F1 2010 – the F1 Fanatic review

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F1 2010, Codemasters’ official Formula 1 game, has finally arrived four years after the last licensed F1 title for major formats.

Appearing on the shelves as the most exciting F1 season in years heads for a thrilling conclusion, does the game give F1 fans the gaming experience they’ve been missing for years?

Behind the wheel

Not since the famed “Grand Prix” series by Geoff Crammond has an up-to-date Formula 1 game had an even halfway decent physics model. The previous generation of games, restricted to the Playstation only, were relatively easy to pick your way through providing you could point the car in the right direction.

F1 2010 is not a hardcore simulation in the rFactor/iRacing mould, but there is a impressive degree of realism in how the cars behave.

For example, it’s easy to spot the different in sensation between the option and prime tyres, or driving with full and empty fuel tanks. At slow tracks your car feels smothered in downforce. Trim the wings at Monza and it’s a different beast entirely – lightning acceleration but twitchy in the corners.

All of this assumes you play the game on ‘hard’ or ‘expert’ mode. Turn the difficulty setting down any lower than that and you’ll win with little difficulty even if you don’t know Eau Rouge from Rascasse. You’ll also completely miss out on the game at its best.

There are subtle differences in how the cars handle, too. As you’d expect, the Red Bull is quite forgiving to drive, HRT’s F110 less so.

There’s an array of settings for making the driving experience more or less difficult, some of which are essential if you use a gamepad instead of a steering wheel and pedals. See the F1 2010 checklist for details.

Weather

The car physics is tied into deeply impressive models for weather and grip. As in real life, the surface of the track is constantly evolving.

At the start of a practice session the track feels slippery, then as the rubber builds up it offers more grip. The effect is even more pronounced at non-permanent tracks like Monaco and Singapore.

The weather, too, is ever-changing. Drops of rain quickly send the cars scurrying into the pits en masse for faithfully-recreated intermediate and wet tyres.

The water effects are truly stunning. Racing in heavy rain is an intense experience which shows off “F1 2010” at its best. Clouds of spray from cars up ahead blur your vision, forcing you to duck out of their slipstream to get a clear view ahead.

And when the rain eases off it’s up to you to gamble on intermediates or slicks. In the meantime you can prolong the life of your tyres by hunting out the still-damp sections of track away from the dry racing line.

Race weekend

You can dive straight into a race with a randomly-assigned grid position, do an abbreviated race weekend (60 minute practice, 20 minute qualifying and a race of variable length) or the full monty: three practice sessions, three-part qualifying and full race.

The entire weekend happens from the point of view of your garage. When you’re not on track the mechanics busy themselves with your car while you thumb through the timing screens, check your tyre allocations and have a peek at what your team mate is up to.

You can fiddle away with the set-up, either using one of seven presets suggested by your race engineer or by diving in to the more detailed options and working out wing angles, gear ratios, camber and the rest for yourself (see the checklist for more).

In practice and qualifying you can fast-forward through lulls in the action but you’ll lose precious minutes on the track if you prang your car and it needs repairing.

As is the case everywhere in the game, Codemasters have paid close attention to getting the little details right. Such as the order the cars appear on-track in practice: the smaller teams go out first, using up every precious moment of testing time, while the big guns sit back waiting for the track surface to improve.

Races

There’s not much of a challenge in getting away from the line quickly in “F1 2010”, which is a bit of a disappointment. However, Codemasters have addressed that typical racing game bugbear of being able to out-brake all the cars at the first corner. Rival drivers use the full width of the track so that even on the easiest modes it’s hard to gain a dozen places at once.

The negative aerodynamic effect of running closely behind a rival has clearly been toned down in the interests of producing a more exciting game. That allows you to test the artificial intelligence of your computer-controlled rivals, which is often impressive when it comes to racing for position.

As you move closer to them they move off-line to defend. Sometimes they seem a little too keen to block, with cars moving off-line far too soon when they’re in no immediate danger. A bit like Giancarlo Fisichella at Suzuka five years ago…

At other times the AI is less successful. In some instances your computer rivals appear rather dumb, queueing up behind you instead of diving past when you pull back onto the track after a spin. Brake-test a rival at 200mph and they’ll miraculously get on the brakes in time instead of having a Mark Webber-sized shunt.

If you run into the back of a rival you’ll often get slapped with a drive-through or time penalty. Do it too many times and you’ll be disqualified.

However the “F1 2010” stewards seem less concerned about you pushing a driver who’s alongside your car off the track or into a wall (a la Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello in Hungary).

Corner cutting is penalised too, so you won’t get away with cheating the exit kerbs at Hockenheim turn one or Istanbul turn nine, for example.

The game’s generally impressive attention to detail lapses somewhat when it comes to your race engineer. Simply put, there’s no shutting him up. You might be wrestling with the car at Spa in the rain when he starts waffling on about your engine temperature or, worst of all, points out that the track is wet, as if you hadn’t noticed.

You can mute him at the risk of missing his rare useful comments, such as when a yellow flag has been deployed or when you’re due a pit stop. But there are omissions too: switch to wet tyres during a dry race and he raises no objections, nor does he let you know how many of the cars in front of you are yet to make a pit stop.

You can also make adjustments at the wheel, tweaking your front wing angles and turning your engine up or down as needed. Running in the hot air of another car for too long can over-stress it and although reliability failures are not simulated a tired engine will be less powerful.

Pit stops are modelled – both mandatory and optional. You can select auto-pilot for pit stops or you can take control yourself and mow down your mechanics Kubica-style and cop a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit lane.

What strikes you most about the race mode is how it gives a much better impression of being in a real race than other games do. The crowd is bigger than on Friday or Saturday and you can hear the sound of other cars on nearby sections of the track.

Computer cars have races of their own and occasionally spin off, bringing out the yellow flags. If you’re at the back of the field being lapped you’ll be shown blue flags telling you to move over. As with the yellow flags, failing to obey them leads to a penalty.

Your F1 career

Career mode is where the game really comes together, giving you the ability to start with one of the three new teams for 2010 and work your way up into a top team.

Again, the experience is better if you commit to one of the more challenging difficulty levels. On medium level you can win easily in any car (I’ve just scooped the drivers’ championship with Virgin) but on the harder modes you have to focus on beating your team mate and hitting the targets set by your team.

The practice sessions take on a new dimension as the team brings upgrades to the car. Successfully beat a set lap time in practice and the performance boost is yours.

You are set targets for qualifying and the race, and the team are always keeping an eye on which of their two drivers are ahead. Fail to beat your team mate and he’ll get the upgrades instead of you.

As in real life, you need to keep on top of your engine allocation (not too difficult given you can’t blow them) and you have a limited number of tyres per weekend.

You have the usual career mode choices as different teams offer you contracts. On top of that are the “live the life” aspects of the game, where you are quizzed by reporters and your answers, along with your race performances, have a bearing on your future. In the early stages the press conference questions are very repetitive, but it improves as you get further into the season.

Graphics

You’ve got a full set of 2010 cars and tracks to play with, including the new Korean Grand Prix circuit which looks rather better in the game than the glimpse of it we had a few weeks ago. Still you have to wonder how accurately they can represent a track that hasn’t held a single race yet.

The car models are from the start of the season so there are several current details missing. For example, Mercedes haven’t got their distinctive split engine air intake and ‘blade’ roll hoop. The performance updates earned during career mode don’t seem to have a visible affect on the cars.

The same goes for the liveries. For example, the HRTs have their early-season livery on with white stripes. Nor do ‘Bruno’ and ‘Karun’ appear on the sidepods, just the HRT logo. Despite these omissions the quality of the liveries themselves is brilliant.

The simulation of Monaco – always a challenge for an F1 game – is excellent. Bristling with detail, it’s narrow enough to give you claustrophobia and so undulating that, from the cockpit view, at times it’s hard to see what piece of track you’re aiming for. A wall-brushing hot lap around here is something to be proud of.

The Singapore night and Abu Dhabi sunset races are present and correct – the light transitions at Yas Marina are especially impressive. The updated Silverstone and Bahrain tracks are there too, the latter complete with that hideous stretch of extra tarmac that has thankfully been deleted for 2011.

Given the quality of the graphics it’s a shame the replay feature deprives you of the opportunity to truly enjoy them. You can’t cycle through other cars to see what happened elsewhere in the race and the external camera angles aren’t very good.

Damage

By Codemasters’ own admission the damage model in “F1 2010” leaves something to be desired.

Breakages are limited to the wings and wheels. Degrees of damage are simulated too – for example, you can knock an front end plate off but continue racing, turning up the wing angles to counter the understeer.

