Fun But Flawed Game
It has been quite some time since we have seen an officially licensed Formula 1 game. Codemasters gives us F1 2010 having picked up the license after Sony held the exclusive rights for the past few years. Codemasters is known for making some great racing games, dating back to the excellent TOCA Touring Cars on the PS1. However, as fun as the game is, it is brought down by bugs and flaws in the game that prevent it from being top notch.
The first thing anyone wants to know about any racing games is how the cars handle and how the physics are. Let's get one thing straight, this is no iRacing of rFactor. F1 2010 mixes sim with arcade in something that is more accessible to the mainstream audience Codemasters caters to. Don't be looking for something akin to Grand Prix Legends or one of the many rFactor F1 mods, F1 2010's cars are by comparison, easy to drive. Now this isn't meant to be a negative by any means, it's just that if you are looking for a hardcore simulation, it's best to look elsewhere. What F1 2010 does provide is something that can be tricky the first time out but satisfying once you get the hang of them, the cars are a decent representation of what you'd think F1 cars are like, fast cars with lots of power and buckets full of grip. In addition, there are plenty of assists that you can turn on to help you get your way around each of the tracks.
The main body of the game is F1 2010's career mode, climb the ranks through 3, 5 or 7 seasons and try to become the greatest. Codemasters have done a respectable job to keep one interested in the career mode rather than doing the usual race, race again, race some more with no substance other than tyres on tarmac action. The press will confront you about practice, qualifying, your team and how you perform. It seems fine for the most part but asking me whether I'm a shot at the title while I'm doing my fourth race for Lotus is a bit strange to say the least. As the year progresses you car gets updates to it, making it faster and more capable in the corners, but, and I don't know if it's just me getting better at the game, they seem to improve your car too much. Driving for Lotus I scored my first win at Hungary and was hovering around the top 10 for the second half of the season (This is on expert difficulty and legend AI with no assists for what it's worth). It's great to be running up the front of the field, but realistically I should not be battling with the likes of Felipe Massa for 7 in the championship.
Moving on to the visual and audio side of the game and this is where faults are hard to find. Cars and tracks look stunning as they are detailed incredibly well. Only the biggest of nit pickers will uncover the inaccuracies, the bump at Monaco after Casino can be driven over with no negative effects for example. The game truly shines when the clouds roll in and drown the track with water, the rain effects in F1 2010 are some of the best I've seen. On top of that the dynamics of the weather system means the sky can clear half way through the race and the track will gradually dry, first on the racing line, then the rest of track. It's great feature in the game and also provides an extra level of strategy to your races. The sounds of F1 are replicated as accurately as the cars and tracks, engines will scream for mercy at the end of straights and the beautiful sound of down shifting through the gears means this game is not just a treat for your eyes but also for your ears.
All this good work by Codemasters is somewhat brought down by the existence of bugs. The most frustrating of which is during a pit stop. Your car controller is far too cautious about letting you go with traffic in the pit lane, causing you to plummet down the standings and undoing all you hard work. This is remedied by changing your pit strategy but it's a poor excuse to something that shouldn't exist in the first place. Another weird occurrence relating to pit stops is sometimes the AI won't pit at all during a race (a dry race requires you to make at least one stop). On more than one occasion Kobayashi and Liuzzi have beaten me to the chequered flag only to have cheated to get there, a pretty bad oversight by Codemasters on that one. Finally there is the AI issues you may have heard about by now, the one where AI times are scripted in practice and qualifying. I was a bit disappointed about it when I first heard and it possibly explained some missing features of any racing game, the lack of split times to the car ahead and behind and the inability to watch other cars as they lap the circuit (poor form Codemasters), but ultimately I don't think it affects the game too much. Sure it's a bit dodgy that the cars are just for show during practice and qualifying but it doesn't cause issue in the race which are still incredibly fun.
On top of the bugs are a few other negative points of the game. Penalties are far too harsh, I'm often awarded a penalty for other drivers crashing into me or for ever so slightly cutting a corner. In addition to that, the AI are never concerned with penalties, as they receive none (the sole exception being disqualified for ignoring blue flags). The safety car is not present in any form. The damage is weak, I can ride someone into a wall and suffer only as much as a scratch, while damage to an AI car gives no performance loss. I could keep going but I feel this review is a bit too long already.
Online in F1 2010 is where a lot of people will be spending their time and why not, it has a great selection of modes to choose, ranging from short 3 lap races to full races to hot lap sessions. F1 2010 has got something for everyone. On top of that the netcode is quite good, I personally didn't notice any lag during my time online. The only concerning thing is that sometimes other cars will jump and skip around, not something to be concerned about when you're out in the lead, but makes it a bit difficult to race closely with some people.
In closing, F1 2010 is an ok first effort by Codemasters (discounting F1 2009 for the Wii). It is a fun, but flawed game and hardcore sim racers should probably give this one a miss. For the rest of us, provided you can work around the bugs, F1 2010 is an enjoyable racing game but difficult to recommend in it's current state. Hopefully a patch will fix some issues, otherwise we will have to wait until F1 2011.
