F1 2013

[TCrouch]

I've had zero issues with tire wear in any of my races in the Steam version so far. What's more, through the first 10 or 12 laps I was barely holding a second lead over the car behind me, fighting for a podium. I was very dedicated to conserving my tires and not cook anything, though, and all of a sudden in the final few laps, I was .5 quicker, then a full 1.5 quicker, and I yarded the AI car behind me. To make it even funnier, he lost 3 places in the last couple laps from using up his tires, I'm guessing.

Really loving this version, but I liked last year's too. Glad Steam released it early.

[Zeppo]

I'm thrilled to hear you've seen differing pit strategies from the AI cars, Adam.

If I'm not mistaken, they did say they reintroduced tire wear scaling this year, yes? How has that manifested itself in shorter races? If for example one were to do 25% races, would one be doing five and six lap stints? If so, do all the cars the pit on the same laps, given the super short stints? I ended up not minding the lack of scaling in F1 2012 due to the short lived nature of the tires. I ended up with two stoppers in a lot of my 50% career races, and in our 25% online races the tires wore enough to force one pit stop even if the sporting regs hadn't existed to require one.

[pk500]

I am looking for a fun racing game with challenge....I enjoyed Burnout 3 on the Xbox which was surprising and an F1 game back on the Playstation....Not a huge race guy usually.

Unless you are an avid F1 fan, I would probably pick up Forza Horizon instead. It is fun and challenging and will be very cheap compared to the $60 for F1 2013. It is possibly my favorite racer of this generation, and I am an avid F1 fan. Between the difficulty levels, assists, and mutliple modes of racing, you can make it as challenging as you like.

Spot-on. Horizon is the best overall racing package of this generation of consoles. The perfect mix of realism, fun, an open world, great music and a wide variety of races.

You'll get FAR more value for money from Horizon for $20 than you will for F1 2013 for $60 unless you're a big F1 fan or want to get to know the sport -- like XXXIV did -- through fun, regular race nights with DSP cats. Plus people still are racing online with Horizon. I raced with some randoms two weeks ago.

We're always seeking more F1 racers for our DSP nights. But I wouldn't recommend dropping 60 bones on this game unless you're really curious about F1 or jonesing for DSP fellowship.

[pk500]

Fantastic feedback, Terry and Adam. Thanks!

So pardon my sloth, but what's the deal with the release date for the retail version of this game? I HATE buying full-priced games via digital download because there's zero resale or trade value. But if the retail version won't be released in North America until a couple of weeks after the digital version next Tuesday, I may need to bite the hollow-point and wince while spending $60 on a platter-less title next week.

[Rodster]

Fantastic feedback, Terry and Adam. Thanks!

So pardon my sloth, but what's the deal with the release date for the retail version of this game? I HATE buying full-priced games via digital download because there's zero resale or trade value. But if the retail version won't be released in North America until a couple of weeks after the digital version next Tuesday, I may need to bite the hollow-point and wince while spending $60 on a platter-less title next week.

Too bad you can't wait cause F1 games tank shortly after release. Last year Microsoft sold and i'm glad I waited, F1 2012 for $9.99 around Black Friday.

[DChaps]

Fantastic feedback, Terry and Adam. Thanks!

So pardon my sloth, but what's the deal with the release date for the retail version of this game? I HATE buying full-priced games via digital download because there's zero resale or trade value. But if the retail version won't be released in North America until a couple of weeks after the digital version next Tuesday, I may need to bite the hollow-point and wince while spending $60 on a platter-less title next week.

There has still been no official release date for the boxed version in North America. This is the last posting from Codemasters. "Botched" to say the least.

http://www.formula1-game.com/us/news

North American F1 2013 physical retail release date to be revised - Digital release unaffected

Tuesday, October 08, 2013

Codemasters has advised that the physical retail release of F1 2013 in the USA and Canada will be given a revised date due to logistic issues specific to SKUs for the two territories.

This does not affect the digital release of the game; the revised date only applies to boxed versions of the game in North America.

F1 2013 is now available for digital download for PC from Steam and will be available on PSN in North America on October 8 and via Xbox Games on Demand on October 15.

Any pre-orders placed at retail for physical copies of the game will remain in place and gamers will receive F1 2013 in due course; however these can be refunded if gamers choose to withdraw their retail store pre-order.

Codemasters apologises for the delayed retail release of F1 2013 in North America and will continue to work towards making the boxed edition available as soon as possible.

