“F1 2010”: PC review, the ‘fake AI’ controversy and details on the first patch

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“F1 2010” by Codemasters was reviewed here last week in its Xbox 360 and PS3 incarnations.

Since then there have been some complaints about the game which Codemasters are set to address by issuing a patch for the game. They have denied claims the AI of rival cars is faked during races.

Here’s a look at the PC version of “F1 2010” and some information on what will be in the patch for all formats.

“F1 2010” for PC

The PC version of “F1 2010” is pretty much a straight port of the console version of the game.

At present the game only supports older generation DirectX 9 graphics cards which mimic the capabilities of the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.

However Codemaster say the advanced capabilities of DirectX 11 graphics cards will be exploited in future patches – though not the first one. This will mean players of the PC version will eventually be able to enjoy a better-looking version of the game.

Already some enthusiastic PC game-players have enabled some DirectX modes by hacking their copies of the game. However this also causes some graphical glitches so it’s best to be patient and wait for the official patch.

This being a PC version you can play it on the keyboard if you really want to, though it’s even more frustrating than using a gamepad. You can customise controls to your heart’s content and fine-tune a steering wheel and pedals if you have one.

Beyond that, the PC version plays as well as the console versions and gets the same score. If you’re playing the PC version, look me up on Games for Windows Live using the user name ‘keithcollantine’. See here for a list of other F1 Fanatic Users’ Gamertags for all three formats.

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The “fake AI” controversy

Some “F1 2010” players have voiced concerns that, because rival cars away from the player cannot be viewed in replay mode, they aren’t actually there, and the player is in fact racing phantom cars. Discrepancies in lap times seem to support this view.

Codemasters say the AI is not ‘faked’ during races. They say the other cars are there, and the reason you cannot view them in replay mode is because cars out of your field of vision are being rendered at a much lower level of quality to allow the cars and the part of the track you can see to be shown at the highest possible quality level.

I can’t help but think that many PC players with graphical performance in their systems to spare will be disappointed that compromise was made.

However Codemasters confirmed that during the practice and qualifying sessions the other cars aren’t on the track when you can’t see them.

They say this is because of the desire to have a “fast forward” button allowing you to skip through the session quickly. As that creates the impression of accelerating time up to 30-fold, the complexities involved in having the cars lapping at over 6,000mph were too great to overcome.

“F1 2010”: The first patch

Interestingly, Codemasters referred to the forthcoming update as the “first” patch, suggesting there are more in the pipeline.

Among the changes in the first patch are various modifications to the artificial intelligence of rival cars.

These are likely to include changes to the racing lines, such as the problem with turn 19 at Valencia which was noted in the review. The team say they have a “list of corners” where the rival cars are too slow.

Improvements to the rival cars’ behaviour in the pits are expected – including fixing one bug where rival drivers fail to pit and another where the player’s car is held in the pits too long.

Codemasters added the time spent working on patching “F1 2010” will not affect the time spent developing next year’s version of the game.

Update: Codematers’ statement on "F1 2010?óÔé¼?? bugs and patch

“F1 2010” PC videos

The videos and screenshots below were created using a Geforce GTX 480 supplied by NVidia:

“F1 2010” PC screenshots

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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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140 comments on ““F1 2010”: PC review, the ‘fake AI’ controversy and details on the first patch”

  1. I don’t know if anyone else has noticed another small problem.

    While positioned 4th at China, (in a Lotus on hard!)having started on the softer options, I went into the menu’s, selected primes and informed the team i was pitting next lap.

    They then bolted another set of options on. So i had to stop again and finished 19th!

    It turns out if you say nothing and just drive into the pits the team are ready for you with the right tires.

    Why have the function to select tires in race and prewarn the team of your plans to pit if the function doesn’t work properly?

    This aside as one very piffy remark, the game is absolutely fantastic. Barcelona is so much better to drive than to watch! :-)

    1. They gave me inters once with not a cloud in the sky after I selected options on the menu…

    2. I’ve found that changing my tyres from the menu as im approaching my pitbox is the best approach. I’ve changed it at various points in the lap but for some reason it seems to revert to the original choice either after the 2nd sector split or as you enter the pitlane.

      1. I had full wets put on my car in BAHRAIN!!!! I was in 12 on the hardest level and I drop down to 17 just cause of the stupid mistake the team made, which would be unacceptable in real life, but this is a game, which makes it even more so!

        1. Where you driving for Force India?

    3. yeah tat hapnd to me at the first race, finished 12th on the grid during qualis, n then started the race with option tyres. I had a flat so i pitted n they put me back on option tyres, then i fought my way thru n somehow gained like 2 positions n they called me back in for the primes. i did all this in 20 laps! finished 23rd!

      1. Sounds exactly like my first race. I even wondered if I’d been mistaken and started the race on primes then Rob “not Smedley, honest” reminded me on the last lap I needed to pit… Finished 23rd, but beat my teammate :p

        1. itz just sad. I clocked the fastest lap of 2:02.003 n still it was hopeless.
          All that on a keyboard. Now my fingers n palm aches! :-(

    4. Hehe, i was 23st (legend) in Melburne racing against Bruno when the sky started to drip, i stayed out as long as was possible, went in, and got out on options. >_<

      Lost a lot of time, my god. but ended up after the race in 15'th place.

      (but dead last, the rest DNF.)

      And now Lotus have 1 point. Garrggg..

  2. I have a comment, and a question…

    The explanation about the AI cars is the biggest bunch of ******** I have ever heard. It simply smacks of double-talk which techies throw out at “norms” to keep them quiet. All the “issues” they refer to could be very easily solved in a number of ways. Which tends to make one suspect laziness on their part.

    Reading through the amount of deal-breaking bugs (circulating the internet) in quite core racing components of this game, how did you Keith, and other reviewers miss these problems in your reviews?

