Great review!
Hopefully they will fix the stupid securom issues as one of the first priorities.
Also, we'll see what the patch does to the game, hopefully reduces the amount of bugs at least.:)
No mention of the ridiculous penalty system? My favourite was when i spun out in first place, rejoined in third then got two 10 second penalties for "multiple illegal overtakes". Or the time i came out of the pits in Monaco the car is still under the AI control and it immediately collides with another car and i get a 10 second penalty for causing a collision with a car i'm not controlling.
When the game is good its sublime, the feeling of stringing a series of difficult corners together, hitting the apexes perfectly and seeing the sector times go green is immense. This is countered by huge levels of frustration at stupid design decisions/omissions, badly implemented features and penalties that just do not seem fair.
They really havn't put enough into the pit bay area. One glaring ommisson I would really want is on your TV set ontop of the car, I would like to see TV coverage, and also a track placement map, the last thing I want to do for a qualifying lap is start behind traffic
I haven't bought an F1 game since F1 97. Never really seen the point as many lacked "features" or where just so poor! This one has interested me and racing games is something I would get eyefinity for but I would far rather get an F1 game cause its close to simulation than arcade racing. Your review hasn't helped much, seems it sits close to what I want but misses the mark.
You forgot that fuel simulation doesn't apply to the AI. The frame rate issues where people with i5/7s and 460s are getting 20 FPS yet people with 8600s are getting playable frame rates. I get about 25 on my machine which can handle Grid and Dirt 2 with ease.
I finished as World Champion in my first season (on Medium), but this game is extremely annoying. A fellow racer will hit you from behind and you are given a penalty. You are clearly a faster driver, but then you reach a corner, the AI slows down, and as you try to get past, the AI seemingly blocks you, by putting the brakes on and guess what -- penalty.
In addition, the graphics of this game are very poor, considering Dirt 2's graphics engine. I turned all the settings to Ultra with 8xMSAA, and it still looks underwhelming. Direct x9 is turned by default, and when tweaked to run in DX11, there are artifacts all over the screen.
The only positive for me is that I haven't experience a frame rate hit.
I was hoping for a demo beforehand, but didn't happen. I rarely buy games before playing a demo, but with Codemasters stubborness, we had no choice.
Originally Posted by Kris Great review!
Hopefully they will fix the stupid securom issues as one of the first priorities.
Also, we'll see what the patch does to the game, hopefully reduces the amount of bugs at least.:)
I beg to differ. No mention of force feedback when using a steering wheel? Or other problems facing the game:
-Tyre punctures/wear occur far too fast/frequent
-AI blue flag issue, they get disqualified
-AI Fuel: AI qualifying slower then race start
-AI erratic swerving (in race when heating tyres isnt necessary)
-Sound delay on shifting
-Sector 3 times don't stay up, you can't ever see your sector 3
-Loading a setup sometimes doesn't put the correct amount of fuel in the car
-AI drivers not pitting at all in a race.
-Tyre availability bug in practice sessions, e.g., no Primes available in P2 image
-Racing on slicks on wet has no effect on reduced grip
-When member of private lobby loses his of her connection it is not possible to re-invite him/her for the next race
-Between the races there is no returning to lobby. This would be very appreciated because when running longer sessions, sometimes people would like to take a break and members that lost connection can be reinvited
And DESPITE all the errors raised in the review, it still gets an 8 out of 10? 8 out of 10 should be for near perfection. It's a pretty useless rating system if you're only ever going to use the top few numbers.
I think the game has got a lot of bad press for all the bugs etc.. I wont deny they're there, but most are easily worked around and once you ignore them the game is truely epic.
After hearing nothing but complaints from several of my F1 obsessed friends with respect to this game, I decided that it'd be easier to find an old copy of Geoff Crammonds Grand Prix 4 and play that instead. I couldn't care less for up to date rosters, etc...
Having lurked around the Codemasters forums for a bit, the minor bugs would be enough to make me want to stop playing... the rubber-banding fake-AI would be the straw that broke the camels back.
I'll maybe pick this up on Steam when it's a fiver and has had a couple of patches.
I just stopped playing because I can't get a good setup for the Catalunya GP... I'm always 2 sec slower than the bots... And in the race, if they touch me, I get a 10sec penalty... :(
Got this game on my GF pc, with a E5200, 2gb DDR2 800, GTS250 and I have everything on Low, at 1280x1024... How can it be? It hogs alot of performance...
Its not for me though, I hate driving simulators -I have a real car! For me games should be about fun and being able to do things that are not normally possible. Quite enjoying motorstorm at the moment :)
Originally Posted by Teknokid Catalunya I Was miles off the pace as well, despite thrashing the car.
In the end I parked the car in the wall and moved onto monaco.. and my god is monaco good (look at my vid above).
Nice vid... Didn't try it yet on my HD5870 to see how the graphics are... U race very well... I'm going to destroy my car in Catalunya, just to try this GP, it seems awesome...
It bugs me that you can't watch the race if you crash out online. You have to sit there for the remaining laps looking at a empty scoreboard with next to no interesting information on it.
