Codemasters presents F1 2010

[Teal]

Yeehaw!

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/03/10/codem ... september/

[davet010]

Career mode sounds interesting.

I wonder if they will implement a 'Virtual Bernie' - all they need is a list of any and all potential rules, scoring methods etc, no matter how ridiculous and VB will spit out a random list of changes at the start of each season.

[Zeppo]

Meh. There's something unavoidably bizarre about the release timing of F1 games anymore. So, this game comes out in September, just in time for the F1 season to already be over, for new sporting and technical regulations to have been announced for 2011? For teams and drivers to be rumored to be coming and going, or already confirmed moving?

If they could release the game in the heart of the F1 season, when the interest (my interest) is hot, and the facts in the game seem current, I could get more excited.

But I haven't played a F1 game in many, many years. Maybe that's part of my Meh feeling as well. Another issue is that since the F1 World Grand Prix on the old N64, which I got used to with that first analog stick controller, I can't imagine driving an F1 car with a controller instead of a wheel, and I'm not in a situation where I can set up a wheel. Maybe they will put together a really good system for the controller.

As we get closer to the release date, I may warm up to this game, but this press release isn't much more than a release date update. We've known Codies is making this game for some time now, and I'm sure we're all wondering whether it will be the Codies of ToCA2 and 3, or the Codies of Grid, if you know what I am saying.

[Rodster]

I think the better way to have handled this release unless there are some technical glitches that are holding it back from release is to release the game and then do live stat updates throughout the year like 2K games.

[pk500]

The other "meh" about this game is that Codemasters is developing it.

The Codies used to be the gold standard for console racing sims, but they sold their petrol soul to the commercial devil a few years back with DIRT and GRID. The Codies no longer are interested in sims, which makes sense since console gamers don't want racing sims. Just look at the sales of a game like RACE Pro.

Plus iRacing is building the Williams FW31 raced last season for its sim, and I guarantee that car will drive laps around anything Codemasters produces. I could care less if that's the only current F1 car available in iRacing, as it still will be more enjoyable to race than any multiple chassis and tracks from the Codies.

[GB_Simo]

Bit of a bump, I'll allow, but there's plenty of footage of F1 2010 doing the rounds after last weekend's Gamescom event in Cologne. People with an interest in racing sims seem to be quite fond of their game vs real life comparisons, and while I don't get at all excited by them, I did quite like this one. Monaco in the rain, with a virtual Mark Webber to the left and a real, genuine Lewis Hamilton to the right:



The sounds are coming from the Hamilton video, by the way, and apparently Codies did something to the wet track values that made wet weather driving easier at Gamescom than it will be in next month's retail release. Looks good, though.

It's always difficult to glean that much info from trade events where many of those present would struggle to drive sheep, but I'm close to being quite excited about this one.

[toonarmy]

Sweet mother of pearl I cannot wait for this title to release. Between it, NHL 11, GT5, and the footie games coming out, I am going to have some very sore thumbs in the months to come.

[Rodster]

Wow that looks photorealistic. Geez I was only planning on getting the PC version (which btw Amazon still doesn't list it ) but it looks like i'll be getting the 360 version as well.

[Teal]

Holy Cow!

[pk500]

Driving a racing game from the TV cam mount angle is lame. Cockpit or nothing.

[Zeppo]

Telling I think that they chose the rain for their comparison vs. real life, visual-wise. Obviously, the rain effects obscure a heck of a lot of detail, there is little if any contrast to let you see how the lighting looks, and so on. But the water effects on the virtual lens is very good looking, indeed!

Still, I am excited for this game if only because I have been without any F1 gaming for a very, very long time.

[F308GTB]

Driving a racing game from the TV cam mount angle is lame. Cockpit or nothing.

No way. Hood or nothing...

Seriously, when you drive your car you get a lot more vision than what's shown in most games. I hate "cockpit" views since most games take up way too much real estate with stuff you only glance at in real life. A happy medium would be the merging of hood and in-car, but to me hood is more realistic. There aren't too many games that get in-car correct.

[Rodster]

The best in car views were from Sega and F355 for the Dreamcast and Richard Burns Rally second view after the default view (don't know what they call it).

[Jimmydeicide]

Driving a racing game from the TV cam mount angle is lame. Cockpit or nothing.

Elitist snob.
I like that view too, i see the track better real F1 car you cant see s*** those guys are good.

[Teal]

Driving a racing game from the TV cam mount angle is lame. Cockpit or nothing.

+1

But, in fairness, they chose that cam for the side-by-side comparison...

[Naples39]

Driving a racing game from the TV cam mount angle is lame. Cockpit or nothing.

No way. Hood or nothing...

Seriously, when you drive your car you get a lot more vision than what's shown in most games. I hate "cockpit" views since most games take up way too much real estate with stuff you only glance at in real life. A happy medium would be the merging of hood and in-car, but to me hood is more realistic. There aren't too many games that get in-car correct.

I know I'm in the minority for sim racing, but I completely agree with this. When I'm driving in real life I barely even see the dash unless I intentionally look at it, and I would imagine most race car drivers do the same thing. I've always found it kind of silly when the dash and other crap takes up so much of your field of view in games. I don't know, it makes me feel like I'm driving from the backseat.

