14 DAY TRIAL // The Formula 1 season is drawing to a close with three races remaining and with British driver Jason Button being the front runner in the Driver's Championship, but, at the moment, videogame lovers do not have a Formula 1 simulation game allowing them to relive the races and even re-write racing history by putting drivers like Hamilton, Alonso or Vettel ahead of the current leader.
Codemasters is working to remedy that with two games that will likely arrive in the coming months. And it has revealed that F1 2009, set to be released on the Nintendo Wii home gaming console and on the PlayStation Portable handheld, will attempt the ambitious goal of fully simulating the Singapore night race, introduced in 2008 to the racing season and which has just been raced this year.
Simulating the Formula 1 Singtel Singapore Grand Prix, as it is officially known, is a challenge because the race is run under the light provided by floodlights.
There are more than 1,500 of them spread around the track, meaning that the developers for F1 2009 need to simulate the light given out by each of them while also taking care of showing the effects that the visibility conditions might have on pilots. F1 2009 should arrive on the Nintendo Wii with a special edition limited bundle including a racing wheel that will cradle the Wiimote and aim to attract both more casual gamers interested in Formula 1 but not having exhaustive experience with racing titles and more hardcore racers looking for a challenge on the Wii. The PlayStation Portable version of F1 will also offer four player multiplayer modes.
Codemasters is working on another title, called F1 2010, set to use the same game engine like GRID and coming to the PlayStation 3, the Xbox 360 and the PC next year.