Agh I don't get this one.
While codemasters first proper attempt at an F1 game sees them capture the atmosphere of the sport very well especially with the paddock main menu screen I cannot lie it was not enjoyable.
I think the biggest issue is that you can only start with the 3 new teams for 2010, HRT, Virgin and Lotus. These 3 teams were beyond awful, HRT could never trouble the top 18 let alone top 10, I'm pretty sure Virgin somehow managed to make a car that wasn't able to hold enough fuel to last the entire race and Lotus' biggest mistake was simply having a slow and terrible car.
These teams were good for the sport but in the game them being your only option makes the whole thing dull and the game never comes alive unless you are ready to put in the time and wait around for a couple of seasons of not being able to do much.
I didn't finish the career, gave up a couple of races in, wasn't enjoyable. In qualifying I could easily get into the top 10, putting together that flying lap eventually but in the races everything would go wrong every single time. It has the same issue F1 23 has somehow.
The racing most of the time is atrocious, in qualifying you're quick, in the races it's all about defending until a pit stop knocks you out of a top 10 finish, top 15, hell even a top 20 sometimes.
It's not that bad in F1 23, but here it is that bad. The pit stops ruin the experience, you can never really be the underdog getting the crutial point because when you enter the pit if another car or god forbit another few cars come in at the same time as you, you will 100% of the time have a 10+ sec pit stop, waiting around for cars to pass you and losing positions you can never get back. It's the Haas 2023 experience made into a whole game. So then you think fine I'll come in early and try to avoid other cars but then the cars terrible pace shows in the fact by the time a lap or 2 pass and they're coming in, they always come out way ahead of you. Seriously I couldn't believe my race in China where I was fighting with the big teams for a podium finish, come into the pit, come out 20th, and end up 15th. All that work for nothing and I had decent pace, made few mistakes, but they all were just way faster and there wasn't any point in trying anymore.
Lowering the difficulty only helped in qualifying really. I'll admit I was struggling with the handling and wasn't enjoying the very understeery feel of the cars. But fucking hell I wasn't doing that bad. In spain I was flying through the corners, it's a track I know I'm good at, I'm good at it in every racing game I've seen the track in...but that didn't stop me from fading away after the first pit stop. Yeah it's realistic but what isn't realistic is those 3 teams being the only choices, there's other teams that welcome rookies too, Force Indie, Williams, god damn Torro Rosso which exists specifically for rookies, Sauber even Mclaren if you want a top team example. I mean come on now.
I like the idea of only having a few teams to choose from at the start, simply taking the red bull and running away with it isn't that fun but its infinitely more fun than being in a Lotus, qualifying in the top 10 every race then finishing 18th every race.
There's certain liberties you have to take with video game adaptations of sports, one of which is that underdogs should be able to win, at least on lower difficulties (or the lowest ffs). Here it's a bit too hard.
The driving is also extremely punishing, touch a kurb and you'll be violently spinning around every time. Easy to avoid on certain tracks but others not so, especially when the racing line pretty much tells you to ride the fucking kerb which then sends you into the wall AGH it's annoying.
The racing line in this game might just be the worst I've ever seen, genuinely never thought that'd be something I'd complain about but it tells you to brake like a million miles away from when you actually need to brake. Tells you to take lines that might just send you in the wall (fucking kerbs). I'd rec you turn it off but unless you already know the circuits it's prb not worth it either. I went in all confident without the racing line in the Bahrain GP only to find out it's a different layout, into a spin I went, then in a wall...That one was on me though, back then that was the Bahrain GP layout. So that wasn't an annoyance, the real one was during the race when I spun out, hit a wall, wanted to use a flashback and it only took me as far as when I was JUST about to hit the wall...great.
Agh what else is there...so racing isn't fun, driving itself is a bit of a headache (hard and very understeery blegh), the artstyle is an atrocity to mankind, in a sport that goes all around the world to different countries and continents, having every single circuit look the same is an insult (360 generation grey artstyle always looked bad and here it's just as bad as in any other game). But the menu is good so...yeah not enough actually who could have guessed.
Codemasters games around this time never did it for me and this one isn't much of an exception. I could forgive a lot if the driving was at least fun but I wasn't enjoying this one. Maybe I didn't give it enough time but you'd think 7 hours into a racing game it'd have gotten better at some point.
Just let me drive a car that isn't a year off the pace for crying out loud.
