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F1 2010

Reviewed by: Joaby
04:00pm 20/09/10
3 member comments

Genre: Simulator
Developer: Codemasters
Publisher: Codemasters
Classification: G
Release Date: 23rd Sep 2010
Platforms:

MEMBER RATING:

The last Formula 1 game was Sony�s Formula One CE - a capable if uninspired simulation of the captivating motorsport with visuals like

no other racing game at the time. Back then all the game needed was great graphics and functional racing for it to be received well by F1 fans.

Codemasters could have done the same thing when they picked up the Formula One brand - it wouldn�t be phoning in if they created a superb multi-platform racing simulation and called it a day - though it might be a tough sell to anyone who wasn�t a simulation fan.

Happily though, that wasn�t enough for them - they had to put the DiRT 2 touch to it. F1 2010 has all the trappings of a modern racer - more driver assists than you can shake a stick at, more settings than a 4X game and an AI with a capital I.

It also has personality though - in between races you take part in interviews with the press, while during races you get input from your pit crew boss - not just on how you�re doing in the race, but on how everything in the race is going.

He�ll tell you how your team mate is going, warn you when you�re pushing your car too hard, encourage you to overtake an opponent and let you know how the rest of the pack is going. In the absence of commentary he keeps things lively while you�re tearing around the track.

The tracks are the stars of the game - from the familiarity of Melbourne to the spectacular backdrop in Bahrain, plus the unbelievable night race in Singapore and the historic claustrophobia of Monaco - it�s easy to get distracted by the world you�re passing by at 300km/h.

Fortunately one of the most important things in a Formula One game is knowing the tracks - and it�s unbelievably important in F1 2010 for you to practice each race if you want to have a chance at winning.

F1 2010 has two difficulties - embarrassingly easy and unbelievably difficult. The difference between these two is best demonstrated by deciding that medium is too easy (it is, if you�ve ever played a racing game before) and deciding to jump up to hard. It�s similar to deciding that riding a bike is too easy and deciding to race lightcyles for a living as a result.

The problem only really exists because of how the AI decides what Medium and Hard difficulties are - the game is (obviously) harder on the higher difficulties because not only do you lose all your driver assists, the AI stops braking early and letting you pass as well. It�s up to the player to manually go in and turn off the AI assists gradually so they�re not just dumped in the deep end.

The other misstep is the personality injected in the game at the moment is somewhat dull - well, the after race stuff is. The impromptu interviews are usually the same three or four questions over and over - and how you answer those questions largely seems inconsequential, as your three answer choices are extraordinarily similar.

This sort of RPG style discussion is cropping up more and more in sports games these days - it�s interesting so many games still haven�t done it right. The failure of the system is even more apparent because F1 2010 appropriates the DiRT 2 style menu system - you hang out in your trailer between races, making it seem like you�re living the life, so when the game asks you for the fifteenth time if you think your team will do well this season it�s that much more jarring.

That�s it though - everything else in F1 2010 is outstanding. Thanks to the extensive use of options with enough tweaking you�ll find a sweet spot for driving in game - that area between fun and challenging which is crucial in driving games.

The physics are amazing - the subtle changes in weather affect everything. We�re not talking about the road being slippery when wet either when you�re careening across the searing hot bitumen in Bahrain your tyres will heat up quicker than in an overcast day in Shanghai.

And regardless of what people say - if you�re doing it right, crashing is never an issue in racing games - a spectacular accident is an amazing thing in F1 2010, thanks to the use of the DiRT 2 style crash. When your back tyre gets clipped powering down the back straight of Melbourne, you lock your brakes and fly over the sand trap into the wall at 200 km/h... that looks amazing.

F1 2010 ran the risk of merely being merely a competent racer - fortunately it tried to be something more... and in most cases it succeeded. There�s still a little room for improvement in F1 2010, but if you�re tired of waiting for Gran Turismo 5 and you want to experience some of the best console racing out (and you�re not an open wheel hater) Codemasters has put together a spectacular package, well worth the price of admission.

Comments

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Game Comment by kikz

t's been a long time since Geoff Crammand's last installment of the seminal Grand Prix racing simulation, appropriately entitled Grand Prix (1, 2, 3, and 4). I grew up playing these games and each of them were my favourite games when they came out, and remained my favourite until the next version was released. Unfortunately GP4 came out eight years ago and there's been a massive space in the F1 gaming world since then.

