World of Gaming

We got to play a very early build of Codemasters' latest Formula One game and hear about the publisher's plans for the series.

The Formula One season may already be underway, but gamers have another six months to wait before they can jump in this year's cars themselves. Thankfully, Codemasters has been hard at work on this game since the publisher acquired the gaming rights to the F1 World Championship and showed off the game for the first time at an event in London yesterday.

While none of the 2010 cars are yet in the game, the demo and brief hands-on time were enough to show quite how good the game looks using the data the team had from 2009. The game is based on Codemasters' Ego engine, which was used to drive its previous highly rated racing games Grid, Colin McRae: Dirt, and Dirt 2 but with a significant number of tweaks from the engine's core development team to ensure it's up to the job of modeling the pinnacle of motorsport.

This takes several forms, according to the developers who were on hand to explain the work that has already gone into the game. Firstly, there are subtle but important factors, from ensuring the tracks rubber in properly over the course of a dry race weekend, which allows for faster times along the racing line but slower times off it, to the more obvious effects, such as tyres wearing down and eventually failing if they're not replaced. The game also features the most complicated weather system ever implemented in a racing game, according to the developers, and it will (as you'd expect) form as important a part of the game as it does the season itself.

The weather effects themselves look very impressive at this early stage, with the experience of driving around Monza in bright sunshine being entirely different when dry from when rain was pouring down. Not only does it impact the drivability of the cars in all the ways you'd expect, but it also looks really good in any of the views on offer. Most dramatically, in the in-car view, you get the joy of massive spray from cars in front of you, as well as water streaming across the screen as it sticks to your visor, which has you fighting to see more than glinting rear lights through spray if you get too close.


This level of attention to details isn't limited to the races, however. The pit stop crews are fully motion captured, ensuring that when you pull in for repairs or tyre changes, it all looks perfect. It has also been promised that players will be able to have full pit-lane car control should they wish, meaning that you'll have to manage your speed in the run-in, as well as get your braking timing perfect if you want to get a good time and not take out any of your mechanics or pit crew.

In the brief time we spent in the car itself, we can report that not only does the game look great, but it also seems to be handling well. With all the driver aids turned off as they were for our demo, the game will certainly present the challenge core fans of Formula One games expect. The accurate physics modeling means that the cars themselves are far easier to maneuver at high speeds, thanks to their dependence on aerial downforce for grip, and the differences (especially in the wet) between the different tyre types are very noticeable at this stage.

While the 2010 cars might not be implemented, the rule changes for this year's season are at the forefront of the developers' minds. Car handling will alter dramatically during the race as the fuel is depleted. On higher difficulty levels, engine settings and maps will also come into play as drivers are forced into attempting to optimise fuel consumption, as well as engine wear and performance, to get the best race finish possible rather than running out of fuel or running one of the limited number of engines into the ground.


All in all, F1 2010 is looking like a very exciting proposition, and we're really looking forward to seeing more of the game's attempts to re-create the experience of being an F1 driver both on and off the track. Formula 1 2010 is scheduled for release in September.

Source: Gamespot.com