Archief - F1 2011

I expected this event to be some sort of miniature LAN social – with loads of greasy teenagers, stuck in a small room playing the game with just but a handful of developers present to answer annoying questions by people with questionable BO. I was scared when walking towards the venue – I was thinking “why the fuck did I say I wanted to go to this?!?”

After arriving 30mins early, I realised how wrong I was wrong when I turned up and the building had a massive F1 2011 logo on the glass window front. This was a serious press event. With a large reception area, I was greeted by two big plasma screens with an early build of the new intro for the game greeting all arrivals, along with free drinks (thanks for that, much appreciated!) throughout the event. Walking through to the main area, it wasn’t the 25+ stations that caught my attention – immediately to the right there was the 2010 Lotus T127, in all its glory. Codemasters blatantly knew I was coming, so they got my Gaf Champ winning car there on display for all to see. Naturally, I posed for many pictures to my adoring fans....

Anyway, I managed to get a good 30-45 mins playing the game before David Croft (Radio 5 Live commentator) presented the game in front of the rapidly growing audience. There were a lot of people here – Official Xbox Magazine journalists, many professional video cameras recording the event. Crofty was funny, enthusiastic, and seemed like an all round sound guy. We were then shown some of the brief differences between F1 2010 and F1 2011. Nothing much new was shown here to be honest that has not already been shown in other media, apart from a nice comparison of the track side details between the two games. F1 2011 definitely is more impressive visually as a whole, although it’s not drastically different from its predecessor. But a good improvement none the less. NO PISS FILTER! A nice race between two Codies was shown off, with David Croft intervening by sitting on the makeshift F1 cockpits that had on the demo floor blocking their view – it was entertaining, but the mistakes caused by this showed off the new physics handling of the cars brilliantly.

Oh, and when I was racing I wondered why a massive camera was watching me race...I looked to my right and Nick Hamilton was there watching me – to my left was Anthony Davidson. Blatantly taking tips from me....

So, here are my views on the game itself...

I regarded F1 2010’s driving model as a flawed, but one of the most entertaining driving experiences I’ve had. But now after playing F1 2011, I see it as a very simplistic system and I’m not sure how I will be able to go back after tasting this. The game is still F1, but my god it feels like a different beast to drive. This car is ALIVE. Coming out of the first corner on Silverstone I floored the throttle like I did in F1 2010, but you just can’t do that now (with TC off anyway). No longer can the game feel a bit on rails – you honestly can feel the difference in traction you have on each individual tyre. You can tell when the car is on the limit just through the interactions in the force feedback wheels and the visual clues on screen. Riding the kerbs is joy, not guesswork until you know which ones to hit and which to not. You honestly feel more in touch with the car and how it controls.

Tyres are such a big difference this time around. Options are options – they are sexy, they have grip, they fade quickly. But put on those primes, and bloody hell you are in for a ride. You really need to rubber them in like in real F1 during the practice sessions. I went out on cold Primes, went into a corner and it felt so twitchy. The car just wanted to snap away if I just pushed them a little too hard. Apparently they will last like this for 2 laps or so, so those first 2 laps are really going to bust some people’s balls. But I loved wrestling with the car in this situation, and it was already clear the new physics model was a win.

This game is more unforgiving too. Start losing control of the car, you really must have some skill and reactions to wrestle it back. No longer will smacking the brakes save you! The sound effects when you are skidding are so realistic – no longer just tyre squeal, but you can hear each individual tyre lockup. And the crashes, ooo there will be debris EVERYWHERE. FV, you will love it. Saw some awesome moments of cars going up in the air. Bits of wings fall off, parts of the nose on its own – a massive upgrade.

Tyres lockup properly under braking now (and again sounds amazing), you can intuitively tell which wheel is locking when braking, which is just another example of how good the cars feel now.

There is a full XP system in place for online races now, where if you drive a HRT, you are not expected to win. But do better than expected, and you will get bonus XP. Hit another car, you will lose XP. It rewards sensible, but fast drivers who outperform what the car ought to do.

In the cockpit, the camera is no longer as steady as before. The view dips quite suddenly under extreme braking, there are more general vibration effects too. Each team has an individual wheel design this time around. A lot of people were commenting that they may change view to cockpit for F1 2011 because of the visceral feel now with it. It really is a treat, but also it provides feedback to your driving.

Wet weather – holy mother of god we better not get many wet races in the gaf champ. This is HARDCORE. I didn’t see one person staying on the track for a lap during a wet race who did not have traction control either on or at medium. Gone are the days of ‘easy’ wet races. This requires utmost skill to master. Also, this is where I think the biggest upgrade visually has come – it looks stunning. Spray comes from the tyres now instead of the car as a whole, water tread marks trail behind the cars – it looks beautiful, even on the 360 build that was being shown.

Pit animations are smoother and more deliberate. It’s a lot clearer knowing where the pit limiter is, both in and out. Marshalls actually wave flags now along with the standard notifications from before. You also have an indicator that tells you your expected position after exiting the pits – nice.

One area that took my by surprise was the level of tactics you can now do in the cockpit. For example, you can now use different fuel mixtures. So underfill your car before the race, you will have to do a stint with lean fuel. Got some to burn up or really want to gain track position? Give it more juice. And it does make a difference. This, with KERS and DRS (fully manual btw, you control these entirely!), means we will be a lot busier at the wheel now beyond racing.

The two things that impressed me the most is the sounds and the handling. Handling I have explained. The sounds are just so....realistic. Engines sound grittier, tyres sound great, there is air noise at high speeds - it just works beautifully. This for me is the biggest upgrade I experienced today.

Downers? Replays are still limited, no confirmation of 24 player for PC as of yet, and safety car is looking unlikely for this years product (all developers were cagey about this, so it’s no certain).