F1 2009 review
It’s been a few years since the last F1 game was released. Formula One Championship Edition was an early game in the life of the PS3, but certainly showed what the console could do. And since then it has been a long wait. So when Codemasters announced they had won the rights to develop F1 games, being a massive racing fan I was pretty happy. Even more so when Codemasters stated that along with the PSP, the first release would be on the Wii.
We all know what the Wii is capable of. So having an F1 game that would be developed around its motion sensor technology was exciting for me. And the technology hasn’t disappointed.
It does take a while to get used to the way the car handles using the controller as a steering wheel. With nothing pushing against your control such as the Force Feedback system found in Microsoft’s wheel, you’ll find steering early on difficult. Keeping on the track is a challenge in itself, and then when you do inevitably go off the track getting it back on and racing in a straight line is a struggle.
However it is just a case of getting used to the system which you eventually will. Sumo Digital have done a great job with the controls and although it’s certainly not a simulation, the cars handle like you would expect. Too much throttle will see the car spin out and lose you valuable time. Brake too hard and you’ll lock the tyres up and miss the apex of the corner, or worse miss the corner altogether.
It’s a lot of fun and certainly sits well into the ethos that Nintendo have instilled with other Wii games. But the fun you have is rapidly removed from the game when it actually gets down to the serious business of racing. Which for a racing game is a bit of a major problem.
The AI is truly terrible, and coming from the publisher that brought us Race Driver: Grid which had some of the best AI I’ve ever raced against, it’s a massive disappointment. It’s like you’re racing against other cars that are on rails. You’ll find on every track there is a train of cars following each other and granted in motor racing it’s not that strange a sight. But they will all break in the same position and move across the track at the same point. And that includes if you are coming alongside them. Rather than them giving you the space you deserve because of your position, they will still move across to take the corner which always results in a collision.
Thankfully the damage physics in the game are just as woeful so any collision won’t result in major damage, with the main outcome usually being a slightly damaged front or rear wing. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Drive into a wall and you’d expect the tyre to come off with all sorts of other damage to areas such as the suspension. Codemasters evidently don’t think like this and it actually took several attempts at going into a wall at high speed before the tyre buckled. They don’t even come off!
But this was never going to be a game that was more simulation then arcade. It was always going to be about fun and that’s probably why every team has the use of KERS instead of the select few that actually chose to run it come the start of the season in Melbourne.
And with the emphasis on fun it’s a shame that the dodgy AI wreck the game for you. Actually they don’t. It’s the stewards that in the end wreck the game. It’s like they have a vendetta against you. Although in real life they always seem to pick on one team each season.
So after you’ve been crashed into by the AI driver you’d expect the stewards to have a word with the driver in the wrong. Well they do hand out a punishment, but it’s always to you. I don’t think I have ever noticed an opposing driver being given a drive through or stop go penalty during the entire game. It’s always you that is in the wrong despite being the victim in the incident.
It really does bring the enjoyment level of the game right down. Knowing that you’re in a points finishing position, only for it to be robbed from you due to bad driving from your opponent and a wrong decision once more from the stewards is a real sickener.
And it’s a shame because Codemasters have brought us a game that is fun, and after a bit of practise can be mastered by anyone. The difficulty levels mean on medium you can compete without having to worry about changing too much on the tuning side of things, while the harder difficulty will present more of a challenge and make you think more about the tactics and tuning.
If the game didn’t suffer from the poor AI then this would be a welcome return to F1 racing on a console. The PS2 style graphics and slow frame rate when the screen is full could also be forgiven. So could the rather short 3 season career mode. But when you can’t race for fear of overtaking and being penalised, then what is the point of a racing game in the first place?