Lose the front wing entirely and the car refuses to turn at high speeds, which I discovered with spectacular consequences in the Monaco tunnel. The effect is toned down considerably in the easier difficulty settings.

But you need a very hefty blow to cause race-ending damage. I see Lewis Hamilton played “F1 2010” before racing at Monza last week. Perhaps that’s why he thought he’d get away with his first-lap contact with Felipe Massa.

Patch

Codemasters have said there are no plans to release a patch or download-able content for “F1 2010”.

This is a pity, as there are obvious avenues for expansion and improvement – driver moves, model and graphic updates for cars and tracks, and so on. Not least of which cutting 80% of what your race engineer comes out with.

Although the game seems to have had a thorough bug-testing there are a couple of glitches. Notably turn 19 at Valencia, where the computer cars slow down far too much.

Some of the drivers’ performances could so with a tweak as well. If Vitaly Petrov and Vitantonio Liuzzi performed as well in real life as they do in this game there wouldn’t be quite so many rumours about who will be driving their cars next year.

Verdict

When it comes to F1 games you can’t please all of the people all of the time.

Economics demands the game appeal to as broad an audience as possible, so it can’t be overly taxing. But F1 fans and dedicated gamers want a challenging, authentic game with lasting replay value.

“F1 2010” goes a long way towards meeting those conflicting needs.

Rendered in high-definition with the best wet-weather effects I’ve ever seen in a racing game “F1 2010” almost looks better than the real thing on a decent television.

The developers have paid close attention to the rule book and crafted a game that observes F1’s complicated and ever-changing regulations, yet presents them in a manner that creates an entertaining game.

It’s high time we saw official F1 titles expanded to include earlier seasons and support races but licence restrictions mean it is up to FOM whether we ever see that.

Improved damage modelling and further refinements to the artificial intelligence must be top of the list for areas to receive attention for “F1 2011”, along with race suspensions and stoppages. These are what keep the game from a top score.

F1 has gone far too long without an official game of any kind, and even longer without a good one. Codemasters have remedied that with a game that should appeal to as wide a mix of casual players, hardcore gamers and dedicated F1 fans as is possible.

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“F1 2010” by Codemasters

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Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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146 comments on “F1 2010 – the F1 Fanatic review”

  1. This is interesting – although I don’t have the game and won’t be able to get it until December at the earliest I’ve been following it on a few other forums and a lot of the reactions have been at the extreme ends of the spectrum. Some people have found it incredibly challenging, unable to get within a second of the AI cars. Others find it ridiculously easy, able to out-qualify the grid by five seconds in a Virgin. Still others have decided it is too arcadey (after two laps of Bahrain) whilst others are hailing it as the best Formula 1 game since Geoff Crammonds’ GP4.

    How can one game have so many varied reactions? not even the major retcon in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots drew this kind of polarising response.

    1. There’s a quite a difference between the difficulty modes. On medium, using a gamepad, with traction control on, I find it very easy – but then I have played a few racing games in my time.

      Turn up the difficulty and turn off the drivers aids and there’s a lot more to it.

      But there is a hair-shirt brigade who will want it to be incredibly difficult, to the point of being unrealistically hard to drive, who will take pride in saying “it’s too easy” etc…

      1. how is it on the pad? i have pc with a pad and obviously a keyboard and wonder if i will be able to play normally and don’t have to buy a wheel

        1. I’ve heard that if you don’t have a steering wheel, it’s certainly playable … but you’ll be missing out on a hell of a lot. The problem is that good wheels will set you back a lot – Logitech (pretty much the only brand worth buying) retails for AUS$550 …

          1. Actually it’s pretty easy to scout deals on ebay. I got a logitech momo for $60, shipping and all. Perfect condition, been working fantastic.

          2. There is the Logitech MOMO, which is not very expensive, and should be good for most open wheel racers.

            For other car types however, the small wheel rotation (240 degrees, as far as I remember) makes it pretty bad.

            BTW, does anybody know the rotation of a F1 steering wheel? I think that I remember something around 400 degrees, but I’m not sure.

          3. I don’t have the money or space for a wheel and with most games I can excel with just a pad. With this though I get the feeling that a wheel would massively improve the gaming experience.

          4. Scour ebay and you can find some very good deals on wheels. I got a logitech momo for $60, shipping and everything, in great condition. Had it for about 4-5 months and it’s been working great the whole time.

          5. The Logitech Driving Force GT (DFGT) is pretty cheap, I got mine for AU$100.

            It says it is a Playstation3 wheel but it works fine with a PC. I have only ever used it on a PC, with iRacing and GTR2. Tis great cheap option, tho the Pedals are mediocre at best.

          6. I’m using the Microsoft Xbox360 Wheel and Pedals, and it feels pretty good, probably better than it does with Forza. You can adjust a bunch of wheel settings in the game. I’ve only messed around with the force feedback settings, and it makes a noticeable difference.

            Ideally I’d love to get a Fanatec Porsche 911 Turbo Wheel and Clubsport pedal set which works with Xbox, Playstation and PC, but in Australia it’s prohibitively expensive. About $800 AUD, if the distributors even have any in stock. For peeps in the USA it’s $400 USD, which is about $420 AUD.

        2. It’s not worth playing with a pad, but nor is any driving game as far as I’m concerned.

          1. I have a wheel, but on Codemasters GRID it was next to useless. Depends how grippy the cars feel as to whether it works or not. I’ll let you know when the game arrives!

          2. My wheel was not recognised on Grid, makes me worry…

          3. I’ve never used a wheel before on the Playstation, but have played tons of racing games, don’t tell me I’ve missed a whole dimension of experience :O

          4. keith.. have you tried the Ferrari virtual academy ?.. how would yo compare it to this. ?

    2. Every official review I read of MGS4 said it was brilliant, but by the time I finished the game I seriously questioned whether they had actually played the game through. Ever since MGS4 I have had my misgivings about the game reviewers, they just pander to the game-industry, it’s why I’ll trust Keith’s review more than anyone else’s. MGS4 was over-hyped and crap, end of story.

      1. That’s … not really my point. What I mean is that MGS4 was pretty polarising. I, personally, didn’t much like the thing about Big Boss being alive, though I could understand why it worked within the story, because we never actually saw Big Boss’s body and we only ever had the word of unrealiable characters that he was dead in the first place. Every other twist – Zero being the head of the Patriots, Liquid Ocelot being Ocelot brainwashing himself into believing he was Liquid, etc. – met with other degrees of reception from lukewarm to clever to ignoring continuity (I’m thinking the final lines of Sons of Liberty here).

        My point in all of this is that while Guns of the Patriots was a fairly polarising game, particularly in the story department (Hideo Kojima’s dialogue is only marginally better than the stuff pumped out by George Lucas), it was dividing fans fairly well. But it’s nothing compared to F1 2010. It’s almost as if there are two versions out there: one insanely easy, the other fantastically difficult. And I’m at a loss to explain how one game can divide fans so much. I have been looking forward to it and was intending on buying it once I get a new computer, but the reactions to it have muted my enthusiasm, and I’ve never really liked games with a date on them because they age quickly. F1 2010 will soon be superseded by F1 2011, which in turn will be upstaged by F1 2012.

        1. Sorry, I just get angry at the games industry sometimes. To be fair to games with years on them, a yearly release does make games age very quickly, but I reckon that it allows for a game to clearly evolve year on year. Look at the Fight Night series, where a game every 4 years can have a completely different feel and quality to the previous. Compare that to FIFA where the franchise evolves and improves largely thanks to year after year feedback.

          ps: love the jibe at Lucas ;)

        2. It’s probably because F1 2010 has two very distinct audiences: F1 fans who aren’t gamers (me) and those that are (Keith perhaps). Then there are also gamers who might not be F1 fans who probably aren’t concerned about the details of engine blow outs and safety car deployment. So for people like me, I can see the Medium settings being a challenge, but for experienced gamers it will probably be really easy.

          1. I wouldn’t call myself a gamer. Too busy writing F1 Fanatic!

    3. It most likely comes down to the gamers experiance.

      Some one who has only played the mainstream “arcade” racing games will have a completely different response to some one who races in online leagues every night in rFactor.

      What I’m most disgusted about is how they left out such an important F1 feature. F-Ducts..

      1. According to the game makers the existence of the F-duct on some cars is simulated – i.e., they have better straight-line speed. But driver operation of them isn’t.

