First impressions for this game were a bit of a roller coaster. First, the presentation taking a big step up had me feeling good, then the young driver test started and was just about exactly the same as it was in 2012, and I couldn't skip it without giving up the ability to choose the team I wanted, which was bad, and then the handling really threw me off, which was worse... but after I finished that, I went straight to time trials to test out most of the car options, and the new handling started to click. After a while, it wasn't just good, it was amazing. The handling in this game is the best so far by a huge margin. While the cars still feel heavy, everything feels tighter and MUCH more responsive, grip feels properly intense like the cars are on the edge of what's physically possible, and traction control has been dialed back to allow wheelspin on corner exits to add some danger back into the experience while still maintaining the accessibility that traction control offers, so I don't simply feel like I'm in control, I feel like I'm on the edge of control like I did in 2010, but without the same level of punishment. On top of the perfect controls and great presentation, every single other aspect of the game has taken a big step forward compared to 2012, most notably being the sound design, not just for being a bit better overall, but because the godawful wind noise is gone. I also greatly appreciate the even stronger original soundtrack, there's more detail on the cars to the point that vibrations are now visible on the wings, and things look generally prettier too, especially in the wet. Except Singapore. Singapore looks absolutely terrible, blown out overbloomed lighting and oversaturated colors everywhere, genuinely made my eyes hurt trying to concentrate on driving with that lighting.
Before even starting the career, I already knew everything I need to be able to confidently say that I will be keeping this game installed. It's just that good. The perfect swan song for naturally aspirated V8 engines and the seventh console generation.
But everything I just talked about is only enough to say this game is just another iteration. A great iteration, sure, but nothing too special. What really sets this game apart from its predecessors is the F1 classics mode. There aren't enough cars for a full grid, especially not a full grid of a given year or even decade, but every single classic car is an absolute blast to drive, especially on the four classic tracks. Those classic tracks, with the exception of Interlagos in São Paulo (and maybe Spa as well) are without a shadow of a doubt the most fun tracks in the game, and I love that you can drive the modern cars on them too. Better than that, however, is driving the classic cars on the modern tracks. Driving those 1999 V10 powered cars around Interlagos awakened something within me, I swear. The sounds those things make, the way they scream so loud that you can clearly hear the reverb from your own engine coming from a corner that you have long since left behind... that is something I truly wish I could have experienced for real, and despite lacking the historical connection, knowing that they're gone and nothing will ever come close to that again saddens me. I've never liked the idea of F1 being considered the "pinnacle of motorsport" like many people claim it is, but those V10s... those are definitely the pinnacle of race cars. Also I like how the whole interface changes and a classic commentator shows up to make things feel more period correct in classics mode, that's a really cute touch.
After starting the career mode, the very first thing I did was look at the options and was very happy to see that parc fermé is an option I could turn off, so my tuning options no longer get locked away after starting qualifying, which could have let me switch back to short race weekends. There still isn't a practice session there, but being able to tune during the qualifying session seemed good enough for me at this point. The first race is all it took to see the final few iterative changes to the formula this time around, most notable of which being increased tire wear and significantly increased effects of tire wear. I couldn't tell at the time if the AI is the same or a little harder than last time because the tire wear made it harder for me to keep good pace, but the AI did seem to at least be a little more diverse. A couple races later and I had two realizations. First is that both are true, the AI is more difficult and I am driving slower because of the tires, not just because the Sauber isn't as good as the Williams. Second is that by not having a practice session, R&D doesn't happen, so my car never gets improvements, which it desperately needs since I'm regularly caught in straights without DRS again, like what was happening in 2010, except this time I'm in a much faster car so it's even worse, so I begrudgingly switched back to the long weekend. Expert difficulty in this game is about the same as Legend in 2012, it seems, and R&D has the same big impact either way.
