We have an exclusive here for you guys. Kazaa218917 was sent to the F1 2011 review event in London. Here are his thoughts on what is anticipated as one of the best racers of this year. Over to you Kaz
Well, Hello again folks. Its been a long time since I have done a write up for AG so I thought I would say a few words.
As most of you are aware, on the 6th of July, courtesy of XCN and Absolutegaming I was given the opportunity to attend and official event which would allow me to have a hands on feel of the Beta version of the up coming F1 2011 title for Xbox 360… Now I have got a video of the entire presentation….it is 30 minutes long so feel free to make yourself a cuppa before you get down to watching it.
Now I know you’re eager to know what the game is like and you have probably all sorts of questions, so I will get straight in and spare all the details of how it took me the better part of 45 minutes to get from where I parked (Westfield Shopping Centre) to the address where the event was being held…..which I found out was a 5 minute walk away as I returned on foot…….
One thing you have to keep in mind when reading this summary, is that I was going to this event not expecting much as I was not planning on buying the game after how quickly I lost interest with 2010. Will this have changed my mind? Well, you will have to read on to find out……
Game layout, load up screens and general looks:
At the moment, and from what I observed the layout and menu’s are looking much like the ones on F1 2010. I wouldn’t say it’s a downside really as im sure that’s not a side that they will be focusing hard on. At the end of the day, they are simply improving on F1 2010 and using the existing coding and improving on it.
Questions that you may have:
When you watch the presentation, you will notice that most of the questions are answered which kind of shows that Codemasters are listening to their gamers.
Gameplay:
Now, we have to keep in mind that I had a go at the Beta version which means that there will be many improvements yet to come.
Its looking very good. At the event, they had laid out screens which were set up for split screen so that we could have a go and they also had gaming chairs with steering and pedals……the full whack. And all the systems were linked and they had a race where 18 drivers were racing with 6 AI…..spectacular to say the least however time taken to set up was abit on the long side….expected as codies had to go round making sure that everyone was set up correctly. I didn’t have a go at the race as you all know, I love watching from the back of the pack as everyone battles it out.
Let me tackle this in what I can make as logical as possible:
1) Handling: - This has improved quite a lot since 2010. On 2010 I always ran the risk of killing myself when going round a corner because I was braking too late or too early. However this time around, I noticed that I had abit more control of the car and hitting the brake hard could lock my wheels however possibility of recovery from an error were abit better.
2) Graphics: as it’s the Beta version, the graphics were decent however it seemed that there was no focus on damage as yet. I intentionally went and smashed into a wall and instead of seeing all parts flying I saw what looked like coloured confetti which reminded me of Indy500 on the PC which I used to play 12 -14 years ago. Im sure that is something on their list of things to do.
3) Tyres: Reason why I put this separately to graphics is because although im saying they didn’t focus much on graphics, they have focused on tyre wear a lot….when I was driving, Although we were only doing 3 laps…when I hit the grass, you could see the effects on the tyre and in turn the handling of the car was affected as well. There was no wear on the tyres as we were doing a 3 lap race only. However in the presentation they have shown the different stages of tyre wear that they have added to the game this time around….in all honesty…it looks good.
4) KERS / DRS – For those that might be an amateur like myself at a game like F1,
a. KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System) – Energy released during braking is stored and can be used to provide an additional boost…more handy during straights and when you want to overtake.
b. DRS (Drag Reduction System) – basically, its an adjustable rear wing to enhance and give you a boost of speed by using aerodynamics to your advantage. Handy for overtaking on straights and opening gaps. If im correct, the DRS only comes into force on or after lap 3 so I didn’t get a chance to test it.
So I had a go with KERS and my oh my what a difference it makes for a poor driver like myself. I was playing one of the guys in a split screen. He was from the official codemasters forums. At the start of the race, I was in first and he was in second. Come round to the first corner, we were still neck and neck. Next thing….I get nudged….spin out and ever car just goes past and he spins off too.
So a few turns later hes ahead and I spin off as I was trying to really push the car by being trigger happy.
Now, we carried on racing and it was lap 3…I thought, lets give it all we’ve got. I was about 10 seconds behind. Within ¾’s of a lap, using KERS on the straights I managed to close the gap….he goes wide on the last turn and with the little bit that I have left….boost it all the way to the finish line!! Best ive felt in F1 finishing in 17th place! It was more the use of the KERS button that got me the win. So yes, if used correctly, it’s a great thing that they have added in the game
5) Multi player, Split Screen and Online Multi Player: Although the presentation does cover it I will have a few words about this. The new thing….you can have an offline championship on split screen as well as an online multi player championship! To initiate the championship, you would need to start it off together. Then you can carry on separately. They did explain it, however I didn’t quite understand how it worked, so I will leave it to when the game comes out. Sounds great though!
a. I did ask one of the codies about what happens if a player drops out. As it happened to us quite a lot on 2010 where we had a session, and someone gets knocked out and we would have to restart the session. Sorry for the disappointment, It will still be the same. Main reason is because of lap times. If someone drops out halfway through a race and they were in the lead, its abit unfair if they were to bring that person back in on the next race and he’s lost points because hes been kicked from the session. Conversely it would be unfair to assume he would win the race. So it based on that, it would stay the same as it was on 2010. Sorry oKid UKo, you will have to keep the manual tables in hand.
6) Your Questions: I’ll take this from the forum that I posted up. Some of you had some queries that you wanted answered. As mentioned previously, the questions were asked by others in the crowd and some of them answered in the presentation, but here goes anyway:
a. Safety Cars: It’s a no on that im afraid. Safety cars would make it realistic however implementation of this would be extremely difficult. And according to the guys answering the questions, they said that they would rather have something on the list that they know would work, rather than have it on there and it doesn’t but they have it just for the sake of having more features.
b. Multiplayer collisions, flags, penalties etc: improvement on this will be done.
c. Joining an online Grand Prix which has already started: (mentioned above) not gonna happen due to timings.
d. Pitstops mandatory: Im not sure if this was mentioned or not. Might be in the presentation.
e. Watching / spectating: Yes, this feature will be implemented. They did have a screen to show what it would be like, however I was more focusing on the race going on. You will notice that I did pan the view at one point to try and catch the views however it didn’t work very well due to focusing issues so went back to the race again.
f. Damage endurance: As it was the Beta version, Damage wasn’t that great. However im sure that they will be improving on this.
Overall Thoughts:
As I said at the beginning, I was going to this event with the thought in mind, it would have to get close to blowing me away if I was to buy it…..I must say that with the features, It has come close to that. The fact that I had fun playing the game….was good.
KERS / DRS looks like a great feature and the guys at codemasters showed how it worked.
However, based on F1 races that we have had on the site my opinion will still remain the same. This game will be loved by those who enjoy racing games and can stay on the track. Getting taken out by drivers who are less skilful that you on the track will happen. You cannot avoid that. Complaining about it and getting upset will not help. Although it will be a great fun game….it will be a serious game and one mistake could lead to a crash taking you out of the game completely or a spin off which would mean you end up a mile away from the pack!
I will definitely look on getting this especially with the offline split screen mode and online championships.
The date to look forward to……..September 23rd September 2011…..See you on the Grid!