F1 2010 due in September

Attachment 6625Formula1 has been posting on the forums a lot about, well, Formula 1. Codemasters F1 2010 has just been featured in a number of magazines, and an official press release has been made about when we can get our hands on it - which is September this year. Official Xbox Magazine have featured it which can be seen here, revealing a number of exclusive screens and information...

Expect the game to include all of the official teams, drivers and circuits from the forthcoming 2010 season. This, of course, includes Michael Schumacher. Game modes will include Grand Prix, Championship, Time Trial and an extensive, innovative Career mode. F1 2010 will also feature a highly advanced damage model, fully dynamic weather system.

While for the most part it's looking to be a great F1 game, there are some very disappointing exclusions. It's not even that previous games had necessarily taken advance of these, but they were high on the priority list of every fan with keen eyes on this title:

• Laser Scanned Track Data – Considered early on in the project we assessed for our needs and decided against its inclusion in favour of other features. Our track creation pipeline has been further developed and we’re now capable of producing extremely authentic environments, track surfaces included, without the need for this data.
• Safety Car – A common forum request but investigation proved, surprisingly, that this actually offers very little in terms of enjoyable game experience in comparison to other game elements we’ll reveal later. Once you find out what we spent the time on instead we’re sure you’ll agree that this was the right decision!
• Formation Lap – Currently not part of the plan, for the same reasons as safety car. This is not to say we won’t look to add a little of what the formation lap provides!
• A Feeder Series – We’re at full-stretch creating an engaging Formula One experience. Including a feeder series is not part of the deal we have and code support alone would take too much away from the main game to prove worthwhile in 2010.
• Split Screen – Some of you will have noticed this is not present in any recent Codemasters racing titles. Early on we established the huge amount of resources this feature would consume and, after weighing against our need to move the series in an original direction, made the tough decision that F1 2010 would not be the project to return Split Screen. We have included an interesting local multiplayer mode in its place and an extensive online multiplayer mode.

Bring on September.