From the moment you insert the disc into your console (or download it if you are that way inclined) it will quickly become apparent that F1 2016 is a game that will please every form of Formula 1 fan.
From casual fans who simply wish to race as their favourite driver around their favourite track to the hardcore F1 geeks who wish to plunge themselves into a realistic and gruelling 10-year career with a team of their choice.
But what exactly has the latest official F1 game got to offer the gaming world and what sets it apart from its successful predecessors?
Allow Grand Prix Times’ Andy Young to bring you a review of the eagerly awaited game, after he was lucky enough to receive an early copy and get a taste of what excitement F1 2016 has to bring the gaming and F1 community.
There’s no denying F1 2015 was a very good game, if not excellent. It introduced F1 to the next generation of consoles and formed a baseline for future endeavours of the game. Although F1 2015 did not feature a career mode, it still succeeded in appealing to the causal fans and the hardcore fraternity.
So why bother buying F1 2016? Well apart from the improved graphics and handling of the car (bear in mind I play with an official Xbox One controller and not a steering wheel) the game offers new and returning themes including the safety car, the introduction of the virtual safety car and a stupendously immersive career mode. But more of that a little later.
There’s no denying that F1 2016 is an embellishment on F1 2015 in all areas, with the career mode offering fans the ability to plunge themselves into the wild world of F1 while the Championship Season mode enables the casual fan to jump straight into a season with their favourite team or driver without the hassle of worrying about geeky stuff such as R&D and contracts.
The first thing you’ll notice when you start playing F1 2016 is you have a lot more settings to alter if you so wish before staring either a Quick Race, Championship Season or Career. If you select a race length of 25% or more you can enable or disable the safety car as well as enable manual pit-stops, the formation lap and even the time of day the race is held. Yes, that means you can do the Abu Dhabi or Singapore Grands Prix in the day!
For new or casual fans of F1 a new tutorials section has been added, which pops up on the screen during your first few races. This enables you yo watch short videos narrated by Anthony Davidson on various procedures of the sport including how the safety car works and pit-stops.
Once you start the race you will immediately be prompted to hold down the clutch while raising the revs, before releasing the clutch as the five red lights go out. Admittedly the first time you do this you might be a bit slow, I most certainly was, and therefore you might lose several positions at the start.
But after several tries you’ll realise how much you enjoy having a manual clutch and before you know it you’ll be launching your car off the line. After about four starts I found myself gaining several positions even before the apex of Turn 1 due to being quick to release the clutch. But if you’re too quick and you jump the start then a drive-through penalty is heading your way!
If you played F1 2015 you will instantly feel a slight improvement to the sensitivity and the handling of the car in F1 2016. During my first race in F1 2015 last year I immediately felt confident to push to the limit and try overzealous overtaking manoeuvres, but in F1 2016 I felt a certain lack of confidence. Bear in mind I had the majority of the assists turned off with only traction control on medium and automatic gears enabled with the AI difficulty set to hard.
In my first quick race as Romain Grosjean in the Haas at Melbourne I held the clutch in for too long and lost ground at the start, eventually finishing 21st after a small incident at the penultimate corner.
This brings me on to the next improvement in F1 2016 – damage and realism. No longer can you afford to lightly tap the wall or other competitors. While playing the game I had the damage set to the most realistic setting, and when I lightly tapped the rear of another car in my first race the front-wing was badly damaged and the handling went out of the window.
The AI also seem much more aggressive in comparison to last year’s game. During my first career race Fernando Alonso, Kimi Raikkonen, Valtteri Bottas and Marcus Ericsson were all given grid penalties for colliding with other AI drivers, creating a weirdly realistic feel to the race weekend.
Now time to take an in-depth look at the main attraction of F1 2016: the career mode!
For those of you new to the Codemasters F1 games, career mode is certainly not a new addition for them. One of the very first F1 games they released – F1 2010 – featured a thrilling career mode featuring rival drivers, driver contracts and even journalists asking you questions within the paddock.
But for F1 2015 it was left out and you could only race as one of the 22 drivers already in the game. However, the career mode which has been reintroduced for F1 2016 has almost certainly made up for it’s absence with a groundbreaking amount of interaction and geeky telemetry and R&D abilities to keep even the most hardcore F1 fans entertained.
The most complete Formula 1 game yet. As close to perfection as you'll get – Grand Prix Times
When first select career mode you are prompted to select simply career mode or pro career mode. For the time being I selected the normal career mode, with the pro version likely to feature all assists being disabled and the view locked to the visor cam, much like Pro Season in F1 2015.
After that is a screen where you select how much you’d like to participate at each race weekend. You have an option for a full weekend with two 90 minute practice sessions, a 60 minute final practice before a full qualifying session and full 100% race. There’s also a short weekend for those who only wish for a short practice session before a short qualifying or a short race, or you can fully customise your participation, which is exactly what I did as you can see below.
From there you select your avatar, helmet design and colours, nationality, race number, name and abbreviated name, before selecting your team. Now you can select any team you wish, but the respective team expectations change depending on your selection. For example Mercedes will want you to become world champion immediately whereas Williams will expect you to fight for the championship after several seasons.
Then it’s time to meet your agent before signing the contract and being introduced to your laptop, from where you can view your driver rivalry, tutorials, personal details and news feed to begin with.
During practice you are offered various programmes to complete in exchange for resource points, which can be spent in the research and development tab on your laptop in upgrading parts of the car. The upgrades will be introduced during the following race weekend and will allow you to close the gap to your competitors at a much faster rate.
While I was completing these three tasks it dawned on me that they make the race weekend feel even more realistic. In practice one you can complete the track acclimatisation programme before tackling tyre management in practice two and finally qualifying simulation in final practice.
It’s an excellent way of luring the casual fans into participating in the three practice sessions while allowing the hardcore geeks to feel as though they are completing the race weekend in the correct manner.
During my first race weekend I qualified 14th and finished 16th in a Manor, which may sound rather impressive but it was exceptionally hard work. The tyres dropped off massively towards the end of the race and keeping Kevin Magnussen at bay actually had me sweating during the final few laps, all for 16th place and no points!
So there you have it! Codemasters has once again delivered a tremendous F1 game, but this year it is one which will keep every fan of the sport imaginable satisfied. You can tune the assists and overall settings to match your abilities, so if you aren’t looking for a stressful 56-lap ordeal you can make it so that you can enjoy the game with ease.
The game is realistic with AI who seem intent on maintaining their position whether it be against you or other AI drivers further up the field. In my first career race Jolyon Palmer suffered an engine failure and caused a momentary virtual safety car, which really put the cat amongst the pigeons!
Now do excuse me, it’s time for my second race in Bahrain. Wish me luck and happy racing!
