F1 2011 - Hands On Preview

This year's Formula 1 season has been a paradox so far; it's been as unpredictable as it's been predictable. On the one hand there have been more overtaking manoeuvres in the sport than we've seen for decades, a comeback from last place to first in 30 laps (Jenson Button in Canada), and tyres that perish more quickly than fairy dust in a vat of sulphuric acid. On the other hand, one driver has won six of the first nine races and pretty much secured the Driver's Championship already, barring a monumental reversal of fortunes. That driver's name is Sebastian Vettel.

Exhibiting the same kind of skill for 'race management' that his countryman, Michael Schumacher mastered during his heyday, Vettel has effectively made the lead for races uncharacteristically dull given all the madness going on behind him. And it's the FIA's implementation of new regulations such as the Drag Reduction System (DRS), re-introduction of the Kinectic Energy Recovery System (KERS), and Pirelli's infamously precarious tyre compounds that have created this madness, long may it continue. Given the impressive attention to detail in Codemasters Birmingham's attempt at the sport last year, it'll come as no big surprise to hear that DRS, KERS, and the Pirelli tyres have all been lovingly recreated in F1 2011. Readers who paid attention at E3 this year will probably know this already, and are also probably aware of the other headlining new features on Codemasters' crib-sheet:

• A new Co-op Championship mode.
• Split-screen multiplayer.
• 16 player online multiplayer and full 24-car grids with AI drivers making up the difference.

The marketing focus is clearly on multiplayer this year. It's all part of the 'Go Compete' tagline that Codies has added to last year's 'Be The Driver, Live The Life' mantra. But this is all just swanky new bodywork really - the kind of stuff that you can put on the back of a game's box to sell it but will not necessarily result in core gameplay improvements from one year to the next. For that you've got to get a good look at what's going on under the hood - has the handling improved? What's the driver AI like now? Have they been significantly reworked from last year and, more importantly, does this result in sizeable improvements to the experience?

These questions were foremost in our mind as we sat down to an extensive hands-on session just prior to last weekend's British Grand Prix. Rigs with full steering wheel and peddle arrays glazed the demo hall, as did one of Team Lotus' F1 cars from last year - Lewis Hamilton's brother, Nicolas (an accomplished racing gamer himself and competitor in this year's Renault Clio Cup, which supports the British Touring Car Championship) was also present at the event. We went toe-to-toe with LAN multiplayer, split-screen, and single-player experiences and can say whole-heartedly that F1 2011 is exhibiting the kind of steps forward over a one-year dev cycle that you'd expect from EA's gigantic FIFA team.

Driver AI is the first thing that struck us. It's noticeably quicker through corners, more aggressive with overtaking opportunities, and more likely to take a defensive driving line into corners when you're right on its tail. The AI was already impressive last year but, as we outlined in our review, it still suffered from some age-old racing game shortcomings (particularly the problem of getting bogged down in single-file through slow hairpins, allowing you to leapfrog multiple positions). These problems have now been consistently ironed out and effectively relegated to the sidelines. It's abundantly clear that Codies Birmingham has been working particularly hard on the AI's corner quickness, and this is the real difference maker.

It'll add so much to the career mode that the dev team introduced last year, where the goal in your first season was merely to finish in the points rather than win races. Now, with a recognisable concertina effect between you and your opponents as you enter and exit corners, the game has really nailed the sensation of painstakingly chasing down the car in front of you. It's this kind of thing that makes a fight for 10th place in a slower car just as exciting as going for the win in a McLaren, so it looks very much like the core improvements to AI will have a recognisable trickle-down effect through the modes this year.

Handling has also had a lot of attention lavished on it. Despite some gamers' detractions from last year's handling system, in our opinion it was still a solid representation of the sport. In F1 2011, it's once again a system that subscribes to the Codemasters code of being as widely playable as it is realistic, but there's also a more natural feel to it this year. Senior Producer, Paul Jeal has been quick to point out how there's more tangible understeer and oversteer this year and we're inclined to agree. The balance of the car through corners is more noticeable so the rear-end won't violently snap away from you with minimal warning quite so much. We also noticed a lot more understeer into corners, particularly in low-speed turns with an adverse camber where the car is likely to lose a lot of its front-end downforce. Hopefully Codemasters can now take advantage of this in the mechanics of car setups so that there's more inclination to fiddle around in the garage this year.

But the improvements don't end here. Producers, Paul Jeal and Stephen Hood showed some comparative trackside shots of F1 2010 and 2011 at the press event, and there were significant differences. Looking down on Spa Francorchamps' Eau Rouge corner from the top of the hill, screenshots of F1 2010 showed a relatively bare hillside with a uniform grass texture. In F1 2011, on the other hand, the same shot revealed all kinds of flora. If we knew anything about botany then we'd be reporting back to you with tales of azaleas and hyacinths - as it is, we're just going to say there were lots of pretty flowers and shrubs. And the split-screen multiplayer that we mentioned earlier was silky smooth in our play-test, while also managing to retain an impressive amount of graphical detail from a full-screen, single-player view.

It's all representative of a game that really is coming along in leaps and bounds over 12 months of development time. Codemasters' budget can hardly be comparable to the sort of money EA spends on improving FIFA year-over-year, but the kind of leaps forward in design and content are comparable between each series. If you loved last year's F1 game, this will be one to buy again this year. If you didn't play F1 2010, then you're in for a sumptuous treat when F1 2011 releases this September 23rd.