I was also really fed up by the third race with a different small problem introduced in this game, being that audio cues for many things are either practically or literally gone. For instance, the little beep to tell you that DRS is available is still present, but it's so quiet that it's inaudible in races, and sound in general gets quiet for seemingly no reason occasionally. A confounding blemish on the otherwise great sound work. Oh, also there was the weird thing where going out on track for a flying lap would start with the AI driving me into the wall, but only sometimes, which was pretty cool. And the UI is worse because there is now input lag on the menus, and for some reason they clumped the restart and return to garage buttons together in a submenu. And the game still crashed once, and still has weird occasional stuttering that is definitely the game itself, because most of the stutters had obvious effects on the game itself, causing things to wobble or slip.
Overall, three steps forward, two steps back.
(from my web zone: https://kerosyn.link/i-played-every-codemasters-racing-game-to-prove-a-point/#f1-2013)
Before even starting the career, I already knew everything I need to be able to confidently say that I will be keeping this game installed. It's just that good. The perfect swan song for naturally aspirated V8 engines and the seventh console generation.
But everything I just talked about is only enough to say this game is just another iteration. A great iteration, sure, but nothing too special. What really sets this game apart from its predecessors is the F1 classics mode. There aren't enough cars for a full grid, especially not a full grid of a given year or even decade, but every single classic car is an absolute blast to drive, especially on the four classic tracks. Those classic tracks, with the exception of Interlagos in São Paulo (and maybe Spa as well) are without a shadow of a doubt the most fun tracks in the game, and I love that you can drive the modern cars on them too. Better than that, however, is driving the classic cars on the modern tracks. Driving those 1999 V10 powered cars around Interlagos awakened something within me, I swear. The sounds those things make, the way they scream so loud that you can clearly hear the reverb from your own engine coming from a corner that you have long since left behind... that is something I truly wish I could have experienced for real, and despite lacking the historical connection, knowing that they're gone and nothing will ever come close to that again saddens me. I've never liked the idea of F1 being considered the "pinnacle of motorsport" like many people claim it is, but those V10s... those are definitely the pinnacle of race cars. Also I like how the whole interface changes and a classic commentator shows up to make things feel more period correct in classics mode, that's a really cute touch.
After starting the career mode, the very first thing I did was look at the options and was very happy to see that parc fermé is an option I could turn off, so my tuning options no longer get locked away after starting qualifying, which could have let me switch back to short race weekends. There still isn't a practice session there, but being able to tune during the qualifying session seemed good enough for me at this point. The first race is all it took to see the final few iterative changes to the formula this time around, most notable of which being increased tire wear and significantly increased effects of tire wear. I couldn't tell at the time if the AI is the same or a little harder than last time because the tire wear made it harder for me to keep good pace, but the AI did seem to at least be a little more diverse. A couple races later and I had two realizations. First is that both are true, the AI is more difficult and I am driving slower because of the tires, not just because the Sauber isn't as good as the Williams. Second is that by not having a practice session, R&D doesn't happen, so my car never gets improvements, which it desperately needs since I'm regularly caught in straights without DRS again, like what was happening in 2010, except this time I'm in a much faster car so it's even worse, so I begrudgingly switched back to the long weekend. Expert difficulty in this game is about the same as Legend in 2012, it seems, and R&D has the same big impact either way.
I was also really fed up by the third race with a different small problem introduced in this game, being that audio cues for many things are either practically or literally gone. For instance, the little beep to tell you that DRS is available is still present, but it's so quiet that it's inaudible in races, and sound in general gets quiet for seemingly no reason occasionally. A confounding blemish on the otherwise great sound work. Oh, also there was the weird thing where going out on track for a flying lap would start with the AI driving me into the wall, but only sometimes, which was pretty cool. And the UI is worse because there is now input lag on the menus, and for some reason they clumped the restart and return to garage buttons together in a submenu. And the game still crashed once, and still has weird occasional stuttering that is definitely the game itself, because most of the stutters had obvious effects on the game itself, causing things to wobble or slip.
Overall, three steps forward, two steps back.
(from my web zone: https://kerosyn.link/i-played-every-codemasters-racing-game-to-prove-a-point/#f1-2013)