F1 2012 – Developer Interview Podcast

PitBoardPodcast.com had the chance to chat with Codemasters’ Andy Gray, talking about their upcoming F1 2012 title.

The title’s Communications Manager talks about aspects such as graphics, AI, physics as well as the new features such as the new voiceover functionality.

F1 2012 will bring all cars and drivers of the current Formula One World Championship season to the PC, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. The title is due to be released in September.

GTOmegaRacing.com

  • Anonymous

    although I like what I have heard in this interview I just can’t come and say: I will get this game. I will need to think a bit about it after having 2 years of Codemasters F1 experience.

    I have liked both games, nice “toy” if you are looking for few laps without detailed checking of cars setup…I would consider it even 2nd best F1 game ever (behind Grand Prix series) just if they would bother to release a game without that many bugs. Software without any bugs is just a dream (and I could say that I know what I am saying as I am studying Computer Science) but goal for any developer should be to have the least possible number of them, not as much as possible.

    Anyway, if game proves good and without annoying bugs I will get it once again. So, waiting for few reviews this time.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Kevin-McDonald/526045209 Kevin McDonald

    I agree to be honest.

    i enjoyed both games, but the bugs eventually stopped me playing, and then they would abandon it for the following years title.
    In short, I feel i got burned. more so with 2011 because 2010 I appreciated was their first go at it.
    I’m tempted to try 2012, but im going to wait for reviews and community opinion first.
    If they do the same this year, I’ll be moving on and forgetting about any of their f1 games.

  • http://racingrenders.com/ F1Racer

     Agree with both of you.  But it’s going to take quite a change in their game to make me buy it after buying the last two.  I never spent much time on either, but enough to know that it wasn’t for me despite the great gfx and amazing rain effects.   If the physics had at least some improvements with all aids off and, as f1racing and Kevin said, it has a lot less bugs, I might be persuaded to sign a contract with CM for another season :)      Not holding my breath though, I don’t have enough confidence in CM to deliver a product that sim racers can appreciate as anything more than an arcade game.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Kieren-Jameson/1007356233 Kieren Jameson

    I’m going to give this game a rental because of the handling changes CM spoke of and If I don’t like it I haven’t wasted £40

  • Guilherme Cramer

    I don’t think CM will ever release a demo of their F1 games.

  • Mark

    I find little reason to buy 2011/2012. F1 2010 was good, why should I pay full price for reskins, a few new tracks/teams/drivers with no drastic changes to the gameplay/graphics (unless i’m missing something). 

    This model of development appeals more with FIFA and other sports games, not motorsports.

  • Chris Allen

    CM is great at PR, no doubt, they can build their stuff up like no one else, but when it comes to what they deliver on, they fall far short imho, and I have learned not to listen to anything they say or any hype they talk.  I have been burned at least a couple of times by Codemasters, and I don’t expect to ever buy another CM product.  If you like arcade games, then it may suit you fine though! I just don’t like them as a company and never will, they are a cash cow.

  • http://racingrenders.com/ F1Racer

     I guess the only argument for that would be the updated rules (if any) and supposed improvements and stuff made bettter since F1-2010.    Admittedly that might not be as convincing an argument as some would like :)

  • Eric Zehnder

    A comparison to EA and the endless, yearly updates to boring sports titles could be made here.

    In our world of tablet game experiences for $3 rivaling console game experiences for $60, paying that amount every year for new skins and PR doesn’t make sense.

  • http://twitter.com/StarFoXySxv550 StarFoXySxv550

    You can probably count the number of “well ported” PC multiplats on one hand over the last few years. Not sure why this is so surprising. Only recently since PC has been on the uprise in terms of sales has this started to be addressed.  

  • http://twitter.com/StarFoXySxv550 StarFoXySxv550

    I think yearly DLC is the way to go with this product, but at the same time a lot of people think DLC is also a “milking process”

    I still think these dev models is more a side effect of the stupid amount of money these sporting corporates demand for licensing fees, this applies to all sports games that follow the model.

    it seems to be a case of “you need the licence to sell big numbers, you need to sell to to stay in business” 

    A look at the 2k sports games seem to prove this point, both the Ice hockey and football games are widely considered to be technically better than the EA counterparts, but due to the lack of sales all are discontinued. In fact the only sports game I can think of that has survived the “licensing” deals by circumnavigating them is ISS (Pro Evolution soccer), how did they do this? By (besides having a technical good game) licensing UEFA content instead of FIFA  so that they have recognizable content for people. People will always buy more Sony over a “generic” brand even if they were made in the same factory and were of the same quality. It takes time to get that brand recognition, and it’s tough to stay afloat until that happens if you’re outgoings are higher than what’s coming in.    

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Aleksei-Kolesnikov/100001812312605 Aleksei Kolesnikov

    Anything essential doesn’t change from the moment of F1 2010. Skins, small elements of a body, pair of new tracks from a real calendar… Instead it was necessary to work over physical model, the controllability, an interesting mode of career. Hey, developers, on a screenshot with Petrov aren’t present advertizing “Russian helicopters” onboard, whether it is time to be accepted for F1 2013? )

  • Chris Allen

     Only reason CM would address this issue is to make more $, not because it would benefit us in any way.

  • http://racingrenders.com/ F1Racer

     Totally with you on that.  GTA IV is an amazing piece of software.  The details in that game defy belief.  I did run sluggish on a lot of peoples PC’s at first when it came out as I recall and people were putting it down to a bad port. But a couple of years on with more powerful PC’s it’s running real nice, and as you say, all the cool mods really make this game enjoyable even after you’ve long completed it.    Longevity !    GP4 still gets modded doesn’t it ?

  • http://twitter.com/StarFoXySxv550 StarFoXySxv550

    Well yeah, that’s the case for most businesses, you invest in the market that’s most likely to give you the best return. It’s not surprising CM don’t invest to heavily into the PC side, they know their game, know their market and the other games that reside in it. They probably ask whether the cost of developing a hugely different PC version to compete with rFactor is worth it every other day, obviously it isn’t or they would.

    Just as isi or simbin don’t develop for consoles (even though there are people asking for such a thing), I’m sure they have their reasons.

    As far as Rockstar goes, they are really an exception in the world of multiplat AAA devs, they also know they would take market share in that genre with GTA on all platforms, so it makes sense to invest and keep all those markets happy. They also live up to their name Rockstar in the way they bow to no-one and do things their way, in their own time.

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