F1 2012 will launch in the UK on 21st September, and to celebrate the announcement Codemasters has also released a new developer diary which reveals a few new details, including the Young Driver Test, F1 2012’s tutorial mode.

F1 2012’s Creative Director, Stephen Hood commented on the Young Driver Test: “The aim for the 2012 game is to make more of a complete FORMULA ONE experience. [The Young Driver Test] gives those up and coming drivers track time to showcase their talents and it’s wonderful that we are able to copy the elements that happen on those real Young Driver Test sessions in the game.”

Located at Namco Bandai’s stand at booth C11 in Hall 9, Codemasters will be showcasing both F1 2012 and F1 Race Stars.

Gamescom will serve as the worlds first hands-on outing for F1 Race Stars, as well as the debut of the recently announced F1 2012 game type called ‘Champions Mode’.

F1 2012 is due out 21st September on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC, and Champions Mode sees players take on six FIA Formula One World Champions in specially designed race scenarios with ‘quick play’ and ‘instant action’ in mind.

F1 Race Stars comes to Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC some time this November, showcasing Formula 1 live never before. Featuring all of the official cars, teams and circuits in what Codemasters call a truly ‘over the top’ experience.

Thankfully, nobody has yet made a Formula 1 game with that much realism in mind, Codemasters went even further than that recently and decided to make a F1 game devoid of any reality, exchanging dull realism for tyres full of fun and dreams.

Codemasters today unveiled the official boxart for F1 Race Stars and not only does it look as fun as a box of frogs in a washing machine, it also uses a delightful shade of purple that should be used all of the time, everywhere, ever.

F1 Race Stars is currently slated for a November release on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

Featuring the highly stylised likenesses of Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel, F1 Race Stars looks odd for sure, especially given Codemasters penchant for having only made serious games since 1992. Heck, if F1 Race Stars can catch even a slither Dizzy’s charm, it could be a surprise hit.

F1 Race Stars comes to Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC this November.

Being both an online racing and management browser-based game, racers are invited to visit http://www.F1OnlineTheGame.com/ today, create their own team and get racing.

In conjunction with the title going into open beta, Codemasters have also release the first gameplay video, featured on the aforementioned site. Depicting officially licensed Formula One teams racing through iconic race tracks, from Monaco to Silverstone, the video also shows customisation, upgrades and management systems.

For more information about F1 Online: The Game, visit the official site http://www.F1OnlineTheGame.com/, Facebook www.facebook.com/F1OnlineTheGame or Twitter www.twitter.com/F1OnlineTheGame pages.

Sometimes you don’t want to obey the rules of the road. Sometimes, you couldn’t care less about lap times or racing lines. It’s time like this when you need DiRT: Showdown! This frantic, devastating arcade racer from developers Codemasters is the perfect title for multiplayer party gaming, vehicular destruction and no-holds-barred racing.

Better still, we’ve teamed up with one of the world’s largest online action sports clothing stores, FreestyleXtreme so you can be in with a chance of experiencing the wanton destruction for yourselves!

To be in with a chance of winning a copy of DiRT: Showdown for PS3 or 360, A Ken Block/DC Shoes baseball cap and a DiRT: Showdown sticker, simply answer the following question:

DiRT: Showdown is a spin-off from a franchise originally known as?

a)      Race Driver: GRID

b)      Colin McRae Rally

c)       Ken Block Racing

Post your answer in the comments below by midday on Friday 29 June to be in with a chance of winning. UK residents only.

From humble beginnings in 1998 as the fully-licensed and official game of the World Rally Championships, the Colin McRae series has come a very long way. With DiRT 2 the last title to feature his name and DiRT 3 still possessing his ‘influence’ and ‘ethos’, apparently, DiRT Showdown is perfect microcosm for this new era in Codemasters’ proud racing history, the first child of the Codemasters Racing label. That said, a game where the primary objective is wanton destruction wouldn’t exactly be a befitting tribute to a man who tragically died in a helicopter crash along with his 5 year-old son and several close family friends.

Pining after Mister McRae aside, Showdown does feel like the logical progression for the series, and as sad as it is to say this, a thoroughbred rally game just wouldn’t cut it anymore. In an age of Monster Khaos, with a K, and True LAD, one cannot be simply worrying about what sort of suspension setup would be more appropriate in the gravel-laden New Zealand countryside, we’d rather be causing severe spinal damage to fictional Europeans in Vauxhall Corsas.

