F1 2011

I have F1 2010 and just got F1 2011 from somewhere cheaper.
The gameplay is a lot smoother than before.
The updates are KERRS, DRS, Drivers and Track.
This is a must for all F1 fans and you wont be disappointed.
Only downside to the game is like with the previous F1 2010, it takes a while loading up at beginning and for races.
A MUST HAVE RACING GAME

Agree graphics are great, time for loading is slow, but my biggest gripe is that I too find it impossible to control and keep on the track. So far, the best time I have managed is about 34 seconds behind the 23rd ranked car! I also have managed to receive 3 x 10 place penalties on the grid for blocking when I was spinning round and trying to get back on the track during practice. Will persist as looks as if it should be good. So far, not managed to finish any session without being DNQ.

The last time i bought an F1 game was F1 '97 for the Playstation, and what a fine game it was graphically as well as gameplay. Even today i reckon apart from the graphics looking ropey the gameplay is still good.
Not so for F1 2011 on the PC. It looks and feels like a console game port. Sure the graphics aren't too bad, but the game play is frustrating from the off.
Firstly the game takes minutes to load after you have logged into Windows live. Cannot use a mouse to click various options to advance through the screens more quickly, you have to use the keyboard buttons etc.
Eventually i was happy with the setup of my car as i opted to do a practice session on a familiar track i know well. The game loads to the track after a long pause. I take control of the car and i cannot keep the car on track. After several corners i head back to the pit to alter setups. I did this 5 or 6 times, each time increasing downforce and changing brake bias so as to be able to turn into the corners etc. But all in vain. The car's characteristics on track are that of driving on ice, i just couldnt get the power down properly even on the straights, this was because as the car drifted (all quite normal) i would attempt to make small/ subtle corrections to keep the car on the right bit of the track (all quite normal), however, the car would fishtail, often i ended up in the barrier or on the grass/ gravel run offs in corners.
I found that the handling of the car in the game was terrible.
I shut the game down for a bit and went back to it a bit later. By now i was familiar with loading up the game and navigating to the right screens that i wanted etc. But it wasn't any faster, still took minutes to get to the pit garage in the practice mode - this is just unacceptable, takes far to long! What were Codemasters thinking of? Or is this down to Windows (Microsoft) for the game taking a long time to load up?
The graphics are 'ok', nothing to get too excited about.
Far too many setup options for the car, to the casual racing game enthusiast it will be too complex, and for even a die hard F1 fan it's complicated.
The gameplay as far as i got was awful, labouring and in the end unexciting.
What was a game i had been looking forward to play for the past couple of months turned out to be a big let down.

The two stars i've given are for how the game looks.
If i had been able to sample the game prior to buying it i would have never bought it.

The game is brilliant. Lots of improvement compare to f1 2010.
Graphic is amazing, plus kers and DRS. Very playable.
On maximum graphic settings on core i7 Q840, Nvidia GTX 460M sli and 8GB RAM I'v got average 45 FPS on benchmark witch is pretty much the same as F1 2010 (49 FPS)
Thanks Codemasters :)

If you have used the game GP4 this drives very much like that, the graphics are similar. Only a bit better on the track but a lot better on cars and people. The graphics have a crisp clear bright feeling to them, happily nothing like the smeary misty over exposed look of Grid.
Nice to see all the new tracks, I started to use a Thrustmaster steering wheel, but despite many adjustments I found it very tough to control the car. When I used a joystick every thing got vastly better.
This is the complete opposite of a game like dirt 2.
I like many others, still find the penalty system very odd, and far to inflexible. E.G. I got black flagged and disqualified 3 time's in a row, and I never moved off the start line. When did that ever happen formula 1 Racing!
A good point is you can make your own grand prix season up just, picking the tracks you want to and race without any qualifying laps like quick race setting on GP4.
I have used this game on 2 computers and stability is good with a good average 45-50 F.P.S.
Windows live has already made 1 update to it.