Perhaps yearly sports updates like this will stop soon. God knows, it's time. Downloadable content has so far failed to ignite on PS2, but the PSP (on which this will also appear) and PS3 both have bigger, better plans. Broadband connections are now commonplace, and the once-awkward network adaptors of our shiny, Bladerunner-esque robo-future will be made of light. Or plastic. One of the two. The point being that Formula One 2005 is little more than a download. Ideally, owners of previous games should be able to somehow 'patch' last year's version - zap in this year's liveries, driver names and general qualifying performances, in whatever confused format the actual sport is using this month. And for much less, presumably, than a full game.

Admittedly, the developer has added a few things to spruce this year's model up, but nothing compelling. Loading screen hints are hardly a killer app and the career mode doesn't make sense - pulling out the stops so you can change to racing for a better team seems pointless when you can succeed event with tail-enders like Jordan (who usually have little hope of doing well in real life races, bar some sort of apocalypse). There's little variety, because objectives beyond winning - such as beating similarly rubbish teams or driving furiously to make a high-risk, high-reward pit-stop strategy work - just aren't available. Instead, you must practise, qualify and win. Just like in the normal championship mode... only with meaningless promotions and the chance of your driver getting the sack. Great.

Plus, rather hilariously, the aggregate qualifying, which is new for this year's game, has in fact already been dropped from real F1 racing. Just another reason why season updates should be downloads - Formula One 2005 is already out of date before its release.

New stuff or not, there's a more fundamental problem: it's not fun to play. This 2005 version feels dumbed down - you have cars with close to 1,000 horsepower but there's no skill to controlling them. And there are almost no visual or audio clues as to what the tyres are doing - this may not worry novices, but will leave skilled hands cold. Plus the steering is strangely all or nothing; you can't follow the gentle curves.

If you want great racing and an interesting career mode, get TOCA Race Driver 2. If you want speed, try Burnout 3. If you want to be challenged by authentic versions of some of the world's fastest cars, get GT4. All this has is the sheen of 'ultimate' gloriousness hiding a far duller reality... so, if nothing else, it's authentic to F1 racing, then.

Four gorgeous icons of F1 racing await a good unlocking, but it's all rather odd. You can get two in your very first event, while the others require hours of strife (as do the two extra tracks). And even then you can only drive the cars alone - they have no races - and the oldest handle suspiciously like modern cars. It's hardly the smoking, sliding, leaping, exploding experience we were hoping for... a tragically lost opportunity. An F1 game set in the sport's '60s/'70s heyday would be amazing.

Graphics 80%
Smooth and detailed, but not remarkable.

Sound 70%
Strangely echoing, lone engines.

Gameplay 60%
A realistically predictable trudge.

Lifespan 60%
It's already subtly out of date...

Overall 70%
It's Formula One 2005. The game. That's it. You know what you're getting, but it's a tired formula that's due a few new repairs.