I held high hopes for F1 2010 when I started seeing the videos of its production. The team at Codemasters had enlisted the help of Anthony Davidson, ex-F1 driver and all round good bloke commentator, now heard on BBC's 5Live F1 podcast (hint, go listen!) to give technical advice to the team. The team also collected an unprecedented amount of data on the tracks and handling of each car. All modelled after the current 2010 season.

F1 2010 also has a unprecedented depth of play, introducing a much needed Career mode, which can last for up to seven seasons (We can't all be Rubens Barrichello ;)). Previously a career was only possible by using third party community tools, which provided only very poor integration.

Some more of the really cool stuff is now possible in with modern broadband internet connections. Through the use of a Windows Live Game account (Xbox Live) players can share lap times with the rest of the world and their friends (separate in game tabs for the two), also downloading the ghosts of each players fastest laps, to see where you can pick up time. Sharing of setup isn't catered for in-game, but I'm sure we'll see that everywhere on blogs (like this one ;)).

I had a few dramas initially getting F1 2010 to work. I believe that was because I copied the game from my SteamApps folder at work and brought it home. Either way, deleting that and re-downloading from Steam fixed my problem and I was eventually (today) able to play with my new Logitech G27. I even made a small pedal box to raise the height of my pedals.

My initial impressions were good, if not a little humbling, after seeing some of the lap times already out there. I started at a track I hadn't raced before, Bahrain and really struggled to put together a lap for the first 30 minutes. In Time Trail mode (the only mode I've played so far) you do times hot laps with a Ghost, and every time you run off the track your lap is invalidated (and occasionally the next lap too). At the start I was trying to hard. Expecting to just be on the pace so to speak. After I slowed down a bit and took it easier, I went faster, stayed on the track and was able to lodge a time. My first timed lap was faster than the default Ghost, so that was a start even if it wasn't saying much.

I tried Melbourne a few hours later, and was immediately on the pace; able to set a lap without invaliding, on the first attempt. Although I did still feel cramped. I also suspected the amount of steering lock on my G27 was slowing me down. That is, the steering wasn't sensitive enough and on some corners at Bahrain I had to do the knuckle shuffle to get around the corner (Turn 1). I dialled the sensitivity down from 100% to 75% (with a 5 turn experiment at 50%. egads!). Within 2 laps I was 2 seconds a lap faster! I also fiddled a tiny bit with the setup (only ride height and top gear).

My initial impression is very positive. The graphics are superb. Faultless even. Midway though the day I thought the game was a bit too easy, but changing the steering sensitivity on my wheel has made the car both more twitchy (harder to handle) and easier to catch when it breaks loose. The increase in sensitivity has removed small doubt I had. Sure, I'd prefer the game had telemetry to analyse, but the Ghost and the fact the Ghost comes from my friends if I want, is so much more fun.

F1 2010 is a worthy successor to Grand Prix 4.

Update: After I wrote the above I began the Melbourne race itself, having qualified a lowly 24th (thanks to the rain). Wanting to perform well at my 'Home' race, I restarted the race a few times (ok, about 20 times) and I noticed some annoyances which have now been reported as fake 'AI'. I didn't notice the timing problems described in the link, but I did noticed some idiotic behaviour which I justified at the time.

Check out the video of broken timing here (sorry gotta workout how to embed youtube vid).

Problem #1, my teammate Jarno Trulli qualified 15th. A Lotus has yet to qualify outside of Q1 in a dry session, yet here is the 'superb' AI qualifying in the middle of the Q2 pack.

Problem #2, cars were pitting for tyres on lap 3. Thinking about it, lap 3 is lap 15 in reality (I'm doing 20% race distances at the moment), so if the cars are scripted to come in, that's when they would. The option tyre would last 12 laps (20% race distance easily), so the only need to pit is one to obey the rule that states every car must run both the prime and option tyre in the race. It actually makes sense to pit early and get some clear track...

Problem #3, Trulli led the race at one point pretty much every time I restarted (probably everytime, if I went long enough into the race before a restart). That's completely wrong, but it may be justified by Trulli's tyre strategy being to pit late (ie lap 8-9 on 20%). Given only limited number of laps, he could lead the race by only being 10-15 seconds behind the leaders when they pit.

