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Reverse is a gear not often associated with Formula One, a sport entirely focused on hurtling forwards at breakneck speeds of up to 220mph. But it's one the sport had to engage in recent seasons to reverse a seemingly inexorable decline in popularity. F1 2010 Going off grid - the revolutions begin Several factors combined …

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  1. Flugal

    F1 2010

    Have this game on Xbox, and seen on PS3. Very pretty graphics, fairly good, albeit not "sim" handling, but same major flaws, well publicised on other forums, do exist. e.g.

    You can only focus on your own cars in replays or once you've crashed out of the race, so no switching to another car to view their race. This is bizarre - every other F1 title I can think of has offered this.

    The timings are irrelevant. If you follow another car round in qualifying, and stay, say, within 1 second of that car for the entire lap, so you know your lap and it's lap should be pretty close, that other car could post a time 5 seconds quicker or 5 seconds slower than your car. In other words the other cars are just random clones put up, and bear no relation to lap times they post.

    There's plenty of other valid criticisms too.

    My focus is on online racing, so the timing issue above is not an issue, however not being able to view other cars, or watch a replay of an online race (possible in some other F1 titles) really does undermine what could be a truly magnificent game.

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    1. GottaBeKidding
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      Don't be too hard on the game

      Yep. There are definitely faults with it - But at least some of them are faults caused by cramming 24 cars * 60 laps into 10 laps. This means that pit stops are almost always "full" - all the teams pit at the same time.

      You can get around this by pitting later (just ignore your team orders and don't come in).

      I do have to say that it's a blast. I started off yesterday very frustrated and not even able to complete one valid lap. Today I finished 14th on a poor 20th qualification.

      Sure - It's not a sim. It also feels to me that when the car spins, it has a certain canned action, but the same as most of the audience of the game, I've not driven a real F1 car, therefore can't realistically comment as to it's fidelity.

      One thing that _does_ grate, at least on the PS3, is the supposed hyper-realistic rendering. I run in cockpit mode. This makes the car bodywork reflections bigger. Which means you get to see them in their reduced-resolution, low framerate glory. I would prefer to turn them off, since they really detract from the immersion. Add to that that the wing mirrors are _also_ low-priority rendering, makes it rather hard to see where you should be positioning yourself.

      The other annoyance is the "look left" and "look right" buttons. They move the drivers view by about 10 degrees to the side. After. About. 2. seconds. Releasing the buttons does not give instantaneous return to front either. This makes them somewhat useless.

      All that said - Get it, get a driving force GT wheel, have a blast!

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  2. Jonathan White
    FAIL

    Hmm..

    Do the 'few minor flaws' include the horrendously long list of unfixed bugs in the release code? Bad Codemasters, back in your basket.

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  3. Danny 14
    WTF?

    nope

    How long did you play this game for? Its fecking awful. Riddled with bugs and madness AI. The whole track follows like a procession and dont get started on the pointlessness of qualifying. Pitting is a nightmare.

    Codemasters has promised to patch out the bugs but in reality this game looks great but wasnt playtested.

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  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Bold claim...

    "What greater tribute, then, to the reinvigorated sport than Codemaster's F1 2010, arguably the greatest Formula One videogame of all time."

    Is anyone here old enough to remember Geoff Crammond's Formula One Grand Prix? I've genuinly yet to play an F1 game as engaging as that.

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    1. BJC
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      And Revs...

      I even remember Geoff Crammond's Revs for the BBC. I'm still amazed of the perception of the Snetterton Bomb Hole corner - it really felt like the steering went light on the exit. All that with only keyboard entry and low resolution display!

      [I refuse to work out just how many years ago that was - just way too scary!]

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    2. janimal
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      FAIL

      Best F1 game Indeed!!

      Every review I have read has waxed lyrical about this being the grrrrreatest F1 game ever, which is complete rubbish. The replay issue is a major problem for a sport that is about a championship. After winning or losing a race you want to know what happened to your championship rivals, why did Hamiliton finish in 19th when he started on pole? etc...

