Good fun- but not a good sim.
I haven't played it through to the end or anything, I've just finished the Monaco Grand Prix in my first season, for Lotus Cosworth….First impressions initially are actually very good. Right from the outset the game looks and sounds fantastic- especially if you've done the verrrry sensible thing of investing in some surround sound. The whole presentation of the game feels great and very suitable for a very high profile-high style sport. This has always been a gripe of previous F1 titles- they cheesed them up too much.
The gameplay is a mixed bag however. The cars are fun to drive, and have fairly realistic handling models in terms of how twitchy they are at low speeds where you rely on mechanical grip from tyres, and the unbeatable high speed cornering power of aerodynamic grip the cars produce in real life. As such it is very satisfying and rewarding when you push hard and string together some bends well, rather than just getting tired of the same old predictable handling lap after lap. ***nb: as a a die hard racing fan I have been playing F1 2010 with a decent difficult setting- manual gears and traction control turned off and all other settings set to make it as realistic as possible. The game may play differently with easier settings***
The fact that your tyres can puncture, marble and the way grip falls off and on randomly is a nice touch and adds to the authenticity. There are other nice little touches that give this game a quality feel. You run your races from the pit lane, with engineers and screens around you just like a real F1 driver. In career mode you can have interviewers call out your name- the teams opinion of you will change depending on how you perform on and off the track. Even being able to choose your own helmet design is a nice gimmick. And of course all the circuits and cars have been brilliantly re-created in stunning quality. In the rain the game looks sensational, the screen will mist up just like your helmet would, spray clouds your vision and water cascades off your bodyworks and tyres. The detail even extends to a visible difference in crowd numbers depending on what part of the race weekend your on.
………..However. There are some things in this game that just make it infuriating and somewhat ruin the experience- and completely ruin the 'Racing Sim' façade. The main problem, for me (and this is all too common in sports games frankly) is this blatant bias towards AI opponents, that not only make you look and feel like and idiot and therefore subsequently very angry, but also would render them a 'cheat' in the real world. And no-one likes a cheat.
For example I refer to my first wet weather grand prix at the Catalunya Circuit, Spain. I've never been a fan of the track anyway but that's besides the point. As mentioned above, in keeping with the sim feel I have car settings as such. Yet despite having wet tyres and a wet weather parts set up, the car still handles like it's on ice, and despite my best efforts and skill from years of racing games, one millisecond of pushing too hard results in an spin or accident, relegating me to last place. I wouldn't mind if this was the same for all my opponents- but in F1 2010 apparently traction control does not apply to your opponents. They are able to scream round corners with the car seemingly on rails, still braking late, able to ride the apex strips (a total no no in the wet as any F1 fan will tell you) and generally out-race you by around 10 seconds a lap. Not even the back of the field with the lesser skilled drivers are their any mistakes- accidents or uncertainty of grip coming out a corner. Bruno Senna, in the real F1 season, is out raced by just about everyone. He is very cautious in the wet and isn't quick by any means. Yet in F1 2010- he overtook me on the outside of a 130mph corner in Catalunya, in the wet, whilst my car was snaking all over the place struggling for grip in 2nd gear. Racing sim, yeah right.
In-game telemetry info is terrible and virtually useless also as Gamepsot have already noted. If like me you are struggling for race pace because of AI's total exclusion of driving aids- you'd like to know something as simple as how for ahead the next car is- have you managed to catch him up a bit? Well- you'll never know until the slightly irritating race engineer tells you via comms. Exiting the pit lane is hilarious too- you will ALWAYS have to wait until any AI who are also in the pit lane have gone past. So through not fault of your own- you'll lose time and places here. Just incase you weren't already last from making mistakes were you've had to push so so hard just to keep up with over-skilled back markers.
If you're an F1 fan then definitely get this game, there are a lot of things to appreciate. Just don't be expecting it to be the die hard- sim Codemasters tried to make it- and frankly should have tried harder.