3.5.2011

Everyone "enjoys" and "dislikes" certain genres. If we want to be honest all games are repetitive. Usually our end verdict is based on what sort of "repetition" we enjoy the most. So with Dynasty Warriors 7 you maybe asking yourself "Is it worth it?" Did Koei/Tecmo and Omega Force actually bring the franchise into the present? Being a retro old school fool whom often revisits my ps2 I can easily recognize when one of my favorite games series goes through significant "polish". If a port from a last gen console is "rehashed" and chucked onto my 360 I'm going to be able to smell it like an ever vigilante German Shepherd. Luckily, Dynasty Warriors 7 deserves to be called a modern day marvel!Er,that is assuming if you like your somewhat tactical hack n slash game play!So what is Dynasty Warriors? For those not in the know it takes place in Feudal China when three kingdoms vied for control of the land. Much akin to George R R Martin's A Song Of Ice And Fire, the story is ripe with forbidden romances, betrayals, tyrants, and fragile alliances. However, because the people at Koei/Tecmo want DW to be accessible to a larger audience there's a distinct lack of blood and swearing. "Sex" is implied but not thrown into your face as some sort of "Tussle with the concubine under the sheets until the vase falls" mini game.Dynasty Warriors 7 has a distinctive core of game design which carried over from the gnarled roots of its` forebears. You choose to play as pivotal protagonists and antagonists from the Romance Of The Three Kingdoms era then you sally forth to slay thousands of wizards, archers, and tough guys. Sound daunting? Fret not! Unless you jack up the difficulty to "Chaos" or "Hard" your adversaries are suitably dim witted. Some review sites may rag the game for this but it truth it's a blessing in disguise. If opposing clusters of troops carried out orders with well organized precision they would kill a lone warrior in a matter of seconds. Dynasty Warriors is not about total realism. It's supposed to make you feel empowered. When you slay a general of equal skill or send hundreds of peons flying with one swing of your weapon your inner child should squeal with glee! If you feel your pulse slow down from boredom instead, this type of franchise probably isn't for you.Luckily for fans and newcomers alike, Dynasty Warriors 7 mixed in much needed spice to the formula. Of all the iterations over the years this one likely has the most potential to draw in new gamers who previously sat upon the fence of uncertainty. Shall we go over what has changed?"Animal husbandry"Previous dynasty warriors games had horseback riding. It was a good way to break up the monotony of slaying whole armies on foot. Assuming you had to be somewhere fast, a slick stallion could mean the difference between victory and total annihilation.Horseback riding has returned in DW 7 and it's vastly improved! Now your four legged friend can jump, swim, do a rush attack, and be called to your side at any time with a shrill whistle command. This is much more convenient than running around the map wasting precious minutes to "jack someone's ride".Additionally in "conquest mode" you can tame tigers, hawks, bears, elephants, pandas, and wolves to either ride or fight alongside you!"Art of war"As you play out the sagas of each kingdom every chapter has set objectives. In story mode you can even use siege equipment such as ballista and catapults to mow down opponents or break down fortress walls. Missions such as freeing tigers to cause mass panic, submerging a castle in water by opening a flood gate, and escorting an important person to safety are much more fun to do. Honestly in Dynasty Warriors 5 a lot of the quests unfolded in a dry and uninspired manner. Not so here!"Traversing the terrain"Dynasty warriors 7 is a tad guilty of setting you along a preordained trail. You can sometimes look upon places which seem as if you can go there but in reality an invisible wall impedes your progress. However, you can now swim, slide down more cliff faces, and climb ladders. While your destinations are the same how you get there is up to you. Being DW was never set up like an expansive open world rpg, this never got under my skin. The added plat forming and exploration elements are likewise appreciated!"With knowledge comes power young warrior!"DW 7 goes back to the charge system and forsakes the renbu system. Being I didn't play DW 6 I do not know exactly "what" came before hand. However, it's safe to say I like the present combat a lot!Each character has a "skill tree" to boost damage you do to enemies when on horseback, add to your musou gauge, increase your speed on foot, and generally turn you into a more proficient killing machine.Your basic attack, defense, and vitality ratings are all improved by collecting shield, food, and sword icons from fallen foes."Instruments of pain"The weapon variety in Dynasty Warriors 7 is very impressive. "Arm cannons" "battle harps" and "bladed yo yos" are stranger additions and while the outlandish array of battle implements are not historically accurate they are fun to use.Each warrior can switch between two weapons in the heat of combat. Everyone can be equipped with anything before skirmishes begin but you should keep an eye on the star ratings. If say Sima Yi has a "1 star" next to the drilling lance chances are he's not going to be all that great at using it.Seals put into weapon slots can improve range, attack power, speed, mystic properties, and combos."Musou attacks" flash, crackle, burn, smash, and freeze with renewed intensity and visual gusto! Assuming you found DW 5's "super moves" to be lacking this issue has been completely rectified."Do you see what I see?"Koei and Omega force are a tad guilty about recycling graphics. If you asked me the difference between DW 3 and DW 5 it would be hard for me to list key examples. Warriors of Orochi 2 was probably the best looking outing on the PS2 