After having clocked up a fair old number of hours, I think that I've reached the point that I can write a reasonable and considered review, but before launching into it, I'd like to make the point that I've never played F1 2012. As such, I can't make a comparison, and a feeling that has been concurrent amongst many previous reviews, that it's not worth the purchase if you have the last iteration, is one that I can't make a comment on. Now onto the review.

First of all, I've enjoyed pretty much every single of the 370 hours (at the time of writing) that I've played. That's quite an achievement - even the ultimate in open world RPGs, Skyrim, has only got 280 hours on my account. And that's across three playthroughs. There are negatives - of course there are, what game doesn't have them? But they are on the whole overshadowed by the numerous pros.

Singleplayer
I got my wheel at the same time as the game, and it took me quite some time to readjust. Thus, Singleplayer played a large part in my experience of the game - and it's pretty good. The Career, I'll be honest, is uninspiring - just five seasons around the same 19 tracks against all the same drivers in all the same cars - but when you consider that this is an F1 game, that's not surprising. I'm still only up to Spa in Season 1 - that's Race 11, I believe, after having some difficulty with Corrupt Save Files, and I'm not really eating up the miles in the same way as I used to.
Admittedly, to begin with, it's addictive - intoxicating, to an extent. Especially with a wheel, it's a very engaging game, and once you begin fiddling with the strategy, and the setups, even with a very average AI, it's great. I managed to clock the equivalent of a full 100% season before I started tiring of it.
And then after that, Codemasters have done a very decent job of fleshing it out with some excellent stand-alone features. There's the stock standard Time Trial, and Time Attack (For which you are awarded medals based on how fast you go), in addition to the Scenario Mode feature, which is good fun - placing you in a range of - you guessed it - scenarios, and then assigning you a score based on your performance. Throughout all this are the leaderboards, which is a nice touch, especially when competing with friends (I'm in a battle around Brands Hatch currently), and the only slightly saddening touch is that there are some people out there who aren't racing honestly, and ruining the very top of the leaderboard.
All in all, the singleplayer section is initially exciting, but this fades with time. Nevertheless, it was worth the £8 I payed on Amazon all by itself.

Multiplayer
The Multiplayer aspect of the game is the one that I now live for, and play pretty much exclusively. It's also very contrevsial.
I suppose I should probably start by adressing the really major problem, and that is the strength and consistency of the connections. I race in a competetive league (link at the bottom), yet each race, of the 12-16 player grid, around 2-6 players lose connection - even those with a strong internet service. This is irritating, but it doesn't happen all that often, and it's easy enough to work around on a small scale.
Now onto the praise. It's great. I mean really great. True, in terms of variety, it's not fantastic. You can only do races. But again, that's what F1 is about - racing. So no complaints there. But if you can find friends who play - or better, make friends out of like minded players - and you have some way of communicating with them during the race (e.g. Teamspeak, Evolve or Skype), then it's fantasic, more so if you're equally matched, because you can really relate. I won't delve into all the good things about multiplayer gaming, but it's a wonderful escape from reality.
Quite possibly the best thing about the Multiplayer is the number of Racing Leagues out there. While the quick race lobbies are usually scarcely populated, and frequented by intentionally dangerous drivers, the community aspect of a small league is very attractive, and it means that you can race regularly against player of a similar ability to you in an attempt to improve. Again, I won't wax eloquent about the merits of Race Leagues - but they are fantastic fun.

Classics
I'll be honest, the Classics section does feel like somewhat of an afterthought. There are a small selection of cars, with a slightly less small collection of Legendary drivers, which you can race as, but it's definitely not a game in it's own right - there is no career, the addition tracks are beautifully done but there are only four of them (two without the DLC), and though the cars look and sound gorgeous, the small selection and obvious performance gap means that it's hard to have a really decent race. A novelty, but a nice one, and it serves to refresh your enthusiasm for the game occasionally by doing away with the repetition that is running round a track like China 50-odd times.

As a Sim
If you're looking for a Sim, then sorry, you're in completly the wrong place. Though harsh, F1 2013 falls probably half way between Grid 2 (Ultra Arcade) and Race 07 (Total Sim). The tyre wear feels scripted. There are limited setup options, and most of them don't really make a difference to the way the car feels, or drives. Even without any assists, with a soft suspension you can absolutely floor the throttle mid way through a corner, and be on your way without any drama, even around a low grip circuit like Hungaroring. It's not a sim. It doesn't feel even remotely feel like one, and if a Sim is what you want, then go buy Assetto Corsa or Race 07. That said, it's good for a casual gamer looking for an experience that's more Simmy than normal.

The AI
One of my few major complaints about the game, the AI are average at best, and for a premium title that suggests an Intel i7 is the way to go, average disappoints me. They're overly aggressive, and yet they struggle to overtake. They are also poor at defending - you can dive it up the inside of pretty much any corner in the calender, and they'll leave you room. On the lower difficulty levels, they're little more than fodder, though admittedly, it takes some time to get up to speed.
However.
Similarly to F1, overtaking isn't a massive aspect. It's more about flawless consistency and excellent pace - and in those category, the AI shine. There are few enough races that I notice the AI in gravel traps or barriers (Monaco being the one exception), and even after 370 hours, in the Sauber, I'm only just fast enough to win on Expert (level 4 out of 5). So while not engaging in terms of their racecraft, they do what they're meant to, and the do it well, and it doesn't spoil the game in the same way that the first half of this section suggests it might.

