Be Excellent To Each Other

The more I read about this the more excited I am. Could well be my game of the year if they don't fuck it up.

side by side game and real footage:

http://www.eurogamer.net/videos/f1-2010-vs-real-life

Hmm.
F1 games have, IMO, never been very good, basically because they need to attempt to be realistic, but I can't drive an F1 car, so it has to have assists for everything.

The last one I played steered for me, I think.

I want this now.

I think you can get used to it. Without having to contend with all the real life forces and the fact that crashing is both dangerous and a total disaster I reckon most race sim fans can learn to drive a simulated F1 car to within a few seconds per lap of what an F1 driver could manage. Certainly many F1 drivers race online all the time and find competition there. Driving the F3000s in Race Pro is probably my favourite bit of any driving game ever, I know they aren't as quick as an F1 car but that game is meant to be a reasonable simulation and it's pretty manageable.

F1GP on the Amiga was superb. But every F1 game since has produced diminishing returns even though graphics have improved.

Having assists isn't as daft as it sounds. A real F1 driver can feel the car moving and can judge things alot better than you can in a game. On F1GP it was quite possible to drive with braking control and a number of other assists off. Traction control was advised as with the analogue sticks you were either on full acceleration or not applying throttle at all. Manual gear changes were difficult as you didn't really have enough buttons to play with.

[edit] We haven't done a Forza night for ages.

I've no doubt it's because I'm a ham-fisted, butter-fingered, useless old bastard, but the F1 demo I played on my PS3 a while back was seriously frustrating. Like Grim... said, it was a case of umpteen assists etc., to such an extent where there was little point in playing the bloody thing at all.

Don't get me wrong here; I've no doubt it's all very impressive and realistic, technically speaking. But it just makes for a frustrating, dull, brick hard and pointless game IMO?

(I can't be that useless anyway; managed to get pretty respectable on the likes of NFS: Shift before getting bored with it; fully completed with Level 50 & all standard races done, and Ridge Racer 7 come to that - ranked 2000th best out of 400,000 players lol. Give me a good, old fashioned arcade, or at least semi arcade racer anyday).

I'm guessing the cars had no soul, eh?

I just love wings and slicks type racing games, twitchy cars with lots of grip just feel faster to me than some big wallowy power-sliding saloon car even if it is driving through an exploding petrol station or some bollocks. Burnout or Split Second or the New NFS or any one of the other several dozen me-too arcade racers that seem to keep plopping out just don't interest me at all. If this has fun handling then I'll probably be quite happy sitting there for entire afternoons just trying to better my own lap times.

It's not you, that game was shit

Heh.

Oh, entirely fair do's Mark. Horses for courses and all that, I guess - I'm a bit of a tart when it comes to games, I need an instant hit or I'm not interested.

To be fair though, NFS: Shift was purely racing; I've not played any of the other variants.

Ah right, well that's reassuring mate - I just assumed I was really useless. Of course, I don't expect to master a game (or anything like it) after just a few plays, but F1 just seemed to be ridiculously hard to play even remotely competitively with damage 'on' and even some disabled driving aids, yet really sucked at being an arcade game when all the aids etc. were left on. There was nothing left for me to do.

(Incidentally, I didn't like GRID either, but people around here insist that I'm like totally wrong etc.).

Quite interested in this, though I doubt it'll be a day-one purchase due to funds.

Also, that side-by-side video is incredible.

I like racing games to be challenging and immediately turn all assists off. When I got Richard Burns Rally for the PS2 years ago I spent the first week thinking it was totally unplayable, but realised after a while you had to slow down miles before bends and use weight shift and 'left foot' braking to induce oversteer and be far more subtle on the controls than any other rally game. The car modelling on that game was the most realistic on any console game I think.

If Codemasters manage to get the same gritty and eye-bleedingly fast feeling to F1 that GRID had it should be good. They've always had a good record with driving games, though I think with DIRT and FUEL they've had to get too gimmicky so Americans will buy them.

