This game is definitely a grower. I wanted to like it so bad after all the reviews and videos but if left me feeling a bit flat. After a few hours though I've settled down with it a bit and I'm liking it more and more. I've done a few time trials at various circuits and I'm also two races into my 7 year career with Hispania (no driver assists and hardest AI settings).
Things I like:
- Overall presentation of the game is superb. I really do feel immersed thanks to the audio, graphics and feel of the game. Loving the nice little touches around the paddock area with characters walking round. This is the first F1 game for a while that isn't just about cars thanks to the media and all the little animations etc.
- Dynamic track is top notch, especially on longer races. Just what us race fans have been wanting for years. The rubbering in is actually noticeable and the quality of the weather system goes without saying.
- AI is pretty good to race against, a far sight better than anything else out there at the moment. They drive like you would expect them to, not making stupid moves like ramming straight into the back of you under every braking zone. Had some awesome battles so far, moving to the inside and seeing them block then cutting back round the outside only to get blocked and pushed wide etc.
- Visual effects like dust, sun glare and rain drops/spray are excellent as well as just the entire graphics system in general.
- Once you get used to it, the driving model is actually very good. It's quite easy to get a rhythm going and be consistent and you can find the limit nicely, scraping tenths here and there and building up your laptime. When you finally nail an awesome lap it feels very rewarding and, strangely, natural.
- I'm probably going to get shot for this but I hate the rFactor car set up menu. I don't know what half of the things do, and most of the time I don't really feel much of a difference. I just want to drive, tweak, then drive some more, without having to read through loads of pdfs and online manuals about car mechanics and setup techniques. In F1 2010 the setup is simplified, with really helpful descriptions, and easy to understand numbers.
Things I don't like:
- Audio for gearshifts seems a little bit weird. Can't quite explain why but it doesn't feel as immediate as other racing games.
- Really difficult to lock the brakes. I've got my pedal flat down and having no problems. ABS is off. Strangely though, it seems as if it takes longer to brake for corners than it does in real life.
- Silly amounts of traction. You can floor the throttle out of corners and from a standing start, and yes you may hear the engine revving like a bast*rd, but you still go forwards without a twitch on the wheel or any oversteer whatsoever. Sort of takes the skill out of using the throttle well.
- Spin physics seem a little weird. You can drive over grass quite easy but as soon as you hit gravel the car feels as if it's being spun round violently for no reason and meets massive resistance.
- Very sensitive corner cutting detection, sometimes just running wide will trigger it and stop the timer for the lap you're on, maybe even a penalty. Worst annoyance is in time trial, not only is your current lap scrapped but the next one too.
- The pitlane seems very clumsy. You can't steer (and the automated steering is not smooth at all) but you have to brake/accelerate as needed which sort of ruins the immersion.
- Wing/rev changing from in the car is annoying because the menu disappears if you don't press anything for two seconds (usually not enough time to look at the options available, or see what is selected). It should stay on screen until you've made your choice of what you want to do, because the menu positions reset every time it disappears. Very annoying, and it means I dont bother moving my front wing or changing revs.
- Lack of telemetry. I want to know peoples sector times over all their laps so I can see where I'm going wrong. Would be nice to have an engineer's style debrief after the race as well, see all my laptimes and places I made mistakes a lot etc, strategy breakdown of when everyone pitted.
- No warm-up lap for the race, no safety car, no red flags and no car failures.
- No TrackIR support. I know not many people actually have this piece of kit, but previous Codemasters games have TrackIR support so it seems a bit strange it's not in this release.
Things I've yet to experience but have read about:
- Silverstone incorrect corner profiling
- Damage model (not had that many big crashes, and when I have, the replay system hasn't caught it because I waited too long).
- Pitstop bug.
Overall opinion? I think that once you accept the fact that this isn't a hardcore dedicated sim racer, and once you stop taking everything so damn seriously, you'll really enjoy it. It's not perfect by any means and it's not perfectly realistic either but it's
fun to drive and does a great job of immersing you in F1.
Circuit Thermalito
Liverpool Waterfront Circuit (WIP)
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/25/2010 01:20PM by Fincent.