The official description says that the project aims to create “a fully official and high quality FORMULA ONE browser gaming experience, the as-yet-unnamed game will focus on being highly accessible, thanks to an innovative design approach to car control, while offering persistence and depth of gameplay for a mainstream online gaming audience.”

A guy called F1Racer has put together a very impressive F1 2010 reality check video, showing us a lap around the famous Monza circuit both in real life and Codemasters’ popular title.

The video includes commentator narration of the lap to make it even more realistic. You can check it out on Youtube below, a high-resolution download link is also available.

Autosport Magazine has published a video review of Codemasters’ upcoming F1 2010 title that is due for release in just 12 days.

The ten-minute video not just includes plenty of gameplay footage but also interviews with Codemasters’ Steve Hood & Paul Jeal as well as Formula One driver Anthony Davidson, showing off some great driving at Monaco.

Following their maiden Formula One title that was released only for the PlayStation Portable and the Nintendo Wii, Codemasters will be bringing the 2010 Formula One season to the PC, the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3. F1 2010 has been confirmed to be released September 24.

• Polyphony Digital is working on reducing load times and is still tweaking graphics ahead of the November release date.
• The game has nearly filled all of the space available on Blu-Ray disc.

• You’ll have the option to synchronize the game’s time of day with the track’s current local time.
• The crowds will be dynamic, so there will be more tents, cars, and motorhomes at longer races.
• Yamauchi admits his team may have “actually gone too far in modeling some of this detail” and suggested it might be “more suited to the next generation of PlayStation.”

• Both high and low-beam headlights will be included, so you can flash slower cars as you’re about to pass them (how awesome will this be during the 24 hour races!?!). All lights will illuminate dirt, smoke, or other debris in the air.

• NASCAR insisted that all of their series’ cars be playable on all circuits in the game.
• It was previously mentioned that only 9 NASCAR cars will be included, but this was incorrect. There are simply 9 cars in the E3 2010 demo, but “many more” are coming.

• With the exception of profanity, all of the Nurburgring’s graffiti has been re-created, just as it is in real life. According to Kotaku, they will attempt to keep the graffiti up-to-date before the game is shipped.

• Players will be able to maintain an online profile to share and watch friend’s progress and statistics.
• All cars (including standard models) will accumulate dirt and will have functional horns.
• All cars will have functioning reverse lights.

• More information will be revealed at Gamescom in Germany on August 18-22.

• More Formula 1 teams will bring their cars to the game, in addition to Ferrari.

• “While racing the 24 hours of Nurburgring, you can smell people’s barbecues — we couldn’t recreate that.” — Kazunori Yamauchi

The legendary Monaco Grand Prix is coming up on Sunday and the Red Bull Formula One team has released another of their simulator videos, showing the famous street circuit in their rFactor Pro simulator.

The video shows Red Bull F1 driver Mark Webber driving and narrating a complete lap, giving us a chance to check out the virtual version of Formula One’s most popular track.

Like four other Formula One teams, Red Bull uses the Pro-version of rFactor for their simulator that is used for driver and crew training and other tasks.

Codemasters claim “F1 2010″ will be “a departure for F1 games”.

F1 fans have been waiting four years for a new official F1 game for the latest generation console formats. In the last 12 months we’ve had hundreds of comments on this site discussing what should be in the game.

F1 Fanatic put your questions to Codemasters at their launch event in London today – and was among the first people to play an early version of “F1 2010″.

Handling

Senior producer Paul Jeal promised “F1 2010″ would offer “authentic, predictable and consistent handling.” I sampled a ‘pre-alpha build’ (’early version’ in non-gamers lingo) of the game to put that claim to the test.

Even in this early version the handling feels more convincing than the decidedly arcade-style “F1 2009″. Stamping the throttle and throwing the car around do not work here. Drop off a Monza kerb with the accelerator down too far and you pirouette in an instant.

But nor did the game feel punishingly difficult. I quickly got a feel for how the car behaved and got into a satisfying rhythm within a couple of laps.

This is not a bleeding-edge hardcore simulation – it feels more like “Gran Turismo” or “Forza” than “Grand Prix Legends”. It’s easy to pick up but requires a bit of concentration to master.

They have toned down the realism when it comes to following closely behind another car. The handful of videos Codemasters showed us of the game featured more overtaking than the whole of the Bahrain Grand Prix – and that’s probably for the best.

You do have more control over the car settings than in previous games. The driver can alter engine management settings to get more power at the expense of fuel economy. Use up too much of your engine life an you risk falling foul of the faithfully-recreated limit of eight engines per season. And, of course, you can tweak the adjustable front wing.

But I couldn’t find a button to control the drivers’ knee to operate the McLaren’s infamous F-duct.