        They said part of the reason is because they were running out of buttons on the Xbox and PS3 controllers to map to different controls. Looking at the manual I see what they mean – they would have had to remove some other element of the game to do so and still accommodate those controllers which I suspect a large percentage of players on those machines have.

        Another part of the reason was the complication of explaining to the player which cars have F-ducts and which don’t.

        1. That suprises me as the 2009 version I have (albeit a crap version on the Wii) has a button for KERS. As this is not being used in 2010 couldn’t this have been an easy choice to replace it with an F-duct button?

          I haven’t even seen the game yet but I’ll get it, simply because there is nothing else. Hopefully it will be good…

          1. The 2009 game is much more basic than the 2010 one and doesn’t have features like being able to adjust your front wing and engine settings.

      2. You could always pretend, just when your going down the straights, if your in a Mclaren which was designed for the F-Duct use your knee to push the left stick forwards, and if your in a non Mclaren F-Duct car use your nose to simulate difficulty.

        See? you can thank me now.

    4. its more because we understand the concept of the racing line and we would probably drive and then once in lead give out a qualifyin fast lap. The others who play the game casually for a little bit of fun just go in a straight line and then brake right at the end and turn. Which makes the game more challenging to them.

    5. Codemasters, are you having a laugh?
      Ive been playing this game for a couple of hours and its such a huge pile of rubbish.

      Honestly, if you have ever played rfactor and got some of the 2009/10 mods then you will know what i mean. F1 2010 is truly awful.

      Theres so many basic rookie mistakes that i cant believe that Ant Davidson was ever involved at all.
      Example – Monza (now what on earth is going here?) In reality every single driver from any race series rides the kerbs at the 2nd chicane. Turns out you cant do it without it spinning you out on F1 2010.

      And why pick a geordie to be your race engineer? He just wont shut up. And repeats himself 20 times a race.

      The game just seems so lackluster and novice. “ARCADE” is the perfect word to describe it and i was praying that it wasnt going to be.

      And another thing, SPA is massively wrong. It seems to have developed some cambers grown some huge kerbs. And the bus top chicane??? – is very insulting. If you been round SPA you’ll know what i mean.

      Its just such a let down. After all the hype, all the interviews, all the screenshots and videos that promised so much, then they give us this load of cack.

      Theres only one good thing and thats the rain. And i cant believe i waited 4years for it.

      THIS GAME IS UNBELIEVABLY BAD

      Tomorrows to do list:
      1 – get a refund
      2 – plug the wheel back into computer

      It just dont even get close to rfactor..

      1. Try turning off the assists, & turning it up to expert & see how you go.

        You can’t judge this game with all the assists on & the difficulty set to arcade.

        Have you even tried fiddling with the setup to get the car to ride the kerbs better?

        1. All the assists go off the minute i turn it on.

          Ive given it max ride height and im taking the bumps so slow its just not close to being real.

          Thx for you suggestion tho.

  2. Looks like I won’t get mine for days :-(

    Shopto took my credit card details and a pound from my account which they credited back, accepted the order, but when I logged on to check the status said I didn’t have an account or any card details, bank says otherwise. Emailed them they told me to register again…. NO thanks.

    It gets better, I then ordered it from Zavvi, I checked on my account each day to see if its despatched, just showing ‘out for pick’, guess what? today I can’t log on, clicked on the remind password in case I’d got it wrong and they sent me an email saying no account registered. Rang customers services leave a message, getting angry now.

    Seems very strange I would think it was a problem with my PC but I used a different one for each site. Very odd to have similar problem with two suppliers.

    So I’ve now ordered a copy from Tescos that should be safe, £29 as well. Bet I end up with two copies now.

  3. Hold on, does Abu Dhabi go dark or not?

    If it doesn’t, how the hell are the light transitions realistic?

    1. I’d say it would depend on the length of the race. There may not be enough time for the sun to physically set in a short race.

      1. In a quick 3 lap blast it doesn’t go dark, just stays at sunset. I think the car feels as if it has too much chassis roll and that makes it feel a bit clumsy to be honest. But I’d probably give it a 4/5 too! :)

    2. It goes dark. Duh!

  4. A couple of great statements that made me laugh, such as,

    “If Vitaly Petrov and Vitantonio Liuzzi performed as well in real life as they do in this game there wouldn’t be quite so many rumours about who will be driving their cars next year.”

    1. I had a good laugh at

      I see Lewis Hamilton played “F1 2010″ before racing at Monza last week. Perhaps that’s why he thought he’d get away with his first-lap contact with Felipe Massa.

      :D

      1. YES! N i thot i was the only guy who noticed tat! maybe he didnt realise damage is “forced ON” in the real race! :-P

  5. As this is the there first attempt at an F1 game, we should not be to harsh on them when it comes to the little things.

    All I can ask is that they keep improving on this excilent start for the F1 2011 title and listen to what the gamers want.

    If they were really smart they should open up a website to take gamers feedback and ideas to implement into future titles.

    I am a little dissapointed that there is no complete AI races like there were in Grand Prix 4 though.

    1. I read on another forum (or possibly the website) that they have already begun development of the next one inline.

      It is unsure whether it will be 2011, or 2012.

      Personally i would like them to not rush it, and make it better again. From what i understand, towards the end of the project they had to get the result, and started rushing things to get it done…..

  6. I could have had my copy yesterday – I had pre ordered it but they didn’t call me until I was on my way to work (I am a shift worker)!

    I can’t pick it up until Monday now, will let you know my opinions when I play it (PS3 version).

  7. I’m glad they’re not gonna throw dlc at us, firstly, it will just mean we pay more, but crucially it means they will be able to get on with making F1 2011.

  8. Way harsh on Hamilton! But pretty funny.

    I’ve pre-ordered.

    That’s me with the racing-game hairshirt. I want to have to hit every apex to get a truly competitive time. But since I’m no longer in college, or unemployed, I don’t have solid 3 hour stretches to play the game and appreciate some shortcuts to being competitive.

  9. “However, Codemasters have addressed that typical racing game bugbear of being able to out-brake all the cars at the first corner”

    Thanks for the info Keith, and all the rest. Will test the game tonight hopefully (if it is deblocked by steam) and hope it will be my game of the next year !

  10. You say economics drive the game to appeal to as many people as possible. Economics also drive the time scale because this game needs to be released before the year is out.

    Im glad they locked down the release models of the car and went on from there perfecting the game.

    Also im getting the game on PC so im hoping we can get in and tinker with the game a little.

    1. I suppose the rookies (look at Petrov stating he learnt Singapore mainly on the PS3) will be pretty much enjoying to play the game to get more practise for the next few races as well.

  11. I’ll believe the review when I have the game in my hands. Too many games have promised too much, had awesome reviews and turned out to be large piles of turd. And with racing games, it’s either great or just complete trash. No offense Keith, other great websites have also fallen for this.

    How are the controls Keith? Is there ANY lag between you turning the wheel or moving the analog stick and the driver starting to turn the steering? Games like rFactor do this beautifully, while every racer released by big publisher usually has almost half-a-second of lag. Most people cannot point this out, but it just makes the game suck.

    1. It felt fine when I played it with a steering wheel on the PS3.

    2. It has it with the throttle – which is annoying because it makes it virtually impossible to correct power oversteer.

      1. There you go. If developers cannot get the driving feel right, I don’t care about how well Abu Dhabi’s fancy hotel is replicated or how the dry and wet lines affect your tyre wear. Stupid really.

      2. Thank you for that input, by the way. It’s quite impossible to control oversteer with the throttle in F1 cars anyways, but even otherwise, the lag will keep reminding you that it’s a game. I’ve gone into deep levels of concentration when doing 50 lap races in rFactor where I don’t even think of anything else for those 1.5 hours or so.

        1. Mmm, that sounds familiar. But then I once drove one of the 1000-mile races in Gran Turismo 4, to prove it could be done…

  12. No f-duct eh.. I thought we can get f-duct considering the late release of this game

    1. there is F-Duct its just automatic, otherwise there wouldn’t be enough buttons,

  13. I don’t have room for a proper steering wheel set up so I have to make do with the PS3 controller, which usually is fine.

    However with this it’s different. Many racing games these days seem to favour the use of the R2 and L2 triggers as the throttle and the brake, which I cant stand (it feels unnatural to me and causes my fingers to cramp). Luckily there’s an option to configure the controller to my liking, so I spent a bit of time and put X and Square as the throttle and brake, with the D-Pad for my steering – the set up I have on every racing game.

    A lap or two into my first practice session and I can’t understand why the car is so easy to spin. Turns out Codemasters haven’t made use of the pressure sensitivity for the buttons – meaning steering is either full lock or dead straight and the throttle is either open or closed, rendering my setup impossible to use.

