F17 Challenge

STORY / GAMEPLAY
In F17 Challenge there are four cars to select, each with different specs depending on the track and the weather conditions. You can select to race through a full championship season consisted of 16 tracks. Modes of difficulty can be changed and there is also an arcade game in which you race 16 tracks but need to finish at the top six to progress through the game. The races are long and overtaking the opponents' cars is not that difficult, provided that you don't bump them and lose speed or hit the road signs, trees etc. There is a damage indicator at the top (along with other race and status info) which will decrease easily every time you hit things and if bar goes to zero, it's Game Over. Fortunately, each track has a pit-stop where the engineers will fix the damage but you'll lose precious time and position. The longest you stay at the pits, the better level of repairs you get. To be honest, F17 Challenge does not offer anything new on the arcade racing genre but it is a decent and highly playable racer.

GRAPHICS / SOUND
The game's visuals look good and your F1 moves at high speeds. Everything, from the backdrops to your car's model, is well drawn and animated. Each circuit is colorful (with up to 64 simultaneous colors) but do not vary a lot in terms of detail. The weather conditions do change, but do not expect a great variety in this section. The game's sound is also good with a bunch of nicely composed tunes at the main menu, and sampled ambient effects as well as car engines, wheel spins and braking sounds.