If your answer would always be "the driving" then I hate to say it but you should probably buy something else.
Initial impressions...
No feedback from the car, no feeling of driving a car, no loss of traction, no oversteer, no locking brakes and no sense of what the car is doing. That's because the car isn't doing anything, just going around on rails. It might as well not be a car - just a floating camera that you control left and right with the wheel.
Obviously all aids are turned off yes, but you'd really think they weren't. You can only change these settings while on track (by pressing ESC) - you don't seem to be able to change them from the main menus.
The main problem with the game is that once again (like Grid and other Codemasters games before it) you don't feel as though you're driving a car - it simply doesn't feel like something with 4 wheels connected to the track, it just feels like you're steering a first person shooter around a track with a steering wheel. Maybe that's a slight exaggeration but it's not far off - I drive in real life, and games like GTR2 and rFactor give me the feeling of driving a car due to the characteristics and behaviour on track. In F1 2010 it doesn't feel like a car - it doesn't feel like anything. The force feedback is also completely lacking - apart from vibrating over the curbs it doesn't give you any sense of what the car is doing (I'm using the G25 wheel and pedals).
I don't know... maybe to some people it won't feel this bad. I've read lots of mixed comments on forums whilst waiting for the game - some said it wasn't great but there were also comments from sim racers who said it wasn't too bad, comparing it to an rFactor F1 mod but with slightly more grip. In my opinion that is an insult to rFactor. This thing feels nothing like it.
There are some bugs (apparently). Pit control is very messy and limited, and the engine seems to jump to the rev limit too fast while driving, and there is a bug where you have to change the sound setting to 'software' mode (instead of 'Rapture') otherwise you get lag when shifting gears. To be honest though none of these bugs matter - the driving is the most important part of any racing game and the handling in F1 2010 is simply not right at all. I didn't like NFS Shift very much due to it's slightly lacking physics but it's a much better driving game than F1 2010.
As a test I tried some car setup adjustments - I chose the HRT (should be a handful?), then I put minimum rear wing and max front wing, harder rear springs and ARB - I did everything I could to create an oversteering mess, but when I got onto the track I could barely tell the difference. I still couldn't spin the car with full throttle on the exit of tight 2nd gear corners. I tried the same thing in the rain and although you can spin in the rain it is still very easy to drive (far too much grip) and you have to be stupidly aggressive with the throttle and steering to get it to happen.
I hate to say these things because I really wanted this game to be good - not for it to be a sim but simply to be fun to drive. Unfortunately driving it is just making me angry - knowing how much better it should have been... how much better they said it was going to be.
I can't see myself ever playing it again. Yes there were realism mods to improve the physics in Shift but this game feels so 'wrong' to start with I really don't think they could fix it. I'm starting to believe Codemasters just haven't got a clue about creating a good phyisics model for a driving game. It's easy to turn a full blown sim into a forgiving and fun to play driving game just by putting in some driving aids, so surely if they had the talent that's what they would do - develop a great physics engine and then create lots of aids for those who want it to be easier (it would still feel like a car!). What they've done here is create a total mess of a physics engine and then added pointless aids and car setup options to make people think there's more going on underneath.
I feel gutted and angry that I wasted £30 on this game, but more than anything I just feel sad. I feel sad when I think back to some of the things the developers said leading up to the release of this game, and also the statements from Anthony Davidson. They really sold it to me... I guess they got what they wanted.
Initial impressions...
No feedback from the car, no feeling of driving a car, no loss of traction, no oversteer, no locking brakes and no sense of what the car is doing. That's because the car isn't doing anything, just going around on rails. It might as well not be a car - just a floating camera that you control left and right with the wheel.
Obviously all aids are turned off yes, but you'd really think they weren't. You can only change these settings while on track (by pressing ESC) - you don't seem to be able to change them from the main menus.
The main problem with the game is that once again (like Grid and other Codemasters games before it) you don't feel as though you're driving a car - it simply doesn't feel like something with 4 wheels connected to the track, it just feels like you're steering a first person shooter around a track with a steering wheel. Maybe that's a slight exaggeration but it's not far off - I drive in real life, and games like GTR2 and rFactor give me the feeling of driving a car due to the characteristics and behaviour on track. In F1 2010 it doesn't feel like a car - it doesn't feel like anything. The force feedback is also completely lacking - apart from vibrating over the curbs it doesn't give you any sense of what the car is doing (I'm using the G25 wheel and pedals).
I don't know... maybe to some people it won't feel this bad. I've read lots of mixed comments on forums whilst waiting for the game - some said it wasn't great but there were also comments from sim racers who said it wasn't too bad, comparing it to an rFactor F1 mod but with slightly more grip. In my opinion that is an insult to rFactor. This thing feels nothing like it.
There are some bugs (apparently). Pit control is very messy and limited, and the engine seems to jump to the rev limit too fast while driving, and there is a bug where you have to change the sound setting to 'software' mode (instead of 'Rapture') otherwise you get lag when shifting gears. To be honest though none of these bugs matter - the driving is the most important part of any racing game and the handling in F1 2010 is simply not right at all. I didn't like NFS Shift very much due to it's slightly lacking physics but it's a much better driving game than F1 2010.
As a test I tried some car setup adjustments - I chose the HRT (should be a handful?), then I put minimum rear wing and max front wing, harder rear springs and ARB - I did everything I could to create an oversteering mess, but when I got onto the track I could barely tell the difference. I still couldn't spin the car with full throttle on the exit of tight 2nd gear corners. I tried the same thing in the rain and although you can spin in the rain it is still very easy to drive (far too much grip) and you have to be stupidly aggressive with the throttle and steering to get it to happen.
I hate to say these things because I really wanted this game to be good - not for it to be a sim but simply to be fun to drive. Unfortunately driving it is just making me angry - knowing how much better it should have been... how much better they said it was going to be.
I can't see myself ever playing it again. Yes there were realism mods to improve the physics in Shift but this game feels so 'wrong' to start with I really don't think they could fix it. I'm starting to believe Codemasters just haven't got a clue about creating a good phyisics model for a driving game. It's easy to turn a full blown sim into a forgiving and fun to play driving game just by putting in some driving aids, so surely if they had the talent that's what they would do - develop a great physics engine and then create lots of aids for those who want it to be easier (it would still feel like a car!). What they've done here is create a total mess of a physics engine and then added pointless aids and car setup options to make people think there's more going on underneath.
I feel gutted and angry that I wasted £30 on this game, but more than anything I just feel sad. I feel sad when I think back to some of the things the developers said leading up to the release of this game, and also the statements from Anthony Davidson. They really sold it to me... I guess they got what they wanted.