    I changed back to the default setting, but even that isn’t perfect. There’s a huge ‘Deadzone’ on the triggers and only a very narrow window to operate the throttle. Fine for a couple of laps, but then my finger starts to ache and I’m all over the shop again.

    Fair enough, I’m in a HRT, so I tried the Red Bull and Ferrari on the Grand Prix mode. It’s less of a problem but still not perfect, but it doesn’t matter anyway because if I can’t control the inferior cars comfortably then it’s going to be difficult for me to progress through the career mode unless I whack it on the easist setting – which I’m not going to do because what’s the fun in that.

    I’m disappointed to read they won’t be releasing patches either because there are some things that need touching up. In replays the cars appear to hover six inches from the ground, and I was able to lap a wet Albert Park on slicks at the same time I could in the dry, with no discernable difference in handling characteristics.

    After a few hours of gameplay I’m bitterly disappointed, and I’m only going to continue playing it so I don’t feel I’ve spent £35 in vain. In the meantime I’ll go back to the flawed but fun F1:CE whilst I wait for Gran Turismo 5 to come out.

    1. Also I seem to get a lot of punctures. I don’t lock up or go off very much and I don’t push the tyres to the limits of their lifespan, yet often in a session I will get a puncture. Is this Codemasters’ way of simulating a car failure without having to bother putting them in? If so it’s very lazy and is a more than a little annoying.

      It’s a bad compromise – not realistic enough to be a sim, not enjoyable enough to be a good arcade game.

      1. Nico Da Flagburna
        26th September 2010, 1:10

        Yh u r totally right…

        “not realistic enough to be a sim, not enjoyable enough to be a good arcade game”

        i am also somone who thinks they prefer f1:ce just because i can enjoy myself more!

  14. Good review!

    As an avid GP4 fan, with a wheel and pedals, this review seems to suggest the only benefit I’m going to get from buying this game is a slightly better career mode and updated graphics.

    The lack of downloadable content, third party add-ons, ropey damage model and what sounds like questionable AI completely puts me off buying this (all of which are satisfied by GP4). Maybe I’ll buy it on the PS3 for a **** around every now and then, but I really don’t see what this has to offer, simulation wise, that I don’t already get from GP4.

    Sure GP4 is buggy as hell and if I play it twice a day for 2 hours each time, it’ll crash once or twice, but when it’s going, it’s great. Even where F1 2010 boasts “individual car handling charactaristics” and “real life counter-part driver behavior”, GP4 has this more or less covered; you can tweak the engine power from team to team, overall downforce, handling charactaristics, driver ability and behavior (you can even set how they perform in qualifying, independantly from how they perform in the race) etc etc etc.

    My main interest in an F1 game (and thus what GP4 satisfies) isn’t so much the Sunday race day, it’s the challenge of the two 90 minute and one 60 minute practice sessions to tweak the setup to extract the most out of the car at a given circuit and then having a crack at sticking it on pole… The race at the end of it isn’t really my main concern.

    So, in summary… I won’t buy this for my desktop PC, instead I *might* buy it for my PS3 for the occasional **** about when I get home after a Friday night’s heavy session.

    1. wow, and i thought i was a diehard GP4 fan!

      1. Me too!

        It’s the physics in the wet that make GP4 such a timeless game.

        I have the Wii version of F12009, which yes I know is nowhere near as good as this new one, but I’m guessing the physics are similar. To be honest, it’s firmly in the Friday night occasional bracket with arcade style physics – but it is good fun.

  15. Christian Biddon
    23rd September 2010, 15:12

    Pity the PC version is not reviewed here. I have played it briefly (about 30 mins) and can say that it is excellent. The graphics are fantastic and the gameplay seems to bear out what you say above. I’m hoping for a longer session tonight if the kids will let me. :-)

    Highly recommended!!

  16. Nice review, Keith. Still waiting for Amazon’s ‘dispatched’ email, but seeing as I won’t be able to play tomorrow, I won’t be too disappointed if it doesn’t arrive till Saturday.

    Are the driver aids limited by difficulty level? like the old Geoff Crammond games, where you got fewer driver aids available to you as the level went up, or can you still have braking assistance on the hardest level?

    Sad to hear that the race engineer is less than perfect, but at least it’s not the TV commentary style we’ve had in past games. (Having said that, I wouldn’t mind the odd Murray Walker “Fan-tas-tic!” whenever I overtake someone ;))

    It’s sad there won’t be any DLC, but I imagine they want to concentrate on ways of parting us with our cash in F1 2011 as opposed to grafting Nick Heidfeld into the existing game.

    You’ve mentioned that the devs read this blog, so hopefully they will be able to implement some of your suggestions in the next game.

  17. That’s a fairly detailed review Keith. You’ve obviously spent enough time to notice slow cars in valencia turn 19, forgiving bulls vs. Skittish HRTs etc.
    Cpl of Q’s:
    Were you using a wheel – how’s the force feedback?
    And any idea if the game will be moddable on the PC? That could solve a lot of AI glitches, livery and talent updates etc without an ‘official’ patch.
    Cheers

  18. FSONE 2008, RFT 2009 and RFT2010 have been my F1 games for a while now. If the high budget codemasters can’t make the cars feel as realistic, with those driving aids turned off, as these free download mods for rFactor – I’ll be HUGELY disappointed. The beautiful graphics and awesome weather will go a long way towards negating that disappointment, but ultimately, I’m buying this to feel what it’s like to drive an F1 car. Leave those ‘all appeal’ types to Need for Speed and the like.

  19. I played this for a few hours last night on the pc with a xbox controller – massive difference from the keyboard, you can control your throttle and braking ’nuff said –
    I played with a variety of difficulties trying to figure out which one i could handle and wouldn’t be a challenge. Made it through the full session of P1 on the last position, on p2 after about 5 or 10 laps my rear suspension had a nervous breakdown and i had to go to P3 still in the last position. My problem is i’ve tried every set up i could find and cannot seem to go any faster then 2:11 on that track- might just be me not finding the proper difficulty lever or just being a true noob at this game. Anyway, the above aside, i like it, i feel like Codemasters delivered on 90% of the expectations they set. There is only one BIG problem i have, and it’s not about the gameplay per-say it’s something a bit different; Your driver can’t be a girl, if you love f1 and want to play an f1 game and go through the career mode and be the first woman to win the f1 championship you can’t do that in this game, codemasters, really? It doesnt bother me that much but my girlfriend is kind of ****** about this – i love f1 as much as the next dude here but man, she’s a whole other sort of crazy when it comes to this sport – and i understand why.

    1. “trying to figure out which one i could handle and wouldn’t be a challenge” should be “trying to figure out which one i could handle and would still be a challenge”

      1. Oh, and one last thing. Guys, don’t bash Codemasters for not making this game a true SIM racing game, with the amount they have to pay for the license i understand them trying to push this for a broader audience. Enjoy it for what it is, the best COMPLETE f1 game so far.

    2. I’m sure I had the option to use a girl’s name when I played the game. Must try that again later.

      1. The option exists, i feel like a tool now. Please excuse my ignorance and put it to the fact that i was so excited to actually play the game that the fact that it was one click away was one click too far from me at the time and i assumed that the option did not exist. Mea culpa as they say.

        Anyway Codemasters made one hell of a game; is it a true SIM no, is it as close as you can get and still keep the game fun and immersive HELL YEAH!

    3. Good point Dragos, but in all honesty, I can’t blame Codemaster people not to have thought about it.

    4. You covered all the points i’ve been asking about lately, using xbox controller for PC.
      I’ve been playing racing games for a long time using keyboard, never had a wheel and just now thinking to get xbox controller and here i find your comment which urges me to buy one :)
      cheers

  20. hi will there be a f1 2010/2011 on wii?
    because f1 2009 was such an easy game its not a good game
    has anyone got the answer to my question
    thanks

    1. I don’t think F1 2010 is being released on Wii

  21. hi will there be a f1 2010/2011 on wii?

  22. Having played this game on PC, I’m very disappointed by the cars handling and sound. While the engines sound good, it lacks the minor details which make a racing game a great one. For example in rFactor, GTR Evolution and even NFS Shift, you get a good sense of traction from the sound alone, yet in this game, there seems to be no tire screeching sound up until you spin. This makes it hard to know where the limit of the circuit and your car lies, whether your car is understeering or oversteering, whether you went into the corner too fast…

    The graphics aren’t anything special either. I found them to be whitewashed, blurry and lacking of colour. The brownish tint the game has just doesn’t convey the atmosphere of what modern F1 is all about. They should have left that colour scheme for a 1970’s F1 game.

