Pole Position 2012 - Like a car crash but not as interesting to look at.
Firstly in case you don't read the whole review I'll start of with a summery DON'T BUY THIS GAME
Right I'll now tell you why
The first think that strikes you when you start this game up is the shocking presentation, The initial launcher has a dated 90's look and this theme continues throughout the game (Think Theme Hospital or Sim City 2000 but 20 years later and without the charm that those games have)
You have to register to get the game started and this system is broken
Once you get the game proper launched the music hits you – Wow! I have literally played hundreds of games since the late 80's and this is the worst video game music I have ever heard. It could be used at Guantanamo Bay when interrogating prisoners, (after 10 minutes of being forced to listen to this they'd talk believe me). It is loud synth pop created using dated MIDI technology you cannot concentrate on life never mind the game until you turn it off.
You have to set up a team, don't expect Red Bull Racing or Ferrari, Jenson Button or Sebastian Vettel
They haven't got an FIA licence to use these names instead they are poor imitations like "Blox Bull Racing" for Red Bull and "Red horse Team" for Ferrari; Sebastian Bettel and Johnson Knopf for Vettel and Button
These are accompanied by team logos which look like a 7 year old child has drawn them on MS Paint
Once you decide which team you are going to use you are then hit by the mostly text based menu driven system that the game runs from. It is difficult to know what to do from here as the "tutorial" is so bad you may as well ask the pet dog what to do next
Eventually after 10 minutes of trial and error clicking, getting through the horrendous car set up and driver selection sections. I managed to work out how to get to race day, unfortunately the problems continue – The cars look horrendous and are technically broken with textures popping in and out of the screen, they sound like poorly sampled go kart engines and the race screen is totally unfathomable.
Basically the game is terrible, some games are so bad you want to play them to laugh about how bad it is (In kind of a so bad it's good way like Revolution X for the PS1 for instance) But this game is not one of those. It is just soul destroying how a game company can release this into the public domain and charge £20 for it.
To put it in perspective I have played hundreds of games on Amstrad, Amiga, Atari Lynx, PS1, 2 & 3. NES, SNES, N64, Master System & Mega Drive, Dreamcast, Wii, Xbox and other weird and wonderful systems and this is by far the worst game I have ever come across.
If you have a spare £20 give the money to charity instead. You'll still have nothing to show for your money but at least your soul will be that tiny bit happier. I didn't, I bought Pole Position 2012 and my life is that little bit worse for it.