I've finally gotten around to testing this new release from Codemasters, I had been waiting anxiously for it to come out. As an F1 racing fanatic, it's obvious that the first F1 game of note to come in almost a decade is quite an event.
Sadly I was mildly disapponted; If the on track racing and graphics are monumental, the game is cluttered by race engineers, agents and other paddock mickmocks that are clearly meant for 8 year olds to enjoy.
I wanted to jump right in, qualify, then race.
DENIED!
You must first waste 10 minutes listening to your agent (Giselle, or Danielle or Dominique, some French broad, I forget her name) go on and on about how you can use her laptop to view contracts etc.
RUBBISH I SAY!
All that could've been handled by a nice graph within the options screen. Why oh why can't we skip this?
It's the EXACT same menu system used in Dirt 2, with different graphics and in a different setting.
The point of a racing game, I would expect, is to get out on the track and race.
The actual racing is quite fun, with pit stops, best lines, the 2010 rules are 100% implemented and even if I think the race officials are a bit stiff when it comes to putting a couple wheels off the track (getting penalised for cutting corners, etc), I have to come to terms with the fact that in real F1, this is the way it is.
I enjoyed the game but please, in the inevitable first patch, adding the possibility to press like CTRL-S to skip all the menu chitchat would be awesome.
Also, a fair warning, it's a Windows Live game, which fundamentally sucks.
I give it 74% as a score, it has the potential to score higher but sadly, the menus implementation and lack of saving capabilities unless you're connected to a Windows Live account, is a sad, sad thing...
In conclusion, F1 2010 by Codemasters is an excellent F1 racing game, plagued by an obscenely time wasting menu system, and an atrocious saving method.
Tested on Core2Quad @ 3.00ghz, nVidia 8800GT 512Mb, 4Gb RAM, Momo Logitech F1 Force steering wheel.