    1. Obviously this is not a games reviewing website but I have been keeping an eye on what the major sites have been doing in terms of reviewing the game. The earliest reviews seemed to be very thin on detail and it seemed to me they hadn’t played the game much.

      I wanted to review the game after playing all three versions but it became clear last week that wasn’t going to be possible before the release of the game and the start of the race weekend. The review went up after I’d played the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions only and with a substantial disclaimer to that effect.

      At the point that review went up I’d played it on gamepad and with the steering wheel, on all the tracks and difficulty settings, and completed a season at 20% race distance. I’d had the Xbox version at home about a week.

      If you read the review I did highlight some complaints (an AI glitch at Valencia springs to mind) with the game but some of the others being described here – being given the wrong tyres during pit stops for example – never happened to me and still haven’t even though I’ve continued playing the game since.

      That said, you’ve got to retain a sense of perspective. Computer games are complex creations and it’s not unusual for patches to be released to fix problems. I’m no hardcore gamer but I can’t think of any recent games I’ve played where that hasn’t been the case.

      1. Keith, tut tut, you mean to say you didn’t have a comprehensive QA team investigating every single possible interaction with the game, and then write it out in detail in your review? WHAT DO WE PAY YOU FOR?!?!?

        ;o) In all seriousness, you’re right that some people need to get a sense of perspective!

      2. Thanks for the comprehensive reply Keith.

        For the record I’ve been writing software for 30 years. My first real job was on the same trading estate that Codemasters started out on in the 8 bit days. I knew the Darling brothers quite well in fact. :)

        My question was not a criticism of you. I am just curious as to how quite a large number of very easy to spot issues have slipped out with this game. There is a sub text to my question that you would only know about if you were in the game industry.

        But I do think it is a shame that you did not pick up on the quite considerable technical issues there very obviously are with tyres and so forth. That is something that a game reviewer may not be aware of, but as F1 fanatics we all should spot immediately. As you said, these things didn’t affect your experience and I take you at your word.

        Mostly, I have found Codemaster’s statements on it to date to be disingenuous from my perspective.

        1. Have you seen the full response that’s just been posted?

          Codematers respond to “F1 2010″ complaints

          1. Absolutely. I read it before I posted my reply. (I liked the video you tweeted earlier also.)

            There’s a fair bit of double-talk in the statement from my perspective. Read it, and imagine a voice similar to Stefano talking about team orders to Eddie Jordan and you’ll pick up my read on it.

            I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt on some of it.
            I take real exception to the AI acceleration excuse though. Sorry.
            But I dispute that on a technical level that would make for a very boring argument between a bunch of geeks. :)

            I am surprised that Ant did not pick up on these issues, but I don’t know how much time he got to test this.

            On the one hand I wonder if they messed up the build just prior to launch. And on the other hand I am a bit sceptical of the amount of high profile, and very positive reviews they got with this many bugs. But then most reviewers are looking at this from a very different perspective.

            As you say, it’s just a game.
            But I think they ran out of time and rushed this out.
            Let’s hope that 2011 builds on what is a good, if unfortunately fatally flawed base.

      3. I don’t know. For me it seems that the game suffers from rubber-banding. That is if you are ahead the cars behind you catch up too quickly, and if you are behind it’s easier for you to catch them. Is it only my subjective perception?

        1. And if that is not cheating from the AI, then I don’t know what that is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0BBTXpeGQs

  3. Keith. I had to go to uni the day after this game came out for my PS3, so I only got one evening of doing some general fiddling around and casual playing. Could you, or anyone, explain to me a bit what some of the technical issues are, and how they effect one’s gameplay?

    1. U get to turn on fuel n tyre simulation on. So when u do so, during practice sessions u run out of fuel while driving so u have to pit, i am not sure if tat affects handlings as the car gets lighter.
      Also with tyre sim, ur tyres wear out as u keep driving n eventually u get a flat.

      I didnt find any difference in handling while the option tyres were completely worn out. Anyone did?
      Also i noticed, while the options wear out within 6 laps, the primes dont at all!

  4. Haha cars lapping at 6,000mph would be fun!

    1. I can understand why they didn’t want to include that, but I would really like there to be more options with the replays. Also, there needs to be more online stats. (Like time played, races entered, percentage of races entered won etc.)

      1. My question is what about all the old Papyrus games that allowed you to watch EVERY car from EVERY camera angle offered? If they can achieve that from 92 all the way til like 2000 or so, to me it seems like it should be easily achieveable now. Even Forza 2 allows you to flip through cars and camera angles. Granted, you only race with 7 other cars, but I’m sure it’s comparable in the amount of graphics being displayed if that’s their issue.

  5. i started playing the game on legend (years of gtr and rfactor experience)
    i haev g25 wheel.
    first, it just doesn’t feel right, not as good as other PC sims. i know it’s not a sim, but it could feel like one…
    so i started with lotus. on practice sessions i manage around 20. but on quali, i almost always get last place, they improving too much after fp3. anyway, the race. i can keep up with them, they are rly easy to overtake, so i’m around 18-20 until the pit. i go in, and after that, i don’t see anybody. i was 18, after that, its dead last. and noone had any engine failiure or something. bahrein 20 lap, i was last, but weren’t laped. i thought the lotus was the reason. on melbourne i could only improve 1-1,5 sec in the ferrari, compared to the lotus, i qualified 20, almost the same as the lotus.
    almost impossible the lock the tyres, you can abuse the car in the corners, many times, full throttle, and you won’t spin, so it gives you the false confidence, and sometimes you just spin, same corner, full throttle…
    and the BIGGEST fail of the game, i mean HUGE. if you get oversteer, the rear lets go, you just tap the brake, and the car just goes back normal. like nothing happand, you just lose some momentum. so in almost every way, the game is a huge letdown for me, but it’s pretty at least…

    1. You can brake to correct over-steer!!!! surely that should create more. Very disappointing will try that when I am at home after work.

