Codemasters gets a licence to develop a F1 "game"

[checkered]

Well, it's been a

while since the last official installment. They will have to do something fairly spectacular to compete with all the open platforms that sport some really stunning simulations already. This could involve capitalising on offical F1 live data or something like that.

I hope the platform will be adaptable enough to accommodate playing experiences from "arcade" to "full on simulation" ... having seen some of the external POV solutions I'm not actually brimming with confidence that this will satisfy the seriously technically minded. But it has to be said, I have no idea what the Codemasters' EGO Engine is capable of.

There's actually an open Codemasters forum for the project, so with luck some of the suggestions will be taken seriously. Perhaps there are employment opportunities emerging with this as well, I can imagine some F1T members having highly applicable skills.

Codemasters forum - F1 The Game

Some general links as well:

New computer game deal for F1
Codemasters secures Formula One video game rights
Codemasters® secures official FORMULA ONE video game licence - product line to be jewel in racing game crown.

[Carlos]

I read about it earlier today, all I could think was Bernie did it again - got the best payoff imaginable
I think Sony had paid 15M last time to licence and Codemaster dropped 75M today. Not quite positive though.

[Miguel]

I hope the platform will be adaptable enough to accommodate playing experiences from "arcade" to "full on simulation" ... having seen some of the external POV solutions I'm not actually brimming with confidence that this will satisfy the seriously technically minded. But it has to be said, I have no idea what the Codemasters' EGO Engine is capable of.

I've done some googling, and the EGO engine is used in Codemasters' "Race Driver: Grid". It is an evolution of the engine used in "Colin McRae: DiRT". I haven't played any of these, but the comments I've read in Wikipedia and in IGN seem to indicate that GRID is neither a "hardcore simulation" (while IGN claims GT:5P is) nor a livery fest. I've viewed a few videos, but the driver seemed focused in showing how good the damage system was. After a minute of seeing an AC Cobra crashing into tire barriers and rivals, I decided this was not the kind of race I'd like to take part in.

I'd bet that the game is going to be neither a full blown simulator (a la rFactor or Live for Speed) nor an arcade racer. Setting the car up will be important in high difficulty levels and it's likely that a career mode starting in GP2 and a classic career featuring cars from the 80's will be included. Well, that's my guess after seeing previous codemasters titles.

[modbaraban]

Those " " in the thread name are quite optimistinc, checkered.

Most experienced simracers expect it to be nothing more than just a game.

See 'How sad' forum thread @ rscnet.org for rant.

[roost89]

I read about this and I'm looking forward to seeing what they can do with the game. The system for "Colin McRae: Dirt" allows you to be very 'techy' about te set-up and fiddle with car settings or you can take the car as is and try and blitz the road/track. For instance you can change the camber and toe angle of the wheels, change the difs, suspension, damping, gearbox and downforce. From my limited mucking around with them, they do seem to change the feel of the car in-game.

For "Race Driver: Grid" I've had a brief play of the demo and it looks very good and feels very good. The crash simulation doesn't bother me too much because car companies only allow certain levels of damage. However the feel of the demo vehicles is very good, the cars can become very difficult to handle if on a bumpy street circuit and are nice and smooth on the race tracks. We shall see what the full-game is like though and whether you can fiddle with the car set-up.

For the F1 game, I can imagine it being a very good game and very realistic. Codemasters don't muck around when it comes to racing games. They've got alot of experience in the area aswell, going back to TOCA.

[mep]

I have Colin McRae Dirt and I must say that
the game is low on the technical side of the cars and the setup.
F1 Challenge F1 2002 (rfactor) are much better when it realy goes
on seting up a car.
Its more a game than a simulation.
The good thin in dirt is the damage model and the dirty getting cars.
But thats rally typical, F1 cars normaly don't get really damages during
a race and they don't really get dirty.

[TheMinister]

What I'd like to see in this game:

Grand Prix 4- only better.

Full Race weekends, but with helpful mechanics to work on your setup- so you do a few testing laps, he looks at your data/ you tell him what its like, and he suggests + implements the right tweaks to the car.

Full on rules- stewards investigate when you bash someone. Races get red flagged, you take grid penalties etc.

Safety Car- actually having one would be a start, but if it could work properly that would be great

Accurate damage model- the slightest touch should smash your car to itty bitty pieces, as in real life. Also injuries to drivers would be nice.

Most of all, a career mode- start in either a back of the pack team, or maybe GP2, in say 2005 and just race your way to a WDC. An RPG element would also be nice, but I can see this would be hideously difficult to create.



I reckon they could get nicely around the arcade/sim issue if they took a similar approach to GP4- having a whole bunch of driver aids that you can turn on and off. So arcade would have traction control (on accel. and braking), lowered damge, suggested line, auto gears, steering help, etc etc. And sim could have, well errr nothing.

Or am I not understanding what arcade gamers want?

[roost89]

having to do a full race weekend would be tedious for a game. I can see you doing 1 FP, then Quali and a race. That'd be it. The tweaks could be done though, I'm not sure how you could add your input though.

