Formula One Championship Edition is the first PS3 game I have had the chance to review since the system’s launch and it is also the first F1 game to hit North America in quite some time. While I’m still not convinced of the system’s price tag, F1 Championship Edition does a good job of showing what the system can do, at least from a visual standpoint.

If anything, F1 Championship Edition is something you can show off to your friends and even help to try and justify the system’s price tag. The game looks amazing. Everything about the game looks incredible; there’s really no way to describe it – it is just something you have to see.

The best aspect is the sense of speed you get while playing. The framerate is solid and, when combined with the motion blur, you really do feel like you’re going fast. In fact, there are times where you might feel like you’re going too fast; especially when racing in the rain and struggling to see in front of you.

Engine noise is the only audio aspect that really stands out. The whine of the engines is dead on. The rest isn’t that great. A commentator calls the race, but he sounds like he has someplace he’d rather be. There isn’t much music featured in the game either.

F1 Championship Edition is a simulation-style racer featuring teams, drivers and tracks from the 2006 FIA Formula One Championship season. Of course, these things won’t mean much to the North American market, but overseas these would be like offering Madden without NFL teams.

The heart of F1 Championship Edition is its Career mode. You begin as a rookie driver running trial runs for teams looking for a driver. Eventually you’ll make a team as either a race or test driver. Both career tracks offer a different style of play that will appeal to different types of players. Those who enjoy performance tweaking more than competition will enjoy life as a test driver, while those with a competitive edge will want to become a race driver. As a driver, you will be given a certain number of goals to achieve over the course of a season. These usually involve making a certain rank, though winning a championship or two doesn’t hurt either.

As fast a sport as F1 racing is, it is actually a pretty boring one as well. Not in that NASCAR all left turns way, but in order to get into a real race you have to jump through a number of hoops that can become tedious.

Races begin with a series of test laps where you get a feel for your car’s performance. After each lap either you, or the computer, will adjust your car’s performance. Then you race another lap to check the changes. Once your car is performing the way you want, you then enter a series of qualifying races to try and get a good starting position. Gearheads and hardcore race fans will get more out of the pre-race activities than casual racing fans since it really isn’t all that fun. There’s even a certain amount of tedium that comes with quick games as well. In short, this isn’t a game you can jump into for a quick race or two.

Races can be fun if you know what you’re doing. With all of the assists on, there isn’t much to it. You follow the dotted line and let the assists do most of the work. The real rewards come with turning off the assists, though it takes some work to get to this point. Even when you do get to that point, F1 Championship Edition is still hard. This turns out to be one of the game’s biggest flaws; it does everything it can to be accessible to a wider audience, though at the same time it takes a while before the game becomes rewarding.

Several other basic gameplay modes are also available, including Time Trial, Quick Race and World Championship. Online play is also available, though races only support 11 players with A.I. racers filling out the other slots. In addition, there’s no league or team support, nor is there voice chat.

Even with the driving assists turned on, F1 Championship Edition is a tough game. Races are very fast and require almost split-second timing and precision. Unlike other racing games, you can’t just bump other cars out of the way or use the sides of the track (you know, the non-pavement part) when trying to pass. Gaps between cars are rare, and if you go off the track there is a penalty. Passing another car is an accomplishment. In addition, if you do clip another car, there is a really good chance that your car will take damage – sometimes putting you out of the race for good.

Online matches are more for the hardened F1 fans than newcomers. The competition online is really good, though every once in a while you might find an easy match.

Since the F1 racing doesn’t share the same level of popularity in North America as it does in Europe, Sony did a good job at making the game accessible to both markets. When you first fire up the game, all of the driving assists are turned on. These include things like steering and braking assistance as well as stability control and a Forza-styled driving path that shows you the ideal way to tackle each track. Nearly ever option can be toggled on or off, making the game more or less realistic depending on how you want to play the game.

Both analog and Sixaxis steering setups are available; though neither feels all that great. The analog stick is a little more responsive than the Sixaxis method, though even the analog stick feels unresponsive at times. It never gets to the point where the game is unplayable, though there are times where it is hard to navigate around other cars or tight corners.

Early on, one of the more frequently shown aspects of F1 Championship Edition was the ability to link it with your PSP, allowing you to use it as a rearview mirror. For whatever reason, this feature was left out of the final release. Though disappointing, the more I thought about the feature, the less I liked it. It is cool, but impractical since you’d either have to hold the PSP on your lap, or mount it to your TV – neither of which is very convenient.

Ultimately, F1 Championship Edition is a good racing game, though it will share the same fate as soccer games. For F1 fans, or even some hardcore racing fans, it is a great game. However, in order to really enjoy the game you have to put a lot of time and effort into it – which is something most non-fans aren’t likely to do.