I've just got Forza and am enjoying the new production class online mode where everyone has identical cars with no tuning options. Apparently driving with the assists off is faster. Which is nice. I'm currently trying to get to grips with using the manual clutch.

If you have a look at the hot lap leaderboards you'll see a mixture, some cars seem faster using ABS but then in many cases the cars they are simulating use all manner of electronics to go quickly. I think it's actually a good thing that assists seem to offer a fairly neutral benefit as it means that when racing online people are free to use whatever they like.

You should get a copy of Race Pro if you enjoy challenging but precise handling models. It's made by SimBin and derived from the very well regarded GTR PC racing sims. See if you can beat mine and Wullie's times around Brands Hatch in the Formula BMWs.

Forza-related:

I think I've missed the boat with Race Pro. I'm only really interested in online racing and I don't think many people play it any more. Forza still has a good following.

Regarding manual clutch, I just use a standard controller. Clutch is on the left bumper, so upshifting is easy. Downshifting and braking (LT) at the same time is slightly more tricky. Especially due to having to modulate the brakes with no ABS. With many of the production cars having very long gear ratios though, you only have to change gear 3 or 4 times a lap with some cars. I believe that no ABS on Forza give you 25% more braking power albeit with the risk of locking up. Manual clutch does seem to give a good advantage off the line, which I almost inevitably lose fairly soon due to rookie mistakes.

Monza today. Mclaren looking good.

What's that got to do with the upcoming Codemasters game?

Nothing.

Just seen them playing this before the gp.

Will buy.

Looked like they had a fair few assists on in deference to Jakey boy but looked like a proper laugh - they need some kind of more gentlemanly racing club though I reckon.

Certainly, the realism didn't appear to be at all high on the preview. It I wasn't sure that there were things such as damage and reasons not to cut the chicane, I'd be rather disappointed.

I have now pre ordered this from amazon. I really cannot wait to zoom around places.

You really need to stop using that lag switch.

Hamilton's blown it, hasn't he?

Wrong thread.

That was a joke?

Looks like the EGO engine is in full effect.

I love the way if you accel too hard you can hear the back wheels going bonkers

Deffo be getting this. If Grid and Dirt 2 were anything to go by it's an essential

Have you not met me? They're all that bad.

http://uk.xbox360.ign.com/articles/112/1120745p1.html

Seems to be getting eights and nines from most places that have reviewed it and the gripes seem to mostly be stuff I don't much care about and not related to the handling or anything else that really matters.

Not long to go now.

Interesting to see Heidfeld back. Soon F1 is going to be purely a German national sport.

But... That's not on the radio!

(Supercleekjoke)

Oh! I get Grim...'s joke now.

It appears that during a momentary lapse in motor control I fell upon the shopto.net one-click ordering button for this.

I really want this.

But I think I want Civ5 more.

I'm tempted massively. I'm skint though, and DEAD RISING 2 is out the same day. I'll venture up to Tesco on Friday and see how much it is, if it's at the £30 mark I'm in! The last F1 game I enjoyed was that awesome one on the N64.

edit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-1_World_Grand_Prix

I actually bought it in France on a school trip. Spunked my spending money which my parents had given me and had to scrounge food and stuff off my mates

I will certainly buy this. The only question is whether to buy it on Friday, just to play it that night, or wait until I'm back off hols. I doubt common sense and cashflow will win this game.

I saw a telly advert for this yesterday. It made me all excited.
How good are amazon at getting preorders out ontime?

Dunno about Amazon but apparently Shopto often send them out early. I've ordered it from them, anyway.

I also really want that. My wallet doesn't like Friday.

Can the Hivemind make its mind up about DR2 please? Thanks.

The Hivemind, as usual, is conflicted. Some like it, some don't. You might, dare I say it, have to make up your own mind on this one!

It was 35 on amazon when I ordered... probably not the best price out there but as long as it gets here on the day I'll be happy

Indeed, has there been a ssingle game played by many that all liked?

I've not heard anyone on here who has played Minecraft start slagging it off yet.

I don't think so! People enjoy the "call Zardoz names" game, but that doesn't really count I'm told.

The graphics are SHIT!