F1 2011

F1 2011. The official video game of Formula 1 racing. My new video game crack of choice. Not surprising when you take into account my obsession with real life Formula 1 racing. Now, rather than just watch on TV, I get to live it. From the instant I started my career and climbed into my virtual car, it was LOVE. And I'm not even racing for Red Bull yet!!!

After a few races, though, it became clear to me that I hadn't quite found the sweet spot yet with my difficulty settings. It's no fun if you always win without any real fight. And I was definitely doing entirely too well with my back of the pack Virgin ride. Now, I fully own up to using assists. ABS, TCS, dynamic racing line, auto gearbox. I have neither the time, the patience, nor the real skill it takes to learn to drive a Formula car with the training wheels off. I'm ok with that. I also realize that I needed to strike a nice happy medium between realism and what my skills can handle. Amateur AI difficulty was too easy. And 3 lap races weren't enough to fulfill the experience I craved.

Putting career mode aside, I decided to play with the settings while racing in Grand Prix mode. I wanted to see if there was something harder than my mostly too easy experience so far that could still avoid the frustration of being too hard for me, yet be close enough to the F1 experience that I love watching unfold on TV every race weekend to suit me. I'm very happy to say that I think I found that sweet spot within the difficulty settings. I have to applaud Codemasters for building the game in a way that made all this possible. It can be tuned to to suit everyone from the n00b that just wants to fly around the track for a few laps and have fun, to the hardcore ultra realism sim racer that wants to spend hours on detailed setup and scrape through 50-70 laps for a real accomplishment. I love that I can have what I need to make it accessible to me, and yet every bit of Gran Turismo/Forza-like fine tuning and difficulty challenge is there if you want it. Every racing game should be built this way.

To start, I upped the AI to intermediate. I do want a challenge, just one that allows me to recover from my more minor mistakes. Increasing race distance to 20% and turning on tire simulation brings pit stops and tire management into the mix, a part of the experience I absolutely want to have, as well as giving me a decently long race without it being too long. Damage sim to full. Penalties reduced. With those new pieces in place, I took a deep breath and climbed in behind the wheel of Mark Webber's RB7. The difference was immediate, and I would have had a great well earned win if not for Jenson Button cutting me off through a turn and me getting a penalty that turned my spectacular 1st place into 4th. RAWR. Aside from winding up 4th, THIS was the experience I wanted!

Just one more experiment needed to be run, which brings us to my play session this evening. It occurred to me after my great race for Red Bull the previous evening that I should take one of the Virgin (my current career mode team) cars for a spin in GP mode with the newly adjusted difficulty settings. Being a lower tier car, I wanted to make sure that making the same difficulty changes in career mode would not jeopardize my progress. If it didn't go well, I would make the changes AFTER I moved up to a better team. As it turns out, I think I had the most fun I've had with this game so far during this experiment. I went straight to race day, since I would get a somewhat random grid assignment that would reflect where my car might end up realistically. 20th on the start grid, out of 24. How well I could manage to finish really would tell me a lot starting from 20th. Before I did my obligatory pit to switch to the faster option tires that would take me through the remainder of the race, I had gotten up to a stunning 9th! Oh yes, this was much harder than before. I was battling, scrapping with the other teams at my level, looking to see just how high I could reach, and loving EVERY SECOND. When I finally crossed the finish line, checkered flag waving after 11 laps of pure fun and epic fights with so many drivers I know and love, I came in 13th. And I was ELATED. 13th from a 20th place start! 7 place improvement! It's not often you find a game where 13th from 20th feels like a win, where you feel like you really accomplished something with that 13th rather than just feeling frustrated that it wasn't 1st. The experience was so perfect, so full of all that makes F1 great, that my epic backfield duel and high (for a Virgin car) finish was every bit as sweet as standing on the top step of the podium.

So, yes my experiment was a success, and I look forward to the fun that lies ahead for me in F1 2011's career now that I've got my settings dialed in. It is my hope that I can, with more practice, get to at least the next difficulty, do longer races (for the sake of getting more out of the tire sim and on track battling), and be able to drive well under realistic penalty conditions. If not though, I am very happy with the way things are now. I'm just chomping at the bit to finally sign up for a seat with Red Bull-Renault. *wink*

Where I Have & Have Not Been

Didn't write this... If only I were so clever! Too funny not to share.

"WHERE I HAVE & HAVE NOT BEEN.

I have been in many places, but I've never been in Cahoots. Apparently, you can't go alone. You have to be in Cahoots with someone.



I've also never been in Cognito. I hear no one recognizes you there.



I have, however, been in Sane. They don't have an airport; you have to be driven there. I have made several trips there, thanks to my friends, family and work.



I would like to go to Conclusions, but you have to jump, and I'm not too much on physical activity anymore."

lol