F1 2010

Every now and then a game comes along which makes you question the credibility of journalists. Those games that make you think you ended up getting a different version to what the press received. Formula 1 2010 is one of those games. 
 
I have been an avid fan of the sport of Formula 1 for over twenty years. I was fortunate enough to go the the very last Adelaide Grand Prix as a youngster. I make a point of watching every qualifying and race session of the racing calendar. It is with this in mind that I feel I have some rights to speak about Formula 1 games with a level of expertise and experience. Formula 1 2010 has been on my must have radar for a very long time now. The promise of AAA visuals matched with mild sim physics and Codemasters usual level of polish and presentation all bundled into an official license were certainly something that got me excited. And for the ten hours or so it had me.  
 
The career mode seemed very involving allowing me to set full race distance, qualifying and practise sessions in a bid to really involve myself with the tiny details like fine tuning, strategy and honing skills over an entire race weekend. My first race meeting took a little over 6 hours and with 18 rounds in the season it's safe to assume it's a grind to see this through till the end.... 
 
Well at this point in the review I decided to take a break and play some of the game. I couldn't come back to the review and not pass the experience on. So here it is as I posted on the Codemasters forums. 
  
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  I'm sorry but I have to say I am jumping the fence. I was one of the most staunch advocates for the game up until today. I spent this morning starting off with a career race in Australia. The practise sessions went on uneventfully, until I completed all three and didn't get the achievement. No biggie. I'm sure it'll sort itself out.

On to qualifying. I qualified 21st which was a fair effort in a substandard Virgin car that was a nightmare to drive and understeered through 10 and 11 so bad I had to eventually take it in 4th.

So then, 21st position to start the race. In the garage I set my strategy to run with prime tyres for the start to avoid the dreaded pit stop bug and pit later in the race. Easy enough.

Light rain was forecast for the race but hadn't hit yet. I started the race.... in 24th! The second race in a row this has happened after I qualified in 17th for race one at Bahrain. The race continued on and cars started pitting. At about lap 6 of 17 the rain started coming down slowly. I stayed out on the prime tyre as I still had plenty of grip. I made it up to 11th place. Clearly I wasn't having to worry about cars in the pit stop bug because they were all pitting.  

It was now completely wet on the track but I was doing the fastest laps of my race. I was warned by the engineer on lap 15 that I had to complete a pit stop so I came in on that lap to change for inters to keep in the spirit of the game even though I knew there was a bug allowing me to drive fast on slicks.

I pulled into the box and the crew changed my tyres to inters. I then expected to be released into the pit lane. Not this time. I sat there for 37 seconds while car after car went past. Even more ridiculous was the fact that they were heading out on option tyres.

When I was finally released back onto the track I was in 24th place. I started catching other cars and on the very next lap I went past 7 cars that were in the pits. Fair enough. Maybe they're now changing tyres for the rain. I pressed on and on the next lap I passed another 7 cars. Awesome! My highest position of the race so far.

The next lap was of course the last. I was behind Rosberg in the Mercedes and he was following another car. Coming in to turn 10 and 11 both of them slowed down so much we went back to 2nd gear. Previously every car was taking those corners in 5th. To miss the both of them I had to cut the second corner other wise risk a massive accident. I was penalised for corner cutting and would have to serve a drive through penalty. But it was the final lap.

After rounding the second to last corner I pulled into the pit lane to serve the drive through and hopefully cross the finish line before the two cars I overtook. They did get past me. I also got disqualified for not serving the drive through. When the results came up I was surprised to see I finished that race in 4th.  

I think I am done with this game now as that completely defeats the purpose of career mode, and in fact any kind of racing. These guys couldn't even make a game that knows what position you're in. It is inexcusable that a game like this shipped.

Thinking about it, the only way this game isn't broken is if you play multiplayer, with no tyre or fuel simulation, less than 20% to avoid the pit stop bug, and no qualifying because it randomly doesn't count sector 3 for some people.

So, the next time someone says this game is playable please remember this post. And also remember that I am playing this game on the XBox 360. The universally agreed BEST version of the three when we are talking bug counts.   
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Now, back in review mode the question remains of the journalists that allegedly reviewed this game. Not one of the reviews I read made mention of a single bug. Yet the Codemasters forums have over 90 pages on the bug registration thread. 
 
Gaming journalism took a dive in my book today. It's quite clear that the majority of journalists write to keep relationships going with publishers at the expense of a genuine opinion and educated review. 
 
The folks at Giant Bomb are no strangers to this environment and I applaud them for having the balls to put their credibility before their coffers. The same cannot be said for those sites that got this game to above 85% on Meta-Critic with all the bugs I posted and then another 60 and counting.