What are GameSpot thinking?
The PS3 version of Ferrari Challenge: Trofeo Pirelli is rated at 6.5. However little I actually know about the PS3 version of the game, they must have been watching 'Saw' while they were summarizing this game. Ferrari Challenge is easily the best driving simulation on Wii to date.
First off, the graphics. Activision and Eutechnyx can give themselves a pat on the back. Or maybe a proper SLAP just so they know how well they did it. The first time I played the game, I stayed tight to the car-viewing main menu for 5 minutes before I actually started the tutorial. You can clearly see the brakes working during replays. Every single car on the game looks so real.
Now the gameplay. One problem I have with this is manual gearing. In F1 2009, left and right on the +Control Pad changes gears. In Ferrari Challenge, you fling the Wii Remote down or up. This is a bit of a problem because the game sometimes thinks that a steering move is a gear shift. And actually flinging the remote while steering (going down gears while going through a turn) isn't so easy. In fact, manual gearing is so crappy I can't even bear switching to Semi-Auto, which shifts down while you do the up. I also thought replays could have a bit more customisation. Otherwise, the AI is challenging, it's fun to mess around with no assists (I am actually capable of being beast with this though) and there are loads of game modes.
The only other problem is loading times. Last time I had a race, I had time to piss before the game got its ars off the 'slow' button.
Driving sims won't get much better than this. And, to be perfectly honest, neither will GameSpot.