and though it brought in better level design and more varied playable characters it was still using an outdated engine.Dynasty Warriors 7 by comparison looks utterly beautiful! A lot of love and thought went into the character models and the environments are not quite so drab, jagged, and flat. Many more combatants can be on screen at once and they all carry a larger plethora of unique weapon types. Granted this was achieved via deliberate frame skipping but everything flows so silky smooth only the most abrasive of snobs are going to notice.You can also rotate the camera with the left analog stick. I use this for dubious ends (pantie and thong watching) but I imagine it can be helpful during tense fights as well.If someone tells you DW 7 is "ugly" or looks outdated they're clinically blind or bias beyond rationality."Justin Bieber tried to defile the Metal...But the Metal struck him down!"Frankly the music in DW 5 sounded uninspired to me. Sure, there was plenty of electric guitar solos but they were soulless to my ears. I kept going back to Warriors Of Orochi 2 and its' more inspired soundtracks to feel "pumped" while cutting my way towards glory.I'm happy to report the band also brought back the "awesome" in Dynasty warriors 7! Every track amplifies the atmosphere and emotional investment of each situation. Most are standard Rock N Roll Heavy Metal fare but a select few compositions add in some Arabic or oriental under tones. This is something I for one appreciated. To all you composers out there who were involved in DW 7's development let me offer my sincerest gratitude!"I shall shine brightly...yes, even more so than now!"Personally I was really fond of the voice acting in Dynasty Warriors 7. It was on a whole new level. However, when there are over 60+ defenders of the realms with unique personalities, different beliefs, conflicting ideals, and even varied sexual preferences your bound to come across at least one performance that rubs you the wrong way. This did happen to me with Zhang He at first but as I got to know him better it was easy to let it slide. Call him "fruity" if you will, but he tares it up on the battle field! Besides, the world is diverse. We cannot expect everyone to conform to our bias standards of coolness. I commend game developers whom create "super heroes" or "super heroines" even minorities can relate to. Given Zhang He's characteristics his voice actor did a wonderful job! (The same goes for the rest of the cast as well.)"Sit down around the fire lads and lasses! Let me tell you a story of lords, knights, princesses, love, betrayal, and fallen kingdoms eternally retold..."Story mode is more immersible than it has ever been for the series. Cut scenes transition flawlessly into the battles themselves. Before you enter the fray you can talk to other soldiers around the base or even chat it up with your dearest companions. Weapons can be bought and forged on the spot.Instead of letting you play as one officer through an entire chronicle Story Mode shuffles you around and plants you in the shoes of alternating characters whom were the most pivotal during certain events. Like a good book you may go from Cao Cao's suspenseful escape to Dan wei's noble sacrifice. Events such as Sun Shang Xiang's tragic love affair with Liu Bei are delivered with much more feeling.The biggest con of "story mode" is the lack of co-op. Aka you feel totally on the edge of your seat at all moments which is a great accomplishment. Yet admittedly sharing it all with a friend would have been that much sweeter.However, from that "sacrifice" we get the best recounting of the 3 kingdoms era to date!"War lords just wanna have fun....smash, hack, and talk smack.....Oh yeah!"Local and online co-op can be found in Conquest mode. After a dose of melancholy historical tragedy it's nice to go into something that is more of a "fantasy what if..." approach to ancient China! As you conquer multiple hexagons on a grid map via the tried and true feudal negotiation approach (kill,kill,kill, and save villagers) you can ally yourself with anyone, build up friendly or romantic relationships with fellow officers, take your animal familiars into battle with you, shoot the spit with towns folk, answer trivia questions, and unite the lands minus the unnecessary jerk baggery. In conquest it's possible for Cao Pi and Sun Ce to be best pals or for Liu Bei to flirt it up with Zhen Ji. Characters neglected in "story mode" get their own "legendary battles" in conquest mode to boot. After you play through their segments you unlock them.I'm unsure how fans will feel about Conquest mode but personally I was glad to partake in missions which were mostly different from those found in free mode (which is basically replaying the exact same scenarios in story mode with different characters)In the future I hope DW keeps conquest mode even if "free mode" marks its' return after a brief hiatus."Omitted features"1. There's no create a character mode. For me this is fine because my custom avatar wouldn't seem nearly as important when standing next to the "true greats' anyway.2. Animal guardians and sworn allies in Conquest mode replace body guards.3. Again there's no "free mode"."Biggest gripe"Load times.....ugh!"Nicest feature"In Conquest mode you can choose any musical score you want for the upcoming conflict. My favorite listening pleasure so far is "Crisis".OverallI cannot recommend Dynasty Warriors 7 high enough. Even if you're not a huge fan of hack n slashes I would suggest a rental at the very least. With Jin becoming a new playable fraction and everything else having been "improved" by leaps and bounds this is the best DW game to jump into to get your feet wet.Being this is the very finest of its' genre it's safe to say if you don't enjoy DW 7 nothing else of a similar vein will persuade you to change your mind.Regardless, Koei/Tecmo and Omega Force put in 110% percent and should receive recognition for doing so!

