F1 2010 Review – A Review As Big As An F1 Driver's Ego

Put on your Race Pace Face

Being an F1 game and all, everything else doesn’t matter if the driving isn’t solid and the races aren’t fun. The good news is that this where F1 2010 shines the brightest.

Different realism settings will alter the way that the cars drive but at the end of the day, no matter the settings, the experience of driving a real F1 car is alive, kicking and hitting the rev limiter at every turn. Tearing down the straights and darting around bends has never felt so good in an F1 game and most importantly, the cars really give that essential rubber-to-tarmac feeling and is all packaged up in a thrilling sense of speed also thanks to former F1 race driver Anthony Davidson who was brought in as a consultant to ensure maximum realism.

Weather also plays a big role and changing weather conditions will drastically change the way that your car feels under you and in major cases require a change of setup and tires to keep your car competitive and stable.

Racing with all the assists on will allow casual racers to blast around tracks they don’t know, following the dynamic racing line and focusing more on their racing position rather than breaking points and tyre wear. Hardcore racers on the other hand will tingle with delight as their car’s fuel tank starts getting low and their option tires have just hit the right temperature to create that perfect sweet frame of time that allows them to push their car to its absolute limits.

The different events of the weekend also come with their own subtle but unique personalities, as racers will spend their practice sessions trying different setups, learning the ins and outs of the tracks and doing their best to keep up or exceed the pace of the other drivers on track. Qualifying brings forth an explosion of speed as you run your fastest setups to secure a good position on the grid.

Races are, of course, a whole different beast altogether. The tension of a real F1 race really translates over into the game very well, as you sit on the grid waiting for the race to begin, knowing that you have put a lot of effort into weekend leading up to the main event. When the lights go out, there is a definite sense of excitement mixed with sheer terror as you go blasting down the track with another 23 cars on the track all fighting for position.

The AI drivers do well to avoid any unnecessary collisions and have a great sense of self preservation, although sometimes it seems a little too great as they can sometimes feel as if they are darting all over the place unnecessarily or buzzing all around your gearbox when your expect them to just fly by after a mistake on the track. They will also make attempts to defend their track position, but again, their erratic behaviour can be a little strange sometimes even to the point where replays can sometimes just look plain weird.

Rather than have some strange TV commentary going on while you are racing, you are treated to nothing but the sound of your sweet engine and your team engineer who talks to you constantly throughout the duration of your sessions. He will let you know if your fuel is running low, what sectors you are making and losing time in, how fast the other drivers are and so on. The voice is all very smooth and natural, and you will find him to be of great assistance to you at all times, rather than an annoying noise in your ear.

With any race of 20% distance or longer, a pitstop is also required according to the 2010 FIA rules that stipulate that a set of both option and prime tires be used during the course of a race (the rules don’t apply to wet tires, so wet races can be driven without a required pitstop).

The pitstops add a certain level of drama to the races, just as they do in real life and with the assists off, will keep you on the edge of your seat as you are required to hit the limiter at the right time to avoid penalties, and also brake appropriately to stop properly for the tyre change. Come in too hot and you could waste a lot of time or even knock one of your guys, causing delays that could destroy your progress in the race so far. Get it just right though and you will be able to reap the fruits of your labour as you watch the crew do what they do best and send you flying out of the pit lane in record time.

The Silence Before The Storm

Weather systems and settings are by no means a new addition to Formula One titles, but the dynamic weather system that has been implemented in F1 2010 blew me away to the point that I simply had to take some time to explain its brilliance.

The weather system in F1 2010, is for a lack of a better word, alive. Rain for example, is not simply switched on if the game decides its a rainy day. The weather behaves realistically that if there is 40% chance of rain, you have no idea if it will rain or not, when it will begin, where its coming from or when it will end. The weather also moves and grows realistically in a way that I have not yet seen in a racing title.

While the weather might have been clear at the beginning of a practice session, with only a couple of clouds in the distance, I was amazed to see that over the course of a session, the sky grew darker and the wind started kicking some leaves around.

Before I knew it, a light drizzle had begun and the track became a little wet, but only over one section of the track, making my intermediate tires do their work as I lapped the track moving through areas that ranged from damp and slippery, to completely bone dry.