      1. in gt legends, on some older cars, you can help oversteer by pressing the gas and brake the same time, you can brake the front tires, it can help a little, but not that much, and obviously not gonna help an f1 car.

        1. yeah i came 11th on a keyboard!

    2. The spin/no spin thing is just because you have traction control on, so you have been getting on the throttle too hard all the time & the TCS has been catching it about 99% of the time but not always. Try a few laps with the TCS off & you will get a feel for the throttle control required, I did this & after a few initial spins (when I realised you could light up the tyres in even 4th gear sometimes) I stopped having the “random spin” problem altogether.

      Hope this helps :-)

  6. I’m glad they’re addressing the issue of being held in the pits too long. I had a race in Melbourne in the wet and I’d managed to get my HRT up into 6th, only to be stationary for well over 20 seconds – and even then I actually got released into another car which became a ghost and I got loads of warnings for illegal blocking (thankfully no penalty). Although I ended up reclaiming places when other cars pitted, I could only manage a frustrating 11th place.

    1. yeah i had tat too. i had 2 pitstops each stationary for 7 seconds, i was almost half a lap down after tat…

    2. you were with HRT…
      I reckon they held you in cause they wanted to swap you out for yamamoto during the race!

  7. Christian Biddon
    30th September 2010, 13:00

    I have the PC version and it is amazing. I have an average system (2.4ghz quad core, 8GB RAM, 8800GTS 640mb gfx) and I run everything at full quality and the game performs perfectly.

    There are a few issues but I have never seen the pitstop bug and I am really happy with the game.

    Now I just need to find the time to play it what with work and kids eating into my mission to see Lotus win world championships once again!! :-)

  8. I hope codemaster can release the patch sooner rather later. especially that directX 11 support.

    racing in the rain on cockpit view is marvelous with all those spray and rain drop and blur effect.. that was the best part of the game.

  9. I am one of the HUGE amount of PC owners that just can’t play the game. The Codemasters forum is getting clogged up by people like me who have systems that should play the game (Dual core E6570, SLi 8800GTX, Vista32bit) but the game refuses to load. Re-installed the game via Steam, Re-installed Games for Windows Live, Updated graphics drivers, tried LOADS of suggested fixes from other forum members – and nearly a week after release and money leaving my bank account I still can’t play it :(
    I have the other Codemasters racing games – they all work. Games For Windows Live gets thrown in and it all goes horribly wrong!! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

    1. I’m running the game on what I believe maybe just a bit above the recommended system requirement.

      at first I thought I cant’ run the game because my system is that old 2Ghz pentium D, 3GIG DDR2, and NVIDIA gforce 9500GT 512MB

      and of course I have to use medium setting for that kind of system but the game run smoothly.

    2. Mark I had the same issues. It took literally 20 mins to load the game on my PC and when it did the game drove in slow motion. Very frustrating as I waited for the game’s release for the entire year. So I went out and bought a PS3 just to play the game. Runs awesome. The steam download and windows live registration was a waste of time and complicated the whole process. boooooooooo!

    3. if u have an original copy u are allowed to apply a crack.

    4. I had loads of problems, with the steam version. Before I bought it I downloaded a cracked version to see if it would play on my Macbook as steam don’t offer refunds. Installed the cracked version fired it up, did a few laps and found it worked well, admittedly with the graphics turned down.

      So then I uninstalled the cracked version, jumped on steam, bought, downloaded and installed it, only to find it crashed EVERY time I tried to open launch the game.

      In the end I removed the Steam version and reinstalled the cracked version with my steam product key. Works a treat now but pretty bloody poor that I needed to do that.

    5. UPDATE:
      Well, I set up a partition on the hard drive and installed Windows XP.
      installed Steam, Re-downloaded F1 2010, downloaded Games for Windows Live and installed the game……………….
      I now have a fully working F1 2010 :) Playing on maximum settings and it looks bloody great! Now to get my old Logitech Wingman Formula Force wheel to work!!! (although keyboard isn’t THAT bad)….

      1. Mark, XP doesn’t support DX11 – so you might want to find a more permanent solution. Try Windows 7 on your new partition.

        I am really disappointed by the DX11 decision, the game was heavily promoted as being one of the first to fully support DX11. It is a shock that a week after the game is released they backtrack and confirm that it is DX9.

        I bought a new card just for this game.

        1. the game was heavily promoted as being one of the first to fully support DX11

          Really? I don’t remember that.

        2. Well, I don’t have a DX11 card yet but I do have Windows 7 – but will wait until I fully upgrade the PC to install that. Just a snazzy graphics card left to buy! Really enjoying the game though :)

      2. Mark, Did you get your Wingman working with the game? Any tips you can share? The wheel does not come up in Options

  10. I think Adrian Newey could make an F1 car lap at 6,000mph….eventually :)

    1. Yep, although it would probably disintegrate on the way.

      1. na it’ll have flexing drivers n tyres maybe! :-D

  11. Keith, are you considering on changing the rating for this game with all the bugs that it has?

    Game freezing, 20 second penalty pit stops, unbalanced wet weather racing, AI going faster in main race then quail, corrupt save files, AI drivers are not on equal footing to the player, aka ghosting through you on pit stops, don’t get penalties when they smash into you etc…

    And that’s not all of them.

    4/5 to me seems a bit too high with a unfinished game, it only deserves a rating that high when the “complete” patch is downloaded which sorts this rushed piece of work.

    Very disappointed by codemasters for releasing this.

    1. And to reply to what score I would give it? To be honest it doesn’t deserve a rating because I feel it’s unfinished, and only yesterday hearing they would bring out a patch for 2010 have I handfired to not trade it in for fifa11 already.

    2. Play online. Great fun, and iffy AI means nothing! ;)

      1. Playing online doesn’t appeal to me tbh, i’ve played my fair share of online games Runescape, World of warcraft and soon to be The old republic.

