This is the game that 2015 should have been. This is also the first game in the series to have real, genuine, actual tutorials and practice options that are actually helpful, making this the first Codemasters F1 game to be decently accessible, and that's without considering the numerous other changes and additions throughout the game that aid accessibility, or the fact that there is a much wider range of difficulty now with both harder and easier options, or the fact that practicing now offers consistent, tangible, immediate rewards, giving players obvious incentive to learn and improve. On top of all of that, the career mode in this game is presented so much better, and with so much more depth, that it makes the career modes of every previous game look bad. This is something completely new, it's in a league of its own, and I'm over the moon about it. The presentation of 2010 was good enough that it sparked an interest in me, and this is the game that's making me pay attention. Seventh time's the charm, I guess.

Before I sing too many praises though, I must unfortunately make clear that nearly all of my problems with the core game in 2015 are still present here, and one is actually worse. The only meaningful improvement to those many nitpicks is in the driving feel, because the cars don't feel like GT cars anymore. Still a bit unpredictable, but they feel properly nimble and sensitive, so it's good enough. The problem that got worse is AI aggression and stupidity, because not only have they gotten a little more aggressive, they also seem to have lost a lot of situation awareness around the player, because I often get hit by cars I didn't know were there - and I check the replays, it's rarely my fault - or they straight up attack me. It's absolutely horrendous on race starts in particular. I had to restart the Bahrain GP 9 times, the Russian GP 10 times, and the Spanish GP 6 times, all at turn one. I preferred to avoid using flashbacks in previous games, keeping myself limited to one, but man am I glad they're unlimited in this game. I have no idea how many flashbacks I used at Monaco after the typical several turn one restarts.

Also my problems with the sound mixing being pinched or tense are still present, but the radio is less ear splitting, my own engine is (usually) less impossible to hear, and while the high pitched whining is unfortunately not just still present, but much worse, there is an accessibility option to reduce the high frequencies in the audio settings now, which is an absolutely fantastic option to see that I wish way more games had. So maybe I lied about there being only one meaningful improvement. That option only does a partial job, though, because while it does always remove the whining, which is great because that's the main problem for me, there's also a high pitched hissing sound that I imagine is related to the turbocharger that dips in and out a lot. It's always quieter with the option enabled compared to with it disabled, but it's inconsistent, and that makes it almost as uncomfortable as it would otherwise be anyway.

But with all that said, the main difference between this and 2015 is the amazing career mode. Rivalries actually mean something now, they're decently engaging by pitting you against your rival even in practice and qualifying on several points rather than just position, and they happen a lot more often without any player input. It's also possible to get promoted to number one driver very quickly if you consistently outperform your teammate and meet team goals - I managed it in four races. Being the team's number one made a difference in previous games by allowing you to set the course of the team's research and development, but in this game, all you get is a few extra points after each race... which is a lot better I think, because research itself is also very engaging in this game, since instead of just getting some upgrades without any input, you actually choose your own upgrades by spending your research points on them, which you can earn more of by performing better in practice, qualifying, and races, and of course by being the number one driver. Other teams actually develop too, unlike before, so you have incentive to maximize your research points.

Points are always in demand, and you maximize them primarily in practice sessions by using the three practice programs, being acclimatization, which tasks you with driving quickly and cleanly through a series of gates along the racing line, tire management, which challenges you to meet a minimum lap time while also minimizing tire wear - which is clearly shown to you through a visual indicator and vibration feedback, along with finally being displayed as an actual percentage in the multi function display along with precise temperatures in the next screen - and a qualifying simulation, challenging you to simply go fast with the fastest tire compound. Once you start getting into the rhythm of things, you can do all three of those things in one practice session and skip the other two, but being encouraged to do all three of these things with the promise of a lot of research points is a great way to push players into practicing for each race and getting better at the game. Although, research in this game is very powerful, so if you get too good, you can take a slow team to the top real fast, which may or may not be a good thing depending on your perspective. I took Renault from the bottom of the list to #4 in less than half of a season, getting a new part installed on just about every weekend, which wasn't very satisfying for me.

In terms of presentation, not only is the general interface a big improvement, not only does the game now feature a more TV-accurate style of presentation with its camera angles, paddock footage, and commentators with their TV voices and platitudes, the whole game feels so much more immersive than any previous one. Every race weekend starts with you in front of a laptop in your team lounge area at the current track, overlooking the area. You have a phone in front of you that you pick up to get qualifying and race objectives. Everything else you do outside of driving is done on the laptop, which you actually open up and look at every time, and when you're in the car, you reach out for and get handed a tablet to adjust your setup. On the grid, your race strategy shows you actual data, and some of that data is personalized to you based on your performance in the tire management program, and sometimes your engineer might suggest a change in strategy while racing. He also tells you things that are actually helpful in races, like specific time gaps between you, the car ahead, the car behind, and your teammate, and specific information about the weather, and best of all, you can actually ask for specific information whenever you want. You can even drive the formation lap yourself if you want to, which I really don't.

I could probably say plenty more in praise of this game if I wanted to, but I don't. I'd also love to keep this game installed alongside 2013 since it's the last game with the first generation of V6 hybrids what with their skinny tires, but I don't think it's acceptable to have to change a setting in my BIOS just to be able to launch the game... and also there's some rather severe graphical artifacting going on that's probably related to running the game through proton, along with severe performance issues including stutters so bad that they affect the game physics. The performance issues were so bad that trying to hold it together at Monaco between the already very hard to drive cars and physics, the murderous AI, and the constant stuttering, audio glitches, weird visual quirks, and input delays, it stressed me out so hard I needed to lay down. Oh, and of course the game crashes occasionally, just for good measure. So one season of this game is enough for me. And boy howdy let me tell you, I was very happy to see that 5 lap races were an option again, because while I did want to finish a whole season, by the halfway point I was really struggling to want to keep playing in the face of all those issues. I kept that on and started doing only one practice program for the rest of my time with this game, with the exception of the final track I had yet to experience, being Mexico, where I went back up to 25%.

To sum it up then, this is by far the best game in the series up to this point, it's in a league of its own. Too bad it barely works for me.

(from my web zone: https://kerosyn.link/i-played-every-codemasters-racing-game-to-prove-a-point/#f1-2016)