F1 2011 First Impressions

So far I've done a bunch of practice, 1 single lap non-career race, and 1 full career weekend 50% distance.

I'm racing with all assists off, 0 flashbacks, and Professional AI.

Game/System
- Crossfire doesn't work, just like in F1 2010
- I was getting the codemasters' video sutter at random times. I had to create a symbolic link to another hard drive for the replay file. Cleared that issue right up

Wheel/Forcefeedback
- I took me awhile but I got the wheel feeling pretty well tuned.
- The advanced setting sliders for the wheel are totally different than the dirt/grid sliders. - I'm 5% dead zone on the wheel, 20% steering sensitivity, 20% linear, 0% everything else.

The career race
- I think AI qualification times are still fudged
- I REALLY enjoyed the career race, way more than I enjoyed any F1 2010 race.
- I'm Force India, qualied 12th, finished 6th. Had some great fights Rosberg throughout the 2nd half of the race. I did a two stopper after starting on primes, used those for 11 laps, switched to options for 7 laps, and switched back to primes for the final 11 laps.
- I definitely felt the effect of the different tires, the tire wear throughout the stint, and the effect of fuel burning off.

There's a ton to manage in the race.
- DRS - In the race the DRS will beep when you can use it. I used it maybe 3 times. Open it too early at the end of a corner and your ass end will break loose.
- FUEL - You can change your fuel mix throughout the race, in one of the information displays it gives you the number of laps your under or over for fuel. During the career race I set it to rich and left it there too long. For the last 3rd of the race I had to set it to lean to make back the fuel.
- TIRES - I was keeping an eye on their wear throughout the stint.
- KERS - It's a fun thing to manage per lap. Get on it too early out of a corner and you'll break traction on the tires.

Presentation
A lot better, it feels more alive. Go off track for a bit and the screen bounces pretty hard. At one point I saw a group of birds fly over the track. Tire tracks in the grass remain there. The cars sound a lot better than F1 2010 and even the shift sound is very satisfying given how much you hear it. When you open DRS you can hear a wind sound and a clunk when it opens and closes. The cars also seem to move more realistically during corners.

Car handling realism
I'm not an F1 racer, as you may know, but it seems more realistic. I was losing the rear end until I played with the rear wing. Tires are cold out of the pits and it's easy to lock up the tires. Doesn't have that auto spin correction that the last version had.

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