        All you get online in racing games are tools who drive the other way round and ruin the race for everybody I just wanted the career mode to do.

        I would of gladly waited for another month or two and get the full article then get it now and have alot of problems with it. People may bring the excuse up saying other games have bugs, yes but not this obvious… it would be like having a fighting game and you can’t punch the other person or a halo game where you can’t throw a grenade, it ruins the whole experience.

        Hope codemasters can sort it out quickly before 2011’s rep will be ruined for next year.

      2. Exactly, online is the best!

    3. No, see the reply to Stephen above.

      1. Apparently software is the only product these days which can be shipped in a relatively unfinished state, if my company did that with hardware, they’d be slapped with several lawsuits within a month.

        Anyway, it does look like the development was rushed in order to meet the licensing requirements, but imagine what if the game was even worse than what it already was, wouldn’t the license be pulled by FOM for damaging the brand?

  12. ohh yeah, forgot about the wer racing. very wet track, i put on inter tyres, you can brake at the same points as dry track, pretty much flat out out of the corners too, you just can’t see anything cos of the spray, but you have so much grip!…
    it’s prety much an arcade racer

    1. Have you noticed how you pretty much never need Intermediates. The slicks seem very good in wet weather.

      1. Just yesterday the rain came out while I was attempting to qualify at Melbourne. I’d left the pits in the dry on Options, and it started drizzling just about the time I got into Sector 3 on my out-lap.

        I completed my first timed lap during this light rain, which was good for P10, but by Lap 2 the whole surface was fairly wet, and there was little traction anywhere. Any high-speed cornering attempts were promptly met with various types of non-grip. Lap 2 was 24 seconds off the Pole time.

        I cruised back to the pit lane, and under the engineer’s guidance, I switched to Intermediates and went back out. My first flying lap did not improve my position, but Lap 2 was good for P2, about 0.150 off the Pole.

        I think the experience is highly dependent on your game difficulty. I’ve played on nothing but Hard with traction control off, and I can always tell the difference between each tyre compound, heavy or light fuel load, and when tyre simulation is on, cold, heated, and cooked tyres.

        Your mileage may vary.

        (I’m playing Xbox 360 version with the gamepad, BTW.)

  13. I had a look at the Codemasters forum and its a firestorm over there. Looks like CM didn’t realise F1 fans are fanatical and knowledgeable. They’re putting fires out all over the place.

    That pit bug is terrible, I fought p to 8th and pitted and got held in the pit lane even thought there were no other cars pitting.

    1. I know how you feel, was 9th to 24th in shanghai in 1 pitstop. I just had to stop playing before I chucked the cd out of the window.

      Not playing again until the patch comes out.

    2. They should have hired a group of 8-10 F1 fans to user test this game in the lab prior to release. Something tells me that commercial pressure dictated the release date rather than the tech team releasing it when it is ready.

      Happens all the time with some game studios. The best game studios like Valve release games ‘when its ready’ – and you can see the results of that in the successes they have enjoyed.

      I only know of two game studios that stick their finger up to commercial pressure and release games on their own terms – that is RockStar / Take-Two and Valve – and if you look at the best games of the past 10 years it is no co-incidence that almost all of the top games are from either of these two studios.

      If either of these guys got the F1 license we would have waited a bit longer to get a game (the release date may have been baked into the FOM agreement) but we would have gotten a 10/10 game where a lot of time is invested in polishing off and testing (the 80/20 rule).

      I feel for the developers at Codemasters, because I know most devs take pride in what they release and these guys, given the opportunity, probably would have loved to have an extra 6 months or so to polish this game up. Now we must rely on patches, and the devs are getting blasted for something that was outside of their control.

  14. I’ve got to admit there’s plenty of annoyances I have with the game the biggest being in most races at least one AI car doesn’t pit and gets a shockingly good result. (Karun just finished 6th in Barcelona on a 50% race)

    I do really enjoy the game but I’d say 1 in 3 of my races so far have been ruined for some reason to do with the games glitches/inaccuracies and that’s far too often.

  15. In Monaco, when you only touch the kerbs, it gives you a warning for cut track! I had a first lap crash, 10 AI that spun, then they all became transparent and I cut through them! Then I entered the pits and went through Kobayashi. I stayed still for 10 seconds despite having finished the pit in 4, to let others pass. When others pit I find incredibly Liuzzi, Senna etc. in the first 5 places. I am happy for Liuzzi, but it isn’t realistic!

    1. I went through Liuzzi in the pit. I also got the warnings about cutting the track at Monaco for doing nothing.

    2. I found a new glitch. Surely someone has already spotted it but I’ve never heard of it.
      In Valencia, in qualifying, I set a lap of 1:50. On the next lap I passed the second intermediate with -31 seconds of gap! Then I ended the lap without errors but without improving my best lap.

      1. That glitch repeated in China where I was 1 minute faster than my previous lap of 1:40. How’s that possible!?!

  16. I play GTR2 with WSGT and power and glory mod and it much more fun than F1 2010.

  17. I think 4/5 is a fair score to be honest.
    I’m an avid gamer and every game has bugs im afraid as does every piece of software.

    Not noticed them myself and i’ve put in a good 50 hours or so thus far, can’t imagine they have affected the majority of users much. Only one i have spotted is a FPS drop in monaco on one of the sections.

    In fact… i’m gonna go play it now :D

  18. Where did you hear this Keith? There’s nothing that I’ve seen on the forum, or Steve Hood’s twitter?

    1. By talking to Codemasters. Expecting official details on the patch soon.

      1. Figures :)

        I’ve been keeping up with the codemasters forum, but only for entertainment purposes. The hysteria there is quite incredible. I haven’t experienced any “bugs” yet, and the game is absolutely immense.