Rain and rubber

Codemasters are especially proud of their track simulation which they call ‘active track technology’. This re-calculates the grip levels on the surface for every 30cm the players’ car travels, taking into account build-up of rubber, marbles from the tyres and, of course, the weather.

This has a clear effect on your car’s handling. Not only do your tyres pick up dirt if you go off the track, but braking off-line is trickier. Go out on the track in the first minutes of Friday practice and you’ll find it’s ‘green’ – low on grip – making your lap times slower. You’ll have to pay attention to how the track develops to pick the best moment to set a time in qualifying.

When rain falls the track gets greasy and eventually puddles develop. If the rain stops a dry line begins to emerge and you’ll have to look after your tyres by seeking out damp patches of track.

We saw some video of the rain effects and they look genuinely impressive. Clouds of spray billow off the cars and reflections shimmer in the puddles on the track.

Damage

Codemasters promises a more sophisticated car damage model than we’ve seen on previous games. As well as knocking off wings and wheels you can damage your suspension which unbalances your handling. Debris from collisions can land on the track and cause more damage.

Some of this can be fixed with a quick visit to the pits but make sure you stop on your marks – one video they showed us featured a car knocking a team member down.

Your driving style can provoke damage too. Repeatedly lock a wheel and you can see blisters and flat-spots develop on the rubber. Keep punishing your tyres and they’ll eventually burst.

Rivals

Artificial intelligence is one area where F1 games have fallen down in the past, with drivers either weaving across the track absurdly or making no attempt to defend their position at all.

In “F1 2010″ cars defend their positions and try to break your tow. Interestingly, the team say they’ve tried to model the characteristics of individual drivers, so some are better in the wet than others, and some do better at certain tracks, such as Felipe Massa at Istanbul.

Your relationship with your team mate plays a bigger role in “F1 2010″ than in previous F1 games. No longer is he just the guy in the other car – you have to fight and beat him to get the team on your side. Finish ahead often enough and you’ll have access to performance upgrades before he does – just like in real life.

So what’s missing? The team admitted that the safety car – one of the most requested features in the comments on F1 Fanatic – will not feature in the game. According to Codemasters it added to little to the playing experience to merit inclusion. However the full range of warning flags will be simulated including red flags for race stoppages.

Nor will players be able to drive the formation lap – again the team said they felt it added too little to the game compared to other aspects. However this feature and the safety car is being considered in the 2011 version of the game.

Because of license restrictions you can only play with the 2010 season cars and tracks. Codemasters say they looked at adding feeder series to the game but decided it would take too long to do.

The timing of the game’s release means it will be on the shelves before the cars have raced at the new Korean circuit, meaning that track will have to be built without data from the race weekend. However the team are confident that can build it accurately and have no plans for a post-Korea patch to improve the simulation.

Up to 13 people will be able to play at once in online multiplayer. Curiously, the team said they had been advised by FOM to leave the slot for a 13th team free in case one appears later this season.

The version of the game we played today which you can see in the pictures below is still in the early stages of development. Although some of the aspects fans might want to see won’t appear in the game the early signs are very encouraging. But we won’t know for sure how good it is until the game finally arrives this September.

This video was shot at the event and, again, features pre-alpha build code. Look out for Raikkonen going over the top of the Red Bull.

More and more preview material and information is emerging from yesterday’s Formula One 2010 game event at London where several journalists had the chance to try Codemasters upcoming new title.

VisionRacer VR3 were used to preview the upcoming title.

Some of the mentioned features the ability to change engine mappings and the adjustable front wing settings during the race. Players have to take care of their engine as the strict engine limit rules are enforced, urging players to take care of their engine during the course of a season. Even though engines won’t completely fail, abusing the powerplant will cause cylinders to drop, resulting in a loss of power. The title’s damage model is also mentioned, including aero and tire damages, suspension damage that will effect the car’s handling as well as damage when making contact with debris on track.

Current Formula One racing puts a lot of emphasis on tires and F1 2010 will fully incorporate that as tires will get flatspots and pick up marbles and dirt. Combine that with what Codemasters calls their “active track technology” and driving can get very tricky as the simulation steadily recalculate the grip level, taking rain, dirt, marbles, rubber build up and different racing lines into consideration.

While all this sounds very promising, some discouraging news have also emerged. Online play will be limited to 13 cars, a restriction made with the console versions in mind. Furthermore, Codemasters has confirmed that the title will only include the 2010 season due to license issues, the 2009 cars seen in the early preview material will not be used past their placeholder role. 

Codemasters have released the first footage of the recently announced F1 2010 on PS3, 360 , PC and PSP. The footage comes courtesy of the game’s first developers diary.

The footage shows a number of important members of the game’s development team and even former Super Aguri driver Anthony Davidson.

Watch the diary to the right.