F1 2013 - Do I buy it?F1 2010-2016

[Saidur_Ali]

Ugh, so I borrowed the game to try it out.

I bought 2010 and 2011 and liked them, but the difficulty of just being able to sit down and play without the game crash or some bug intrude or my save file corrupt itself got too much. I tried 2012 before buying, but too many of the same things went wrong for me to justify giving them my money.

2013 seems to be more of the same, unfortunately. When it works, it's really a very enjoyable game. Physics feel very pleasant, if not razor sharp. It's a very nice looking game. The additional modes are excellent. There's a nice feeling of accomplishment when you storm past half a dozen guys to take the win.

But I spent an hour and a half just trying to get some settings where my wheel felt right (Fanatec CSR). The menu setting labels are still arcane. The buttons on the wheel still don't work right, Shift Down paddle is confirm for some reason so I'm constantly groping around my wheel for the right buttons in menus. I've had it freeze up twice during scenario mode and once during Young Driver test, ditching my progress as it does.

And I ask myself, why bother? I just want to play the game, not try and work around all this BS. I want to drive, not play QA Assistant Simulator 2013.

I think my feeling is more or less the same as it has been since 2010: Pretty good game that is horribly crippled by not "just working". The races and scenarios are great, it's everything else that spoils it for me.

I think your button problems is due to having auto clutch enabled on your wheel. If you turn it off, should work fine.

 

[Imari]

I think your button problems is due to having auto clutch enabled on your wheel. If you turn it off, should work fine.

No. Left paddle is select, LSB is back, X is start, and various other oddities. Auto clutch has been off the whole time.

I agree with xiSealHDz that it's much better than 2012, but it's still too buggy for me. People should certainly try it for themselves, if you like the gameplay enough it's not a huge price to pay for what seems to really be a pretty good game. I'm just remarkably intolerant of these sorts of things.

 

[anim8r_uk]

Ok thanks for the report. Lot of potential wasted, so I'm forced to avoid it like pest. What a shame. Damn you Codemestaers for releasing heavily bugged games. I will not bother. You must learn the hardway.

So you're abandoning it based on ONE persons opinion?

 

[Mini Stiggy]

Ok thanks for the report. Lot of potential wasted, so I'm forced to avoid it like pest. What a shame. Damn you Codemestaers for releasing heavily bugged games. I will not bother. You must learn the hardway.

I have only had one bug since I've had it. (Since release day)

 

[xiSealHDz]

Hmm wtf is it with the bugs? I haven't had a single one on PC yet About steering,it feels flawless for me when i got the setups right for my g27...

 

[MagpieRacer]

Ok thanks for the report. Lot of potential wasted, so I'm forced to avoid it like pest. What a shame. Damn you Codemestaers for releasing heavily bugged games. I will not bother. You must learn the hardway.

I recommend you try it for yourself. I back everyone who says there are no major bugs in the game at all. But if your willing to not buy it on the strength of someones opinion who borrowed the game for an afternoon and made some fundamental mistakes in his review then go ahead. It's you missing out not Codemasters.

 

[socomkiller59]

I havn't come across any major bugs. I've done practice and now qualifying on Monaco with many cars on the screen, havn't seen anything worth of noting.

 

[FMW]

I'm not sure if anyone has noticed here in the USA, but the physical disc copy release of the game has been pushed back yet again to December 1st from October 29. Just look at Amazon, GameStop or even Best Buy who removed the release date all together. Digital Distribution only here we go.... like it or not....=(

 

[HKS racer]

I recommend you try it for yourself. I back everyone who says there are no major bugs in the game at all. But if your willing to not buy it on the strength of someones opinion who borrowed the game for an afternoon and made some fundamental mistakes in his review then go ahead. It's you missing out not Codemasters.

Since I know what Imari was talking about (had similar problems in previous games) I can at least wait for a patch. I'm quite intollerant with bugs, I didn't buy Shift 2 because of that.

 

[Imari]

I recommend you try it for yourself. I back everyone who says there are no major bugs in the game at all. But if your willing to not buy it on the strength of someones opinion who borrowed the game for an afternoon and made some fundamental mistakes in his review then go ahead. It's you missing out not Codemasters.

What mistakes did I make? If it's something I can fix, please tell me.

I've gone back a couple of times to have another go, which should tell you what an enjoyable game it is, but each time I've played for a bit and it's crashed again. Maybe it's my computer, but I don't have this issue with any other games.

I want to try a full length race, but I'm afraid of spending an hour+ on a race to lose all my progress at the end when it locks up again.

 

[MagpieRacer]

Probably your PC then if it keeps doing that.

 

[thunderjolt]

What mistakes did I make? If it's something I can fix, please tell me.