DiRT Showdown is just about the most bombastic racer going, even the menu falls out of the sky like a concrete donkey, with the entire game covered in a thick film of crisp, bright colours. It’s okay to take a leaf from the Big Book of Burnout, but the decaying, termite-ridden branches of this tortured metaphor? I doubt there’s a single person alive to fondly recollects the parts in Burnout 3 where DJ Stryker was speaking, using the word ‘radical’ like a ordinary people use cutlery, like Criterion watched Bill and Ted and thought ‘Yes! This is the sort of person we want playing our game’. At least they had the decency to let the player disable him, the best I can do with the criminally irritating Christian Stevenson is send him to half-volume, which is almost worse. You can’t hear exactly what he’s saying but you know he’s still there, making laboured attempts at witty observation making Stryker, and to a lesser extent Atomika, sound like David bloody Attenborough.

Embittered muttering aside, impact between vehicles pack a satisfying amount of punch, but you’re often feels like they have something to be desired. The ‘Crashback’ replay function, which pops up for particularly brutal encounters, seems needless when very crashes very rarely seem to carry the sort of spectacle that’d warrant repeated slow-motion recollection, lacking the finesse of Burnout: Paradise. In that sense it almost feels like the FIFA Street of the series, whilst taking a different direction to the core franchise it still seems to be based on essentially the same game engine a games gone by with only a few tweaks for good measure.

That said, for everything Showdown does worse than Burnout, it manages to so something better. It is truly a joy to drive in Showdown. Cornering is weighted just enough for drifts to feel both challenging and rewarding, without being too ‘realistic’. Yes, it’s clearly an arcade title but that doesn’t mean that cars have to feel like they’re made of paper and dreams. Heavy, bulky cars feel as such and your opponents with think twice about a head on showdown. Likewise, the feathery but nippy gain a significant enough speed advantage for them to be in consideration, but so much as a gentle prod will see you spinning wildly into oblivion.

Game modes have a welcome degree of variation, and whilst Showdown isn’t exclusively a smashy-smashy affair, the better game modes are the ones with the most carnage. 8-ball is a tidy mixture of racing and chaos, unbridled Banger Racing on an often-intersecting circuit. You will be frequently side-swiped into last place, unfairly punished for something almost entirely out of control but rather than feeling like a burden, it adds a marvellous degree of unpredictability and you’ll give as well as you’ll get. One of the few non-destructo gametypes is Hoonigan, sounding like Jools Holland at new year, it plays like a Super Special stage as done by Boy Racers. Competing head-to-head, you’re tasked with getting to the finish line as quickly as possible, performing specific ‘tricks on the way’, ranging from drifting and donuts, to crazy jumps.

Like every Modern Game going, online play requires a VIP pass, £6.29 for the scoundrels who dare to buy second-hand, but Showdown also bucks the trend of Modern Gaming, Showdown features my old friend split-screen multiplayer. Far too few games, racing titles especially, seem to be entirely devoid of any local fun so it’s hugely refreshing to be able to play with real people, in the same room, at the same time. Okay, it’s only two-player, plus up to 6 AI, but at least it’s there.

DiRT Showdown is clearly no longer under the pretences of simulation and rightly so, previous DiRT games seemed to skirt a fine line between arcade and realism and whilst it worked pretty well, it’s pleasing to see Codemasters have made up their mind. However, Showdown loses more than a few marks for letting me exile Christian Stevenson to the land of wind and ghosts. It’ll be interesting to see what path DiRT 4 take and wether it follows in Showdown’s footsteps or reverts back to type. It’s certainly a solid entry into the series but doesn’t quite feel finely-tuned enough to be a… smash-hit. I’m so sorry.

This game was reviewed on the Playstation 3.

DiRT Showdown releases later this month for PC, Xbox 360 and PS3. Stay tuned for more info.

After recent Codemasters shooters like Operation Flashpoint: Red River and Bodycount performed badly, the firm has decided to do away with all non-racing titles, and rebrand themselves as Codemasters Racing, according to MCV.

“We have kept our reputation for delivering best-in-class racing games,” communications chief Rich Eddy said. “

And best-in-class racing games is now our razor focus going forward.

“In racing, we are No.2 in Europe and that’s not good enough. We want to take racing games across multiple platforms and genres. So that players can play anytime, anywhere and on any device. Racing is our DNA, it is our heritage, it is our specialisation and it is our absolute focus going forward.”

“The focus is an exclusive one, there are no other genre properties in development at this time; racing is everything,” Codemasters told Eurogamer.

Starting May 25 with DiRT Showdown, the company will be known as Codemasters Racing.

Codemasters has also announced a new online service called Racenet, that will feature as a hub that stores statistics and the likes for all Codemasters Racing titles, and will also feature in-game events. It will launch alongside the DiRT Showdown demo on May 1.

[CVG]