    I was even left disappointed by a very basic thing, camera movement inside the cockpit. There seems to be no head movement or G-Force simulation, or even a ‘look to apex’ option. The result- a joyless sensation, of an otherwise great experience.

    I know I’m criticising this game a lot, but I can’t help but feel this game was rushed into the market before the season ends in a bid to sell more copies. The driving experience is nowhere near as good as it should be and the customization options, ranging from camera movement to indepth car control, are non-existent.

    Maybe I have a high standard, being a huge fan of GTR Evolution in particular, but this is no excuse for Codemasters. They focused on nearly everything, besides what really matters, the driving experience.

    Saying I enjoyed the last game (F1 2006 on PS2!) more, you can imagine my disappointment. :(

    1. i waas going to buy it until i read this

    2. Tyre screeching!? That would be the most unrealistic thing they could ever add! Since when have F1 tyres ever squealed, they are far too soft.

      1. I’m not referring to that high pitched sound like when tyres lock or when a car completely loses traction, but rather that rough, abrasive sound.

  23. Can’t wait to get it an load it. Thanks for a thorough review Keith.
    I’m not overly excited, but we’ll see after laying down a few laps.
    My last decent F1 sims were chronologically (waay back) Power F1, EA’s 2001, GP3, and more recently Rfactor’s built ins. So nothing horrible, but I think that’s pretty much all there is at the PC sim level.
    So hopefully this will provide a decent upgrade.
    The rain graphics I’ve seen in the previews look amazing and I’m excited to be able to drive into a proper f1 pit stop. That’s always been missing!
    Now for some decent in game coaching,,,,

  24. On F12006 you would be penalised for cutting a corner even if it wasnt your fault, eg if someone drove into you and made you spin, if you cut the corner you still got a time penalty, used to drive me crazy, is that the case on this game?

    1. There are two settings for the penalties – on the most extreme one I was getting warned for cutting corners even though I still had two wheels on the track. On the more lenient setting though it isn’t really an issue.

  25. Great review Keith. One part of the review I was surprised to see.
    There’s not much of a challenge in getting away from the line quickly in “F1 2010″, which is a bit of a disappointment.
    Considering how it was impossible to keep the lead from pole in F1 2009, I would have thought this was good news!
    Even so, I’m really looking forward to it and I’m buying the PC Version.

  26. I would like to put a question to all those who have played f1 2006 and the new f1 2010. How do the two games compare? Which would you say is better.

    Futhermore with regards to rfactor it is good but it to is not perfect. What is f1 2010’s biggest downfall compared to rfactor?

    Am having a hard time deciding if i should by this game. Worried it will just be grid or dirt with an f1 skin on and i didnt like either of those games

    1. “F1 2010” is far better. I don’t think I ever played the last game again after I reviewed it. Will definitely be with this.

  27. Looks fantastic. Can’t wait to get a PC copy when I can.

    …But why have they omitted car failures? Surely that’s about 10 lines of code. Very strange.

    1. Maybe I’m being cynical, but why sell something once when you can sell it 2 or 3 times? Same with phones; make it a little better, sell it again. Rinse and repeat. They can add a few features, change the sponsors,and we’ll all buy it again next year, and the next, and the next, etc.

      1. Yea, it’s just like Madden Football (might not be popular over there, but here it’s huge)…a new one comes out every year and it gets a bit better every time. the difference between say 2010 and 2005 is HUGE. I can see the same thing here…Also, they pick a different player every year for the cover which is pretty cool….

        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madden_NFL_11

        1. They get the same with the FIFA football games. :)

    2. I’d hope car failures when implemented are more than ‘about 10 lines of code’. I think it was Geoff Crammond’s GP2 that would randomly introduce failures without warning. 60 laps of a Grand Prix only for your engine to suddenly stop.

      I know that kind of thing could happen in F1, and it’s very frustrating for the driver (and fans of that driver) but this is a game!

      When implemented, I’d like to see car failures implemented logically – engines and gearboxes wear over time – you need to manage your engine allocation, You might start to hear the engine misfire, or your race engineer warns you that the engine is struggling and you need to manage it home, That kind of thing instead of ‘whoops…bang’.

  28. Great review Keith. Cant wait to play it!

  29. I would have liked to be a spectator to other multiplayer races in session, then I could get my F1-watching jollies without waiting for the next REAL race. And possibly see more crashes and paint rubbing too.

  30. Those issues with outbreaking everyone is very much solved. you just can’t do that. I find it pretty annoying i always picks up a puncture. I don’t know why but it happens all the time. And on expert i would like still to have these playbacks. I love that on expert a lotus is as fast as a lotus is in real life. There it seems that everything is balanced well. I play on 50% race distance and i totally mess up every single time. I have managed 11 laps now and that is the furthest i have got, but i am dead last because of one of these punctures. Very annoying. Or maybe save during a GP would be great. I also think that you don’t get as much feedback from the car that you would want. Sometimes it just spins out in the first corner in Bahrain.
    And the starts are not very interesting because you are not going much faster if you control your wheel spin or if you just floor it when the lights go. And during the pitstops the car acts very unusual, it looks very messy. And i don’t get this “control your car yourself” thing, i am not doing anything and it still turns into the pit garage by its own. And yes it is set to manual.
    I hope most of these problems are solved in the 2011 game, but as a first F1 game from codies it is great. And the AI is very good.
    this is a very good game, but it is not faultless. 4/5 is a fair judgment.

  31. I have played this for a couple of hours on my PS3 and here are my impressions.

    The overall appearance of the game is great, good graphics and decent navigation, however I feel my next set of comments were always going to happen due to the long time since a new F1 game came out and the hype around it in that it would always leave me feeling short.

    I cannot but help feel it’s like the curates egg – good in parts. My main gripe so far are:

    Frame rate and textures – The reflection on the car are juddery and bitty. It’s a shame as the rest out the outside environment is well put together. That mean when the car goes under a bridge or whenever the car has the reflection of a grandstand the slow juddering reflection make it look poor quality – It was similar on Grid. This is same in the quality of the image in the rearview mirror, there is only a fraction of the detail and does not appear smooth – it basically renders them useless.

    My biggest gripe so far is that the jerky effect on the drivers hand and steering wheel when you turn. I am using the normal logitech PS3 controller – Not a wheel, and the slightest touch moves the drivers hands erratically and the animation is not subtle like the input you are putting in. This also swings the drivers head to the following direction. The result of this is that it looks rough and untidy, although the actual physics of the car are smooth.

    I find this disappointing as you spend more time looking at the cars cockpit surroundings and head and hands than perhaps some of the far off graphics and textures. I would rather that central core around the cockpit and the driver seem smooth and accurate that be able to see trees in the far off distance.

    The sound of the engines are quite low quality, there is no differentiator between a Mercedes and a Ferrari engine and the sound of the engines on the replays are only as good as GP3 in that it sounds quite fake.

    But there are the negatives as I see them, there are many good points. On any setting higher than medium it is a proper challenge with the wet conditions being ‘mental’ and a job to keep it on the island.

    I also feel it lacks an introduction or training phase of the game. In other games the first things you do are introductory steps in to the buttons and how to use them, here you are thrown straight in and left to find out how the buttons are configured.

    So far I am yet to experience cold tyres or the effect of tyres going off, but that might be a setting.

    because of the how hard it can be managing the throttle, i find it very difficult to get in to a rhythm – but this could be just me.

    I am going to give this game a 4/5 for appearance and just about a 4/5 for game play.

  32. Oh one more thing – ‘Rob’ The engineer, I am not a fan! Cannot get the guy who narrates big brother out of my head (In the accent of Big Brother) “Lap 33 of the British GP and you have just crashed with Brian Dowling – go and see big bruther”

    1. Great, now I’ve read that I’ll think exactly the same thing. Curse you, Scott!

  33. Thanks Keith – was always going to, being an F1 mug, but will pick up a PS3 copy tomorrow.

    Haven’t played the game yet, but feel folk need to get a grip. It’s a game. Driving a coffee table with your PS3/360/PC around your lounge doesn’t make you Aryton Senna.

    Good review. Looking forward to it.

    1. Driving a coffee table with your PS3/360/PC around your lounge doesn’t make you Aryton Senna.

      Well said.

