A few days after the announcement of Codemasters’ rather disappointing decision limit their F1 2009 Formula One game to the Playstation Portable and the Nintendo Wii, the developers continue to make bold promises about the upcoming F1 2010 game for the PC and next gen gaming consoles.
In an interview with the Official Xbox Magazine, Codemasters’ executive producer Gavin Raeburn claimed “we have the best F1 game ever“, promising to make more use of the prestigious and expensive F1 license than previous license holders:
“F1 games haven’t set the world alight over the last decade and we think that the sport deserves a game which really captures its excitement and glamour,” Raeburn commented.
Codemasters is planing on satisfying both arcade racers and simulation freaks, a mixed audience that will also be taken care off in the game’s planned online mode:
“The online component is as important as the single-player experience. Key to this is enabling people to find and play with the right people. If you’re an arcade fan playing F1 online you probably want to play with like-minded players in shorter racers, rather than end up in a hardcore sim session.”
With the planned release of F1 2010 still being more than 12 months away, it will take quite a while until we find out if all this bragging is pure marketing hype or if Codemasters will be having more to show than many sceptic sim racers expect them to.
mike
May 9th, 2009 at 02:57
after the disappointing news of no release for PC, PS3, 360 once again codemasters trying to build hype
drowsy
May 9th, 2009 at 03:07
I’d be surprised if the physics are better than the ones in F1 Challenge 99-02, and that game is like 7 years old by now.
xilix
May 9th, 2009 at 03:25
Honestly, developers need to stop doing things like this. If you have the best, then the software will speak for itself. I highly doubt that Codemasters has the expertise required to itch the scratch that us hardcore guys have for unforgiving realism. Stop making promises about a game you haven’t even developed yet.
Like I’ve said in the past, the ONLY, and I mean ONLY way to have a game that satisfies both “casual gamers” and hardcore sim freaks, is to first make the game a balls-out hardcore simulation through and through. THEN, ad assists and physics dumb-down modes for those casual gamers. The trick is to have these “arcade” modes and assists on by default for the arcade guys so the bean-counters can bust a nut. Then us hardcore sim guys can dig into the real deal sim by shutting all that off.
If they don’t follow this formula of development, it will not satisfy us hardcore sim guys as much as the F1 mods for rFactor like FSOne and CTDP. It’d probably be a good idea for CM to employ one of those groups IMO.
scca1981
May 9th, 2009 at 08:06
Right. Same shit they said about Grid.
the.cosmic.pope
May 9th, 2009 at 08:20
Best F1 game EVER? Better than F1GP, GP2 and GP3 in their prime? Don’t make me laugh.
qawaza
May 9th, 2009 at 08:31
oh per-lease!!!
Why not give us a POC version…let us be the judge if this CRAP is really a CRAP or NOT!!!
PLaying GRID is like having sex with a balloon….C’mon..get rid of it…jeezzz.
stabiz
May 9th, 2009 at 09:59
Very true, because it really doesnt matter what the aids do to the handling, those who use spin correct, brake help ++ dont know what they are looking for anyway, they just want to roar around the tracks and look at the shiny graphics.
In other news I will be VERY surprised if this is the best F1 game ever, considering how good pre milennia titles were out of the box.
F1Racer
May 9th, 2009 at 10:37
Sounds to me like people are kinda pissed off that CM got the F1 licence. Its clear that no-one has any kind of optimism or hope that CM can deliver and are not prepared to give them even one chance. It would be a different story if they made no promises of satisfying the sim racers, but that isn’t the case.
Apart from the modders and rF2, CM are our only hope of an officially licenced F1 game on the PC and a company with the resources to get the job done.
Yet, from the PC arena, they are getting no support from the sim racers and constantly being put down like they have no idea how to make this happen.
I know the modders have the passion for what they do, but don’t tell me that CM, with all at their disposal, cannot outdo the work of a bunch of guys in their bedrooms.
Hey, you nay-sayers might end up being right. But lets just give them a chance eh ? Lets not judge until we see for ourselves. Otherwise you’re just being very unfair.
As for GRID, people knock it like hell and for its physics, it should be damned. But visually it was great and GRID 2/ DIRT 2 will be even better. Sounds weren’t too bad either.
So if we can get and F1 sim looking like that, BUT with good physics, animated pitstops etc.. won’t that be a good thing ?
When its released in a years time, F1 2010, WILL be slated by many because the first time people play it, they will be looking for things to criticise and to be the first to say it. Thats the unwritten law for sim-racers.
I remember in GP4 a big uproar about the colour of kerbs in Imola. This is how judgmental we get.
I’m all for giving CM an opportunity to deliver. No-one else will and I for one and just glad and thankful that Sony no longer have the F1 licence because then it was all Playstation, Playstation, Playstation. Not any more.