Most of annoyances could be because of the short race distance I'm doing.
Also, I've found this piece on the AI on harder levels (who doesn't run the on hardest? :)). ' It's not on all difficulty levels, only the upper because they couldn't go quite as quick as super smooth players.' (from the twitter of a developer of the game)

Thinking about the AI, I'm rather disgusted at this, but perhaps there was no other choice. I'd expect that many people playing F1 2010 do so to 'live the dream' of being an F1 driver (isn't that much of the motivation behind computer games in general). Accurately depicting the drivers is paramount to a good experience in the game.

My thoughts are, if you want a realistic experience, you need to be doing longer race distances, with 100% being the obvious preference.

(Copied from my blog)

3.5

Game Comment by billus08

Okay, I was seriously looking forward for this game as it has been 7 years or so since F1 has hit the PC. My first impressions were good but after finishing 2 full length races in career mode, I looked back. This game has a lot of bugs, I have no idea what game reviewers have been praising. Just a quick heads up, my PC is running this game at ultra settings at 1920x1080 with 4x AA. I'm using a G25 as my controller. I have all assists off and AI set to legendary.

This is the list of bugs I've encountered so far:

- Unexpected punctures; this happened to me as soon as I left the pits with fresh options as well as 20 laps on primes
- Racing with prime tires in the wet makes no noticeable difference in handling
- AI tends to jerk around a lot, not swerve, but jitter
- Some AI cars don't pit throughout a full length race
- Running wide at a corner may be deemed as "cutting"
- Race engineer telling you to copy teammates car setup only that there is no option too
- Race engineer focused on telling you Ferrari is pitting. No mention of Red Bull, Mercedes etc. Just the drivers one place in front and behind plus Ferrari.

There are some other bugs I have encountered but those are the main ones.

The graphics in this game are nowhere near as good as they are in DiRT 2 or even GRID. The only time it looks good is when it rains. Truth be told, I wouldn't be surprised if this game was outsourced by another 3rd party developer as it is such a poor quality game compared to DiRT 2. The driving itself in this game is horrible. There is no sense of speed and controlling the car is so damn arcadey it hurts, especially when Codemasters tried to pass this off as both an arcade or a sim depending on the options you set. You can literally bump into cars like it's Mario Kart.

This game is such a bitter disappointment. After all the hype, all the praise, I can't help thinking that Codemasters accidentally sent the Alpha version for RTM. I honestly don't know what game "reviewers" have been reviewing but it's certainly not this one. I have no idea how this game even got released, it's so damn buggy. Like seriously, just jump into a race and you'll see how bad it is. The only hope that can save this game and Codemasters licence is if it turns out they sent out an Alpha version for production and gives everyone a replacement copy. It has to be the only reason why it's such a poor game and reviewers are harping on about it saying it's the greatest F1 game of all time; maybe if you only race 2 laps with a console controller then it probably is. They couldn't even manage to implement the cool 3d navigation UI from DiRT 2. On an end note, the only thing I like about this game are the pit stops and the semi intelligent AI. Apart from that, rFactor modders have done a far more superior job in every department.

7.0

Game Comment by K3ZA

Just a quicky for PC sim drivers:

Coming from Codemasters this game feels very much like Dirt2, in the pits you have your trailer and you can go outside etc almost exactly the same, Personally I dont like how it feels to navigate the menus- no mouse support, so keyboard only, not really a bad thing just annoying to enter lots of menus. I'd prefer a layout more like GTR2 with only a few screens with settings using the mouse.

Playing a quick time trial game to see how it feels, First thing I notice is NO Clutch - Big downer.Also the default setup is automatic gears with fully automatic brake and throttle- just steer your way to 1st place. This can all be changed to manual controls but still no clutch, maybe F1's use an auto-clutch in Real Life? I couldnt say.

Full Manual controls and cockpit view combined with a TrakIR is supported and the setup I'd say most will go with on pc for a driving sim. I use the logitech G25 and force feedback is supported and feels quite good.

Graphics and sounds are really great also, Im running at 'ultra' settings without and lag or stutter.

Hopefully but unlikely is support for community Mods, Im sure it would be hugely popular to see similar mods as GTR2 and RFactor in this game. but I cant see this happening.

For me, F1 2010 feels like a console flavoured game, Im sure it's great when played on a console, Unfortunately there is just a little something missing for me on pc.

(System specs are: X48 + Intel C2Quad 6600 + Ati 5770 + 4GB DDR3 + Samsung 40" lcd tv. G25 + TrakIR 5 + Wheel Stand Pro. 'Normally this is my Media Center pc').