pressure system sounds too forced and unnecessary

  • MrGrumpy.au #12 6 years ago

    The pressure system might work, Namco R:Racing had a similar system employed and wasn't too much of a hinderence.
    Edited by 2 at 16/03/06 @ 06:24

  • Talha #13 6 years ago

    I think Sony's F1 and WRC games are pretty decent - they have just been caught in the rut of medoicre annual updates. As for the allegedly arcady handling, it is still quite challenging with the driver aides off for non-technophiles like me, and anyway maybe Sony wanted to appeal to a wider audience - who says the game has to be an absolute simulator to be any fun? The only thing is, annual updates have made less and less sense - they should have skipped this one and come back with a bang on PS3.

  • Fat-Boy #14 6 years ago

    A June release sounds like they'll miss the boat slightly won't they? By June most casual F1 fans (i.e. watch it if it's on, won't get up at stupid o'clock to watch races, won't stay in specifically to watch it) will have lost interest by then. To not have the new game out at the start of the season is pretty poor planning IMO.

  • MrGrumpy.au #15 6 years ago

    who says the game has to be an absolute simulator to be any fun?

    @Talha, your correct there. But as devils advocate why can't it be both Arcade/Semi Sim** as that line of thinking definately hasn't hurt the sales/popularity of GT4, TOCA 3:RD and Forza.

    If they produced the game this way they'd have an even greater audence to aim the product at.

    But online was the real killer for me (using '04 as the example), I login as Mr Grumpy to the worldwide servers and create a hotlap session at the Hungaroaring only to find everyone that joined never actually drove the car on the track!?!

    What they did was just continously wall ride at high speed on two wheels while setting unbelievable times. Not a single person in that room wanted to play it properly, so whats the point.

    To this day I've never found another online player (in any country) that would enjoy playing it properly i.e. sticking to the track, which is dissapointing cause I was looking forward to a shootout even if I was going to be 5 seconds a lap slower.

    I'll try one last time with '05(this time) this weekend online maybe it will be different experience.


    **console sims never get to the level of their PC counterparts (Richard Burns Rally is the only exception of the rule).

  • Talha #16 6 years ago

    @MrGrumpy.au : Yeah I agree with you - although an even better route to go is semi-sim/sim, with a tiny sub-sub-mode in the name of arcade, since F1 is about precision. I never got online with F1 but I have no trouble believing your experience since all that was possible in the 2004 game.

    As for PC sims vs console sims - I guess the audience is different. One could argue that nothing like GT, Forza or even PGR exists for the PC in terms of sheer content and the sim/arcade balance - but I think people who play racers on PC demand ultra-high realism and challenge, which might be fun to them but maybe not to all of us (e.g. FIA GT and rFactor). I even think that those guys (SimBin etc) should at least think about porting their games to 360 and PS3 - we are entering an age where it matters less and less what machine we are playing a game on since even the lowliest machine has more than enough computing power to provide a good deal of realistic AI and physics.

    In any case it is good that PC can sport some exclusivity other than shooters and RTSs now - otherwise everything can be had just as well or even better, on consoles.

  • chronom4n #17 6 years ago

    mr grumpy..you should hook up with me! i love doing a full grand prix race and sticking to the rules, racing line etc. maybe people buy these games under the illusion that you can learn the game in a few minutes. But trust me, and i think you will completely empathise that it takes real skill to come up with blistering hot-lap.

    i would love to get on-line with ps2 but after your experience, it has put me off. what is the point if you can not get a real challenge? oh and btw, you have not played a F1 console game until you play it with the Logitech Dual Force Pro. that will blow your mind grumpy! that is the part of the game where i think there has been a lot of effort put in. most ridiculous part of f1 2005 is two fold. 200 mph collisions and what happens to your motor? not much and the stupid penalty where if you go off the racing line by half a cars width you get a stupid 5 second penalty!