F1 2011 (PS Vita) review

Unfortunately, fans that have already played the console versions will notice the Vita’s omissions almost immediately. The very useful replay feature is gone, meaning your mistakes are punished much more severely, and the car damage model has been toned down dramatically. It’s the simplified career mode that feels like the biggest loss, though – whereas the console version put you in the shoes of a rookie driver, sent back to his trailer at the end of every race to work on strategy and team management, the Vita’s campaign is much more menu driven and less focused on you as an individual.

We were a little disappointed that the Vita’s numerous new input methods have been ignored in favour of the traditional controls. Although they wouldn’t make much sense during a race, it would have been much easier to use the touchscreen to navigate the menus, rather than the analog stick.

Although the Vita’s F1 2011 isn’t up to the same standard as the console versions, it’s still a great racing game for fans of Formula 1. The 2011 season is already looking dated, now that we’ve seen the first race of the year, but die-hard racing gamers looking for a portable fix could do much worse than buying this.