-Tyre punctures/wear occur far too fast/frequent
-AI blue flag issue, they get disqualified
-AI Fuel: AI qualifying slower then race start
-AI erratic swerving (in race when heating tyres isnt necessary)
-Sound delay on shifting
-Sector 3 times don't stay up, you can't ever see your sector 3
-Loading a setup sometimes doesn't put the correct amount of fuel in the car
-AI drivers not pitting at all in a race.
-Tyre availability bug in practice sessions, e.g., no Primes available in P2 image
-Racing on slicks on wet has no effect on reduced grip
-When member of private lobby loses his of her connection it is not possible to re-invite him/her for the next race
-Between the races there is no returning to lobby. This would be very appreciated because when running longer sessions, sometimes people would like to take a break and members that lost connection can be reinvited
.
Theres also the sometimes apalling throttle lag.
It's pretty much Dirt 2, in F1 cars with lots of annoying bugs.
And DESPITE all the errors raised in the review, it still gets an 8 out of 10? 8 out of 10 should be for near perfection. It's a pretty useless rating system if you're only ever going to use the top few numbers.
You're right, the score does seem a litle high if the bugs are as game breaking as they've been made out to be.
On the other hand, if the reviewer didn't find them game breaking, then it looks like it's worthy of the score.
Plus, Bit-Tech is one website you can't accuse of only using the top few scores. I saw a 3 on here not that long ago.
Comments 1 to 25 of 61
ReplyHopefully they will fix the stupid securom issues as one of the first priorities.
Also, we'll see what the patch does to the game, hopefully reduces the amount of bugs at least.:)
When the game is good its sublime, the feeling of stringing a series of difficult corners together, hitting the apexes perfectly and seeing the sector times go green is immense. This is countered by huge levels of frustration at stupid design decisions/omissions, badly implemented features and penalties that just do not seem fair.
Force india have a great couple of seasons!
In addition, the graphics of this game are very poor, considering Dirt 2's graphics engine. I turned all the settings to Ultra with 8xMSAA, and it still looks underwhelming. Direct x9 is turned by default, and when tweaked to run in DX11, there are artifacts all over the screen.
The only positive for me is that I haven't experience a frame rate hit.
I was hoping for a demo beforehand, but didn't happen. I rarely buy games before playing a demo, but with Codemasters stubborness, we had no choice.
I beg to differ. No mention of force feedback when using a steering wheel? Or other problems facing the game:
-Tyre punctures/wear occur far too fast/frequent
-AI blue flag issue, they get disqualified
-AI Fuel: AI qualifying slower then race start
-AI erratic swerving (in race when heating tyres isnt necessary)
-Sound delay on shifting
-Sector 3 times don't stay up, you can't ever see your sector 3
-Loading a setup sometimes doesn't put the correct amount of fuel in the car
-AI drivers not pitting at all in a race.
-Tyre availability bug in practice sessions, e.g., no Primes available in P2 image
-Racing on slicks on wet has no effect on reduced grip
-When member of private lobby loses his of her connection it is not possible to re-invite him/her for the next race
-Between the races there is no returning to lobby. This would be very appreciated because when running longer sessions, sometimes people would like to take a break and members that lost connection can be reinvited
And DESPITE all the errors raised in the review, it still gets an 8 out of 10? 8 out of 10 should be for near perfection. It's a pretty useless rating system if you're only ever going to use the top few numbers.
I think the game has got a lot of bad press for all the bugs etc.. I wont deny they're there, but most are easily worked around and once you ignore them the game is truely epic.
Works quite well with eyefinity too, here's a little lap of monaco I did earlier:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uU4KxTg0JWI
Having lurked around the Codemasters forums for a bit, the minor bugs would be enough to make me want to stop playing... the rubber-banding fake-AI would be the straw that broke the camels back.
I'll maybe pick this up on Steam when it's a fiver and has had a couple of patches.
Got this game on my GF pc, with a E5200, 2gb DDR2 800, GTS250 and I have everything on Low, at 1280x1024... How can it be? It hogs alot of performance...
In the end I parked the car in the wall and moved onto monaco.. and my god is monaco good (look at my vid above).
(although I'm pretty sure you could view the laps of AI cars in that...)
Its not for me though, I hate driving simulators -I have a real car! For me games should be about fun and being able to do things that are not normally possible. Quite enjoying motorstorm at the moment :)
Nice vid... Didn't try it yet on my HD5870 to see how the graphics are... U race very well... I'm going to destroy my car in Catalunya, just to try this GP, it seems awesome...
After being used to the driving style of Dirt2 & GRiD this F1 racing is going to take some getting used to!
Theres also the sometimes apalling throttle lag.
It's pretty much Dirt 2, in F1 cars with lots of annoying bugs.
Bring back F1 GP4
Does this mean we will be getting more unofficial PC Zone reviews? :)
PC what? :o
PC Zone, you know, that PC magazine that was so, so influential (according to the BBC, at least) yet somehow didn't manage to stay in business?
You're right, the score does seem a litle high if the bugs are as game breaking as they've been made out to be.
On the other hand, if the reviewer didn't find them game breaking, then it looks like it's worthy of the score.
Plus, Bit-Tech is one website you can't accuse of only using the top few scores. I saw a 3 on here not that long ago.
-
« Previous
-
1
-
2
-
3
-
Next »
Discuss in the forums