  19. PC version is too easy. I’m using Hard difficulty with 30% race distance. And I’m using Lotus. I finished 2nd in 1st 2 races, then 1st and in China 9th after 20s penalty. I’m leading WDC going into Spain.
    Also I find if you touch rival car you get warning which is too harsh.
    You’ll can add me up on Games for Windows LIVE, my Gamertag “Ninad 13”

    1. Only finished 2nd? Noob..

  20. Anyone else had the problem where the sound glitches so there is a constant noise going on all the time, race, menus, until you reset. Also when this OS happening the dynamic racing line messes up and either disappears or moves around so it only appears on some corners and on the straights? Really annoying having to reset a lot! On xbox BTW.

  21. So, if the only racing game I’ve ever played is F-Zero for the SNES, is this:

    A.) Too much for me

    B.) Awesome for me

    I love playing games, but I’ve never played anything beyond the SNES because I’m old.

    1. wow F-Zero X was a classic! I love that game, still got a copy somewhere

      F1 2010 is almost totally different, much more tactical and it requires more practice and set up work than pure arcade games (on the harder setting anyway). I’d definitely recommend trying it though!

      1. I’m thinking about getting it, but it would have to be for the PC.

        And yes, I’m actually about to play F-Zero right now using a SNES Emulator for the PC (my SNES went kaput years ago). It is a lot of fun!

        1. Man, that’s a shame. You can actually get a system now that’s a combination SNES/NES if you want to really pull out the old cartridges and play with more classic style controllers.

          But yeah, I pulled out F-Zero (and a number of other SNES games) a few years ago, plugged in the old system and relived some classics. Still enjoyable!

  22. These glitches are disappointing, especially as the pit stop glitches and the wet-race nuttiness seem to be the precise headaches with the EA Sports game and the Polyphony game. I’ve played it for a few hours now. I really enjoy the sound, the look, especially in the rain, the twitchiness of the cars—if you jump a curb and then slam on the gas you will spin. You have to brake very late and be very precise to be quick. It’s hard. I had to work my tail off and be very precise to quailify 17th. However, the glitch that bugs me is the freezing, which seems to happen on corner entry, quite inconveniently, when the view shifts automtically toward the corner. It’s also weird how the cars seem to go all ghostly in the pits and actually DRIVE THROUGH YOU on the way out of the pits if you are in the way.

    My other complaint, which is a silly one some might say, is that the patriotic helmet offered to Americans is ghastly and the rest are just solid colors, beside Davidson’s. Maybe the game will allow me to emigrate to a country with a better helmet design!

    1. Checkout China’s helmet in the game, its looks awesome!

  23. it really disappoints me when you are in a race giving it your all and trying to gain more of a lead from the cars that are racing you for your position, then you go into the pits and your whole race is ruined. Very disappointing and hope CodeMasters fixes this problem fast!!

  24. AI…I don’t know really there’s AI. if they were really there, it’s absolutely unfair! sometimes they are too fast, and sometimes ridiculously slow(especially you are closing to overtake). and I don’t know they do pitstop actually. I pitted first time and almost half of them followed, and then as you know pit delay glitch got me almost 20 sec. anyway, I was out and 23rd, and then it went to the end. ***!!

  25. tip for you lot:

    don’t start the longer races on option tyres. I’ve been screaming at the TV all season to get Button or Hamilton to try a different strategy, cos i think this is the way to win.

    if you start on primes, then as long as you are a competent driver, you can keep up and hold off those trying to overtake. Once you pit, at a different time to everyone else i might add, then you have a clear pitlane, none of this sketchyness, and then low fuel and grippy tyres to get you to the end of the race.

    may not work in real life, but it sure as hell does online. try it.

  26. Someone has on the official forum done a massive compariosn of lap times to show that the AI cars are not affected by fuel loads. (and the player is if you have the option on)

    Some of the AI confusion in the races comes from the fact that the game inccorectly measures the first lap for some reason. Go from pole and notice that people behind you will somehow post a time thats up to 2 seconds faster than you.

    I also don’t know whats happening with the transparency thing.

    Finally the pit stop thing is an effect of shorter races where the pit window is only one lap so everyone en masse dives into the pit. Some of it isn’t a bug per say.

  27. Phew…I was worried my laptop wouldn’t cope with running this and that I would be impatient waiting for a PS3 or X-Box to play it on, but looks like I’m not going to be missing much just yet!!

    BTW as someone who hasn’t played more than a handful of games for nearly 10 years, all on PC, which is better for driving games, PS3 or XBox and which has the better steering wheel and pedals? (I used to have the Microsoft Force-Feedback Steering Wheel and Pedal set and it was superb…

  28. Just looking at the pictures…

    those cars seem to have very high ride height! Far too high!

  29. Also, at the Monaco vid… there’s no spray coming out of the AI cars… just the Player car generates some!

    that’s dissapointing!

    1. Oh yes, that is bad. I looks like one car is on fire or something! Another clue that the AI is “fake”? I can hear the excuse coming that modeling a lot of spray in a wide-shot will over-tax a poor little PS3. Fine, I remember playing Pong on an Atari so how much can I complain really.

  30. This game is too much of a gimmicky console port, and not enough a serious racing sim. Why do companies speak to “realism” in their racing sims that fail to live up to games that were released more than 10 years ago?

    1. Jarred Walmsley
      2nd October 2010, 4:49

      You have to realise that there are people like me, 15-18yo who do not have the patience to sit down and setup the car perfectely like a sim, also I struggle to complete the races on easy (with braking assist off) on a dualshock and so I do not want it as a sim because it simply wouldn’t be enjoyable at all. I much prefer a more arcade style

      1. Right – but that’s when they should have told the gamers that like sims that this isn’t one. It is not even a good imitation of one.

  31. F1 Challenge and GP4 Rock!!!

  32. Keith , how come you seem to have info on some of the contents of a patch when nothing has been posted on Codemasters official forums,there is a dedicated thread for the posing of such info.

