F1 2011 Review
Developer Codesmasters
Publisher Codemasters
Platform Xbox360, PS3
Release Date Out Now.
Codemasters do make great racing games and F1 2011 is a worthy addition to the list. The follow up to well received F 1 2010, it builds on the already strong base while also adding some welcome improvements to handling and aerodynamics that improve the overall experience of the game.
Fully licensed F1 teams such as Ferrari and Honda and featuring all the real drivers including Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa along with all the real tracks starting In Australia F1 2011 is as close as you can get to being a real F1 driver.
It’s fair to say the game is very similar in set up and overall gameplay to last year’s outing and that’s no bad thing as F1 2010 was brilliant. Most of the improvements have gone into the cars themselves, with a lot of work done on the aerodynamics and thus its overall handling. This is a help to both the beginner and the advanced users. New users will enjoy a much easier learning curve getting a feel for the car is a lot faster while the more experienced user will enjoy the increased handling at high speeds.
That’s not to say it’s an easy game, as it’s not. Codemasters are going for reality here and you must keep on your toes all the time as one slip up can see you spin off and lose your lead. It takes a long time to learn all the tracks but you do have ample opportunity to practice each circuit before heading on your qualifying run.
F1 is a game you need to devote a lot of time to, the loading times are quite long in-between each race and by the time you have done your practice laps, your qualifying laps and the actual race including all the setting up of the car, it can often take up to an hour per track. There are options that let you just jump into a race and kill ten minutes, but to get the most out of the game a career mode is the best option.
As before, you start as a rookie in small team and work your way up through the ranks of the F1 world to the top, well that’s the idea anyway but it’s much harder than it sounds. Along the way you are met with contract negotiations, TV crew wanting interviews and many of the other pitfalls of the life of a racing driver bar all the money and super models.
A few new obvious additions include the safety car which will come on to the track after a really bad crash, it’s a small feature but one the fans really wanted for authenticity. Two other new features are KERS and DRS. Which are in-race boosts for you, the KERS gives you a small boost once a lap while the DRS lets you change the rear wing to give you more speed.
Multiplayer which hosts up to 16 players online is not to be tackled lightly, if you think the AI is good wait until you hit the online world. This is where you really sort the men from the boys but at the same time if you are playing at this level your own skill set improves dramatically too. Split screen made a comeback recently and Codemasters have included it in F1 2011 again. An even better feature though is the ability to team up online with another player and you can both race or the same team
Overall : A great racing experience for F1 fans, it terms of looks it hasn’t come along much since last year but the small tweaks to gameplay are really precise but really make a huge difference to the entry to the game and to when you start to master it.
Score 8/10
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