F1 2012

[Trace17]

Release: September 18th* US/September 21st EU
Demo dates:
XBL: Out now!
PC: Sep. 11
PS3 (NA): Sep. 11
PS3 (EU): Sep. 12

What's new?

• Ugly cars! Okay, that's realistic though.
• Austin track!
• Shorter Bahrain layout! (the one back in F1 CE, hasn't been in F1 2010/2011)
• Young Driver Test (a fancy tutorial to play once)
• Champions Mode (time trials and scenarios against 6 champions)
• Localized weather - now it might rain at Eau Rouge and be sunshine through Blanchimont!
• Brake Bias adjustments can now be done on the fly
• Handling - okay, nobody actually knows what is new here, if anything is actually new
• Season Challenge - 10 races to win the title, and you can change teams mid-season. A shortened version of career for those thinking that was too long.
• Really new and fancy menus!!
• Different cover arts! US gets Red Bull on the front, UK gets McLaren, Spain gets Ferrari, Germany gets Schumi I think, Aussies get Red Bull, etc. etc.
• RaceNet integration - it's anyone's guess what exactly this will entail, but at the least you'll probably get to see your stats and compare to friends.

So what are CM not telling us? A lot, really. The marketing for F1 2012 has been the most subdued of any F1 game. A couple of official gameplay videos and two (useless) developer diaries is all we have so far, and commercials/internet marketing is virtually non-existant.

Also, apparently the option to complete a custom full season through the grand prix mode has been removed. So if you're a big Ferrari fan and want to do a full season as Alonso as soon as you buy the game, well, you can't. You'll have to a career season to get a Ferrari contract or race as him online. Why was this removed? Because, that's why! Seriously, they said nobody used it (they did) and removed it. Because options HURT people.

There might be some other adjustments as well but I haven't read a whole lot, CM are not outspoken about it.

*=US release is Sep 18, but like previous Codemasters games, this could in fact be a "ship date" and not an actual "shelf date". So, to be blunt, I have no idea if you can actually buy this game on Sep 18 or not. For what it's worth, I have Amazon prime and if I preorder Borderlands 2 it says "release date delivery - Sep 18" but if I were to pre-order F1 2012 it says "ships Sep 18, estimated delivery Sep 21"

[dobyblue]

They list September 30th for the Canada date, not sure why as the game disc will be identical as the US.

Anyway I skipped 2011, so I may pick this one up (just pre-ordered it for the 30th). I can afford upgrading every 2nd year.

If they add 3D to 2013 though I'll be upgrading next year too.

[Trace17]

Originally Posted by dobyblue

They list September 30th for the Canada date, not sure why as the game disc will be identical as the US.

Anyway I skipped 2011, so I may pick this one up (just pre-ordered it for the 30th). I can afford upgrading every 2nd year.

If they add 3D to 2013 though I'll be upgrading next year too.

Hrm, amazon.ca says the 30th but eb games and bestbuy.ca say he 18th. As you can tell, code masters really care about getting solid information to retailers in north America

If you skipped 2011 then 2012 is probably worth jumping in. The demo is live on the us store too for those wanting to give it a try.

[Stu123]

Just playing demo now it's good

[David LFC]

We should set up a F1 2012 league on here so we can arrange races ? very hard to find clean drivers on line mostly all rammers

[dobyblue]

Originally Posted by David LFC

We should set up a F1 2012 league on here so we can arrange races ? very hard to find clean drivers on line mostly all rammers

I would enjoy racing some week-end against a few players on here, maybe something we can do around 7AM EST on a race morning before the race starts? Qualy and 30%~40% race session for whatever race is upcoming would be cool too.

[David LFC]

Originally Posted by dobyblue

I would enjoy racing some week-end against a few players on here, maybe something we can do around 7AM EST on a race morning before the race starts? Qualy and 30%~40% race session for whatever race is upcoming would be cool too.

Yeah we could race on the race weekend , If we get enough people i'm on PSN

[PrivatePixel]

It's been years since I've played an F1 game, but I'm looking forward to this. According to the official website, the PS3 demo comes out tomorrow in the UK (it's up in N. America: 1.35 GB download), so that gives me something to look forward to. If I like what I see, I'm going to order a UK copy (for the McLaren cover, of course ).