F1 2016 review

The drivers are on the grid, the lights are red, we’re ready for F1 2016 …………. the lights go out it’s GOGOGO

Formula 1 is back and after the last release a lot needed to be done to revitalise and restore faith in the franchise.

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• Developer: Codemasters
• Publisher: Bandai Namco
• Genre: Simulation Racing
• Release Date:
• Platforms: Xbox One, PS4, PC
• Game Supplied by: Koch Media

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Your game modes on offer are:

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[su_spoiler title=”QUICK RACE” style=”fancy”]

• Practice – Single session, Full Practice
• Qualifying – One shot, Short or Full
• Race distance – 3 laps, 5 laps, 25%, 50% 100%

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[su_spoiler title=”TIME TRIAL” style=”fancy”]

• Wet or dry
• Select track and car,
• Customise your setups or use stock all noted on the leaderboards

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[su_spoiler title=”MULTIPLAYER” style=”fancy”]

• Custom race – Open, Friends only, Invite only
• Championship:Set a series or races for you and other multiplayer drivers
• Set restrictions, Add Ai
• Matchmaking:
• Rooker – 3 laps, no qualifying, damage off, weather clear, collisions off
• Sprint – 5 laps, no qualifying, damage off, weather clear, collisions on
• Endurance – 25% distance, one shot qualifying, damage off, Dynamic weather, collisions on

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[su_spoiler title=”CHAMPIONSHIP WEEKEND” style=”fancy”]

• Short – 30min practice, One shot qualifying, 25% distance
• Full – 90 min practice, Full qualifying, 100% race distance
• Custom – I can’t tell you what to choose, you decide

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[su_spoiler title=”CAREER” style=”fancy”]

• Regular career – Select the same as championship weekend or customise
• Pro Career: No options, dive right in

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So lets get onto the main point in question, Career.

Select an avatar, helmet, nationality, driver number, name and your abbreviated name

Then select your team, and depending on your selection you will have up to 4 seasons to win the championship.

Next thing you know you’re in the McLaren rest area (I know I want to make McLaren great again) with a chiseled looking young lady discussing contracts, amendments and offers. Hopefully this makes it an interesting season, previous ones have been drab to say the least.

Then open your laptop and assess your upcoming weekend, from tyre quantities, weather forecast.

Some cool features during practice are the track acclimatisation challenges, never before did I feel the need to practice but after watching the tutorial I had to give it a go.

Then onto tyre management practice programme, qualifying practice programme, and the tutorials carry on, multi function display, safety car, pit stops, tyre selection rules, formation laps.

And a simple yet pleasing feature is the ability to change your option in the loading screen.

Here is what you can change:

PREFERENCES:

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[su_spoiler title=”Race settings” style=”fancy”]

• AI driver level 7 levels
• Flashbacks – On, off
• Parc ferme – On, off
• Vehicle damage – Off, reduced, full, simulation
• Safety car – On, off
• Corner cutting stringency – Regular, Strict,
• Formation lap – On, off
• Race starts – Manual, Assisted

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[su_spoiler title=”Assists” style=”fancy”]

• Braking assist – Off, Low, Medium, High
• Anti lock brakes – On, off
• Traction Control – Off, medium, Full
• Dynamic racing line – Off, Corners only, Full
• Dynamic racing line type – 2D, 3d
• Gearbox – manual, Manual & assisted, Automatic
• Pit Assist – Off, On

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[su_spoiler title=”Weather & Time of Day” style=”fancy”]

• Quick weather – Dynamic, Clear, Light Cloud, Overcast, Light rain, Heavy rain, Custom
• Custom weather – Set your own lap where rain starts etc
• Session start time – Official, Random, Sunrise, Morning, Midday, Afternoon, Sunset, Custom
• Custom session start time – As per weather

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Well onto my practice session, the detail compared to previous releases is absolutely fantastic, even down to tyre laps and time differences between compounds. But don’t think any of this makes it easy!