31.3.2012

If there were ever a series of games that epitomise the lack of ingenuity and hard saturation that steer gamers away, it'd undoubtedly trace back to Dynasty Warriors. Infamous for constantly releasing title upon title of the same game, along with multiple expansions and sometimes crazy spinoffs, it's no wonder that the series is largely either ignored or frowned upon. Something surprising has happened though. Maybe it's because there hasn't been a good Dynasty Warriors game for over half a decade, or maybe it's because the majority of gamers have given up on the formula Koei has been following. Whatever the case, Koei has dipped its hand in the contemporary magic developer pot and (I'm being honest when I say this)Dynasty Warriors 7 has emerged as, quite possibly, one of the most underrated titles of the year.I have no shame when I tell you that I'm a Dynasty Warriors fan. Having been introduced to the god-like, seminal Dynasty Warriors 3 when I was very young, I was taken aback by how simplistic yet utterly deep and addicting the gameplay was. Nothing about the title screamed difficulty; it was all about having a plethora of officers to choose from and a seemingly infinite amount of braindead enemies to crush under the weight of your dancing, flame-encrusted, demon dragon sword of truth. You could also bring a friend along for the ride. The time I spent maxing out statistics and locating legendary weapons is borderline embarrassing, but like the esteemed Ma Chao, "I have no regrets."Saying all this, every title beyond Dynasty Warriors 3 was severely lacking. The only title I found some sort of solace in was Dynasty Warriors 5. We'll just ride right past the absolute atrocity Dynasty Warriors 6 was, which brings us to mid-2011, when Dynasty Warriors 7 jumped out of the bushes and stole my unwavering attention."If it ain't broke, don't fix it". The old proverb holds complete truth when discussing this game. Dynasty Warriors 7 is based entirely around you slashing up no-name soldiers and beating down the higher-ups for loot and stat increases, just as it always was. There's actually some deep narrative involved in the game but, unless you're a history junkie actually interested in the actual history of what happened in ancient China, or a Warriors fan, there's no Mass Effect-esque storyline here for you. Stop looking.Unlike its predecessors, Dynasty Warriors 7 brings an entirely new story mode system that will shock long-time fans and moderately please newcomers. Instead of picking an officer and running through the standard maps and scenarios that every faction would always do, Koei has crafted an elaborate campaign that spans hours. Each of the four factions - Wu, Wei, Shu and the new Jin - have a story campaign, and each one is riddled with cinematics, interesting dialogue (shocking, I know), and unique stages. As you progress through the story, the game will actually make you switch officers on-the-fly, in order to compensate for what's happening in the world. Officers will die, kingdoms will crumble, and most of the events are all fairly accurate to what actually happened in ancient China.At first I wasn't too sure about the story approach, as playing freely on whatever level on wanted was what I was always used to. Right out of the gate, when I bore witness to a cutscene without horrendous dialogue and watched as it seamlessly threw me into the scenario, I was sold. During your adventure with each kingdom, you'll also be running around towns talking to the people and purchasing weapons for your officers. The spaces you can move around within are small, and the things people say are mostly useless, but I still found this much more personable than simply jumping into a scenario without any knowledge of what's going on. However, you can still do this if you wish, by talking to the officer who initiates the fight.If the story mode doesn't do it for you, then there's the brand new Conquest mode. It's a hexagon-like board that has you moving around from space to space completing scenarios that involve special events. This is also the mode of the game that Koei has finally optimised for online play. That's right: Conquest mode is fully playable with another person locally or over the internet. As far as the events go, sometimes you'll just be completing a standard battle, but if you do then your stats will increase in a specific field. There are also weapon scenarios that will net you an ultra-powerful piece of equipment if you can beat the general at the end. Officers have their very own legendary battle scenarios, too, that are a complete blast to play through. Complete these and you'll unlock the corresponding officer. There are 46 playable officers in the game; that's a lot of unlocking.Speaking of weapons, Dynasty Warriors 7 boasts a completely revamped gameplay system. Instead of being stuck with the same weapon for a specific officer, you can now hold two types of weapons at any time. Within your stats, though, it indicates whether you're proficient with a weapon or not. Having maximum proficiency means you're faster with your weapon and can perform a special function with it. There are also special EX moves that can only be performed with an officer's innate weapon; these EX attacks are pretty flashy and give you reason to hang onto that type of weapon. There's also a bonus attack for switching weapons on-the-fly in battle.As you rack up the kills per officer in each and every scenario, you'll actually be achieving skill points. You can use these points to unlock special abilities like longer combo chains, special charge attacks and my personal favorite, the new second musou. Musou is your special attack and, typically, the Dynasty Warriors games only had one per officer. In this game, though, each and every officer has two unique musou attacks that are as over-the-top as they are awesome to behold. Would you say watching a small man hop on his cane, turn it into a blazing phoenix of fire, and shoot off into the distance, melting away the skin of every surrounding soldier is a waste of time? I didn't think so.A.I. is still a problem in the game, granted, but it's a lot smarter than it ever used to be. Enemies might attack you one minute and then take off in another direction the next. Hundreds of enemies can fit on the screen at one time, at least, but sometimes with another player you'll get some slowing down. Usually it's not a big deal, but it's still present, which is somewhat annoying. Also, the voice acting is superb compared to what we've witnessed before, but some characters still sound completely stupid. All that aside, these are mere minor complaints.Dynasty Warriors 7 is by no means a perfect game, but what it commits to is what it does best, and that's vintage hack-and-slash goodness. The story mode is incredibly engaging, and Conquest has finally thrown much-needed online play into the mix. The game certainly isn't for everyone, but if you're looking for some simplistic, addictive action, then Dynasty Warriors 7 will do you proud.This review was written for gamersguidetolife.comEnjoyed the article? Follow me on Twitter/infestedandy