I've gone back a couple of times to have another go, which should tell you what an enjoyable game it is, but each time I've played for a bit and it's crashed again. Maybe it's my computer, but I don't have this issue with any other games.

I want to try a full length race, but I'm afraid of spending an hour+ on a race to lose all my progress at the end when it locks up again.

It likely is your computer. Locking up could happen from lack of RAM, Slow processor, Too high video settings and more.

 

[Imari]

It likely is your computer. Locking up could happen from lack of RAM, Slow processor, Too high video settings and more.

Well that narrows it right down. So basically everything, right?

Shall we assume that I'm not a total amateur trying to run Ultra settings on a laptop, and get to things that might actually help?

i5-2500K, 8gb, 6950 2gb, none of it overclocked or modded because I've never needed to to get the performance I want. The game's running on high settings, and the in-game benchmark gives me an average of 70fps and a minimum of 54. That seems to me like my computer is perfectly capable.

The only even slightly unusual thing about the computer is it has an SSD system drive and the game is installed to a second normal HDD. But even that's getting to be fairly standard these days.


And again, MildAshers, what fundamental mistakes am I making in my "review"? I'm just telling what happened to me and my impressions of the game. Good but frustrating.

 

[Sureboss]

Anything showing up in Event Viewer that happen at the same time the game crashes?

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308427

 

[Bigbazz]

I recommend you try it for yourself. I back everyone who says there are no major bugs in the game at all. But if your willing to not buy it on the strength of someones opinion who borrowed the game for an afternoon and made some fundamental mistakes in his review then go ahead. It's you missing out not Codemasters.

Well I borrowed the game for a weekend. It was absolutely better than F1 2012 and I didn't come accross any gamebreaking bugs. I did 2 race weekends in career and a whole bunch of classic car racing. The AI is better than F1 2012 but still not as fast or as ruthless as in F1 2011, they are still afraid to pass but not so much that it ruins the game (like in F1 2012). The cars still have that F1 2012 driving model, but it isn't so in your face and frustrating like in F1 2012, it didn't make me want to burn it.


Dunno about you guys but I couldn't figure a way to get my proper gearbox/clutch working in the old cars, only up or down... The FFB had more detail than old titles but did not give the right feeling from understeer, the driving model was also not as well balanced in giving you a progressive understeer or oversteer feeling as 2011 and I still remain that 2011 has the best driving physics. The lack of a progressive transition from grip to understeer is the biggest flaw, but not so much as F1 2012.

Classic cars are fun and don't feel understeery at all, but are hilariously unrealistic, I was lapping within 1second at Monaco with the 1999 Ferrari and 1988/1992/1996 Williams cars in the range of 1:14.9-1:15.8. Even the slowest lap (1988 Williams) was fast enough to theoretically get me into Q3 in 2013. Generally the 1980s cars are in cases capable of lapping 10 seconds faster than a a realistic time.


I'm mostly a proper sim fan, so I was always going to be critical of this game more than your average joe, and it was never going to 100% please me but I feel the modern cars physics are a result of trying to make gamepad play smoother. They have this classic content but really didn't do enough with it. The game is menus and tracks, they took away the soul of the original 2010 game and for me it strips the enjoyment I got. If it's not a sim and its not an "F1 world experience" then what is it?

Another thing annoyed me, in Time Trials it records your best lap per "era" so whatever car I do the fastest 80s time with is my best lap and all other laps are discarded, why couldn't it give you a laptime list of your best for every individual car? So many missed opportunities to flesh the game out. I played it plenty enough to get a good idea (a lot more than I did F1 2012) and I'l probably get it in a steam sale, but if not for the Classic content It still does not compare to 2010/2011.

 

[Imari]

Anything showing up in Event Viewer that happen at the same time the game crashes?

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308427

That's a good idea, and an analysis tool I didn't know about.

Unfortunately not. To be sure, I played the game again until it locked up and then went and looked for errors. Nothing. Sadly, it's not a lock up where the program closes itself and gives you a little diagnostic message and asks if you'd like to send the information to Microsoft. The game just freezes, and I'm forced to Alt-Ctrl-Del and End Process.

Maybe it's just some wacky thing. I will say that without that I'd be happy with the game, and I'd probably be fairly happy paying retail for it if walked into the store with the money in my pocket. As it stands now, I'll probably wait until it's $20 or less on a Steam sale. But that's just my situation, other people should try it and make up their own minds.

 

[FuzzyFassbender]

That's a good idea, and an analysis tool I didn't know about.
...
...

You didn't know the event viewer existed? It's only been around for ages, wow! Sorry, off topic.

 

[ECGadget]

Despite this F1 looking promising, I am going to be giving it a miss this year. 2012 wasn't too bad, but for those who are looking to buy it, don't get 2013 on a PS3 or xbox... get it on the PC.