  34. Wasn’t even thinking about buying the game before this review but probably will now =D. Big sim fan, rfactor/Race On all the good wheels and whatnot so maybe it will be fun on harder mode. Too bad about the lack of patches but no really great F1 2010 mods for the RACE series yet so well worth the $40 on Steam it seems.

  35. For my two cents: I’ve found the PC version to be quite excellent. The driving is not perfect, but if that were the case it wouldn’t be any fun. It has everything I want from an F1 game in terms of gameplay – I can feel when I’ve done a good sector, I can fight with the AI, the tracks are great and I love the progressive grip over a weekend. I pay attention to the things I watch for during the real Grands Prix.

    It’s good fun; anyone up for an F1F PC World Championship?

  36. I absolutely adore it. While it does have some problems, the good things far outweigh the bad. Yeah, it’s far too easy on medium, but switch up to hard or expert modes and it just blows your mind. I love it. And if the first outing is this brilliant, imagine what next years version will be like!?!? Wow… thank the gaming gods that a developer like Codemasters have their hands on the F1 license now.

    Because let’s be honest… compared to this, F1: Championship Edition on PS3 was utter garbage!

    1. Totally agree mate, I think it’s fantastic and the best F1 game in years!!

  37. after playing the pc version for 2 days, i give it 3 out of 5. this is very much an xbox game that runs on my computer, i.e. no patches, no mouse support at all, limited button mapping, a poor online interface, and menus from hell. it might be good by console standards, but an a pc there is SO MUCH left on the table. it’s disappointing to see that as little effort as possible went into the pc derivative.

    the forum is here:
    http://community.codemasters.com/forum/f1-2010-game-1316

    1. one of the more irritating things about this is the controller support – a pc controller works only for driving. for the menus its back to the keyboard.

      this is lame and kind of confusing, since everything is done with a controller on a console.

      1. This is slightly worrying, which controller were you using? I have a HTPC which I play games on from the sofa, so having to get up and use the keyboard at every menu would be unacceptable to me. Hopefully with an official 360 controller the game will switch to “xbox mode” like other games do (like Dirt 2 does for example)

        1. i’m using a logitech cordless rumblepad 2. it’s very similar to a playstation controller in terms of shape and feel.

          yet another thorn in my side – with a controller, i don’t have access to (W) front wing adjustment, (E) engine mapping, and other functions. the commands can’t be mapped to a controller, and the keyboard commands stop working when “controller” is selected.

          the more i play this game, the worse it gets.

  38. I saw this game was coming out and was really looking forward to it…

    I then saw who was making it… Codemasters…. I then fell into virtual depression.

    EVERY game I have played by them is unfinished and shows it big time, they take 4 years producing a game and then release it with what seems to be another few months work to do on it.

    And by reading this review that seems to have happened YET AGAIN with F1 2010. Noteably the race engineer and limited damage to the car and information.

    I will probably buy it as there is simply nothing else out there, but I hope this is the first game I buy from Codemasters that doesn’t leave me annoyed and frustrated at it’s incomplete-ness, not holding my breath. :-(

    1. Sounds like you’ve already made your mind up about it without having played it.

  39. spankythewondermonkey
    24th September 2010, 1:33

    ok, bought the ps3 version about an hour ago.

    first impressions on trying monza….

    graphics – poor. only runs at 720p and not at all smooth. didn’t know parts of monza were covered in boards?
    controls – my gt forceback wheel isn’t recognised by the game (works fine on gt5 prologue) so am stuck with the controller.
    handling (compared to gt5p) – arcadey, even on expert with all driver aids switched off. there’s very little ‘feel’ to the driving model.
    ai – haven’t got that far, and to be honest, i don’t think i will.

    first impressions are that i’ve wasted £33

    wait, i hear you say: “how can you decide that in only 30 mins of playing?”
    gt5p was an instant “oh my god, this is great”. i’m simply not getting that with this game.

    maybe the pc version is better, but the ps3 version is anything but a showcase product.
    i may change my tune tomorrow when i give it another go, but the fact i’ve turned the ps3 off, and the pc on to post this, kinda says it all as to what i think.

    1. Most games runs in 720p anyway. The only game i have that runs in 1080p is GT5P. But i agree that the graphics are not very smooth.

    2. spankythewondermonkey
      24th September 2010, 10:22

      ok, have had a few more hours on it.

      wet weather driving is very good.

      how the track rubbers in is great.

      deffo let down by being only 720p. how can sony do gt5p in full 1080 with silky smoothe movement and codemasters produce something that is half the resolution and rough as a badgers a55 in comparison?

      difficult using the dualshock as you don’t have the fine throttle control, so really needs a wheel and pedals.
      doesn’t support the force gt (the wired one with the gran turismo logo in the middle), so if you have that wheel it ain’t gonna work.

      if a demo had been available, i probably wouldn’t have bought the full version.

      gut feeling is that i’ll sell it on within a week or so as it doesn’t meet with expectations. if it had better wheel support then i’d probably be singing a different tune

      at least i’ve got gt5 to look forward to in 39 days time.

      1. spankythewondermonkey
        24th September 2010, 13:56

        and have now just been out and bought the driving force GT wheel (supported by the game) – £80 in argos – and it’s a lot better.

        it’s now turned into a keeper simply due to the fact it’s orders of magnitude better with the wheel than the gamepad.

        still frustrated by the graphics though.

        just to clarify…the other wheel i had was the logitech GT force (blue bits on wheel, A, B, X & Y buttons, paddle shift, no d-pad, no PS button, no start or select buttons and no square circle etc buttons) which is NOT compatible.

  40. I actually love the game. having raced karts and cars since i was a teen I need it to feel right. And those games that are overly difficult to play.. it doesnt mean its hardcore proper because its hard..

    You have to realise.. this is a game.. its the whole experience and it should be ‘fun’. If you want realism and dont have millions.. grab a 125cc go kart and race. Thats my opinion.

    In f12010 I like the perception of speed as after a while racing any car.. they stop feeling fast.. especially on wide open tracks.. and this game does a great job of making you feel comfortable straight away.

    Wet weather is the best I have ever seen. Keeping your tires cool when the track is drying up is fantastic.

    Tires are sweet.. I feel like Felipe Massa cause I need 2 full laps to get the tires heated enough to do a decent lap! and the difference between primes and options are noticeable. I find when i’m doing quali I try to bank a quick lap in q1 using the prime tires and having to resort to using up my options just to make q2 (driving a Sauber)

    I love the fact that over a long race the racing line develops and you get more and more grip.. awesome!

    Gripes?

    1 – rear view mirrors.. what exactly am I looking at here? I find it odd that I have to look ‘back’ in an f1 car.. and when you do.. the cars behind look like little remote control cars darting around.. bit odd.

    2 – replays.. wow.. for the the advancements in gaming and in this game in particular.. this is probably the most disappointing part.. its not like they have stood still in this area.. they have gone backwards.. way way back. I just downloaded the Ferrari Academy game.. now THAT is a good replay.. take note Codemasters..

    3 – AI. Overall they are pretty good.. they fight back and you can have a great battle.. but they slow down in really weird area.. then speed up overly like the system is trying to make up for the odd slow down.. its a problem when you driving close cause sometimes you just smash into the back of them. This is especially the case in practice.. they drive slow trying to let you through.. then as soon as your slightly ahead.. they fight back! then they pass you.. and then slows down to let you through again..

    4. Damage.. this has been talked about and expected.

    5. Graphics: overall they are quite good. But whats with the constant haze and gloomy feel. Its like there is a war going on and everything is gloomy and sad.. it can be quite depressing at times. I understand you have a visor on but it shouldnt make things ‘hazy’ or gloomy at all..

    But overall I am really happy with what they have come up with. You can really get into a zone in this game.. blending in the throttle, using the extra grip as the day goes on.. love it!

    I’m thinking the issue will be sorted for 2011 but for 2010 the game is really solid and will provide a great platform.

    I’d give it a 8/10… great work from a really fussy gamer!

    1. Very nice review there. When comparing your opinion to Davidsons remarks, it seems nothing beats the experience of really racing to judge the ‘realism’ of the game.

      Not the hardcore sim player wanting it more difficult than real just to be good at beating it and setup.

  41. “The developers have paid close attention to the rule book and crafted a game that observes F1′s complicated and ever-changing regulations, yet presents them in a manner that creates an entertaining game.”

    So, if the lights go green at Monaco on the last lap can I overtake or not? ;)

  42. The game seems good for what it is but if you want the “sim” experience then wait until next month when iracing.com releases the Williams FW31. I honestly can’t drive any other game after iracing, it’s just so good.