29.9.2011

I loved playing the F1 2010 and being a big F1 fan I got F1 2011. The game has improved a lot since last year but its not perfect yet. The game still has its ups and downs so lets take a look at them.Career Mode:They have made the paddock area more fancy with people walking around carrying boxes and tires. You are now inside your motor home thing and that weird agent women is gone! She has been replaced with a laptop now you just do all the talking and checking on it.When you start your career you pick your name and surname etc and instead of having a choice of 3 teams like in F1 2010 you get a wider choice on who you want to start with. Virgin, HRT, Lotus, Torro Rosso, Williams and Force India.Once you've picked your team they will tell you the aims for your first season.The career mode is similar to F1 2010 all that's changed is you can do a 3 lap race in F1 2010 you had to do at least 10% of the race. The interviews have also improved you now only get a interview if you do really well just like in real life that would attract the media's attention. When you win you don't have to go through so many interviews just a short one in the paddock area.The aim of your career like in F1 2011 work your way up the ladder to bigger and faster teams to become an F1 champion. Anyone can do it with all the different settings to tune it so it's doable but still a challenge.Multiplayer:Now you can get up to 16 players online much better than last year, you get into a race straight away. Also the AI fill in the remaining 8 cars so you can get a full 24 grid race online now. Also you can do a championship with a friend online and also have a team mate.Splitscreen 2 Player:I've spent a few hours playing this and found it rather good and very fun. Makes the game feel different racing against a real person. This is great for those who don't have internet. The graphics and frame rate though aren't great although this is expected but sometimes it would go slow for a few seconds.Challenges:I've noticed there's challenges you can now do basically you are given a car, track and a time to beat. This is good for those who are wanting to try something different because this wasn't in F1 2010.Good:Safety car has been added it appears in races that are 20% or longer I believe.Improved physics engine, you can see your front wing wobble going over bumps.Car handling greatly improved and feels more realistic.Rules are not as strict.AI have improved they try to overtake you now and defend. I've also seen the AI try and defend and fight each other so they don't only defend and fight with you.All 2011 tracks, cars and drivers.DRS and KERS have been added in.Less interviews.Cut scenes make the game feel better and more real.While loading shows random stats.Bad:Graphics? There seems to be mixed thoughts on this in my opinion I don't see any change at all but there seems to be a lot of people unhappy with them.Still no parade lap.Still no podium, the cut scene you see your drivers get out the car to go to the podium but don't see them at the podium.Sometimes I see the AI cars at the start of the race drive through each other at the first corner like they turn into ghost cars, this isn't real at all although I'm unsure if this might be a bug.AI cars still rarely have a engine failure or accident.Still a few bugs and glitches about although it's still early days yet I'm sure they will be fixed but the game has frozen on me 5 times in less than a week. Also there appears to be a set up bug which means your car gets unreal grip and control and lots of people are posting up really quick times. This is unfair on those who don't know how to do it and messes up the fastest laps list for each track online.Loading screens, still a lot of them to go through load up the paddock then the track and each part of the weekend then cut scenes then more to get back to the paddock.Overall,The F1 franchise by Codemasters has improved a lot within a year. With everything up to date with the latest tracks and stuff like the DRS and KERS it's a must buy for all F1 fans. However some may feel graphics aren't the best and that it isn't a big enough step forward from F1 2010. Either way to me it's one of the best racing games I've ever played.