Safety car and full rules would be very good. Story could be, as you've said, start in GP2 then get a back-of-the-pack team and then a higher teams. 1 GP season and then 2 or 3 seasons in F1 (in ever faster cars)

I've not played GP4 so I've no idea what it's like.

[Conceptual]

Who cares about Codemasters at all?

The MMG F1 2007 mod for rFactor is absolutely amazing, and the 2008 mod that will be released soon stands to utterly crush that as well.

Quick question to the guy that wants full collision and safety cars...

Why the hell would you want that in any type of online simulation? The beauty of sim racing is that you dont have to crash because someone else makes a mistake. I could see a system that if you were the one that causes contact, that your car immediately turns "ghost" and your pit limiter gets turned on for 5 seconds...

That way, the mistake is paid for by the one who caused it, and the cream will rise to the top. It is unfortunate that in real life that the cream can get taken out of the race by the dregs. I don't understand why you would want to bring that into what could potentially be the safest racing construct known to man.

Chris

[flynfrog]

kinda the difference between time trials and actual racing

its one thing to turn good laps doing it in traffic is a completely different

[Ray]

For "Race Driver: Grid" I've had a brief play of the demo and it looks very good and feels very good. The crash simulation doesn't bother me too much because car companies only allow certain levels of damage. However the feel of the demo vehicles is very good, the cars can become very difficult to handle if on a bumpy street circuit and are nice and smooth on the race tracks. We shall see what the full-game is like though and whether you can fiddle with the car set-up.

I played the demo on the Xbox and I'm not too impressed. Maybe it was the Mustang they had on there! But I didn't like the grip levels it had. Either way too much or not enough. I also hated that I couldn't change the button layout. That is completely unacceptable to me in a racing game, even a demo. F1 Championship for the PS3 did the same thing, and I almost bought one just for that game.

Others may hate it, but I think that Forza 2 is a fantastic game. It has just enough tweakability (is that a word? ) and enough arcade flavor to it to make it fun yet satisfying/infuriating. I hope the new F1 game comes out on the 360, we don't have one and the POS PS3 does! And I may get some pot shots for this too , I HATE Gran Turismo. Absolute crap game in my opinion. No damage?!?!?!? What the hell?

I like the full rules/safety car/season progression idea. It's very possible. A few NASCAR games have done it before pretty well, why not an F1 game? I sure hope they do a good job, but I'll wait for a review before I buy it.

[roost89]

I played the demo on the Xbox and I'm not too impressed. Maybe it was the Mustang they had on there! But I didn't like the grip levels it had. Either way too much or not enough. I also hated that I couldn't change the button layout. That is completely unacceptable to me in a racing game, even a demo.

There are 2 mustangs you can go, one in Time-trial (which you can win) and one in the actual racing.

You can change the button lay-out. It's fiddly but it can be done. You have to go into options in the start menu->options->driving options->controls. you get 3 presets (all are rubbish) and one fully custom one. It was the first thing I did when the demo was downloaded (on my 360), but you have to sort it every single time, which is less than great!

I HATE Gran Turismo. Absolute crap game in my opinion. No damage?!?!?!? What the hell?

That's because the car companies won't allow damage to be done. I suspect because they don't want to be seen as having cars that are easily damaged. It was the same for Project Gotham Racing.
Grid got permission for damage on all cars as long as the damage didn't enter the roll-cage.
But I agree Gran Tourismo isn't all that great.

[Scotracer]

GRID and DIRT were/are awful games, with overly saturated lighting and bloom. If they turn the 2009 F1 game into another one of those I will be very annoyed.

I play sims like rFactor and Live for Speed on PC and love them to bits...I cannot play arcade racers!

[Ray]

You can change the button lay-out. It's fiddly but it can be done. You have to go into options in the start menu->options->driving options->controls. you get 3 presets (all are rubbish) and one fully custom one. It was the first thing I did when the demo was downloaded (on my 360), but you have to sort it every single time, which is less than great!

Well color me stupid! I didn't see that, maybe I'll give it another try. The first time I played it really annoyed me how stupid the button layout was. Not to mention the changing camera view takes waaaayyyy too long.

That's because the car companies won't allow damage to be done. I suspect because they don't want to be seen as having cars that are easily damaged. It was the same for Project Gotham Racing.
Grid got permission for damage on all cars as long as the damage didn't enter the roll-cage.
But I agree Gran Tourismo isn't all that great.

I understand why, but why? Forza 1 &2 got persmission. And a game so overly hyped like GT it's completely lame and inexcusable that they couldn't get permission.

GRID and DIRT were/are awful games, with overly saturated lighting and bloom. If they turn the 2009 F1 game into another one of those I will be very annoyed.

I play sims like rFactor and Live for Speed on PC and love them to bits...I cannot play arcade racers!

I hated dirt because of Pastranas' girly voice, and the fact that the cars felt like the front and rear ends weren't connected.

[DaveKillens]

I've got a couple of Codemasters racing games, and they have failed to excite me. Colin McRae was fun, but the dull progression through the stages isn't my kind of fun. I'm hardcore, no aids or arcades anything. I just want to load the game, get online, and race.
The closer to the real thing as possible, and let's see how this new game turns out. I suspect all it will do is swell the numbers of racers in rFactor or Live for Speed.