After the debacle of last year’s F1 game, the first time that Sony released F1 on multiple platforms, the developers Codemasters were back to the drawing boards. Creating an F1 game that can be faithful to real life and the laws of physics and still be appealing to the general videogamer is an onerous task and that explains why the game has been in development for well over two years.
Now, that’s definitely a long time for any racing game, unless we are talking about that Holy Grail of simulation racing, the venerable Gran Turismo 5. For starters, the graphics are simply one of the best you can see in racing games of any ilk. From the cockpit, all you can focus on is the scenery and the grandstands whizzing by in a blur, but ask your disgruntled girlfriend standing behind you and she will easily attest to the fact that it rivals whatever she saw in James Cameron’s ‘Avatar’ last December.
The weather system is beautifully re-created – most-used sections of the racetrack dry up faster than the rest and the grip on various points differs according to their exposure to the elements. As in real life, research is an integral part of F1 2010 and, rest assured, you are going to have a hard time levelling up to your team-mate and vying for the coveted slot of the No 1 driver.
Codemasters have bundled all the teams and tracks (including the Korean track) from the F1 season into the game and you have to work your way up from the bottom in Career mode. You can tweak and modify every aspect of your car from aerodynamics to engine settings and most of the time they result in considerable differences in your lap timings.
Then there is the gameplay that is in another league altogether. This is undoubtedly the first proper simulator that places as much emphasis on the player as on physics. Case in point – the post-race press conferences, where the media attention on you varies depending your race performance and what team you are racing for.
F1 2010 is the first multi-platform Formula 1 game in high definition and the developers went to painstaking detail to iron out all the bugs that had detracted gamers from the original. As such, it is undeniably the most comprehensive and well-rounded F1 game ever made.
F1 2010 comes not only with all the bells and whistles of the definitive racing games, it adds a few other innovations of its own. At the press launch, Codemasters went so far as to claim that this will be the greatest F1 game ever seen. And now, after having played it until we developed carpal tunnel syndromes and recurring headaches, we can safely say that it was no mere boasting on their part. This is the new benchmark by which all future F1 games will be judged.
NEED TO KNOW
MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
l Windows XP/Vista/7
l DirectX 9.0c Compatible Sound Card
l Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.4GHz or Athlon X2
l 1GB RAM (2GB for Vista)
l Graphics Card: GeForce 7800 / Radeon X1800 or above
l 12.5 GB Hard Drive Space
Developer: Codemasters
Indian Distributors: Zapak Digital Entertainment
Platform: Windows, XBOX 360, PS 3
MRP Rs. 999/-