[GB_Simo]

Telling I think that they chose the rain for their comparison vs. real life, visual-wise. Obviously, the rain effects obscure a heck of a lot of detail, there is little if any contrast to let you see how the lighting looks, and so on.

My fault, that one. This is just a guy on YouTube, he's done a stack of videos, and I happened to pick about the only wet weather one in the bunch...

[Rodster]

Telling I think that they chose the rain for their comparison vs. real life, visual-wise. Obviously, the rain effects obscure a heck of a lot of detail, there is little if any contrast to let you see how the lighting looks, and so on.

My fault, that one. This is just a guy on YouTube, he's done a stack of videos, and I happened to pick about the only wet weather one in the bunch...

Try and find a video without the rain. In any event with or without rain the game looks amazing so far.

[lexbur]

Yeah, like I'll even make it past that first corner.

[pk500]

Driving a racing game from the TV cam mount angle is lame. Cockpit or nothing.

No way. Hood or nothing...

Seriously, when you drive your car you get a lot more vision than what's shown in most games. I hate "cockpit" views since most games take up way too much real estate with stuff you only glance at in real life. A happy medium would be the merging of hood and in-car, but to me hood is more realistic. There aren't too many games that get in-car correct.

Funny, I'm not strapped to my hood when I'm driving in a car. I'm sitting in the cockpit or driver's seat.

Most games featuring racing cars -- not high-performance passenger cars -- get in-car views correct because you can't see much when you're strapped into a car with a five-point harness, helmet and HANS Device. Your range of view isn't even close to 180 degrees left to right. And you can't move your head up or down much, either.

[lexbur]

There's a cockpit view in this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPWdCvFK69s&feature=fvwk

[tjung0831]

Screw that cockpit view....I like the view in the video shown. That's how I'll be playing F12010!

[Zeppo]

Funny, I'm not strapped to my hood when I'm driving in a car. I'm sitting in the cockpit or driver's seat.

Most games featuring racing cars -- not high-performance passenger cars -- get in-car views correct because you can't see much when you're strapped into a car with a five-point harness, helmet and HANS Device. Your range of view isn't even close to 180 degrees left to right. And you can't move your head up or down much, either.

And yet, as a human being, I have over 200 degrees of total peripheral vision. When I play a game I'm looking at a screen that at its best will fill 40 to 60 degrees of my field of view. Maybe if I had a three-monitor cockpit setup I could feel that a cockpit view was more realistic, but unless a console game has a more-playable cockpit view, I have to agree that the hood view is realistic enough while being more drivable and fun. There's also the issue of ones psychological center of perception, which when you are driving a car includes the car.

Not that I don't like good cockpit views that make the game more fun, like in ToCA or the last McRae, but it has to be drivable, not just photo-accurate.

[JRod]

For the guys that watch a lot of F1... In the gameplay vid, the driver takes some really drastic angles in the turns almost t-boning the AI cars, with little penalty. That was my impression but just wondering. The real video shows drivers being much more "safe".

[GB_Simo]

For the guys that watch a lot of F1... In the gameplay vid, the driver takes some really drastic angles in the turns almost t-boning the AI cars, with little penalty. That was my impression but just wondering. The real video shows drivers being much more "safe".

In the real video, our driver is never anything like close enough to the car ahead to consider a move. Our driver in that one, Lewis Hamilton, is not renowned for his decorum or his caution at the wheel of a racing car either...

The one bit in the Codemasters video that wasn't quite right was about 1:00 into it, the late ridiculous lunge up the inside at Loews hairpin where our driver shoves Nico Rosberg's Mercedes out of the way. It's not a move you'd pull in real life, because in real life you'd never go aiming at that gap from so far back, but assuming there was space to get through, your car would likely be OK and you wouldn't take a penalty either. From the way he only loses one place despite being criminally slow for the last 15 seconds of video, I'd guess this isn't the hardest AI and maybe some of the other settings are turned down too - I've seen plenty of videos showing front wings flying off after contact and, as you'll see in the video I'm about to add in, the game does feature warnings and penalties for hitting other cars.

Think I'll throw an edit in here. I'm not sure if I've understood your post correctly, so here's another interpretation for you - the real-life brigade are driving in a more 'safe' fashion because at slow speeds in the wet, when they're not generating huge amounts of downforce through aerodynamics, F1 cars are not especially good. Codemasters did something to the wet weather handling for the build in that video - not sure how deliberate this was either - that made the cars in-game much easier to drive in the wet. They say this has already been fixed, and that improved suspension physics have been implemented since the Gamescom build. We shall see.

For those debating the cockpit view (and for what it's worth, I'm a sim racer, iRacing subscriber and all that business, and I use the T-cam or hood view most of the time on consoles. This cockpit cam looks user-friendly, though), here's a little video you might like. Notice that there are little white indicators showing the location of cars around you, which might go some way towards helping with the peripheral vision issue. A quick edit to add in something on the lighting - the Abu Dhabi race takes place at sunset, which explains the slight yellowish tinge: