A good game buried under a mountain of bugs.
F1 2010 is the new Formula One game from Codemasters, the same developers who bought us Grid, Dirt and the Toca series. Codemasters are obviously not new to the racing genre so when it was announced that they were working on an F1 game hopes were high, after all they knew their stuff. Unfortunately somewhere something went very wrong and the result is a buggy mess.
Graphically the game does look good, not up to the standard set by Dirt2 but well above average for a multiplatform game. The tracks are accurate, although some of the advertising has been altered, for some strange reason sponsors like Fosters are missing. The rain effects are very good, water runs down the camera making it very hard to see where you're going, spray from the back of other cars make it even harder to see as they do in the real sport. It would look stunning if it wasn't for one thing, someone decided to put a yellow/brown filter over everything and the result is horrible. What on earth the thinking was behind that filter is beyond me, thankfully modders have fixed this allowing the game to shine.
Sadly the damage model isn't up to the same standard, only the front wing and tyres are vulnerable, the rest of the car is indestructible.
On to the gameplay. It starts off well, sure it's no sim but the cars handle well enough. It doesn't take long though for the bugs to appear. I'll list the major ones....
Pit stops... When you pit the AI will not let you leave again if there is another car in the pit lane, it doesn't matter if the car is 10ft or 100ft away, you're not going anywhere. This can lead to 20 second+ pit stops, In one race I went from first to eighteenth when my stop took over 25 seconds. It can get worse, people have reported the pit crew just standing there when they pit refusing to do anything, the only way out of that is to start the race again.
Save game corruption... This has been reported across all three platforms. You only have one save thanks to the autosave system, if you lose that then you lose all your progress and have to start the game right from the begginning. Imagine putting in many hours only to lose them like that. There is no excuse for this at all. The problem was present in Dirt2 and they chose to ignore it.
AI not pitting.... The rules of F1 clearly state that both types of tyres must be used in a dry race, the player is forced to do this, on occasion the AI doesn't bother and gains a huge advantage.
Damage, fuel and tyre wear.... The AI doesn't concern itself with these things. If you turn fuel simulation on it only slows you down when you have a full tank, it doesn't effect the AI and they drive off into the distance. They don't suffer from tyre wear as proven by the fact that those who don't bother pitting go the whole race distance on one set of soft tyres. Damage doesn't bother them unless they lose a wheel, they will quite happily continue on at full speed with a missing front wing.
Penalties... The penalty system is a mess, it will regularly completely ruin a race weekend. If a car hits you from behind you get penalised for blocking, if you hit the car in front then your penalised for causing a collision, even if that car is sideways across the track. Go wide on a turn and you're cutting a corner. If there is a pile up on the first bend then you don't stand a chance, brake to avoid the cars in front and you're blocking, hit the car in front and you're causing a collision, go off track to avoid it then you're either cutting a corner or performing an illegal overtake. Penalties for these offences vary from time penalties to disqualification. Of course none of this applies to the AI who quite happily ram and block the player. The only penalties that apply to the AI are the blue flags, in fact every AI car that gets lapped gets disqualified for ignoring the blue flags. It really is a mess.
Others.... The AI has been know to teleport in front of the player, the AI times are not correct. A player can finish last and be awarded the win. The player can qualify in one place and be given a completely different place on the grid. There is no lobby for multiplayer, there is also no way to know if a race is underway. When you try to join a race that happens to be underway you're kicked back to the paddock with an error. The player gets punctures at random, sometimes 3 or 4 over a race weekend. The list goes on and on.
There is the basis of a decent game underneath all the bugs and poor design decisions (no podiums, no split times, no safety car). If they patch it and deal with the bugs then I'd recommend the game but as it is at the moment I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy.