Noticable Absences

-Free Practice Sessions 1 and 2. It only allows you an hour per race before qualifying to do setup and R&D work.
-Formation Lap
-Cool Down Lap
-In race settings. You can't adjust, for instance, you're diff while on track, and even Brakes and Fuel only have three settings.
-Variety of in game clips. Even if you win a world championship, you only get to see your typical 'I've one a race' fistpump shot.

Conclusion
Buy it.



It's a very good game. It's solid all the way through, enjoyable to the core, and if you put the time in, rewarding. You will see yourself improve. Trust me on this. If you're a fan of racing games, it's a must. If you're a fan of F1, it's a must. If you're a fan of both, I don't know why you even bothered coming here and reading this. But even if you're not, it's still fun, and it's the best way I've found (Except for reading) of passing two hours. Best of luck in your racing endeavours.

Great game, love the classic mode. Can't stop playing it.

SolidGame

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Unhandy keyboard layout. Too many conditions.
No fun at all

I'm having fun with it.

(Just a heads up, I only play single player so I can't speak to anything about multiplayer in this review. )

I'm a typical American that didn't know anything about F1 coming into playing this game. In fact, I didn't follow any motorsports at all. But I decided to try this due to the lack of "sports" games on PC. There aren't too many sports games on PC where I can get my competitive fix in a single player environment so I'm enjoying learning F1. F1 reminds me of golf quite a lot. You're racing yourself more than anybody else. Trying to shave seconds off each lap or even each section of a lap. You can have a very intense lap in a race or qualifying without ever seeing another car. It can also become a feat of endurance piling 30 or more laps on top of one another while maintaining pace. Mix in some tire degradation, minimal fuel management, DRS/KERS, etc. And you got a little bit of strategy to work with and think about too. It really is fun once your learn everything.

Then I'm also not a racing "arcade" or racing "sim" aficionado in general so I can't speak to what this game is or isn't in those regards. But I've been enjoying the racing immensely. I started as a very beginning beginner with all sorts of braking assists and low difficulty settings. Since, I have been gradually working my way up and learning and getting better. Assists are going down or off, I'm doing full practice and qualifying, racing longer races, penalties are all on now, etc. There's a learning curve for a complete newbie but its entirely doable. And quite a good challenge if you keep changing the settings with your progression (if it gets easy, punish yourself and change a setting!).

I'm just playing with a 360 controller, so no fancy wheel or anything, and it feels fine.

The asking price is a little questionable being 2013, but I got it on a sale of course. I'm happy with my purchase and have gotten my money's worth. Heck, I even started watching actual F1 this season. My purchase was fairly close to season start and I've found myself watching replays of every single race. Even made time to watch the Canadian Gran Prix live on TV a few weeks back being in the right time zone.

Like I said, I can't speak to the experts and addicts of racing games, but to the newer racers out there looking to try something new at a little cheaper price than the newest racing games; Give it a whirl! I recommend it.

Update: Six months later now and I bought a wheel (G27). Yup. I'm hooked on racing games now. And this one is still my favorite. Another whole experience and challenge playing with a wheel. Fun times.

Definitely the best offering yet from Codemasters, with the return of a realistic low speed traction model, and tire scaling, which makes races much more strategic, as they should be. A lot of early bugs were patched, but there still remains some issues with audio which cuts out at times. The Classic content was of no interest to me when announced, but it turns out to be one of the more enjoyable parts of the game, as the car models, engine sounds, and handing are all magnificantly done. That's not to say there is a sim element to the handling yet, with the classics or the 2013 cars. Sadly, there isn't a sim element to any facet of the game, and in addition to the arcadey handling, the setups are dumbed down, the physics are unrealistic, and the tracks have no life to them. Laser scanning the tracks though, is not likely within the budget or time available to CM with their yearly release schedule. As always, the PC version is a bit held back because of the outdated technology in the PS3 and 360, but expect bit things from F1 2014 as we move to PS4 and Xbox One. For now, this is a good improvement for the series, and the best to date.

Great job done by Codemasters. They might have ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up DiRT and GRID, but this one is perfect!

And so the latest incarnation of Codemasters F1 series comes along... and even though it's early days, it's already clear that this is the best of the series. At last the AI makes sense and has had some work put into it... no more will you be getting pole and the win in your Marussia car! You need to put in some performances and get noticed by the bigger teams until they sign you before you can start challenging for podiums and wins. The tyre wear is every bit as problematic as it has been in the real 2013 season, so you have to balance speed, cornering and overtaking aggression with tyre maintenance... something i am terrible at!

And of course there is the additional content... The 1980's and 1990's classic cars. For me, the inclusion of the 1980's cars, the great turbo era, makes this game an essential purchase. The difference in acceleration, top speed and handling of the 80's gems compared to the 2013 cars is staggering, giving you a whole new challenge. Hopefully there will be more 1980's and 1990's cars coming in the guise of DLC's (Benetton 189!!!), as well as some more classic circuits (Mexico City and Adelaide please!!). What there is, is fantastic, and there is the promise of more...

F1 2013 > F1 2014
F1 2013 > F1 2012
F1 2012 > F1 2014
F1 2014 > F1 2015

I think that sums it up.