28.7.2011

By and large, I'm not the biggest fan of this genre. However, when I feel like some button mashing carnage, the Dynasty Warriors series has always been a safe bet. Imagine my delight when I started playing this puppy. Yes, it was a delight.I am truly impressed at the progression of Dynasty Warriors 7 in comparison to the previous in the series. First and foremost, the gameplay runs as smooth as fresh butter on a warm buttermilk biscuit. I played Dynasty Warriors 6 about a week prior to playing 7, and there's a huge and undeniable difference in quality. The graphics look cleaner and crisper. The voice acting is actually bearable. Not only is it bearable, it's well done! Even the way the same ol'Three Kingdoms story is told feels fresh and entertaining. Instead of skipping cutscenes and dialogues I find myself actually caring enough to watch them.The way that the kingdom campaigns are split up was nicely done, too! Instead of picking a character and doing a complete and tedious campaign, you simply pick a campaign and a particular character is used for each stage. This was nice because characters I never would have picked before were presented in a way that made them viable and worthwhile characters.It's a mixed bag with the weapon system. I kind of liked that characters had a particular weapon that they used that nobody else was proficient with. It made each character unique. This go around, each character can use pretty much every weapon possible, the caveat being some characters are better with certain weapons than other characters. Regardless of this fact, a character's musou attacks do not change with the weapon being used - it will always revert to the character's specialty weapon - i.e. a sword guy using an arm cannon will still always do the sword musou.I like the leveling system alright. You earn points by doing conquest missions or by doing campaigns. Like previous Dynasty Warriors games, you gain permanent stat increases from killing officers, and now you gain skill points that go towards increasing your combos, musou attacks, etc. The last skill you get generally varies from character to character - some get an attack/defense/health bonus, while some get miscellaneous skills, like Smithing. I kind of prefer the skill tree system of Dynasty Warriors 6 as it had a bigger variety. Ah well.The best weapons I've found come from doing conquest missions to unlock them. On each weapon is a seal that needs to be unlocked which can increase attack/defense/health and a variety of other benefits. Once you unlock a seal, it can then be attached to a weapon to increase the player's stats.So those are the basics of the game. It's not a complex game by any means, but I do find it to be very fun. There are some bugs with online play that really need to be addressed. Synching the two online players correctly so that each player sees what the other is truly doing would be a start. At times you will see your buddy go through walls, jump in the water, stand on top of his horse, attack air, stand still. However, in reality he's killing an officer or he could be in a completely different area of the map. It's humorous for a time, but it gets annoying quickly. Worst still, is that you can be fighting an enemy officer together, but out of synch. For instance, I could be fighting Lu Bu so that my teammate can attack him from behind, but on my teammate's screen Lu Bu will be attacking him. Fix that!All in all, this game is the best of the series despite the bugs and nit-picks. I enjoy the heck out of this game, and new iterations will definitely be on my radar in the future!