    Surely customers should be informed fist and websites second.

    I hope that whatever list is post is far more comprehensive than the couple of things you mention,apart from the game play issues the amount of players suffering issues in terms of technical issues across all platforms is as big as the gameplay bugs.

    1. See the reply to Graham earlier:

      https://www.racefans.net/2010/09/30/f1-2010-pc-review-the-fake-ai-controversy-and-details-on-the-first-patch/comment-page-2/#comment-441107

      And as I wrote in the article:

      Full details on the patch for “F1 2010″ are expected later today and will be posted here.

  33. another bugs is the damage on the car

    it is hardly to see (so far none) the rear wing will damage no matter how hard it been hit from behind.

    the damage is seem only on front part of the car. other than that the car is hard as rock. :-D

  34. One of the biggest issues is that of the corrupted save files, which happen after doing an R&D test run in practice sessions. I’ve lost two save games this way (thankfully only in the Australian GP) and have decided to turn off autosave until this issue is resolved.

    That said, I’m terribly disappointed at the large number of bugs and errors the game has, after showing so much promise, it seems to be endemic of recent offerings from Codemasters.

  35. In all honnesty I never saw codemaster making F1 2010 into a edgy racing sim judging form their last few racing games (Grid, dirt). They were both easy to pick up and play games which were very pretty but not really anything you would rant about as far as driving realism is concerned. I myself cant deliver comment of codemasters lattest release because I haven’t picked up a copy yet (Engineering exams+F1 game=complete disaster) but I’d be impressed if they got the driving side of it to feel right. In their last 2 games I kept on getting the feeling that the steering inputs were always a few milliseconds off (playing using a G25 on pc) and that everything was warm and fuzzy and forgiving.

    Now I’v been playing Race07/GTR EVO for the last 3 years in a almost addictive manner mainly because it feels right its not a arcade game for over weight remeadial kids and there are plenty of 3rd party tracks and mods availble for it. Its astounding in the way that it can make you build up a sweat from pure concentration while trying to get a f3000 car around the nurburg ring. The main thing I can’t stress enough is how real it feels.

    Recently I down loaded a F1 mod for it and I thought it would probably be rubbish (reskinned F3000 cars) but it was bloody fantastic. I don’t know who the guy was who made the mod but he rally did his homework. Its based on the 2007 F1 season and the feel of the driving side of things is just brilliant.

    If anyone is interested in having a look at what F1 2009 should feel like the Race07/GTR EVO mod is available here:

    Part 1:
    http://www.nogripracing.com/details.php?filenr=26503

    Part2:
    http://www.nogripracing.com/details.php?filenr=26505

    and I think you can get Race07/GTR EVO for about $10 off steam and I’ll maintain its the best value for money out there because of its realistic edgy feel.

  36. Guys, I lose a load of time in slow corners i.e. the whole of sector 2 in Bahrain and the last couple of corners in Melbourne.

    Any tips?

    Thanks,

    Nathan

    1. easy one: put more angle on the wings

      consider that I’ve been setting the fastest time on Barhain sector 2 with a Virgin on expert mode…

      how can this be possible?

      1. Nathan Bradley
        1st October 2010, 10:54

        Thanks for that, also how can I check how much fuel I have in the car? I think I may be running accidentally heavy during qualifying. (I am miles off the pace in qualifying, but generally set the fastest lap during the race)

        Nathan

        P.S. Does anybody else think the game manual is woefully short of detail?

        1. You can edit it in the set-up menu under engine. Turn it down from five to three laps, there’s a few precious hundredths of a second to be found there!

          1. Nathan Bradley
            3rd October 2010, 19:17

            Thanks Keith and Dave (I know it’s a late reply, but I haven’t been on the site for a couple of days, too busy with the Ryder Cup) ((Shock Horror!))

            Nathan

        2. The manual is useless.

          Regarding sector two. You have to be super smooth from 6 to thirteen. Watch Vettel’s Q3 lap on the website. He brakes very deep, and is very smooth coming on the power. Also you must trail brake very deep into 17/18, and run flat out from the apex of 19 through 21, which means getting the entry spot on there.

          Regarding the Virgin, let me say when lapped I can easily hang with the RBRs through s2, but when we get to turns 19-21, they rocket off. That’s aero performance versus mechanical. Just like real life, right?

  37. First of all, I absolutely appreciate having an officially licensed, „one-stop shopping“ title available for the PC once again. I also like the elements this game succeeds at. For example, the Grand Prix x games always followed the (completely unrealistic) designer philosophy that the player should have equal chances of winning with every car. I am not aware of a GP simulation that tackled the element of the team being able to develop and improve the car over the course of a season. It is impressive to see how long it has taken for a developer to suggest some atmosphere with as basic an element as animated screens for the paddock, the pit garage and a press conference – even though omitting any kind of podium celebration seems inconsequential in that regard. Also, the idea of always keeping a scorecard between you and your teammate, in my opinion, serves both to add believability to the scenario and help provide feedback to maybe less racing-experienced or -knowledgeable players in terms of how well they are doing.

    The way the cars feel in the game, one major difficulty to me seems getting the correct braking and turn-in points to be at the apex consistently every lap. And I do not simply find it an unrealistic drive on rails – with a keyboard that, unlike a wheel, is not designed to handle progressive control input, it seems very easy to spin out of pretty much every corner.

    It is upsetting, though, to realise what bugs and plain factual errors have apparently slipped into the retail version of the game and have to be dealt with now that they have already been pointed out by the community. The computer-controlled cars finishing irregularly high up the order because they do not pit seem especially critical to me – because even if they for some reason fail to make the mandatory stop, they should at least be disqualified by the time they finish (which does happen to you as player if you do not use both compounds in a dry race). These kind of game-affecting mistakes should have been flagged and corrected prior to release.