  43. Played the game all yesterday on my ps3 and g27. Enjoyed it but code masters themselves have been quoted the game can go a long way still so this will do for now lets see what they do with the future releases.

    Online and time trial party’s get a big thumbs up

  44. Great Game…Hooked on playing it now…Cars drive great..Planted feeling…ticks all the boxes I require..
    AI of Drivers is very good…Something 90% of games out there wont have….Weather system is marvellous.
    Is not Perfect but what is these days….

    9/10 for me

  45. I bought the PC version over Steam, still can’t play it as the official release date in Singapore is the 25th… Arrgh… Also particularly galling is the fact that bootlegs have already been leaked, so us legitmate users are left hanging.

    I’ll also get the PS3 version so that I can meet up with you fellow fanatics online, does the PS3 game support voice chat (I noticed that Jake Humphrey and the Hamilton brothers were playing on Xbox)…

    1. Wow, what happened to this game? I thought Codemasters were on a great trajectory after the fantastic “Dirt 2”, but the handling and physics model in this game completely falls flat. Driving feels extremely slow, nothing like the F1 experience. There is significant lag in all the controls, and the handling makes my G25 wheel feel more like a gamepad than a wheel.

      For all those who claim it needs to be dumbed down to make it more appealing to a mass audience, I give you the example of Dirt 2. Accessible enough to sell millions of copies, but realistic enough to please a hard core fan like me.

      Codemasters, what happened? This game has everything except except the driving part. Try Ferrari Virtual Academy if you want to feel anything like you’re actually piloting a F1 car.

  46. I’ve added a post to the F1 2010 forum thread collating all the Gamertags/PSN IDs listed so far.

    https://www.racefans.net/forum/topic.php?id=242&page=2

    1. There’s already a link to it at the bottom of the article.

  47. also at the top of the list for “F1 2011” is car failures, it may be frustrating but it adds realism

  48. Schumi the greatest
    24th September 2010, 8:57

    Well here’s my first impression after about 3 hours gameplay.

    Graphics – brilliant the cars and the surroundings look great, in wet weather the puddles etc give it a much more authentic look to it and driving behind someone in the spray is impossible!

    Handling – i find the cars very akward to drive at the moment, very hard to hit the apex of most corners…i started with abs and brake assist off with the virtual line for corners only…im braking hard when the red line appears but i end up running horribly wide try putting the throttle down and end up spinning. I had traction control on medium. It seems very hard to get into a rythym…every corner seems like a challenge and i know what corner is coming next..so little dissapointed with that but im hoping thats down to lack of game play.

    AI – Seeems very good to start, you can have exciting battles with the other drivers although more often than not you end up on top. I did a grand prix at spa in the wet and saw other drivers flying off the road which impressed me too many previous games the AI drivers were on rails it seemed.

    I started a craeer in a lotus and with abs on traction control full i could have got into the top 10 for Q3.

    Just hopong iafter a few more hours il get used to the cars need to spin every time i touch the throttle. but im shcoked you cant compete in the 2010 championship as 1 of the real life drivers….i dont understand why to be honest.

  49. “You might be wrestling with the car at Spa in the rain when he starts waffling on about your engine temperature or, worst of all, points out that the track is wet, as if you hadn’t noticed.”

    Isn’t that what Smedley does all the time to Flippy? It’s the kind of thing that he seems to need to be told.

  50. PC REVIEW…This is an arcade game. Not a sim. Nothing like RFactor, which is my all time favorite. Everything looks pretty and the attention to detail is top notch. But all I really care about is driving an F1 car. The physics of the handling ruins this game for me. The cars are stapled to the ground and the rear end never breaks loose until you do something silly and then it justs snaps loose and there is no saving it. It feels like the car just moves sideways instead of turning on an axis. Even when adjusting the wings to encourage oversteer I still can’t gradually break the rear end loose to get into a turn/hairpin. Its like its glued to the road until all of a sudden BANG, its gone and you’re backwards. Like if stability control is locked on and you can’t turn it off. I’m sure that new players to the scene of racing will love the superglued feeling but I want my car to move around on the track and turn, not slide sideways. I’ll admit that since its so easy to drive that the racing against other cars is fun since you can dart around and not lose grip.

    1. Im sorta glad that i have not play RFactor as its sounds as if any F1 game would struggle to comepete against it on a realism level.

      I do however play a lot of Forza 3 and find the car physics in that to be brilliant. I just hope that im not going to be too dissapointed by how the cars feel in F1 2010 as im very much used to the high standards set in Forza. You can really feel the tarmac through the wheels and have a true sense of where the limit in traction is.

      Will soon see, off to buy it at lunch. Shame work has to get in the way of playing it this afternoon.

      1. Torg, like you i like the physics in Forza. I have spent two days on the f1 game and its like Forza on Steroids – everything happens so fast. You can’t thumb round Silverstone with an occasional sip of your tea/ bite of cake on the straights – it is full concentration, sweaty palms, exhilerating. I have never played rfactor, but it must be some game if it is better than ‘F1 2010’.

        I am gleefully off home to take my Lotus to china for the 4 race of the season – qualified 9th last night :-)

    2. “the rear end never breaks loose, then it just snaps & there is no saving it????”

      Suggestion, turn the traction control off, it will spin in 1st 2nd 3rd & even 4th sometimes depending on your setup, also you can feel it starting to spin up & how much grip it has in each gear, with TCS on it just holds for a while then spins with no notice, as you don’t realize you are giving it waaaaayy too much throttle at that point.

  51. Schumi the greatest
    24th September 2010, 11:11

    what steering wheel would anyone reccomend for ps3??

    1. spankythewondermonkey
      24th September 2010, 13:58

      depends on budget. i just bought the logitech driving force GT from argos for £80 and the game is significantly better. the ‘ultimate’ wheel is the G27, but it ain’t cheap.

  52. Not overly impressed with the graphics, the environment looks nice but I can’t help but feel the other cars look like cardboard cut-outs. Dirt and Grid looked much better in this respect, bit disappointed. And you straight away notice the weird slowing down bug of the other cars.

    This is after 15 minutes play though, before FP1 started.

    Stupidly went for short races at Singapore and then a wet Monaco (has to be done), with almost all assists off, and it was bloody impossible! Looking forward to seeing what the more open tracks are like. The penalties are frustrating, I’m thinking it’s best to turn them off if you’re just having a short sprint race as you want to go all out.

    It’s really not a sim, but I think I’m going to enjoy it because it’s challenging, there’s lots to think about on and off track and I love games where I can get really nerdy.

    And those moaning about the lack of car failures, surely the well-documented bugs give you some random, out-of-your-hands incidents to worry about!

  53. Just finished my First race at Bahrain. For some reason the Lapped guy, He was a torro rosso, just didnt let me pass. He was defending his position, position 24. n i was leading. i had to bump into him which got vettel real close to my rear end. The last 2 laps were just painful after tat!

  54. Got it yesterday for PS3. Seems fantastic already, though the last racing game I bought was GT4 for PS2.

    So much simulation is unbelievable

  55. I bought, installed and played the PC version. So far, I really like the track’s recreations. The details they have paid attention to are well represented, in my opinion. The track rubbering in over the course of a session and the difference between the prime and option tyre are noticeable enough to be an interesting factor.

    Since I didn’t expect a never-say-die simulation, I’m okay with how driving the cars feels. There are no extreme corrections and ragged steering movements in real Grand Prix racing these days, apparently, at least with a well-performing car, so likewise, the cars in the game behave rather well. At least it’s my impression that the cars’ downforce improves the faster you go — and controlling the throttle out of slower corners is key, which makes it difficult as I don’t have the advanced control of a wheel at my computer…

    Yesterday, I did a first full-distance race for testing. Highest difficulty level, so I was quite surprised to just be able to squeeze into Q2. The race was a completely different matter, though. The car felt really different to me with as much fuel as it realistically would have had at the beginning of the race, and I lost major time during the middle part because the lapping drivers came in packs quite closely and, just as in real life, you cannot keep on ignoring the blue flags.

    What I don’t like, so far, is that I didn’t realise too much of an impact of making the kinds of setup changes that are possible. My first impressions are that it’s much more important to get a good lap, not missing any apexes and getting on the throttle as quickly as possible.

    What I find downright annoying is the impression that there may well be some kind of helmeted bobble-head in the car instead of something like a driver. It may be a funny indicator of the g-forces involved, but those animations look very unrealistically exaggerated to me.