Either way, we will have rF2 to satisfy our sim needs if CM don’t deliver so I see no point slagging CM off for hyping a product. Thats what companies are supposed to do.
At least its positive hype as far as a sim-racer goes.
snowy
May 9th, 2009 at 10:54
A game that “captures F1’s excitement and glamour” yes I am sure they are more than capable of this. However they are singularly placed to create the biggest pile of festering puke in the universe as their comprehension of race car physics is abominable.
Scuderia Ecosse
May 9th, 2009 at 11:19
You have to think about their marketing strategy. When a company says they have created a simulator, all the arcade racers think they can now drive like Felipe Massa and have an actual chance of making it to formula 1. So arcade racers think their amazing if they can drive and win in a “simulator” like GRID which proclaimed to be a simulator but wasn’t
stabiz
May 9th, 2009 at 11:47
I think its fair to be sceptical. If a band release several crap records in a row, and then state that the next one will be the best record ever made, they are bound to get some flak. After caps lock games like DIRT and GRID I find it hard to be optimistic.
As always, I am hoping to be wrong. I really hope I feel obliged to say “sorry, CM!” at some point.
N0body Of The Goat
May 9th, 2009 at 12:10
As sim racers, we have good reason to be sceptical about Codemasters F1 2010 effort…
The last arcade/sim release by them that had some sort of balance between the two was Collin McRae2, back around 2000!
TOCA Race Driver (1) promised the earth in 2002, trying to have a good sim and arcade mode, yet it failed with both (arcade drove like a train on rails, sim made every car feel like a race on ice). The car selection and tracks were a good mix, but they drove so badly. The lack of track cutting detection was appauling.
Race Driver 2 in 2004 promised to build on the previous title. Once again though, the sim mode felt pretty bad and it was still possible to cut huge chucks of track. The selection of cars and tracks was more limited (I think?).
Race Driver 3 came along in 2006. Hype marketing involved claiming pre-renders were actual gameply footage. The arcade mode Porsche (my favourite) could do laptimes quicker than real life F1! Once again the sim mode was awful. The cutting issues were still not sorted. And then there was the “4000 slot points upgrade exploit” allowing online cheats to maximize all possible car upgrades.[b]Codemasters realeased a “fix” but the exploit still remained…[/b] Good fix!!!!!
GRID is their most recent road racer. It might look quite nice, has a sense of speed, but still we have rediculous handling (most corners can be taken with a quick release of throttle, no brake needed). So once again crazy laptimes.
They probably paid a fortune for the F1 licience, they need suckers to be sucked into buying the game without getting the chance to try a demo first. Codies in recent times have often witheld any demo until months after the full release, testing the patience of “fence sitters” who end up buying the game to see what it is like. This lines the pockets of Codies with pennies, covers the licience fee, but then they fail to deliver on post-sale support, releasing weak patches before the dev team moves on to the next money spinner…
Rasmus
May 9th, 2009 at 13:59
@ F1Racer: I’m all with you there, buddy. Let’s not judge until we see the results ourselves. Maybe Codies haven’t made simulation wonders before, but hey, there is a slight chance this might be it.
And even if it’s not, well, screw it. Then we’ll still have rFactor 2 (which NO ONE doubts, apparently) all filled up with F1 mods – and possibly even GTR3.
I must say, however, that stating “we have the best F1 game ever” is pushing it too far. In the eyes of us sim racers, that’s a disgrace to say. But face it guys, it’s just a marketing stunt. When all the young F1 fans all over the world hear that Codemasters is in the midst of creating “the best F1 game ever”, of course they’re going to want it. Sales tactics.
YOU ALL: Be optimistic, not pessimistic. At least we’ll get a Formula One game for the PC. Go outside and enjoy the fine weather instead of ranting here. I’ll go do that now at least.
JAGUAR1977
May 9th, 2009 at 14:36
‘So arcade racers think their amazing if they can drive and win in a “simulator” like GRID which proclaimed to be a simulator but wasn’t’
You are seriously underestimating the console community if you think the majority considered GRID to be a sim.
The two most popular console racing games are Gran Turismo and Forza, their physics are closer to iRacing than GRID, and that’s before the latest versions have been released.
I have a theory, on the PC side Codemasters have been the only large company releasing racing titles regularly, the PC community has scrutinised each offering far more than the console community, who always considered GRID, Dirt, TOCA, Colin McRae Rally etc. to be typical arcade offerings.
idlejimbo
May 9th, 2009 at 15:19
‘Arcade Mode’ ?!
Wow, is it 1998 already??
Arcade mode was okay when consoles had become powerful but only had buttons on their gamepads, and when PC gamers could be forgiven for only having a keyboard to play on.
Codemasters = fun gameplay but floaty cars.
the.cosmic.pope
May 9th, 2009 at 15:43
Have faith in Codemasters? This was the company that slapped the “Ultimate Simulation” stickers on the TRD screenshots. Which weren’t screenshots, they were renders, despite the claims. Boy who cried wolf.
