Slowing (and getting around) corners is pretty easy - this is no Gran Turismo. Lose your concentration and push your luck with an overbreaking manoeuvre, though...

So. The 'official' F1 game, you say? Is it Formula Formulaic, or Too Good To Be Shu? Future Gamer gets up to speed...
James Price

Realism can be great. From sex to sunlight, breathing to bathing, everyday life is positively packed with it. It works well in videogames, too. Given that entertainment software tends to offer a conduit to experiences we can't possibly hope to enjoy in the flesh, authenticity is a beguiling hook for any game to dangle.

You want to know the best bit about Official Formula 1 Racing? At a time when other racing games - from Grand Prix Legends to Gran Turismo - are touting bona fide credentials like the physics-obsessed whores that they are, OF1R does not. Despite 'real' features and overtones it is, to its very heart, an arcade game.

Being the official game of the sport - as its moniker so proudly states - OF1R features proper tracks, drivers and other such aspects. In play, though, it's a far cry from Geoff Crammond's games, or the exactitude of Legends. Take cornering, for example. Even in Simulation mode, you can slam on the brakes or pass through at speed within seconds... and to hell with Newton, et al. Reality can go hang.

This isn't to say, of course, that Official Formula 1 Racing offers Mickey Mouse driving mechanics. Though stylised, they are consistent - the most important issue of all - and work well with all control methods, from a simple D-pad to the most elaborate steering wheel add-on. Besides, if an F1 racing game were to offer a brand of realism that even shunt-happy Shu would be surprised at, it would be utter arse. Why? Because only he - and his elite brethren - would be able to play it.