As well as the new young driver test mode, F1 2012 features a new "Champions Mode", in which the six World Champions competing in the 2012 season — Kimi Räikkönen, Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button, Sebastian Vettel, Fernando Alonso and Michael Schumacher — will be styled after traditional end-of-level video gaming bosses, with the player challenged to beat them while racing in conditions that suit each driver. Another new mode introduced, is the "Season Challenge" mode. Feedback given to Codemasters was that players only played the game when they had a few hours to play. In response, Codemasters brought in this mode so that players could simply play for a short amount of time. In this mode the player will start as a team lower down the field, and over a ten race season the player will move teams mid-season, depending on their ability to beat rival drivers and objectives. Codemasters also introduced "One-Shot Qualifying", whereby a player has a single lap to qualify for the race. The three stage knock out session is still an option, however the single 20 minute session is no longer available in career mode. There is no longer an option to include all three practice sessions in a race weekend, but instead only a single hour session is available.
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F1 2012 is where the series really came alive and codemasters made the formula (hA) properly work.
There's new modes, the best handling so far, improvements all around, none of the previous ones beat this one at anything really. Except maybe the main menu which has been simplified a lot? If you care...who does tho lol.
Anyway.
The handling finds a nice balance between the overwhelming challenge of F1 2010 and the overwhelming... easiness (if thats a term?) of F1 2011. It is very similar in feeling to 2011 but it feels much better, you spin easier but it's not bullshit like in 2010.
There's a tutorial which is nice and teaches you everything you need to know about F1 to get started. Is it painfully boring for someone who knows how to play these games half decently? Yes, does it matter? Eh.
What about the modes? The standard career is here and mostly unchanged, AI is easier (won the championship with Williams playing on the harder difficulties lmao) and aghhhhhh...more options for starting teams?
Then there's the new stuff, firstly the best addition imo which is the champions mode. This requires a bit of context of the actual sport. 2012 was a very special year for F1, there was tough competition all year and all the front running teams were on it. First 7 races, 7 different winners. A tight championship battle that went to the last race between Sebastian Vettel in the dominant Red Bull and Fernando Alonso in the dogshit Ferrari somehow putting that truck in the championship fight and losing by a few points.
Where does this inspire this champions mode? Well 2012 was also a year with 6 different champions on the grid. A historic grid for sure. So they made a scenario mode around it and it is fantastic. Agh it is perhaps a bit easy but honestly I don't mind. It's a brilliant idea.
You're put in interesting scenarios, you got new tires at the end of the race, make up ground. You gamble and put on full wet tires after a safety car, you find yourself struggling at the start then catching car after car as you're the fastest man on track.
Hamilton put on new tires and is hunting you down while you're on much older tires so you have to defend from him till the end.
And at the end you get a race with all 6 champions at the (at the time) new American track Circuit of the Americas. It's great.
The other new mode is season challenge which is a simplified career where you pick a target, beat them and you steal their seat. You do that 5 times throughout the season, races are shorter here which fits the idea, being more of a quick fire mode.
Besides that only returning features, time trial, time attack (time trial scenarios with medals), co-op career is here tho I think it was in last years game too, havent tried it cuz who tf am I gonna convince to drop 20 bucks on a key for this game lol.
Oh also it's the first game with like...good graphics, first one had decent textures but awful art style, 2nd had better art style but the textures kinda suck. This one's got both colour and decent textures lol.
So yeah, as an F1 game, it's the closest to a whole package that the series has come too so far.