New PS3 F1 game blew me away, says Allen.

ITV F1 commentator, James Allen has given the new Sony Playstation 3 'Formula One Championship Edition' game the thumbs-up, following the 'launch' on Thursday.

Speaking at the event, which took place in East London at 3Rooms, Allen noted that he was amazed by it when he first saw it. Indeed he added that the graphics are so good, it is pretty much like watching the real thing on TV.

"Well as you know Martin [Brundle] and I do the commentary on it and have done now for about 5 years. I have to say when you go along to the studios in Liverpool and see the progress they make year after year, it is always impressive," he told Crash.net Radio at the 'unveiling'. "But when we voiced this one and went up to Liverpool, it just totally blew me away.

"In some ways it actually looks like watching television. It is so real now. You feel like you are watching the reality. You have to wonder what the next stage can possibly be.

"The quality of the light is amazing. The light in Malaysia [in the game] is exactly the way it is in Malaysia [for the grand prix]. It is different to the way it is in France and all these details. The way the tyres shine, the drainage ditches and so on, it is amazing. It is just absolutely extraordinary how they have done it.

"Speaking, as someone who works in F1, you come along and you look at it and you think: 'this is just uncanny'. I mean, it is absolutely the way it is. When Anthony Davidson was driving the game here [at the launch] and he was saying, as he was driving the last few corners at Silverstone, and he said: 'They have got that just right - you always understeer through this corner'.

"And if they have got to that length as well, it is just fantastic. It is not just the visual detail. It is the driving detail as well. So hopefully everyone will get a lot of pleasure out of it."

Martin Brundle, Allen's co-commentator on ITV F1, meanwhile was equally impressed and his comments echoed those made by his 'partner'.

"I have to say the graphics are absolutely amazing - it looks like the real thing," he added in a separate interview with Crash.net Radio. "It is like video footage rather than a Playstation game.

"They keep coming on in leaps and bounds. The way they crash into each other and the way they handle the bends - it is incredible."

The Sony Playstation 3 console will be available in the shops in the UK from March 23 and will retail for around ?425. The 'Formula One Championship Edition' game will cost ?39.99.