F1 2010 - Codemasters's inaugural F1 offering is a disappointment despite the smoke and mirrors.
Well sadly, over the past few days my initial enthusiasm and elation has increasingly waned and I feel that anyone who is thinking of getting this game needs to be aware of the truth. Encouragingly, the graphics and audio are very good, the handling great and all the elements of setting up and racing an F1 car around lovingly recreated circuits from the formula are all there. It's great fun to learn a track, pick your braking spots and strip seconds from your lap time as you complete lap after lap. There is also a very authentic feel to how fuel load and tyre choice/condition affect your car's handling and performance. The damage model is fine and there are all the penalties and regulations that one would expect from a licensed F1 title.
However, this is a racing game and its during the races that the whole thing falls apart. Here is a list of the bugs you will encounter constantly and from very early on in your experience with F1 2010:
- The AI cars are not affected by having fuel on board, which means that they will be lapping much faster during the race than the player, who starts with a full tank of fuel.
- The AI cars also do not suffer tyre degradation in the same way as the player does when tyre simulation is on.
- The player's tyres are sometimes not affected by wet conditions, which means you can happily lap 10 seconds a lap faster than the AI and stay out on slicks as you do so.
- Some of the AI cars will not pit at all during the race.
- If you pit when other cars are doing the same, you will be held for a very long time in the pit lane, causing you to lose many places; it is possible to go from 1st to 24th due to this.
- There are constant save game crashes, which means you lose your whole career.
- Often you will finish a race in, say, 16th and then after the race you will be told that you have won. Or perhaps you qualify high up the grid and then start the race in last place.
- The worst teams often have unrealistic expectations of you - such as Virgin expecting you to finish a race in 12th place.
- When you sign for a new team you will be told that you have a certain team-mate but you will soon realise that this is incorrect and it is in fact another driver.
Now these are just some of the major gripes and there are dozens more in what is clearly a game that has been released far too early and is effectively still at a beta stage.
Unfortunately there are also design flaws which negatively affect the gameplay and the immersion of the experience. One such issue is that AI qualifying times are simply invented by the game engine. Amazingly, you also receive no split times as to where you are in relation to the cars in front and behind you. This is an astounding omission in a racing title and effectively removes all of the interest that would otherwise be had from a race where you are running behind another car and trying to reel him in over a number of laps. Of course it also renders pit strategies meaningless as, once exiting the pits, the player has no idea of how much time he has lost to the car ahead, or whether he has effectively chosen a successful strategy or not.
Then there is the ignominious spectre of AI rubber-banding. I haven't fully worked this out yet but the AI cars will often be given ludicrous lap times. Here's an example; if one of the slowest cars somehow gets to the front they will suddenly start lapping faster than any other car on the circuit, and likewise, if a great driver like Hamilton or Alonso is near the back, they will simply lap as slowly as the worst cars in the field. Another, example of the fake timing is that if you hit the front of the pack on the first lap and are leading into lap two, you will be shown that the 2nd place car has just completed that lap several seconds faster than you did. This is of course not possible. In addition, cars will often run several seconds per lap quicker in the race than they achieved with their (faked) qualifying lap, invalidating any data that the player receives from the pre-race sessions.
How Codemasters thought they could successfully make an F1 title where some timing is simply fabricated and at no stage do you know where you are in relation to other cars in the race or whether you are lapping faster or slower than them, I just don't know.
On top of this the actual AI is atrocious. The most difficult task in the game is not to destroy your car or get penalised for running into the back of an AI car that is inexplicably braking at half the speed it should be. They are simply terrible around corners and if you do avoid smashing into them as they weave across the braking zone for no apparent reason, then you'll easily be able to pass them without much of a fight.
In all, this was a very hyped game that promised much but doesn't deliver enough where it matters most. Codemasters have pulled a bit of a cheap trick with the fake qualifying times and the absence of thorough game testing and I definitely feel a little cheated now having bought in to the hype and then bought the title.
There are rumours that a patch is on its way to address some of the issues I raise here but for now I would recommend that you avoid this game, especially if you're an F1 fan as it will only upset you.