11.12.2011

Blimey, this has had a few bad reviews...Well I'm half way through my second season and I'm still loving it. It was my first F1 game for PC, I decided to get a steering wheel and pedals config which I highly reccomend you doing so.For me the game is very realistic. This is possibly why these F1 simulators get such bad reviews, because kids come from need for speed straight onto games like these. If you haven't spent at least half an hour practicing on the track beforehand, you WILL come off. It's a fact. With my first time playing it I used to use up all 3 sessions of practise and quals to get used to the track. It's definitely a game you have to stay patient with,which is the main reason why I love it so much.The addition of the DRS zone is fantastic, I was very pleased to see that added. The only issue with the DRS is that on the Turkish track there's 4 left turns after each other which you can take flat out. The AI ALWAYS open DRS there and spin out on qualify and pratise. There are a few other times that the AI will always mess up, you just get used to it. But that's what I also love about the game. The AI are actually pretty realistic. If you overtake, the AI will stay strong on you and try to take you back through the next turn. It's really quite challenging at times. Plus the addition of the safety car is pretty awesome. You'll mostly only ever see it on street tracks mind...Damage is fantastic. You can obviously opt out and just go for cosmetic, but if you wanted to go serious, tap a car and you've lost part of your front wing, which in turn will affect your handling dramatically. Oh and don't think you can get away with removing the front wing of another car "accidently"; you'll be suffering a drive through penalty.I presume the career is the same as all the others- start in a crap car and work up through the ranks, getting new contract deals from other teams and getting that number 1 driver in the space of 5 seasons. At the moment I'm in the Force India team placed 5th overall. I mean yes, maybe the time that you could get around a particular track may be 2 seconds faster than that actually set in real life, but if you're playing on the hardest difficulty then you're no way gonna win in a Lotus unless you're cheating. Or even make it in the top 10 for that matter. That's a pretty neat aspect.And for one final thing, just to cover it like others have done so in other reviews. The pit stop is pretty buggy, yes. Driving through your performance will drop and you'll be getting around 18fps max. But you don't even drive through the pits yourself so... Doesn't bother me. Occasionally at some points in the game on certain tracks you will lag, usually when you come past the pits, but patches are being released to help solve that. If you have a powerful enough PC like me you won't run into too many problems at all. Besides, the game graphics look pretty spectacular from my point of view, almost like watching the real thing, especially in the rain! (Not that you'll ever enjoy racing in the rain...)And that covers it all. If you're after a real racing sim, after being tired of terrible arcade games with crappy handling, this is the game for you. Turn all driving aids off and grow pride in every corner you turn. Currently the best racing sim for PC out there in my opinion.

14.5.2012

F1 2010 was impressive for a first attempt from Codemasters. It took me a while to buy F1 2011 but I had read about the number of improvements over the first title.This is easily the best F1 racer I have played. On the PC, you have to look back at games like Grand Prix 4, the old Ubisoft F1 simulation or some of the decent but buggy attempts by EA. This is much better.Pros1) Excellent graphics, slight improvement on F1 2010 (e.g. reflections and weather effects)2) Realism in driving, handling, tyre degradation and track changes due to weather3) DRS and KERS are not just gimmicks, you really need to use them to maximise your times and they work really well4) Details e.g. you can run off line and pick up 'marbles'

23.9.2011

I was a little sceptical to begin with that 2011 would really be tat much of an improvement or different to the 2010 game which was so good in itself. However since playing the new one, Ive been really impressed with what they've done!For a start, the handling of the cars is so much more realistic (I assume, since ive never driven an F1 car before!). In 2010, it was very easy to master the control of the car, even with no assists, and in was way too predictible. Now you have to be pretty cautious, especially if your tyres are brand new or starting to wear.The introdution of KERS an DRS iw brilliant. You really notice the effect you get when in the slip stream of another car.Some people have complained about the quality of the graphics and the fact the game doesnt run smoothly,

15.11.2011

I was at first not able to get the game on my preferred gaming system of choice (PS3) so I decided to go for the PC version.My computer specs are slightly below the minimum specs required but I have since found out that they are fine. I get 30+ FPS on medium settings with a i5-480, 315M 1GB Graphics card and 4GB RAM.I have read the other reviews that seem either 5* or 1* and I wanted to add my take on the game.Having owned every F1 game to come out since F1 2000 I had become accustomed to being let down by the intervening games. And although Codemasters last attempt wasn't what I had hoped it was going to be it still was a solid bases from which this game has grown.The graphics have improved out of sight compared to F1 2010 and the game play has improved as well!

