F1 2011

F1 2011 is absolutley fantastic but when you get down to the very nitty gritty of the game you might think it's not that different apart from 2 new tracks, a few new drivers, 12 new liveries and a safety car there isn't much difference

Firstly the handling is massively different. Fans of F1 2010 would expect little change, but it is hugely different, thanks to a new suspension sytem You can feel bumps in corners a lot better an allows you to throw everything into a corner, lob it over the kerb and not spin around (unlike F1 2010).

Now i think I'll say what is better and worse about F1 2011 compared to 2010

Pros:
-handling allows you to attack the kurbs
-Much better choice of helmet designs
-Cars feel much more slippery and lively (although some might think that's a bad thing)
-New time attack scenario mode is great
-KERS and DRS makes the racing far more exciting (especially when your zipping the wing open and powersliding through the 130r at almost 200mph!!)
-The 16 car online grid makes online racing feel more intense
-Pirelli tyres are ace!!!
-No more pit stop glitch, you'll be happy to know!!!
-Safety car makes strategy more exciting (although it is painfully hard to cause an incident to bring out the safety car and stay in the race yourself without getting a penalty)
-Displays interesting stats on screen when the game is loading.
-split-screen racing
...and possibly quite a few more things budding F1 fans!!

Cons:
-Hud and game menu design is pratically the same as last year is practically the same
-Boring, typical main menu instead of the great interactive paddock
-Career is hardly improved (since nearly all of codies effort has been focused on multiplayer)
-Same boring press confrence questions
-New handling can be hard to grasp at first
-Engineer, driver, and general people animations are rubbish (although drivers are recognisable and thank heaven they got rid of that horribly annoying agent!!)
There are several other things I could say but then I'm just getting picky!

Also the car designs are immensely sleek, and I couldn't write a review on F1 2011 without saying that the new India track is very fun to drive with lots of quick changes of direction. The 2011 game as a whole, when you add up all the tiny little tweaks and improvments that codemasters have made, is already a lap ahead of F1 2010 and with each race you do you pick it up more and more, and it gets better and better...

F1 2011? Definitley for better!!!!

The very first review I ever wrote on Amazon was a couple of months ago for Dirt 3 - I just had to write in to tell everyone why Dirt 3 was so bad in so many ways. Today I'm moved to write a second review - of another codemasters game - but this time to rave about F1 2011; the game that beat my every expectation. Do yourself a favour, stop reading this and just buy it - you won't be disappointed!

Alright, lets give this game a full breakdown. Unlike Dirt 3, F1 2011 opens with a terrific introduction sequence which really heighens the players enthusiasm for the game. The menus are basic to begin with, but functional, and unlike Dirt 3 they don't detract from the experience. There are only 4 options: single player, multiplayer, proving grounds (time trials etc) and the options. The single player career mode is so much more thought-out than Dirt 3, and the player really does get the sense of starting from the bottom - to rise majestically as a champ only after showing a significant degree of talent. The cars on 'Easy' mode are not exactly a push over, and choosing 'intermediate' or higher opponent intelligence means the player is in for a very tough time. This is in contrast to Dirt 3 - which was very easy in all modes except the very hardest. The player gets to tune the car with a simple slider, or they can tweek the car and fine tune it to perfection in the hope of gaining that bit more of an edge.

The player is then able to drive out onto the track - and at this point the heart rate goes up higher than any other game I have ever played. I chose to play using the 'Cockpit' view - which is very rare for me as I tend to use the bumper camera on all my other games - and I never use the 'Chase' view. As such, I was pleasantly surprised by the detail in the cockpit, all the buttons and readouts are faithfully repoduced, and even the angle at which the drivers sits is absolutely authentic - and really gives the driver a sense of what it must be like to drive a Formula One car. I could almost hear Paul DiResta saying "...and you can't always see where you're going because the gloves get in the way. Sometimes you have to turn the wheel and hope the road stays underneith you, because you can't always see it..." - and this sums up the cockpit view perfectly!

The graphics are superb in their every detail, the sounds are immaculate to the extreme, the weather effects are simply magnificent, the speed is palpable and ultra smooth, and everything else comes together perfectly. Using an Xbox steering wheel, the player gets to feel every lump of gravel, every blade of grass, and even the way the tires start off cold can be felt in absolute detail - giving the player unparallelled control. Overall, the handling and feel of the car (with an xbox wheel) is staggering! - sooo much better than Dirt 3.