Amazon is still reporting 11/30/2013
http://www.amazon.com/FI-2013-Xbox-360/ ... f1+2013%22

Gamestop is still reporting 10/29/2013
http://www.gamestop.com/xbox-360/games/f1-2013/111292

Besy Buy is now reporting a "Not Yet Announced" release date
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/f1-2013-xbo ... 5049&st=f1 2013&lp=2&cp=1

Walmart is now reporting 12/31/2013
http://www.walmart.com/ip/F1-2013-Xbox-360/27457121

GameFly is still reporting 10/31/2013
http://www.gamefly.com/Rent-F1-2013/5006437/

[DChaps]

US console gamers/race fans have gotten the shaft this year with regards to racing games. MotoGP 13 was never released in the US for Xbox 360, and most likely will not, and it is highly unlikely that WRC 4 will be released in the US for Xbox 360 either. MotoGP 13 was actually released to Xbox Live for digital download on 9/17/2013, but only in the UK. When I tried to purchase it online, of course it said "Sorry, This offer is not valid in your region." For digital distribution to ever work properly, it needs to be cheaper than boxed, and just as fast to delivery, if not faster.

[pk500]

Thanks for the update, Adam. Looks like I'm going to gnash my molars and buy the digital download next week.

EDIT: Thanks to you, The Donald! F U, Simo.

[GB_Simo]

Any time I get confused with Don represents a compliment I'm happy to take, mate, but quite how The Donald feels about it, I don't know...I will say again, though, that I'm struggling very badly to believe Codies could yet again make quite such a thorough dog's breakfast of getting a game to retail in North America.

Zep, a 25% race on my Hungarian test bed is 18 laps. A one stopper starting on options is a pit stop on lap 8. Two stops would be something like lap 5 and lap 11 assuming you went option-option-prime. It's not dissimilar to 2011 but I do feel as though the tyre degradation is more progressive than it was that year. You can feel them dropping off through the stint, but even on short races it's not a case of good tyres one corner, knackered tyres the next; even when scaled to suit a 25% race, it's still a gradual drop off.

No, the AI cars don't all pit on the same lap in shorter races. They're certainly fairly tightly clustered, as you'd expect, but there seems to be a window of typically 2 to 3 laps in which folk might pit, depending on how hard they've been pushing, how long they're willing to spend on the slower tyre and so on. What I will say is that it appears to be track dependent - in other words, they pit more closely together on longer tracks, but you'd expect that since there are fewer laps in the race. With regard to pit strategies, I would emphasise that I've only seen the odd one or two cars taking a different strategy to the rest of the field, but that's encouraging and not necessarily unbelievable either.

[DChaps]

Any time I get confused with Don represents a compliment I'm happy to take, mate, but quite how The Donald feels about it, I don't know...

As long as we are making Paul happy that is all that matters. Thanks again for the additional details Adam, I more excited than ever to get this thing going for some DSP Poker nights. Hopefully tonight I will be able to get my Logitech G37 wheel sorted out to give the PC version a go.

PS - Have you tried "saving" mid session yet, and if so, how well does it work?

[GB_Simo]

I haven't, Don, but I'll give it a go at some point if Terry hasn't already done so and report back. My understanding is that it works like the flashback feature, so if you save while you're halfway through Eau Rouge, you can rewind the game when you load it back in and start on the straight instead of mid-corner. I can't help but feel, given their normal approach to QA, that it's a bit ambitious...

[TCrouch]

I did use the mid-session save, but there's not a bunch to report. It was in the middle of a qual session when I had to suddenly leave the house. When I came back, it loaded up at the same point, so it seems like it works as advertised.

I looked during a race to see, and I DIDN'T see a save, so I don't know how it's supposed to work. Only in sessions that aren't race, etc.?

[GB_Simo]

I looked during a race to see, and I DIDN'T see a save, so I don't know how it's supposed to work. Only in sessions that aren't race, etc.?

On 360 it's in the pause menu during a race under Mid-Session Save, mate. It should definitely be possible to save mid-race on PC too, but I don't know whether they might have moved the option or what.

I tried an in-race save today and it worked fine. When I loaded the race in again, the game gave me a quick recap of the race positions and a free flashback to make sure I wasn't having to restart my race in the middle of a corner or something equally inconvenient.

That race was a 100% distance event at the Nurburgring. Light rain started to fall around lap 44 of 60. By lap 48 it was time for intermediates, a fact I only became aware of as I drove past the pit entrance and sailed off at the last corner. By lap 52 it was much heavier rain and time for wets, a fact I only became aware of as I drove into turn one and sailed etc. Vettel and Hamilton were 1-2 on what would have been a 3 stopper (Vettel had gone option-option-option-prime before it rained, Hamilton had gone option-prime in the first 2 stints before I lost track of him), the Ferraris came next running 2 stops and I spent the entire race popping into the Race Director screen every few laps to see how things were unfolding as if it was a proper race...

[TCrouch]

Wonder if, because I already used the save in the qual session, it didn't let me save in-race?

Then again, it could have been during a pit stop, too...I can't remember. I wasn't looking specifically to test it out, I just used it when I needed it. Went "oh, that's cool!" and saved.