26.9.2011

F1 2011 is a great improvement on last years game with Codemaster answering many of the criticisms, with split screen multi-player added and even a safety car, but I am left still wanting more.The career mode is very similar to before almost identical. In fact it's almost identical to the Studio Liverpool F1 games on the PS2. The interviews are tedious to say the least. The game tries to represent the full life of an F1 Driver on and off the the track, wouldn't it be great if there were different PR events to attend sporadically through the seasons rather than having the same interview at the end of each race.

20.10.2011

I am new to the whole F1 simulators, however my knowledge of racing sims is quite high. I was just expecting an okay racing sim here. But what you actually get is a really close fine tuned simulator that is gonna give you hours of fun. I know many people moan about how sims are boring, I was the same, but this game is completely different. You can have the realism as high as you like. With all driver aids off and all HUD mods off, and of course a decent steering wheel and pedals setup, it's like you're racing the real thing! I'm only on the third weekend of the season after a week of playing it since I'm trying to learn the track. I love how you start low with say Force India,

27.5.2012

Although I didn't buy this from Amazon, as I'm on ordering something else thought I'd give my opinion on this too. I'm an F1 fan and have 2011 for Xbox 360 as well. Although obviously this is not even close in graphical terms or handling, Codemasters I think have done a very good job in converting the "feel" of F1 to a handheld console with more limited capabilities.F1 fans will go straight to Career Mode and won't be disappointed. You can take part in full practice sessions, Q1, 2 & 3 and then full races with number of laps dependant on your selected settings. During P & Q sessions you can go in and out of the pits at will to change set-ups and save them to the game.

13.11.2011

Was really looking forward to this game, as i loved the previous one. There are some obvious fantastic points about this game, the graphics, the game play, the realism etc etc. But there are some bad points. There are way too many punctures in this game, compared to real life f1. You can go along a straight, and get a puncture, and that, i have never seen in formula 1 (and i am a HUGE fan, watched it since i was 4). There's not enough realism with things like mechanical failures, managing engine temp, managing fuel etc. I do love the safety car, even though it rarely comes out, and thats another thing to compare to real life. Every season the safety car comes out so much, when i have played the game,

2.5.2011

I have played dynasty warriors since 4 through the current and this one is the best so far.Story mode follows Wei, Wu, Shu and now Jin. The story lines are pretty long and good deal of battles (and quite a few cinimatic cut scense in some parts). Story mode is kingdom based instead of officer based like in DW5 and DW6, This time insead of picking an officer a going through the storyline, you play a predetermined character in each battle, And there is no B.S ending where one of them unites the land. The three kingdoms story start at the yellow turban rebellion but end at different times ( wei's ends with the death of Cao Cao, wu's ends a few years after He Fei and Shu ends with the death of Zhuige Liang).

9.11.2011

I was looking forward to F1 2011 after playing F1 2010 for some time. It is an improvement on 2010 but there are some really annoying bugs. For example, in 2010 if you altered quick setup for low downforce and high speed it also increased top speed in gearing. This does NOT happen in 2011 so quick setup is useless, you have to manually alter gear ratios. Secondly I use a momo wheel, is set up and works fine but is not saved as default controller so every time I start the game I have to change the controller. Thirdly, you spend ages in practice tweaking setup and then come qualifying, back to defaults. This also happens after qualifying, despite the current rules in F1 stating setup for race must be the same as qualifying.

25.6.2015

Well obviously most Dynasty warriors games are 5 star games, they do hack n' slash better than any competitor. That goes without saying, however there were some differences that really need getting used to in this game. I felt most of the maps were much bigger than what I was used to, so with that the map is a bit harder to read unless you have a huge TV. Also the battle had a different feel to it, it was more complex than older Dynasty Warriors games, wasn't the simple go and kill the leader, it had twists and turns in almost every battle, plenty of ambushes and enemy strategies that are actually executed well and does throw you off most of the time. But it's standout features are the combat,

F1 2011 - Reviews

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