      Whilst it does have set-up options, it has no bloody telemetry data from your laps making it very hard to tell if your setup tweaks have made a material difference.

      Whilst the sense of speed with f1 2010 is good Geoff Crammond's GP4 with some community mods added is actually still a lot more immersive and enjoyable to play.

      I still have a win32 partition just to play GP4 and Tie Fighter :)

      There are some other issues too. The graphics on the PS3 version are sub-par for some reason, no-where near as good as the screen shots or youtube vids.

      The frame rate suffers at some circuits, not enough to be unplayable (for me anyway) but it still looks a bit cheap when it occurs.

      Finally the bloody press interviews section is so pointless, repetetive and tedious, I can't believe they spent resources implementing this garbage rather than working on a decent replay, or real qualifying timings, or telemetry data

      How much have codemasters been paying critics to write such superlative rich reviews?

      7/10 absolute maximum.

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    3. Anonymous Coward
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      RE: Bold claim...

      Yep, I do! Back in the day myself and a mate used to connect up two PC's with a serial lead and go mental at lunchtimes. I've played plenty of F1 games since and none have managed to entertain quite so well or for so long. There used to be a patcher called something like F1GP-ED that allowed you to customise the cars etc. so that they reflected the current season.

      Ahh... Memories...

      Clam.

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    4. Natty
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      Unhappy

      title or die

      I remember it well and agree.. Nothing comes close.

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    5. madhatt3r
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      I second that

      The Microprose saga was the greatest, YES.

      And Stunt Car Racer another very enjoyable game by Crammond.

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  5. Elsie

    Pitting Frustration

    When you enter the pits your tyres are changed but you can't leave until the 5/6 other cars that have pitted behind you are let out ... you have to wait for them all to dissapear before being released. It's damned annoying!

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  6. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Bring back GP4

    2010 it's awful on the PC

    I just wanted to race F1 cars. I didn't want to be interviewed or talk to my agent

    Managed about 3 laps so far. Can I sign into Microsoft Live without IE crashing? Can I make it go full screen any more?

    Hopeless

    Geoff Crammond had it right - take me back to 2002

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    1. John_C
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      Really?

      Oh come on it takes about three seconds to talk to the press, just hit enter three times and you're done. Same deal with the agent, just check every few races.

      Problems with Live and IE crashing are hardly the games fault.

      I honestly don't understand the beating this game is getting on here, it's not a full sim so comparing it to GP4 or revs is odd, why is the replay feature such a big deal - I'd rather be using that time on the track.

      IMO the game is enormous fun and also as challenging as you want it to be as the difficultly level is very configurable.

      I'd say play the demo and decide from that if you want it, I haven't relied solely on a review since before the Amiga ;)

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      1. Jeremy Chappell
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        Stop

        You're kidding right?

        The press stuff is utter garbage - you're supposed to keep the team happy so what are you going to say?

        a) The car was screwed together by crack-smoking monkeys

        b) Meh

        C) The team gave we the most fantastic car in the sport today - they rock!

        (Hint: the answer involves rock and not drugged simians)

        As for the gameplay - why when some utter moron drives into you as you enter the pits is it illegal blocking? Why does the action freeze quite often in the middle of driving the car - it's not like the performance of an XBox 360 is an unknown quantity - we're even talking about times when the track is empty...

        Sure it looks great... but it doesn't play so well. It's not terrible - but not as good as the reviews have painted it. If you love F1 and simply have to play the current season, you'll quite like it. If you have fond memories of other F1 inspired titles - maybe next season will bring something better.

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  7. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    The finest F1 game of all time?

    Are you out of your box? I was all ready to shell out my 40 quid and then I had a go on it. Sure it looks the part but it's clearly unfinished given the level of bugs and flaws evident.

    I have to wonder about the quality of journalism that allows a game to ship with a load of bugs and yet none of the reviewers pick up on it. The writers of Amiga Power must all be spinning in their graves as in their day they would have knocked off 20% at least!