  38. I guess I’m playing a different game. Until now I’ve found no troubles with tyres neither pit stops. Of course, I’m not a gamer specialist but it went perfectly OK until now.

    There’s somethings I’d like to change like the question of other cars never receive a punishment and they always end the race. No one has a DNF!

    Would be very interesting if graphics looks more like FIA official screens. Another point I don’t like is the time screen during the race. Would be more useful if there was the difference between you and the car in front and behind.

    Other changes could be made:
    – Show fastest lap during the race
    – Drivers could go to podium
    – Accidents should deploy safety car

    But in general game provides me a lot of fun and realism.

  39. I have the game but I’m currently not playing it. I’m kicking myself as I should have waited for GT5

  40. Have anyone noticed that the graphics of this game really sucks!
    If you watch the replays the cars seems fly a bit on the tarmac. F1 06 was much much better.
    Has anyone noticed the rearview mirrors??!!
    It seems to play the old geoff crammond’s formula 1 game by details on screen while the game is a hundred times worse than that.
    The most terrible thing is how far away from reality this game is:
    I made a few races driving a Virgin. In Barhain I managed to finish 12 while Lewis Hamilton could’nt get past Bruno Senna all race long finishing 11 while Senna 10!!!
    Setting of the car is awful: You have a scale from 1 to 10 to adjust aerodynamics while on the in F1 06 the scale was from 1 to 100 giving you the chance to optimize much better the behaviour of the car.
    Another thing: is almost impossible to set constant lap times.
    And this is just a few things.
    I waited for this game for a long long time and I went to buy it immidiately as soon the game was released… altough is far away what I supposed to play
    My vote is 4/10

    PS
    I was talking about the ps3 game

  41. I’m one of teh unlucky ones that teh game just won’t play for anymore…. I say anymore as I got 2 races in running flawlessly then it started stuttering like mad… I’ve heard it’s a replay issue and I’ve moved my replay folder to my external drive which is supposed to fix the problem but nope… it seems to run fine sometimes and definitely always good at the start of the lap then gets jittery…
    I have a good system that plays any game I’ve thrown at it in full detail so I hope the patch helps out… I was so waiting for this game and those first 2 races were awesome… some minor penalty issues… how can I get a penalty for an avoidable accident when they run into my car??… lol

    Lets get a patch out soon! Cheers…

  42. Maybe someome out their can be able to help me? I have a ps3, and I’m not able to get fuel simulation, tire simulation, because none of these items show up on the menu. How do I get these items? HELP.

  43. I’m sorry that I didn’t include damage simulation on my list also….same problem.

  44. i’d appreciate it if whoever is maintaining the GFWL ID list could add me. i’d post it myself but my forum acct is currently, ahem, not within 107% :)

    GFWL: F1Yankee

  45. The excuse that the fake AI is because of Time Acceleration puzzles me, because GP4 and many other games managed it without any problems at all.

    1. agreed… old sim game, GP4, F1C, rF and SimBin game work like charm.

      1. And Indy Car I and II, NASCAR I and II, Grand Prix Legends, and the list goes on…

  46. Found this while looking at the nogrip-site mentioned in a post earlier.
    http://www.nogripracing.com/details.php?filenr=29369

    Just to spread some nice sunshine on all the bugs… :)

  47. love this game other than a few things.

    1) the fact that i’m on the HARDEST difficulty and i’ve had two poles and two wins so far in canada and germany! and i’ve only just done germany so who knows what will happen in the rest of the races! i want to win but iwant it to be real and if im in a lotus the only way i want to win is if i make an amazing call when it rains but not really on pure pace because a lotus will NEVER be able to out pace a Mclaren or Red Bull because it simply doesnt have the downforce!

    2) pits are awful so slow compared to what is normal 6 seconds usually and like everyone else has found the pit crew are overly scared of sending you into the path of another car so just play it safe and make you wait! I worked you had to be about 4 or 5 seconds ahead to get out safely!

    3) damage is not realistic i have it on full but i can pretty much barge my way through the field with a bump and a scrape without worrying too much about losing a front wing. the damage is also a bit the same when in comes to your front wing its either half gone on one side or gone completely. i want to lose a front endplate or have it just hanging off i know its complicated and hard but i want the best.

    4) finally PODIUM SCENE what the hell where they thinking i want to see me lift that trophy in front of a screaming crowd and spray the champagne.

    5) not really big enough to count but i want to design my own helmet and create my own driver.

  48. I am enjoying the game hugely! Havent had time to do lots of running but strikes me their are lot of over seriuos geeks out there. In relation to bugs/ wrong tyres/ held in pits and so on, this IS F1! Things go wrong. Pit crews put the wrong tyres on, bolts fall off. Drivers go unpunished whilst others are givern drive throughs. If anything it makes it more realistic that through a season your races are ruined by tech problems a few times!
    Re AI, turn three at the 1st race i can outbrake and overtake everyone round the outside!
    My first race of the season i was running 6th in a virgin when i lost power for last 2 laps. was this a bug or an engine failure simulation due to over revving?

    1. Fuel low ?
      When fuel is too low you can go on, but power is drastically cut.

      I find you way too soft on CM.
      Sometimes you ask for a flying lap and you are teleported exactly where another car is: you get a stupid penalty, etc…

      Or the lollipop man waits 25 secs to release you while all the other cars go by, pit and leave…

  49. im thinking about when the cars exit the pit lane, aren’t they suppose to avoid the white line? but in the game they are touching it, even the racing line wants us to cut it.

    1. Believe it or not: they didn’t implement the white line rule !!!
      That must be EXTREMELY complicated…

  50. Could someone please enlighten me…?

    I honestly cannot see how this is an improvemenet in any meaningful way to the Microprose Grand Prix Series by Geoff Crammond that I used to play over 10 years ago?

    From the screenshots, the car’s movements look very jerky and the McLaren seems to resemble a truck in it’s movements.

