F1 2011 Sounds a little meager (at least for SP) right now

[Helmut Skrdla]

I'll make no mystery of it: I'm deeply disappointed in Codemasters in the way they left critical bugs unfixed last year, bugs they introduced with their own patch even. So I'm critical of them and will not provide them the benefit of doubt.

Despite that, I am halfway interested in F1 2011 because the rule changes (at least in real life) seem to make for much more exciting racing.

But, from all I gather online right now, speaking about the SP game (don't care about MP):

*No Telemetry again
*Safety Car a *maybe* but two months pre-release it hasn't been confirmed, that does not sound good.
*Spectator mode only for online races, again offline replays restricted to own car
*Again no way to watch other cars during qualy and practice

These are features that were missing in 2010, back then the excuse was that it was their first effort at an F1 title and didn't make it in time. Now we are hearing the same excuses.

What we seem to be getting for 45EUR sounds rather meager:

*Supposedly better handling (which wasn't so terrible bad in first one for me)
*Supposedly better AI
*Mechanical Failures
*Current Liveries and Car models
*DRS, KERS and of course Pirelli tyres.

I refuse to count the supposedly fixed AI Tyre and Fuel sim and the new race engineer as "marketable improvements", these should have been fixed in 2010 already and certainly are not "new features" worth new money this year. In fact I'm appealed at the cheekiness of Codies to hype these fixes they couldn't be arsed to provide for 2010 paying customers as "new features".

I simple can't see the major improvements that would be worth the 45EUR. Especially seeing that modders took care of the season update for 2011, only thing they can't do for free is KERS and DRS.

I'm curious, for the people who are already preordering it - what is your incentive to trust Codemasters with your money, especially seeing how they never fixed the serious PC bugs from last year's patch 1.01? What are you seeing in this title that I ain't?

 

[Andrew Shepherd]

Anyway, if they went with a single game every two years, I might be bothered to check it out. I'm not an F1 and open wheeler fan, so it's not a game for me anyway.
Put out a decent game, work on a sequel. Next year add new season's liveries and tracks as DLC, keep working on the sequel. Two years after the first one, publish the next one.
I really don't see the point in putting out a new one every year, except grabbing more money. But there's not much in it for the consumer.

Oh yeah thats good releasing f1 2011 in Spring 2012 isn't it.hmmmmm

 

[Chris Butcher]

Oh yeah thats good releasing f1 2011 in Spring 2012 isn't it.hmmmmm

Wouldn't you rather have a game that was better to play, rather than F12010 with new cars?

 

[orion2001]

Wouldn't you rather have a game that was better to play, rather than F12010 with new cars?

Sure, but what leads you to believe that F1-2011 is F1-2010 with new cars? They've certainly done a lot in the span of less than a year apart from the track+livery updates. Maybe not all the things everyone wishes to have, but there certainly seems to be a good bit of new stuff in there. I guess if you don't like the feature set you can just wait till a later release from them that has the features you really want. Either ways you would have waited a couple of years

PS - And if you just want F1-2010 with new cars, there is already a mod out for that. We'll see how many people are playing that instead of F1-2011 once it is released.

 

[Senad Subasic]

PS - And if you just want F1-2010 with new cars, there is already a mod out for that. We'll see how many people are playing that instead of F1-2011 once it is released.

Well, that is one of the issues I have with a yearly schedule. You get a game whose multiplayer will be dead as soon as the next one is out.

 

[Skazz]

I bought F1 2010 very late in the cycle (Steam sale 2 weeks ago for €10) and have found it, even in the current supposedly bugged state to be a very enjoyable way to spend the time. Of course it's a semi-sim, but it still offers very responsive steering input (with my G25 on my PC), excellent graphics, well done tracks, and a lot of immersion factor. And what it offers which is unique is a single player racing game where the whole tactical game of tyres, pitstops, weather and battling the AI is brought together nicely.

In terms of successor, clearly they have a lot to build on and the next stage is more realism in the driving model. By the sound of the previews Codemasters have made major strides in the feel of grip and car balance. That alone would be worth the price of admission. I'm seriously considering a release day purchase (something I did with DiRT 2/3 but not with F1 2010) on the basis of my experiences with F1 2010 in the current patched form and the previews.

 

[reedy65]

yeah too right!! im so revved up for this one i just bought myself a Buttkicker!! anyone here got one whats it like????

 

[Nick Brooke]

You forget that Grid was the same as F1 2010 in that very bad bugs were just left in game and after release they did not exactly go to town on tryng to fix them. This is Cm and the way they work, Yeah F1 2010 is a great game and even with the bugs was worth the money but what does put alot of people off is CMs inability or desire to fix the mess they cause. I will get 2011 no doubt about it but it does not stop me from being very mindful of what potentialy lies ahead.

A little secret for you on how bad CMs bug fix team can be, when grid was out i was asked to take my rig down to their HQ so they could sort out the bugs that effected multi core processors and the wheel i was using at that time. It spent two days there and they had not even managed to get it hooked up to their server. I mean come on they should at least be able to get a pc running the most up to date windows platform onto a server of their own.

Needless to say i felt then anything they put out doesnt stand a chance of getting fixed

 

[Leonardo Chaves]

It's the way sports franchises work, gameplay tweaks, slight graphic improvement, new rosters...
In fact given how raw and bugged F1 2010 was, i expect a bigger improvement than we will see in the coming years.

If this annoys you, download the 2011 mod from this site, and buy the game every 2 years.