Codies have let loose a developer diary for their forthcoming F1 2011, which shows off polite Englishmen explaining their work, combined with plenty of healthy-looking game footage. It also reveals that the focus this time is in getting people to play online with “16-player races” and also a co-op campaign mode so that you can play through a season with a team-mate. There’s going to be some fancy racing going on, yes sir. I just hope the launch can be as solid as the Dirt games this time around. The game is out on 23rd December. That diary is below.
24/06/2011 at 15:52 Faldrath says:
Grumble, I still want this, even after last year’s patch fiasco… sigh.
24/06/2011 at 15:56 Binman88 says:
Ridiculous that this comes out at the end of the season.
24/06/2011 at 16:03 ulix says:
It is peculiar that they aren’t just calling it 2012… probably legal reasons.
24/06/2011 at 16:21 Wallllrod says:
It’s based on the 2011 season, so drivers, tracks and technical stuff would be different for 2012.
24/06/2011 at 17:28 Binman88 says:
Which is why it’s so silly. Imagine releasing Fifa or the like in Summer, with all the players, leagues and teams based on the finished season.
24/06/2011 at 16:00 ulix says:
If the other (NPC) racers are actually racing in this one (even when I don’t see them), then I might think about getting this…
24/06/2011 at 16:00 Ell2309 says:
It’s out in September, not December.
24/06/2011 at 16:01 Flameberge says:
You can’t say you’re focussing on multiplayer, when you can only have 16 player races and a Grand Prix grid is 24 cars.
24/06/2011 at 17:55 kevmscotland says:
I believe it does 16 players plus 8 AI to top it upto 24 Grid.
As per another interview I saw with the lead dev guy from E3
24/06/2011 at 16:05 Linfosoma says:
I really wish I could buy this, and Dirt 3, stupid regional restrictions.
24/06/2011 at 16:25 pingualot says:
Tut tut RPS Wikipedia is more reliable than you on that release date. It’s the 20th September.
Source: link to vg247.com
24/06/2011 at 16:48 UnravThreads says:
Lemme guess, there’ll be no PC retail release of it, or if there is it’ll be pre-order only, y’know, like Dirt 3 and F1 2010 respectively.
Codemasters suck.
24/06/2011 at 17:43 subenji says:
This hardly matters, in my opinion retail shops abandoned PC gaming so PC gamers should in turn abandon retail stores with no love lost.
If it’s only having cash to hand, there are always alternatives – pre-paid cards, setting up PayPal to withdraw funds from your bank, and so on.
25/06/2011 at 08:07 UnravThreads says:
I disagree, I think it does matter. Abandoning the retail release means there’s no in-store or online advertisements for it, beyond the console version, and it reduces the product’s visibility. By not doing a retail release, they’re just fuelling the ‘death’ of retail-based PC gaming, and I think it should be the opposite.
If retail gets stronger, Steam et al are going to have to be more competitive with their pricing to secure sales. Steam does have great deals, but many of the games there – and it’s not Valve’s fault as such – are very expensive compared to the retail versions, or those from other vendors. I dread to think how much someone who buys exclusively from Steam would save if they bought their titles from a wide range of vendors, retail included.
24/06/2011 at 17:06 Anarki says:
Wow, nearly shat myself on reading that release date, but no it is indeed September 23rd 2011. A rare lapse of journalistic accuracy at RPS.
24/06/2011 at 17:34 Vinraith says:
This sounds pretty great, actually, here’s hoping it’s not a broken pile of slag.
24/06/2011 at 18:25 Warth0g says:
Well it looks very pretty, but then so did the last one, and it pretty much drove like a piece of shit. I’m going to try really hard not to get suckered into this one – if the handling doesn’t feel decent, then no amount of shiny can make up for it. And Anthony Davidson – shame on you, Sir.
24/06/2011 at 18:29 phobic says:
Looks just as crap as the last one. I’ll stick to iRacing.
24/06/2011 at 18:32 EBass says:
Pretty much what Warth0g said, not gonna get suckered into this one no matter how good the pre release material looks, last one had mario kart rubber banding and silly handing (lose the back end? Just slam on brakes for auto correct!), so gonna wait a while on this.
24/06/2011 at 18:35 PearlChoco says:
This is still GfWL, right?
24/06/2011 at 19:23 Faldrath says:
Yep.
24/06/2011 at 19:35 SuperNashwanPower says:
Where do I get my F1 racing wheel with forty million buttons?
24/06/2011 at 22:54 fragglerock says:
Fanatec (hopefully in time for September)
link to community.codemasters.com
24/06/2011 at 22:54 Jason Moyer says:
The first one was enjoyable, if ridiculously easy. If they bring the AI up to snuff this time without breaking anything else too badly I’ll probably give it a go.
25/06/2011 at 09:40 piphil says:
Unless it simulates two-hour rain delays, with full Brundle/Coulthard waffling and red-shouldered blackbirds, I’m not interested.
25/06/2011 at 11:28 Phydaux says:
I hope this version has actual marshals with flags. Geoff Crammond’s Grand Prix had them! ;)
25/06/2011 at 22:15 sdtipps says:
Yeah, my question to anyone who has played the previous incarnations: does it actually simulate drive through penalties or damage to the car? Otherwise I have no idea how the multiplayer will revolve around anything other than running your opponents off the road. I mean, there has been a lot of that anyway this season, but it seems to me the heart of F1 is that fine line between aggressive and reckless overtaking. If the game doesn’t punish reckless drivers, then it just isn’t F1. And let’s not turn this into an argument over Lewis Hamilton’s last few races. That would be the worst sort of red herring.