    F1 gaming just seems to have stagnated. The levels of realism in the GP series were incredible.

    Why did it stop?

    1. MicroProse went bust, and I believe Geoff Crammond has said he isn’t interested in making any more F1 games. Furthermore he won’t release the source code as he doesn’t want any other major gaming companies to steal his secrets….

      I was thinking about buying F1 2010 but the variable reviews of the game have made me think again. I’ll probably stick to the old GP games too, not that I play them very often these days.

      1. Furthermore he won’t release the source code as he doesn’t want any other major gaming companies to steal his secrets

        What – the secret to releasing a game in 2002 that hard-locks framerate to physics timing? I don’t think he needs to worry.

        1. I think in terms of the physics, AI and so on.

          However I was wrong about Crammond – he did a magazine interview last year where he said that a Grand Prix 5 “still feels like unfinished business.” So maybe one day, but I still wouldn’t hold your breath….

          1. At least with Grand Prix 5, it’ll be realistic when following cars can rubber-band around you with an artificial speed boost…

  51. This is a disapointing game, really.

    I bought it with great expectations, and: FAIL.

    The number of bugs (on PC) is just incredible.
    Have a look at the official codemasters F1 2010 forum: the “bug and errors list” thread already has 1600+ entries !

    Cars way too slow in certain corners, AI not pitting, fuel simulation apparently only slows down real player, not AI, etc…

    I fell like a beta-tester who paid 40 € to help codemasters finish the game.

    The only way out for CM is to sign a great 1st patch to address the most serious gameplay issues, and other patches later on to fix minor things (like radio yelling at you “Greeeeeeeaaaaaaaaat lap: pole position time !!!” on your first practice lap, clocking 2:50.541 in Spa…moron…).

  52. The quality is great on my pc, really nice !!

    I am disapointed with a lot of things, firstly i pit at around lap 6 of a 10 lap race, they change tires, and then my engineer tells me to come back in on lap 8… That is just silly.

    Also in Australia i go really wide on the gravel loosing a place and they tell me not to cut corners…

    It would be great if there was an option to race less than 10% distance, maybe 5 would be a good because a 20 minute race can become a bit long.

    Another thing why is my name not in the game? would it have hurt them to just research a little more and find more names than just the common one? Now i have to let them call me “ghost”… :)

    1. One more thing, i want to customise my helmet, its the little things that matter !

  53. witdrwn_but_alive
    2nd October 2010, 1:42

    Just picked up my copy of F1 today and have been playing if for a few hours. Can the AI be knocked out of the competition? I havnt seen it happen yet and Ive played a fair few tracks now.

    1. yes it can, in my second race Barichello crashed out. I didn’t see it happen but he was out.

  54. I love Codemasters games: so great before they release them , so disappointing once you get your game.

    They haven’t got a good game since colin mcrae 1.

    1. DiRT was pretty good, IMO. It wasn’t a sim (nothing like 4g braking on gravel) but damn, it was gorgeous – and it was just flat out fun as hell. Jeez, the track object physics are so good that I spent half an hour driving around town knocking stuff over, including a lamp post, which I had to keep pounding against until it actually *yielded*, stopped bending back, and fell down completely! As the Quake 3 announcer would say: Impressive.

      Rating Codies’ games on hardcore physics performance is like rating a Michael Bay movie on the script. It’s not why you pay the entry fee.

      But – it does have to be good enough to let you enjoy the explosions without feeling like an idiot, and it seems like there might be problems with that with F1 2010. I’m going to grab it and see what it’s like.

      Hopefully it’ll support my motion simulator out of the box.

  55. this game is good but has problems and has been rushed. they obviously were dying to get it out before the new GranTurismo. Whats up with the pitstops? you can be the first in the pits and the team holds u back while about 10 cars drive out past you. And dont get me started on punctures! you get a puncture at every track in one of the sessions or race. crazy

  56. There’s definitely a lot of bugs in the game, but even as someone who lives on racing sims like rFactor (previously participated in Formula SimRacing), F1 2010 is very enjoyable. Multiplayer is super fun know that I’ve learnt how to use it properly, and I’m close to topping the leaderboards on a few circuits in time trial (4th at Suzuka – Dargaret).

    Physics are far better than I expected, though the control lag really hurts my speed.

  57. '93 Peugeot 905 Le Mans Winner
    3rd October 2010, 17:08

    With standard settings on A F10 Ferrari I managed to run a lap (1.40.789) in Abu Dhabi faster than the pole lap of Lewis in 2009 (1:40.948). And that was only my run on the first time I played the game.

    Then I found youtube clips driving 1:34(!!!!) around the Abu Dhabi circuit.

    How realisitc is that?

    1. is that time trial or what? time trial isnt meant to be realistic, its supposed to be the theoretical best possible time. no tyre degredation, max engine power, minimum brakes, etc.

      I remember Raikkonen in 04 did a 1:16.x around Silverstone in testing even though fastest ever is 1:18.9 (or so).

      but anyways, the only reason times are so quick is the the downforce vs. drag levels in the game are whack. 350 km/h at Spa but only 265 at Monaco.

  58. I’m surprized no one has mentioned the fact that when other cars hit into the back of you say coming out of a hairpin.. “you” get the warning and 5 place penalties if you don’t reduce the rules. I’m quite impressed by the people who claim to be on the podium in expert I thought grid 15 was good :) although i’m only on bahrain so far..

  59. This is strange, but I can only see portion the post, is this the website or my net browser? I think I should reboot.

  60. it´s a underfull game!!!!
    it´s the best all the time

  61. Codemaster don’t have everything about F1 in fact. I think all Codemaster employee DONT watch F1!!! Anthony Davidson do his job to explain Codemaster guys.. its still dissapoint to say at leastl

  62. will there be an f1 2011 on da wii and psp?

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