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  8. LawLessLessLaw
    Boffin

    haters don't know shit

    game is awesome, perhaps you can't make the top 100 on any track, boo hoo

    > the pad

    fail

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  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Yeah its junk, just like this review

    Did we mention the compulsory Live sign in - even on PC, just to SAVE SETTINGS!

    Appalling review.

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  10. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    @AnotherNetNarcissist - Geoff Crammond, +1

    - In Geoff Crammond's F1GP you can click "indestructible mode", start from the back of the grid, and see if you can win a 3-lap race by steaming up the inside of corners, and using other turning cars as your "brakes".

    - In the reviewed product, you can sit in procession for 70 laps, just like real F1.

    One of the above is actually *fun*!

    Blimey, I can see my F1GP box from where I'm sitting. And there's a floppy drive in my old PC... bye!

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  11. jonathan keith

    Hmmm...

    BRAKES, FFS. I certainly wouldn't want to be driving a car that breaks.

    Also, as previously mentioned: Crammond's GP4. Still hasn't been bettered.

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  12. Christopher W

    Stuff and nonsense

    I'm a racing game enthusiast but come on, this game has a bug list as long as your arm. Codies will hopefully redress these faults in the weeks to come (fortunately Steam will push the updates down for me as and when they arrive) but I get the feeling this game was hurried out of the gates before it was fully finished in order to beat the end of the IRL F1 season.

    Very disappointed with some of the bugs, they really detract from the realism I come to expect from a market-leading (and eye-grabbing) franchise such as this one. Bit of a letdown for initial release.

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  13. Rattus Rattus

    Reversing the decline of F1 sims

    I reckon the reason for the decline is games have all done a fine job of simulating the boring parts of a race - pit stops, going round and round and round the track - and failed to put in more of what people really look for in motor sports: the crashes! Put in obstacles and have cars smashing themselves to bits on them all around you as you drive, make sure the crashes are spectacular and I for one would find these games way more fun.

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  14. vulcan

    GP Legends

    GP Legends by Papyrus I think beats all these, still have it on my PC. Also, tucked away in the loft is my Amiga 1200 with Geoff Crammond's original GP.

    I was considering this title either for the PC or PS3 but with all the negative comments I think I will leave it until it's in the budget bin.

    Only just got the PS3, how does anyone play racing games with the default controller and what's the point of the motion sensors in the sixaxis controllers if no game uses them!

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  15. Dr. Mouse

    IMHO...

    Great game. The main bugs mentioned haven't bothered me yet.

    It looks spectacular, even on a mid-range gaming PC like mine (Athlon X3 @ 3GHz, Radeon 5750 @ c.1600x1050 full detail no problems).

    One thing I think is missing is telemetry, at least in practise sessions. All you have to go on is your lap times. I haven't even found a way to see sector times (although I've only played for a few hours). This makes deciding on your setup rather challenging, a matter of trying a few and seeing which 'feels' best.

    Apart from that, this is my favourite racing game since NFS Underground, where you had so much control over your cars setup you could spend a few hours tuning it for a particular race. I do like this game very much, and can see myself not doing much other than playing it once I get a wheel for the PC (playing w the keyboard is marginally better than a game controller, but still not great). And it should look awesome on the projector in the living room :D

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  16. AC-This-Isn't-Facebook

    Title

    What really annoys me about this game is the lack of a proper penalty system and safety cars. The older F1 games used to have this - why have things started to go backwards?

    Other than those things, the game isn't all that bad. The issues will be patched.

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  17. Adam Williamson 1
    WTF?

    Terrible review

    I haven't played the game and given this review I know nothing useful about it so I can't comment on any of the other comments, but is this a terrible review or what? How do you review a driving video game - with metaphorical drool dripping off your chin - without at any point including a single comment on the actual driving experience? What this review actually reviews is effectively the menu system. I don't care much about the menu system. Call me crazy, but I play driving games to drive.

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