Jos
May 9th, 2009 at 15:50
well its shouldn’t be too hard for codemaster to create F1 physics, I mean, the only thing F1 cars do is drive like their on rails.
nakke
May 9th, 2009 at 16:19
Pivot-based physics OF THE FUTURE, NOW!
maxs
May 9th, 2009 at 18:13
we think that the sport deserves a game which really captures its excitement and glamour,”
^ this is the diplomaticy of codemasters – yes it captures but its not a simulator , for now , like any other game from codies
F1 2010 – Best F1 Game Ever? no doubt in graphics – yes
but there are lots of good looking games on pc/consoles – not much of them are sims , and this is what we expect , we are not kids ….
JAGUAR1977
May 9th, 2009 at 20:37
The average age of next gen console owners is mid 30’s, FPS games used to be gaming PC’s biggest selling point, now consoles host the best FPS titles.
maxs
May 9th, 2009 at 20:54
i dont think so
secretagent
May 9th, 2009 at 20:57
Hehe, not really mate…especially now. However I wouldn’t be surprised if CM has that same train of thought.
UncleChuckle
May 9th, 2009 at 21:45
Someone send Gavin a dictionary with the word “HUBRIS” highlighted please.
Uff
May 10th, 2009 at 01:05
Considering the engine they are building the game with (and after watching the new DiRT2 video), I would be surprised if it wasn’t like they say: I mean, Sony realeased its last game years ago, F1 Ch is 6 years old, technology has vastly improved during these years. They have everything they need in orded to make a great game/sim/whatever you want to call it.
fpol
May 10th, 2009 at 02:32
I’m keeping an open mind.
By the way…someone disputed the age of consolers…well Totally wired had a write up that showed that after 1995 the age of gamers (they were talking of consoles) went up significantly in Europe and the US to between 31 to 36. That was 1995, and those people are 14 years older now!
I work in a professional (technical) environment with people mostly in their 30s to 40s – those who game use consoles (and they *live* on a PC so it’s not for lack of technical skils). Fact is, consoles are not the realm of pimple faced teens – I sometimes feel like the only guy who pc games/sims!
Again…keeping an open mind – what harm does it do?
Sensekhmet
May 10th, 2009 at 17:24
I’m trying to understand why people think that GRID physics were so bad. I actually found them good for an arcade game. You even get penalised for using too much kerbs. Also, I don’t know which game some of you play, but in my copy of GRID you have to use your brakes a lot, even though I play with assists on. I pretty much have to because I use keyboard as it’s impossible for me to configure my wheel to have even rudimentary control over the cars (OK, this is a problem… but it’s an arcade game, why hook up a wheel for it in the first place?). You think GRID physics are bad? Fire up DIRT, now this is bad. At least GRID doesn’t use this cursed hovercraft floating physics model!
In some respects I think GRID is actually better than our beloved sims. The career mode, even if it has some shortcomings is a fantastic addition and no modern sim has anything like it (only old Sports Car GT had a stub of a career mode). You might think career mode is not necessary, but I’m involved in real life motorsport and I can spend 30 minutes in GTR Evo, just browsing through the cars and trying to figure out which team would be desperate and/or stupid enough to hire a guy from the street with zero background… you know, the player ;)You don’t just jump into a car and race, this is the biggest, most unrealistic bulls**t ever, and each and every sim gives that to us constantly. V-rally 3 (itself a bad PC port of an arcade game) did it well, you had to participate in team’s test session and set a good time to be given a seat for the next season, this is a minimum for me to consider something coming close to realism: I’d also like to be able to become an evil pay driver – it’s my dream, actually! :D
As for the F1… please, don’t simulate the F1 world! It would end up being some dark RPG/adventure game in which spying, political struggles and evil plans would be normal and the story would involve whiner celebrity drivers, temperamental team bosses and sponsor-whoring among other things… clearly an M rated game, also possibly a very depressing one.
stabiz
May 10th, 2009 at 17:37
Wow.
F1Racer
May 10th, 2009 at 18:54
Heh, like it :) Max Moseley -FIA Manager by Codemasters.
Or, Ecclestone Grand Prix. Rule changes come by monthly updates and you can have circuits on the calendar that are not complete yet. Donington is a permanently locked circuit.
I wonder if F1-2010 will include grid-drop penalties for any infractions in quali. That would be new.
UncleChuckle
May 10th, 2009 at 23:30
In fairness, if they did Max Mosley – FIA Manager, it’d have to be an M game due to the presence of Nazi whores.
DiRTy HaM
August 31st, 2009 at 11:19
Race Pro did that and satisfied nobody, people went back to forza 2 and left it and im sure taht codemasters are left with that problem, many want an arcade game than a full on sim and thats the sad truth :(