    1. hahaha! yeah the bobbly head is a bit extreme; although it could be worse:

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hw_OhW83Ll0

      (this video is hilarious, i actually couldn’t stop giggling)

  56. Arrggh I must of been playing this game for like there days straight now and the AI is starting to get more and more erratic?

    Is it just me or do they seem to just not know what to do in some circumstances so they just stop and you get a penalty or just run into you.

    Still loving the game despite this :P

  57. If you haven’t already got this game, I recommend that you don’t. It turns out that Codemasters haven’t actually made a racing game, they’ve made an elaborate hoax of a number cruncher where the cars you see on track are purely there for cosmetic reasons and the actual times are generated. As soon as a car goes out of view, it no longer exists until you come within a certain distance. It now makes sense why you can’t see the gaps to other cars mid-race, why you cant view replays from an AI perspective and why the behaviour/laptimes seem erratic and unrealistic. It’s because the AI cars you see don’t actually exist. Here’s the thread on the Codemasters forum:
    http://community.codemasters.com/forum/f1-2010-game-1316/431006-confirmed-race-ai-phoney.html

    Before anybody disregards me, thinking I’m just a hater of Codemasters or a general troll, I would like to point out that I’ve had this game on pre-order for months. Got it delivered on Friday and have been playing it religiously since, and absolutely loving it! The immersion, graphics and wheel to wheel action didn’t even compare to anything else out there. First four races done in my career, plenty of time trials and I went to Barcelona for round 5 having gotten lucky in Shanghai in changeable conditions and bagged a 9th place for Hispania! Before going out for my final qualifying lap in Spain, I was ahead of all the other new teams on the timing sheets. Great, I thought, I’ll get myself another lap in to be sure. I went out of the pits directly behind Glock and managed to overtake him down the back straight on my qualifying lap and when I crossed the time, I had a new personal best time. Yet when I saw the timing sheet at the end, Glock had qualified ahead of me. How? I started my lap behind him, finished ahead of him, yet he was the faster car? I was a bit suspicious right away and it turns out that I wasn’t the only one after reading that thread…

    It’s so massively disappointing that after all the hype and good press, and after all the years of waiting for a new official F1 game, it turns out to be that the entire ‘racing’ aspect is a complete fabrication.

  58. I too also bought the game and have become victim of a one of the long list of problems with this game that have been posted here

    http://uk.gamespot.com/xbox360/driving/f12010/show_msgs.php?topic_id=m-1-56511071&pid=959808

    My problem is when i save a game and come back to play i get a corrupt data message. I cant get past melbourne practice. I am not the only one with this problem and it appears that it is due to the R&D part of the game. Which i just did before saving and to go out to come back and find it wont load. This happened twice already, as i accepted the first time it may have happened due to chance.

    It appears this game is full of bugs. Which i find completely unacceptable. Codemasters better take back that no update rubbish and get this game sorted or i am sending it back for a full refund.

  59. Thing is… yes the game has a few bugs, and yes there are some items which could do with general improvement (race engineer’s comments being one, though unlike Keith I’m finding him to be far from chatty – he barely says anything and when he does it’s usually pointless!)… but despite that I’m finding it pretty damn good.

    I’m playing half way between medium and hard: braking assists off, traction control off, automatic gears (gamepad, no wheel!) guideline on corners only (for my rookie season!), full flags, tyres and fuel on, AI on professional.

    It’s *seriously* challenging, but SO much fun getting a perfect lap after 10 tries, or finally starting to string good times together without spinning off.

    I could go on, but have to go. I reckon the game does need a patch, but even without it’s damn good fun! No regrets.

  60. Sorry Keith but after playing this game for a few days now this doesn’t even deserve a 2/5 since there are so many problems and glitches with this rushed piece of work. I know my games since i’ve played them years before i watched F1.

    1:Rules for you are ten times stricter then for the AI aka: you get drive through’s for spinning off and getting hit by another car, pit crew ruins your race by keeping you in for over 20 seconds! while there are plenty of spaces to be released. Experienced how? was 9th place infront of Rubens and Rosberg about to pit, I slow down and both cars behind me turn into ghosts and pass right through me.. i then pit knowing i could get them on the straight, no worries eh? Well the tyres get put on and my lollipop dude who must be on my teamates payroll, because i ended up 24th when i got back on the circuit, this is a joke codemasters since glock was release right ontop of me and he pitted 15 seconds after me.

    2.AI is too aggressive towards you in practice and qualifying, Experienced how? was on a flying lap in practice in shanghai, sutil comes out of the pits on the right of me and then tries to t-bone me sebastien style, sorry in real life that kind of move would get you sent back a few places, maybe banned for dangerous driving. And the best thing is no blue flag or warning flag for sutil so it takes me a whole sector to overtake him ruining my time… it also did it again in qualifying 1, i’m the first out to try and set a time in the wet so nobody can get in my way, 1 lap gone i’m on the flying lap, good news nobody in my way until the long straight in sector 3, lewis is up infront of me i’m closing him down and he then decides to place his car in a defensive posistion spraying tons of water in my face… i then move more too the right trying to see where i’m going but he keeps moving infront of me until the braking zone and I finally get past him, cheers AI lewis………..

    3:I have the Xbox 360 version so i have this freeze glitch which keeps coming up, yes i have put it on my hardrive and it still does the same thing every 5-10 minutes, on a good run it wont do it for 30 minutes. I have also heard save corruptions have hit all formats so good luck doing a 7 year career if you are on your 2nd-3rd season now.

    4.Save your pennies for F1 2011 or wait until this thing is going for a tenner in a clearout sale at GAME, or until the day codemasters bother to patch everything which it’s not by the looks of it, so avoid this game I say.

    5.There are more glitches and problems if you check them out on Google search, just take a look since this gives the hint why codemasters didn’t bother to do a BETA before release day, full well knowing it would take weeks-months to sort out.

    All you will have on this game on the season is stress and dissapointment with all the effort you put into the practice and qualifying to get the times down is to just be let down by half baked work to mess up your race.

    I was so excited to get this game for years and all i get is cheap work, if you need a game tester “cough” “cough” for the future you might need to get somebody better then what you have now because they failed with a perfect 10.

    1. The game tester was aimed at codemasters not you keith.

      1. I thought i would never do this tbh, but i’m trading in this thing for FIFA11 before the price plummets.

  61. DJ XO2 likes!!!! and DJ XO2 likes games!! get it X O square…look at a playstation controler lately…nice work code masters. You hooked me with a micromachines game in the 90’s and still delivering in 2010

  62. Hi guys
    I know I’m pretty late in this debate but if anyone (still) reads this my advise is to NOT buy this game. It isn’t exactly rubbish – but then again it isn’t exactly far from it either. There are so many bugs that even though it has some qualities in the long run I PROMISE you that it will end up frustrating you more than anything else. And not in the good way. You know the way that makes you want to come back in improve that lap time by half a second so you can take pole. The matter of the fact is that it (the game) will just bump you down to 6th if it feels like it. And thats just one of the big ol’ bugs in this game. As a vise man on the Codemasters forum said: “This is a public beta version for F1 2011 – and surely that ain’t worth spending your money on. Trust me – I know since I did it. And know I just wish somebody had warned me. Perhaps some review somewhere. Would have been nice. Well at least I’ve got a very unique looking beer coaster so I won’t ruin my coffee table when I play Halo Reach. Cheers, Bungie. Why couldn’t you have made this game. At least you take your customers seriously.

    In conclusion: If you really, really feel like you have to own this game (which I’m pretty confident you’ll live to regret) try and see if you can’t wait untill Codmasters release their patch. Which can never make up for all the bugs and obvious mistakes in this game, but it might make it worth you money. So wait and see what the people who have already purchased the game says when the patch is released – if it’s ever gonna happen. I’m just waiting for CM to publish some lameo excuse.

  63. Forgot to end my “(…)” after “(…) version for F1 2011” (line 11)! Sorry…

  64. Kaliff9 – do you work for a rival game company like MS Forza sales team or for Bungie?

    Apart of finishing 6th – you didn’t mention game play and living the life of a GP driver.

    It seems you are not an F1 fan or a fan of racing games. You should stick to reviewing FPS. Comparing Halo to F1 just doesn’t make sense…..

  65. BTW for anyone with a G27 Wheel, you can knock up a cockpit easily for next to nothing.

    Go to the car wreckers and rip out an old car seat and its rails for around $20. Nail the rails on some MDF board and place the seat on top. Use some timber and knock up a stand and for the wheel. Use some chocks for the pedals and you are good to go. No need to spend hundreds on a cockpit frame. The money you save can be used to buy a large 1080 HD TV for dedicated racing.

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