F1 2011 Review with Gameplay Commentary (COIN-OP TV)

Fans of racing games and driving simulators have seen graphics, realism and sound effects taken to the ‘nex gen’ level. F1 2011 (from Codemasters) strives to offer players a chance to live the Formula One racing spirit with its realism but and even novice players will most likely be turned off by the game’s lack of luster and charm. An attention to detail has been carefully placed on the game and now includes some additional co-op modes to help bring your friends into the excitement. Robert Welkner of COIN-OP TV walks through 20 minutes of gameplay on the video below.

[TLG1991]

DONT WATCH!! this guy doesn't have a clue about racing game or f1. he starts talking about no tyre screech which is strange, what a fool

[pennyman]

thx for being such a good citizen and providing this public service.

[cheetah]

Wow, that review was really bad.

Here's a tip, spend some time playing the game first and then do the review.

I did notice that the game doesn't look quite as good as last year though, lots of screen tearing in the garage!! and less detail on track.

Might just be the 360 version though.

[Computersaysno]

Playing the PC version now. Looks fantastic with everything turned on in DX11. Much crisper than 2010. Far better reflections on the cars and lighting. Better textures and track models. Even better wet races and better track reflections.

PC version one of the best looking racers made IMHO. But it gets better still- it even runs a breeze maxed out.

8x MSAA @ 1920 x 1080 full settings vsync on, full grid, wet conditions, on one of the city tracks with lots of detail the game will easily maintain a MINIMUM of 60 frames a second on a GTX580 and most of the time the average will be like 80FPS.

Brilliant stuff.

[iamgoatman]

"Much crisper than 2010. Far better reflections on the cars and lighting. Better textures and track models. Even better wet races and better track reflections."

I'm running the game maxed out on PC to in DX11 and I can't say I agree with a single part of that apart from the wet races, and that's only because they were broken in F1 2010.

The car reflections are the same, theres still a noticeable delay between passing an object and when it's reflection is rendered on the car.

Despite the colour palette now being an improvement over the default F1 2010 (still lacking compared to lighting mods), the lighting is a lot flatter and less complex, for example the McLarens chrome colour now looks horrible and doesn't fit the environment at all.

The track models are the same, apart from the LOD seems to be less than it was in 2010, Catalunya being a good example of this. Shadow draw distances are considerably worse than 2010 however, you can clearly see even major shadows fading in front of the car.

Textures, or at least the car textures are by far the worst problem, if we use the Mclaren as an example again the Vodaphone logo is horribly low res compared to last years game. Also the tyre surface texture is also pretty low res.

The performance is better than last years, apart from Crossfire currently not working, but even without it one of my 5850's will average above 60FPS for the majority of the time. With new CFX profiles I'd expect to see a higher FPS than 2010 which averaged around 100FPS.

Sorry for the rant, but I personally can't see how anyone can say that this years game is substantial improvement over last years.

[Computersaysno]

I think you aren't looking hard enough. Everyone that even reviewed this game acknowledges it looks better and that the details are improved, and the effects are improved.

When the game launched last year people moaned ove rlow res textures on cars, these aren't mega high res, but clearly higher than 2010. The paddock areas are also clearly higher res as well as many of the billboards and trackside textures.

You seriously need to go back and look at how the cars have improved and notice how the reflections have improved greatly, and you need to SEE the likes of the Mclaren in real life to see thats what they look like, not that ridiculous filter they had pasted on top of the cars last year which gave everything an entirely unrealstic tint and altered the colours. Modders had been trying to 'fix' that rubbish problem all year on the game forum i seen, and now codies finally have themselves so that the cars actually look like cars and not overshiny grey tinted nonsense.

Even the skyboxes are overhauled so they look less flat and poor. Montreal for example in 2010 looks rubbish, clearly a naff texture but in 2011, it is far better.

Unfortunate that you can't see all this, but you really should look a bit harder...

[cheetah]

I agree with the reflections looking better and the wet tracks but everything else is a step back imo. I do like the change in handling though, playing it on expert and it is unforgiving.

Thank god the kerbs have been fixed and you can actually use them now.

[pennyman]

i think my main issue with F1 was that DiRT3 is also from Codemasters and looks stunning..... I just couldnt commit much time to this game so did a 'throw away' impressions/walkthrough video - I really only called it a 'review' in the title for SEO.