Personally I hope that they continue the improvements and by 2015 they have much more 80's and 90's content. I have been happily listening to the 1999 Ferrari revving away on youtube videos

 

[Sureboss]

That's a good idea, and an analysis tool I didn't know about.

Unfortunately not. To be sure, I played the game again until it locked up and then went and looked for errors. Nothing. Sadly, it's not a lock up where the program closes itself and gives you a little diagnostic message and asks if you'd like to send the information to Microsoft. The game just freezes, and I'm forced to Alt-Ctrl-Del and End Process.

Maybe it's just some wacky thing. I will say that without that I'd be happy with the game, and I'd probably be fairly happy paying retail for it if walked into the store with the money in my pocket. As it stands now, I'll probably wait until it's $20 or less on a Steam sale. But that's just my situation, other people should try it and make up their own minds.

Anything on here useful?

http://segmentnext.com/2013/10/04/f1-2013-errors/

What are your machine specs?

 

[Imari]

Anything on here useful?

http://segmentnext.com/2013/10/04/f1-2013-errors/

What are your machine specs?

Hmm, he fact that the Fanatec CSR (not Elite) doesn't seem to be on the supported wheels list probably explains the problems I was having with that. Seems like an odd one not to support, but hey.

Unfortunately none of the other ones seem to apply, nor do any of the ones in this article: http://www.chaoshour.com/articles/n...ading-screen-problem-bugs-and-glitches-fix-it

Specs are Win7 64bit, i5-2500K (not overclocked), 8GB, Sapphire 6950 2GB, SSD system drive, game installed on normal secondary drive.

It has occurred to me that the secondary drive that it's installed on is nearly two years old now. That's not exactly old, but it's old enough. It's possible that it's got a bunch of bad sectors in just the wrong places and that's messing it up. Long shot, but who knows. I'm going to uninstall, defrag and then reinstall and see if it changes anything.

Any other suggestions welcomed.

 

[Sureboss]

When you last updated your graphics drivers did you use Windows Update? If so, uninstall and reinstall your graphics card drivers.

Worth testing your RAM.
http://www.memtest.org/

Going back to the Event Viewer, check through the last week or so in all the categories, do you have any red/yellow warnings?

Also, try the performance monitor report.

http://blogs.technet.com/b/askperf/...ystem-diagnostics-report.aspx?Redirected=true

 

[alex1369]

I didnt buy it cuz im tired of seeing the same every year. In not interested in classic cars at all. Every year the same bugs, they will never fix this. Even if they bring out some patches, but still...
They promise alot before the release but its the same as before. They just add cars,tracks and thats is. I think F1 2010 is the best so far and i liked how they started... but then it went down..
Have 2012 and im enyoying it.. still...
But what we fans want they dont want to hear...
I rather buy GT6. I know there are 1000 miatas and skylines, but at least the game gets fixed and gets new cars/tracks regulary....

 

[GENERALSAVANT]

I bought it, reg game play is the same as last year. Tires are better and I love the classics but mine freezes at every loading screen. So I stopped using after the 1st week. I down loaded mine on PNS...

 

[MaDHaX]

I might give this ago, but I think i'll wait for discount on steam as I have AC right now plus I dont really get the time to play atm, 2hrs at best after work until my shifts change :/

 

[Bigbazz]

Wait for the christmas sale, almost certaintly will be on sale. If you can get it on sale I think the game is worth it for the classic content, as they are great fun to drive. Personally though I'd never recommend it at full price, I don't rate the career mode that much as I've already said in the thread ^^.

 

[Azure Flare]

Yes, and don't forget the Classic Edition.

 

[MaDHaX]

I'll wait for christmas sale and of course, if I buy i'm buying with the classic content. It is infact because of that why I want this in the first place

 

[UKMikey]

I bought this full price but didn't get on very well with the career. wish I'd read Bigbazz's post before buying but I had a lack of racing games on my PS3.

The included classic races were more fun but F1 open wheel racing isn't for me.

I went back and bought WRC4 which I'm absolutely loving.

 

[Silver-Sylph]

Assuming F1 2014 comes out on PS3 i would rather just wait, I liked F1 2012 but the cars this year looked identical with just a new paint scheme and the classics didn't look that appealing to me.

 

[Youngun]

I thought the same but my split was 2010 to 2012. I felt 2012 was good on physics and AI once the car and driving style was altered. Winning races and beating real times easily. Understeer and oversteer easily deleted by tweaking and wheel spin and sliding all improved by foot control. I got angry at the driver test butthats because it wasnt set up correct. Few trys of slow in fast out got it, and understanding the downforce of each car is different but some (redbull) good round corners at speed. Not played 2013 but if its different may wait til 2014 to get moneys worth.