When the race is over, the player gets a very impressive victory animation, and this really does give the driver a terrific sense of acheivement (again, unlike Dirt 3), and you even get to be interviewed by the press. A champagne drenched podium is the only noticable ommission, but the victory animation more than makes up for that. It will take several seasons before the player gets to fight for survival in the very best cars, but even so, it is always possible to beat the other drivers with grit determination (and no mistakes!) using just about any car.

I played this for the first time several days ago and I must say my overall impression was MIND BLOWING! I was so blown away by this title that I could still feel my head hurting several days after. My breath was literally taken away - rendering anything beyond blasphemous exclamatory expletives all but impossible.

Some people have commented that this is only for F1 fans who have a good knowledge of the sport. That is often used as a critisism; but to be honest, the level of difficulty in F1 2011 and the depth of the F1 experience appears to have been coded absolutely flawlessly. Unlike Dirt 3, this is a big-boys game. There is no hand-holding, no 'driving school', no stunts or other silly things like that, just pure, frenzied, exhilerating F1 action! Highly recommended!!!

Presentaion = 8
Playability = 10
Sound = 10
Graphics = 10
Value for money = 10
Longevity = 10

Firstly, I have not played an F1 game since 2004 (for PS2) so my review is in no way a comparison to last years game.

Well this is F1 2011 by codemasters. At a glance, the game appears to offer all any F1 fan could want; we have a career mode, grand prix simulation mode, multiplayer and time attack (including some scenarios for you to play out). That brings me to the good points:

Pros
-Safety car returns!!! (Rarely makes an appearance though and only you seem to be able to get it out after you have a 200mph collision with another car).
-Weather can change during a race (you can start a race in the dry and finish it in the wet simple idea huge benefit for the game)
-Introduction of DRS and KERS. (DRS I have never managed to get working in a race yet, this is probably down to my abilities to be fair)
-Career mode in an F1 game is new to me and a great feature for any racing game (bit flat and uneventful in fairness but its there and that's important)
-Graphics both on track and off are too a high quality.

Cons (and I have a few...)
-Qualifying times of opponents very unrealistic (cars out on track when you are on your flying lap seem to put in unbeatable times every now and again and I'm not just talking a few tenths quicker no no... try seconds, worse of it is the drivers doing these super quick laps are often in the worst cars).
-Damage is terrible. You would think that after a decade of these games the damage simulation would be alot better than what f1 2011 offers... sadly not. Drive 200 mph into a wall and a wheel will come off... hmmmm not convinced.
-Career mode. Yes I love the idea of a career mode but this one seems to have been left hugely underdeveloped, in fact, other than the fact your name is on the side of the car, I fail to see the difference between career and grand prix.
-Press conferences. If you are going to put these in a game, at least let them serve a purpose, there is no point in having these in the game as they have no impact on anything at all but if they did influence the game it would be a great little feature.
-The 'AI' cars I have yet to see crash out, retire, receive penalties or suffer engine failures. Another reviewer advised me this does occur but once in a blue moon (real life at least one of the above happens per race I would say).
-The 'AI' driving style. 'AI' cars cannot overtake for love or money and when they do attempt to pass you 9/10 times you end up colliding with them or braking heavily to avoid doing exactly that allowing another 3 cars to pas you in the process pffftttt.
-Frame rate. Probably the biggest issue I have currently is the frame rate. If you notice, on slow corners, after you push the joypad left or right there is a half a second or so delay before the car actually does anything (THIS IS NOT TYRE SLIP AS I WAS ORIGINALLY ADVISED) this is only noticeable on slow corners really but it does effect the gameplay only slightly though.

Gameplay itself is good, cars handle as you would expect an F1 car to handle (twitchy and incredibly quick). Take off the traction control and car becomes rather unstable just like in real life but nearly impossible to drive again this is how I imagine an F1 car to be in real life so no lost marks there.

Overall I still find myself losing countless hours on this game that said I am a racing nut so this was inevitable regardless of the quality of the game. Its a shame that almost 10 years since my last F1 game we are still seeing the same glitches but this game is still a must have for all you racing enthusiasts and if anything a platform to which codemasters can only improve. (I have lots of faith in codemasters games and I look forward to F1 2012.) As always, you have to be a racing fan to truly appreciate this game (or the vast majority of racing games out there), if that is not you this game will have a short lifespan as all racing games seem to (in the same way I could not play fifa for more than 10 minutes as I'm not a footie fan).
For those of you who like your comparisons, this game is better than F1 2004 for the PS2 lol (last one I bothered with).

My rating: 77% Recommended (Good, but plenty of room for improvement)
Genre: Racing simulator, Motorsport, Racing

Thanks for reading :)