Around 15 minutes later, a full blown storm had kicked in and the track had become fully engulfed in its presence and littered with large puddles of water and very low visibility as the rain came hammering down from the sky.

While doing my laps the track conditions became extremely dangerous, with out of focus water droplets collecting on the camera/visor and cars in front of me kicking up spray that made it near impossible to see save for the flashing red tail lights of the cars in front .

At the same time, you may begin sessions in heavy rain, only to have the track start clearing over the course of the hour, with the sun breaking out of the clouds giving off a warm orange glow as it hits the hazy air that has come as a result of the clearing storm. Over time dry racing lines will start forming on the track but puddles can still be used to cool your tires if necessary. Stray from the line too much though and you are in for some big trouble.

The dynamic weather system truly is a marvel to behold, and impressed me to no end. I look forward to seeing technology like this integrated into more titles (not necessarily only racing games) in future.

There’s a HD, surround sound bug on the windshield.

F1 2010 uses the Ego engine that has already been utilised in other Codemasters titles such as Grid and Dirt, and in case you didn’t already know, it looks gorgeous. F1 2010 is no doubt one of the most visually impressive racing games ever made and when the weather is in full force, it looks even better. All of the tracks from around the world have been recreated with every ounce of real life detail and the cars are also picture perfect copies of the ones used in real life.

This however seems to have come at quite a hefty price as F1 2010 doesn’t manage to pull out any framerates near the 60 FPS mark at any time. While a 30 FPS game is still acceptable, F1 2010 doesn’t seem to be able to maintain even that at times and delivers a very inconsistent visual experience on the whole.

Some tracks will run completely smooth over the whole race weekend, regardless of the amount of cars on track or weather systems in place. Other tracks such as Monte Carlo spring to mind, where the frame rate is very inconsistent over different parts of the track, so much so that certain corners were so choppy that it actually hindered my ability to properly navigate the corner and had to rely on muscle memory to make it through rather than visual input.

The HUD or heads up display while racing is also a little bit on the sparse side. The game features absolutely no telemetry and also fails to inform the driver of any sort of distance between the cars in front and behind, although an arrow appears to indicate that a car is nearby or alongside your car.

F1 2010 is also plagued with quite a few bugs, the most prominent one being that if you head into the pits for a pitstop with another driver close behind, the pit crew glitches out and keeps you in the pits for around 20 seconds, rather than the 4 – 5 seconds it would usually take, destroying your race completely. I also experienced issues when starting flying laps at times, where my car (still in automatic driving mode) would glitch out and basically lose control of itself before handing the reigns over to me to deal with it.

With the graphics engine failing to keep up some of the time, as well as some strange AI issues and overall glitches F1 2010 can sometimes feel like a game that was released a little earlier than it should have been as it’s evident that it could have definitely used a lot more polishing.

On the plus side, the game sounds really great and features a really subtle soundtrack that only makes itself known during certain small segments of the game like replays and when you are accelerating time to end a session.

Conclusion:

F1 2010 is hands down the best, most engaging and most fun F1 title that I have ever played. It looks fantastic, sounds fantastic and features a really immersive and enjoyable career mode that is on the whole, only let down by some performance issues, shoddy bugs (that should be patched soon) and sometimes-strange AI. I also like where they are going with the be-a-driver idea, but its clear that it still needs some work.

Hopefully when they release F1 2011 next year, they will have added all of the extra features and elements to create a truly spectacular game. For now, this one is as good as it gets.

Scoring:

Gameplay: 9.8

As far as F1 titles go, it really doesn’t get better than this. Applies to casual and hardcore.

Presentation: 8.9

A tremendously good looking game, let down by inconsistent performance issues.

Sound: 9.0

Feels like you are sitting in a real F1 car. Great use of surround sound.

Value: 8.5

Lengthy campaign mode, time trials, quick GPs and multiplayer will keep you busy until the next version arrives in 2011.

Overall: 9.0 (not an average)

Highly recommended as a true driving experience for F1 fans. Will not appeal to all gamers though.

[Reviewed on Xbox 360]

Last Updated: September 27, 2010