I know Civ V is out today too, but today is also the release day for F1 2010 from codemasters (the guys who brought us Dirt 2)!
I’ve got it pre-loaded on both my main PC and my HTPC. Anyone else picking this baby up? I think it’s great timing what with the season being so interesting right now.
I’m still debating which I should fire up first: civ or F1… Hmmmm.
Common peoples! It’s F1! It’s a racing game featuring the fastest sport! No one is going to play this game? 
I haven’t seen it, but having played other racing games, I wonder: how insane are the reflex requirements? My personal guess is “very”.
Yeah, it’s pretty tough. On Dirt 2 I consistently score in the top 3 in hardcore difficulty. I’m on easy and I just ran a 15 lap course and came in last about a lap and a half behind everyone else.
Was fun though! and I can only get better 
Also I was playing with my game pad. This game really begs for the wheel. Gonna bring that sucker out.
I’d be interested to know what racing games you’ve played. My experience with racing games, at least sim type racing games, is that reflexes aren’t nearly as important as knowing the track, knowing your braking markers, being able to work out a good racing line and then consistently drive it, and knowing how to adjust your line and braking markers to compensate for going off line when you pass another car. It requires coordination yes, but not so much in the way of reflexes.
Having finally played F1 2010 (it sat at home unopened while I was away working for two weeks :(), I can add to the above the need to compensate for changing fuel loads and grip levels as the race progresses.
My thoughts on the game are that it’s very cool. I’ve only run the first three races in the career section, one on “hard” difficulty and the other two on “expert” with a couple of tweaks. I haven’t looked at any other part of the game.
What I like about it is the way the AI cars react to your presence. When you are racing close to another car it doesn’t just blindly follow the racing line, it will leave some room for you. I also like the presentation, I think Codemasters does this well and the developers of other racing games I’ve played recently should take a look at it (MotoGP 08 and SBK X, I’m looking at you.) I like the technical aspect of it such as the reducing grip from the tyres over a race along with improved performance from a reducing fuel load. I also like the way you need to manage your engines and tyres throughout a race weekend and the entire season.
I particularly like the way that everything I’ve wanted to tweak, I’ve been able to. I don’t care how insanely realistic you make a game as long as I have the ability to turn some of the realism settings off. As you can tell from some of my likes, I do enjoy realism but there comes a point where excessive realism can take the fun away from a game. For example I don’t really like playing with the traction control turned off (I’m not even sure if it is realistic having the traction control off, many motor sports have traction control.) I like the traction control on the medium setting because I still have to be careful to avoid spinning out but I can keep it together long enough to last a race.
It has a comprehensive car setup option which is good if you like that kind of thing. You can also get a range of default setups from your engineer if you don’t like tweaking the setup yourself. I’m not a big setup freak and have so far been getting a default setup from the engineer, though I did try making some changes myself for the Sepang race, I was having trouble with under-steer when braking for a couple of the corners. I was only partially successful fixing it and as always I ended up wondering if I was tweaking the right things and if maybe it was just my ability that needed to be tweaked rather than the car.
My only gripe so far is that the difference in difficulty between hard and expert is too big. I did my first race of my career on hard and won easily despite spinning out a couple of times. My second and third races have been on expert with the traction control on medium and I’m struggling to run in the middle of the pack. I tend to get a good start and maybe get into the top ten but can only really hold my position by taking defensive lines and my overall lack of pace becomes apparent after the pit stops when the cars that I was holding up get a bit of clear track and I end up down in 18th by the end of the race.
Still, I think it’s a great game and should keep me amused for a long time.
Edit: I’m playing it on an Xbox 360 with the standard controller. I don’t have a wheel, would be interested to know how much of a difference it makes to my lap times.
Must not have been racing Lewis Hamilton then. 
Remember that the car you are driving also plays a part. If you are playing a 7 season career you’re with either Lotos, Virgin or HCR, and you should be worried about meeting the challenge goals, not actually winning the race.
The first couple of seasons fighting from 18th down to 12th or 11th is an accomplishment.
Cool. That’s good to know. I might try not pushing as hard from the start in the next race and see how I go.
