Luckily F1 2010 is fun, enjoyable and addictive, it has one of the most immersive careers modes. But not quite perfect.
One of my main complaints about F1 is the difficulty curve, you are eased into the feel of the car and you gradually get used to the controls in the first few races and then they decide to throw you onto an incredibly difficult track with constantly changing weather conditions with no chance of keeping up with the AI even with all the driving assists turned on and the AI on easy. However this is easily overshadowed when you get a stupid bug. One of these bugs which happened to me twice and forced me to put down my controller, walk out the room and smack my head against a wall was so frustratingly annoying it almost made me stop playing, that was after the first time it happened, just say after the second time, my wall has a particular controller shaped dent in it. This glitch or bug happens during your pit stop, the car in the pit next to mine wasn't parked properly so stuck out onto my exit route this meant I ended up waiting in my pit for 180 seconds, at which point the other car still hadn't moved and I was probably a good three laps behind the slowest opponent, I realised this wasn't going to fix itself so I had to restart the race, which is frustrating enough when I worked so hard to qualify second on the grid, but was moved to seventh due to penalty points, (don't get me started on penalties) and during the race I managed to work my way to fourth over a period of six laps, imagine how annoying it is when you are doing that well on a track that you originally could only qualify in twenty fourth, was always a good five seconds behind the slowest AI and you have to start the whole race again, plus this happens to you not once but twice.
Another issue I have is the AI, don't get me wrong this game has some of the best AI I have seen in a racing game and that comes to be expected from a Codemasters racing title. The problem I have is that sometimes the AI can be very, very dumb or just annoying like braking far too early and causing you to crash into the back of them, which causes you to get penalty points as "you" supposedly caused the crash. (Really, don't get me started on penalty points just yet.) Other than minor occurrences such as this and slightly pit stop parking problems the AI is all round decent, but I still believe Grid has the best AI for a racing game.
Now penalty points, these are given out in F1 2010 like candy from a paedophile to an infant. You will get them for cutting corners, even if you spin off the track and been thrown into last place. You will get them for causing an accident, even if another car drove straight into the side of you as you were taking a corner perfectly, or a car drove into you after you span on the track and they just didn't try to avoid you, even though they were at the other end of the straight when you spun. The penalty points are given out far too easily which can sometimes become annoying but luckily if your any good at the game then your unlikely to get too many.
F1 2010 is a good game, it certainly is the best Formula 1 game ever made to date and really immerse you into the whole experience from the main menu to the garage and then onto the track, at times I wanted to grab one of my motorbike helmets and put it on just to complete the whole experience. The career mode and the multiplayer are all fun and competitive, even if you are crap at the game, you can still enjoy yourself. F1 2010 could possibly be one of the best racing games of the year but with upcoming title such as Gran Turismo 5 and Need for Speed in not sure F1 will get all the credit it deserves and with the few problems like the repetitive speech and occasional AI flaws I would recommend that you only get F1 2010 if you are interested in the sport and want to experience the thrills of travelling at 180mph on some of the most prestigious tracks and you want to pit your skills against some of the greatest racing drivers of our time, as well as dealing with the logistical challenges of arranging what lap to pit, which tyres to use and what car setup to go for.
F1 2010 is certainly a good game but if you're looking for a more generic racing game, this is not for you and I would recommend Grid or the Dirt series which are also created by the same Codemasters team and suffer from fewer flaws than F1 but even saying that I can't help but warn you F1 is a totally unique racing experience and can become quite addictive, especially when you get into the swing of thing.