On Day 2 of the 2010 Electronic Entertainment Expo I had the chance to visit the Codemasters suite to check out F1 2010. A small group of us sat down to a presentation by two of the games producers and off we went into the wild world of racing. The demo started off with the producers explaining the world of F1 racing to us. F1 racing is a huge mega sport in Europe that has yet to branch out to North America. The development team’s goal for F1 is to spread the sport globally by delivering story into a racing game…(cont.)
Read the rest of the story, after the break! (cont.)..F1 racing has gone through a change recently and the sport has been taken over by a crop of young drivers that live rockstar lifestyles. The developers really drove home the point that F1 2010 is all about ‘Being the driver and living the life’. Most racing games on the market put you right in the car and nothing else. F1 2010 provides some great racing but also the chance to live that celebrity lifestyle. You are the new kid in town and as you complete more races you will start gaining attention from the media and maybe even a celebrity heiress or two. As what seems to be a recurring theme this year at E3 the choices you make in the game will change the path of the game.
The devs switched on the actual demo and started up one of the tracks in the game. F1 2010 will provide players with not only real tracks to drive on but it will put them up against some of the top F1 drivers in the world. The cars were really good looking and were decked out with the top sponsors in racing. As the car sped through the track the weather suddenly changed providing a treacherous rain slicked environment. The devs pointed out that weather will have a huge impact on the game and cause the player to use a little more strategy. The wheels on the car showed how they were reacting to hitting different levels of puddles on the track and hitting the corner too fast could become a disaster.
The AI of the other drivers was promised to be realistic with drivers responding to your actions on an off the track. An in-game reputation system can make other drivers your friends or your heated rivals on the track. This adds an interesting level of making the driving game a bit more personal for the player. As you race through your career you can be offered different contracts by top sponsors. Nothing like ditching out on the team that helped you become a legend!
One of the more interesting points of the demo is that the game will be accessible to those like me who are horrible at race games. The level slider can start at noob level where you are just racing and get tuned all the way to professional. The top mode gets down to the nitty gritty details such as fine tuning parts for your car. Having a wide range of difficulty settings is going to really help in bringing the world of F1 racing to a larger group of people.
While I am not the biggest racing game fanatic out there (that falls to whatamaroon!). I think that F1 Racing 2010 is a game that can be played by all levels of players. Allowing the new player to enjoy the game and not focusing too much on fine tuning is the key. Shogunites that love racing games will want to check this out when it releases this September for the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC gaming systems.
