Track Conditions Are Ideal for Both PC, Console Racers

By AARON CURTISS

Aug. 26, 1999 12 AM PT

It’s getting harder and harder to tell the difference between racing games on consoles and racing games on PCs.

It used to be so easy. If you wanted speed, flashy graphics and ease of control, you played racers on a console, such as Sony PlayStation or Nintendo 64. If you wanted to spend more time managing and customizing the car than actually driving, you played on a PC.

But better hardware on the PC and better programming on the consoles have turned those simple truths upside down. Now, it can be impossible to tell the difference between console and PC racers--except the PC titles will probably look better.

Three recent titles--”Monaco Grand Prix” for the PlayStation, “Official Formula 1 Racing” for the PC and “World Driver Championship” for Nintendo 64--illustrate the point. All three offer sizzling racing on the track and a fair amount of management off the track.

‘World Driver Championship’

Of the three, “World Driver Championship” is the simplest and most like the traditional racers that demand only a heavy foot and quick reflexes. With 10 tracks and 30 cars, “World Driver” offers plenty of challenges spread across 20 distinct events.

Most of the action is focused on the track. The only real strategy involves deciding which team the drivers want to race for. Initially, the choices are limited, but as drivers win races and advance, more teams compete for their attention. That means better cars and more difficult races.

Control is sweet and tight and easy to get used to. Graphically, the game pumps out tracks without a glitch--just as one should expect from Nintendo 64. Tracks are big and full of detail, with plenty of changing weather conditions.

One nice feature in the game: Having loyalty rewarded. In an age when many of us believe it’s every man for himself, some teams in “World Driver Championship” will only make the best cars available to drivers who stick around. And other teams look down on players who hop from place to place.

It may feel a little too “company man” for some, but I like the idea that players get a little goose for putting their most mercenary characteristics in abatement.

‘Monaco Grand Prix’

“Monaco Grand Prix” offers considerably more technical options than “World Driver.” With 16 courses and the ability to link up to four players into the game, “Monaco Grand Prix” offers the best multi-player action of the bunch--beating “Official Formula 1 Racing” for ease of use.

Like “World Driver,” “Monaco Grand Prix” requires players to manage their teams. But it also allows players to customize their cars in nine areas--from gearbox ratios and suspension to brake balance and the aerodynamics of the front and rear wings.

On the course, though, “Monaco Grand Prix” lags both “World Driver” and “Official Formula 1 Racing.” The graphics are nothing special and suffer from too much pixilation. Control was adequate in most default modes, but the braking and steering sometimes felt a little jerky.

It’s not fair to blame the shortcomings of “Monaco Grand Prix” on the game itself. PlayStation is the oldest console on the market, and it’s beginning to show signs of age. Although designers are squeezing every last ounce out of the rig’s processing power, stacking “Monaco Grand Prix” against recent PC and Nintendo 64 titles reveals the system’s weaknesses.

‘Official Formula 1 Racing’

Conversely, more powerful PCs are able to handle speedy games like “Official Formula 1 Racing” for the first time without lockups or clunky graphics. Using a joy pad, such as Microsoft’s Sidewinder Pro, racers play as easily and look better than they do on consoles.

“Formula 1” spins drivers through the same 16 tracks as “Monaco Grand Prix,” but oh how different they look. Even with a software renderer, the graphics looked nice and moved smoothly. With hardware acceleration, the game is exceptionally lifelike. And scads of camera angles allow players to watch the action from various vantage points.

True to the PC tradition, players spend a lot more time managing and maintaining their cars than they do in either of the console games. But players who just want to open up a car on one of the tracks can do that too. The in-car display offers a lot of information--too much, maybe, for some players.

“Official Formula 1 Racing” requires a Pentium 200 with 32mb of RAM.

To comment on a column or to suggest games for review, send e-mail to aaron.curtiss@latimes.com.

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Essentials

Monaco Grand Prix

Platform: Sony PlayStation

Publisher: Ubi Soft

ESRB* rating: Everyone

Price: $39.95

Bottom line: Sometimes clunky

Official Formula 1 Racing

Platform: PC