While codemasters first proper attempt at an F1 game sees them capture the atmosphere of the sport very well especially with the paddock main menu screen I cannot lie it was not enjoyable.
I think the biggest issue is that you can only start with the 3 new teams for 2010, HRT, Virgin and Lotus. These 3 teams were beyond awful, HRT could never trouble the top 18 let alone top 10, I'm pretty sure Virgin somehow managed to make a car that wasn't able to hold enough fuel to last the entire race and Lotus' biggest mistake was simply having a slow and terrible car.
These teams were good for the sport but in the game them being your only option makes the whole thing dull and the game never comes alive unless you are ready to put in the time and wait around for a couple of seasons of not being able to do much.
I didn't finish the career, gave up a couple of races in, wasn't enjoyable. In qualifying I could easily get into the top 10, putting together that flying lap eventually but in the races everything would go wrong every single time. It has the same issue F1 23 has somehow.
The racing most of the time is atrocious, in qualifying you're quick, in the races it's all about defending until a pit stop knocks you out of a top 10 finish, top 15, hell even a top 20 sometimes.
It's not that bad in F1 23, but here it is that bad. The pit stops ruin the experience, you can never really be the underdog getting the crutial point because when you enter the pit if another car or god forbit another few cars come in at the same time as you, you will 100% of the time have a 10+ sec pit stop, waiting around for cars to pass you and losing positions you can never get back. It's the Haas 2023 experience made into a whole game. So then you think fine I'll come in early and try to avoid other cars but then the cars terrible pace shows in the fact by the time a lap or 2 pass and they're coming in, they always come out way ahead of you. Seriously I couldn't believe my race in China where I was fighting with the big teams for a podium finish, come into the pit, come out 20th, and end up 15th. All that work for nothing and I had decent pace, made few mistakes, but they all were just way faster and there wasn't any point in trying anymore.
Lowering the difficulty only helped in qualifying really. I'll admit I was struggling with the handling and wasn't enjoying the very understeery feel of the cars. But fucking hell I wasn't doing that bad. In spain I was flying through the corners, it's a track I know I'm good at, I'm good at it in every racing game I've seen the track in...but that didn't stop me from fading away after the first pit stop. Yeah it's realistic but what isn't realistic is those 3 teams being the only choices, there's other teams that welcome rookies too, Force Indie, Williams, god damn Torro Rosso which exists specifically for rookies, Sauber even Mclaren if you want a top team example. I mean come on now.
I like the idea of only having a few teams to choose from at the start, simply taking the red bull and running away with it isn't that fun but its infinitely more fun than being in a Lotus, qualifying in the top 10 every race then finishing 18th every race.
There's certain liberties you have to take with video game adaptations of sports, one of which is that underdogs should be able to win, at least on lower difficulties (or the lowest ffs). Here it's a bit too hard.
The driving is also extremely punishing, touch a kurb and you'll be violently spinning around every time. Easy to avoid on certain tracks but others not so, especially when the racing line pretty much tells you to ride the fucking kerb which then sends you into the wall AGH it's annoying.
The racing line in this game might just be the worst I've ever seen, genuinely never thought that'd be something I'd complain about but it tells you to brake like a million miles away from when you actually need to brake. Tells you to take lines that might just send you in the wall (fucking kerbs). I'd rec you turn it off but unless you already know the circuits it's prb not worth it either. I went in all confident without the racing line in the Bahrain GP only to find out it's a different layout, into a spin I went, then in a wall...That one was on me though, back then that was the Bahrain GP layout. So that wasn't an annoyance, the real one was during the race when I spun out, hit a wall, wanted to use a flashback and it only took me as far as when I was JUST about to hit the wall...great.
Agh what else is there...so racing isn't fun, driving itself is a bit of a headache (hard and very understeery blegh), the artstyle is an atrocity to mankind, in a sport that goes all around the world to different countries and continents, having every single circuit look the same is an insult (360 generation grey artstyle always looked bad and here it's just as bad as in any other game). But the menu is good so...yeah not enough actually who could have guessed.
Codemasters games around this time never did it for me and this one isn't much of an exception. I could forgive a lot if the driving was at least fun but I wasn't enjoying this one. Maybe I didn't give it enough time but you'd think 7 hours into a racing game it'd have gotten better at some point.
Just let me drive a car that isn't a year off the pace for crying out loud.