[DChaps]

The 1990s cars and tracks DLC is already available on Xbox Live for purchase($9.99 a piece) and download even though the full digital version of the game is not yet available. Actually, it appears the DLC has been available since 10/8, I just did not realize it. Does anyone know when On Demand digital titles usually become available on XBox Live? In other words, if the release date is 10/15/2013, is it avaiable by 12:00am EDT, or is it usually later in the day? I wish they allowed for pre-loading the way Steam does. Anyway, looking forward to some DSP F1 2013 racing. The race at Suzuka yesterday really got me psyched up to battle against XXXIV for last place.

http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-us/Produ ... 02434d084f

[Zeppo]

I just watched the game trailers review, and they seem to indicate that online you clan run classic cars on modern tracks and vice versa, which if true is phenomenally good news to me. That would provide a big incentive for me to buy the 90s DLC, but I'm annoyed at the $10 a pop price. I guess the fancy version of the game in the UK is $15 more so it's not that crazy in comparison, but $10 feels steep for two tracks, or example.

[DChaps]

I just watched the game trailers review, and they seem to indicate that online you clan run classic cars on modern tracks and vice versa, which if true is phenomenally good news to me. That would provide a big incentive for me to buy the 90s DLC, but I'm annoyed at the $10 a pop price. I guess the fancy version of the game in the UK is $15 more so it's not that crazy in comparison, but $10 feels steep for two tracks, or example.

Agreed, however, not unprecedented, at least as far as tracks go. The Montreal track for Nascar 2009 add-on was around 400 MS points($5) when it was released. Likewise, the one track Nurburgring (Grand Prix track, not the Green Hell) for Forza 3 was at least 400 MS points ($5). The Add-ons packs for Race Pro were at least 800 MS Points ($10) when they were released (one had two tracks, the other had three), although I believe those packs also included new cars with them. Back in 1994, I paid $20 for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway add-on for Indycar Racing (PC), and a few years ago I paid $25 for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway add-on for iRacing (prices have since come down closer to $10 for tracks in iRacing with all sorts of volume discounts available as well). I agree that would seem more reasonable to have them just available as a combined 1990's track and cars add-on for $10. I would definitely be more comfortable paying for that. I may just get the tracks for now as I love Imola and Estoril.

[GB_Simo]

I haven't ventured anywhere near the online, Zep, and I haven't tried it again offline since my post earlier in the thread, but my 25% race at Brands Hatch with the 2013 cars stands as one of the most enjoyable races I've had on anything, anywhere. Pretty much the entire Grand Prix loop is like running a superspeedway clockwise. Loads of slipstreaming, flat out practically everywhere, just a huge buzz. If we can do that online too, it'll be sensational.

I'm still kind of tempted by the 90s DLC too. The retail price for the standard edition here is £40, the Classic Edition was £50 and I think the two 90s DLC packs are the equivalent of 800 MSP each, so a) it's not a great deal by itself and b) it's far worse than just buying the Classic Edition to start with. My main reason for being tempted is the presence of FW14B, but while I am still having lots of fun with the 80s cars (especially now I can drive the turbos without causing myself great embarrassment), I can't get away from the fact that the mode is really quite light on content or see why the 90s mode should be any different.

FW14B, though...

[pk500]

I just watched the game trailers review, and they seem to indicate that online you clan run classic cars on modern tracks and vice versa, which if true is phenomenally good news to me. That would provide a big incentive for me to buy the 90s DLC, but I'm annoyed at the $10 a pop price. I guess the fancy version of the game in the UK is $15 more so it's not that crazy in comparison, but $10 feels steep for two tracks, or example.

Agree. But who the f*ck am I kidding? Even this tightwad will pry open the carbon-fiber money clip to buy any and all extra content for F1 2013.

[DChaps]

F1 2013 is now available for download from Xbox Live and it is only $49.99. At least $10 off the regular price for a disc is better than nothing. It's 7.53 gb. Went ahead and got the 1990s add-ons as well because I am a sucker.

http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Produ ... 02434d084f

[Zeppo]

Just bought it with my phone. The $50.00 price is a nice surprise. If this were Xbone it would be d/ling onto my machine as we speak but in this Stone Age we are in now I have to get home and turn the machine on and wait for the d/l to complete before I can play.

Right now I'm waiting on the 90s DLC until either there's a price drop or the DSP effect kicks in. For which I have a low threshold.

[pk500]

Downloading basic game now. What time are we racing tonight, f*ckers?

[Zeppo]

Downloading basic game now. What time are we racing tonight, f*ckers?

I can play before the USA game which starts at 9:30 EDT so maybe we can jam one in early tonight, say around 8:30 start? I'm sure I can start earlier as well.

Can't stay up after the game, though. In fact even that is pushing it for me tonight.

I do expect some type mandatory "tutorial" however before one can just access the game. It shouldn't be as long as say GTA V's mandatory stuff and it may well be skipable, but I'd be prepared for some "young driver test" type stuff to at least click through before being able to simply play.

[TCrouch]

The young driver test is there, but at least on PC, if you had F1 2012, it skips Day 1 automatically, giving you the equivalent of all Golds.

So you do a wet weather test, the lap test, etc., and you're done.

[pk500]

Early doesn't work for me. I must pick up kids from sports practices until 9. I'll probably watch USMNT, too. Thanks for the reminder.