F1 2011 secrets revealed on Twitter
Detailed information about inclusions, tweaks and updates for the forthcoming F1 2011 have been few and far between, but Steve Hood, Chief Game Designer for F1 2010/11, has revealed many snippets of information via his Twitter account (@T4RG4) not mentioned in official press releases.
Hood is preparing for the first public screening of the game at Gamescom 2011 in Cologne, and has revealed that co-op championships will only be available online rather than via split-screen, the career mode will be five seasons rather than seven.
Perhaps most interestingly, it seems using driving aids whilst racing online will now carry weight penalties – meaning more skilful drivers will no longer be disadvantaged compared to those using ABS and traction control.
Hood also reveals his team would like to include additional downloadable content and that he would like to include helmet designs of classic drivers in the game.
Here is a select sample of Steve Hood’s most revealing tweets:
“Co-Op is a single season” … “Co-op Championship is Online only, not in Split-screen (although you can run a 1-19 races if you wish)”
“And the Stats have shown few people went all the way through 7 seasons so I’ll put up with it as long as it’s 5 decent seasons in Career.”
“Truth in DLC rumours? Hmm… well. We’ve talked about it and talked about it. We do want to do it. It’d be so cool!”
“TC and ABS carry weight penalties (for experienced drivers and the penalty goes up with rank).” … “Assists = extra weight issue. it’s not to penalise players using assists but demotivate/equal good players using assists to be even faster.”
“…we’ve gone way past the point of being able to add Ricciardo to HRT”
“No flag helmets this year. Because I get so many requests to add more nations! So it’s original designs in’11 
” … “I’d love to include classic driver helmets but it’s a license minefield. Will still try!”
You can follow Steve’s tweets on @T4RG4, and also the official feed for the game @formula1game. You can also follow us – @ORDNews.
Looking to pre-order F1 2011 before it’s released on September 23rd, 2011? Then check out:
GT5 release rumours, and GT6 in development…
The release date for Gran Turismo 5 should be officially announced within the next week, and SCEA marketing boss has stated that GT5 is still confirmed for a pre-Christmas release, but that hasn’t stopped rumours growing, with a Japanese retailer uploading a page with a release date of December 23rd.
Meanwhile most other online retailers seem to have their dates around either November 29/30, December 3/4 or December 7/8/9.
And not only does an Esquire Magazine interview with Polyphony Digital boss Kazunori Yamauchi end with the line that GT5 is out ‘in December’, but speaking to Autoweek Yamauchi revealed that Gran Turismo 6 is already in development. That builds on his previous comments back in August that karting was actually developed to be included in GT6, but was moved up to GT5 after being leaked to the press and public.
DiRT and Racedriver: GRID sequels confirmed by Codemasters
In addition to the upcoming F1 2010 game (Find out why it could be the game ORD’s Tom Bowker has dreamed about for years) due for release in September, Codemasters are also hard at work on sequels to both DiRT and Racedriver:GRID.
Codemasters DiRT 2 - third in the series is on the way
The news was revealed by SVP of Production Jamie MacDonald in an interview with Develop. “In Southam it’s full steam ahead with the next iteration in our Flashpoint series, as well as the next Dirt and Grid.”
No other details have been released yet about the games, which will be the third in the series for the DiRT franchise.
Racedriver: GRID - a big sequel for race fans
MacDonald and VP of Studios Gavin Cheshire also spoke about the EGO engine which powers Codemaster’s games, predicting that the weather in F1 will be the best of any game people have ever seen.
Both DiRT and GRID were well received by race fans, so the sequels should also be popular.
If you haven’t tried them yet, why not grab a copy now to get ready for the sequels to be released?
Racedriver: GRID – PC,Xbox 360,PS3,Nintendo DS
Colin McRae DiRT 2: Xbox 360, PS3, Wii,PSP,DS
A risk of online racing – EA to shut Nascar 09 server
Console racing games might not carry the physical risk of racing, but they do have risks nonetheless. And one is that the time and effort you may have spent will be for nothing when someone turns off the game server.
That’s what will happen for anyone playing Nascar 08 on the Playstation 2, or Nascar 09 on the Playstation 2, and Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 in Europe on February 2, 2010.
Obviously you’re still able to buy the games without any kind of warning the online play will be non-existent – Nascar 2008 on PS3
But given that 2009 only ended 9 days ago, you’d be forgiven if you bought a copy of NASCAR 09 (PS3)
The only solution for most of us is to get together and support the games that receive online racing support over long periods of time from publishers, and reward the effort they’ve made.
At the same time, there may be scope for an organisation to come together to save older games by volunteering to run them on behalf of a specific publisher, although the question of control might prove too much of a problem. I know that some have suggested a publisher should just make the servers public, but I suspect that might go against agreements to publish to Xbox Live, for example.
I’m checking on the PC implications, but let’s face it – PC gamers are ingenious enough to get their own servers up and running using a paperclip, some wires and a piece of cheese…
So farewell Nascar ’08 and ’09.