The game offers you the option of stupidly easy to ridiculously hard, I prefer half way between and have it set as such. So many little details have had me smiling with joy and excitement at the realism and detail that has gone into the game.

I was trudging round the track doing my tyre management program when I might have pushed a little to hard and lost control and clipped the wall and BOOM! Back to the pits, practice program aborted.

Coming into the pits is great, your speed, the limit and how many meters to the line makes it tense and that little bit more exciting.

When you’re back in the garage and checking your times, you can analyse the corners speed and optimum track position and see where you are slow, off the racing line and learn how to improve your lap.

So practice complete and I have loads of points, back into my rest area, and my chief of vehicle development comes over and begins to discuss how we can improve the car and my driving.

I can even select an area to concentrate on (see below) and which parts of my car to upgrade, I am truly in control of my career and it’s brilliant!

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[su_spoiler title=”Upgrades” style=”fancy”]

• Engine power
• Fuel Efficiency
• Chassis Weight
• Downforce
• Drag

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I make my choice, head over to qualifying, realise I might not have selected the right difficulty as I was 2 seconds faster than Rosberg in a McLaren but none the less I power on.

Now select carefully as tyre choice can change your race if you select the wrong tyre.

Of course you don’t have to do all of this you can just race and get on with it, but for years we have been asking for this level of detail and now we have it.

It’s great, and I usually am very critical of these games for not having enough to look at and do, but this time your are absolutely encouraged to practice, develop and improve your car and I can’t tell you enough how excited I am about going through the whole season seeing if I can get McLaren back to the big time and then move onto another challenge, perhaps I’ll move to Ferrari, Red Bull or just demolish the opposition in a Mercedes.

But race day is upon us, and again wow as if I wasn’t enjoying this enough I can take the car round the formation lap, set up on the grid, hold my clutch in, feather the throttle for the right point before releasing the clutch and we’re off……….

Having not paid too much attention to my hub, but as I was in first after the 2nd lap I thought I’d take a look and it’s again great, 1 button flicks through the options, brings me different data and information about my car from tyres, fuel – laps remaining (and I cut it close) to lap information etc, and of course you can adjust your car’s fuel mix, brake bias, downforce (at the next pitstop) and upcoming tyre in your pitstop.

Whilst it’s not a huge list and not as complicated as the drivers steering wheel, it’s the more exciting and in depth elements offered in this release of F1 2016 that is making me really excited to play it again.

I shall continue the career mode over the coming days and possibly weeks and see how 10 seasons pans out but expect some great options and paths for me to choose. Will I rise to the top like Max Verstappen, or take a long slow path due to my reckless driving at times like Romain Grosjean?

Now I don’t think I have had a bad word to say up until now and as a single player experience this game gives me goose bumps but has a multiplayer game it really offers nothing new or old returning.

No co-op, no multiplayer seasons between friends (that can span over 1 session) basic options and that’s it. Had it not been for this bearing mind where this game had started on the next gen consoles it would be right up there.

The graphics on the cars are amazing, tracks are so detailed and you instantly know where you are. Rain from previous games has been brought back and simply WOW you just can’t fault it, and as for handling on the rain, well its all I wanted and more, it’s fantastic, but and you knew it was coming didn’t you, the people whilst they are all different and certain crew members can be spotted, like Eric Boullier in my garage, the overall looks are awful. My contracts manager is simply a square chiseled blonde from 5 years ago on the 360. If you’re going to make the people part of the game very prominent in F1 then at least make some amazing visuals to help out, it’s not as if you didn’t have enough space on the disc.

SUMMARY

Well what can I say we have been asking for more detail and interaction in F1 games for years, it’s finally here, however like in the main bulk of my review they always seem to leave a but…..

The graphics are not complete as they should be, co-op and multiplayer are poor to non-existent and I’m sure they will develop next year, but bring back the faith across the board then improve on it, don’t just make a good single player experience. As such you have let down what could have been a 9 out of 10 game