In true Formula 1 style, gamers will tour the world on 15 actual tracks (from Argentina to Belgium), on the fastest racing machine in the world. Via network options, racers can compete against each other (up to 6 players) and witness split screen head to head action and TV emulated race replays. For the pros, Grand Prix offers long straights followed by fast, sweeping corners that will require excellent maneuvering ability from any driver. For the rookies, customizable difficulty levels offer assistance including on-line help and auto-braking. Add sobering crashes and actual car damage and this game is as close as you can get to the real thing!

Guaranteed to offer a challenging and realistic experience, players can customize their cars to meet the demands of each individual track and individual preferences. Edit mode will allow gamers to choose from 24 different racing cars as well as customize their teams and drivers. Pull into pitstops to change tires, repair car damage, and refuel. Through workshop facilities select braking balance, wing settings, and gear differentials. Novices need not be intimidated however, GP World Champion's practice option will permit every player to become familiar with each track, improving their skills and strategy as they go along.

I started the game in rookie mode as I wanted to learn how to play the game on the easiest setting and then move forward from there. The trainer mode enables the player to learn the tracks quickly and easily. In this mode you follow a computer controlled car around the track and get to know all the curves and tricks of each track. I used the racing line enabled setting to learn the right line to follow.

I progressed to a weekend race at the Canadian track [ I am Canadian so there was a bit of home town politics involved there :-) ] where I quickly learned that even on the easiest settings you need to pay careful attention to where you are as well as the location of all of the other cars around you. These guys think nothing of giving you a little bump in the back end to let you know that there are right there.The action is quite quick when you are getting to a top speed of 174 mph and you must be on your toes at all times when in traffic. I would suggest that before you try a race on any particular track that you take the practice sessions for a number of laps to familiarize yourself with the layout of each track before you attempt to qualify . Point should be made here that you do not have to qualify but if you do not you start at the back of the pack to start the race.

Well after a few races at the rookie level I moved on up to novice and found there is a difference in difficulty settings for sure. No longer can you catch the other cars after spinning out. Once you loose the time it is damn near impossible to make it up again.Being too aggressive is very costly once you start to up the difficulty rating. One must be very cautious with passing on the inside of the corners.

There is a championship mode where you race all of the fifteen different tracks and your total points from all 15 races is totaled to see who is the champion of the season. Quite a nice option as if you do not do well in one race you can make up the difference on another track.

You can also tweak the cars settings in the workshop but I never attempted this as I know nothing about this kind of car and just accepted the default settings that the game gave me for the car.

All in all this was a great change of pace from all of the first person shooters that I have been playing lately and this game will be staying on my HDD for awhile longer for me to be racing some more.

Score: 87%

When I loaded the game I was hoping since they mentioned 3dfx support that the graphics would be up to the standard that we have all come to expect of today's games....I was not disappointed as the accompanying screen shots will attest.

Reviewed by: Mark 'True" Hetherington
Date: November 30th, 1998