A total Formula 1 (and racing games) noobs review

Disclaimer: I didnt know anything about Formula 1 as a sport when I bought the game. My whole knowledge could be summed up with this: I know that Michael Schumacher was very good at the sport and there is a guy named Hamilton and my father doesnt like him. Thats the extent of knowledge i brought with me when I purchased the title.

So my first two hours were basically trying to understand the differences between Formula 1 and titles like Need for Speed. I quickly understood, that the racing aspect is only half, maybe even less, of the game. I learned how to manage my fuel usage. I learned not to destroy my tires with my weird Fast&Furious drifting style. I learned that I needed to switch parts at some point, otherwise my engine just stops mid race. I lost my third gear in the middle of the Grand Prix in Spain. And I loved learning it all.
I dont have much racing game experience, basically Need for Speed, Gran Turismo and a few other titles, but not one of these games made me enjoy racing as much as this game. Even when I managed to get 6th place, I was happy, because I fought every single minute for it. Lost my front wing, miscalculated the weather, problems with fuel, all these things are so immensly enjoyable if you take the time to learn it. In this game, you dont only race your opponents, you race against the weather and the technology, because everything that could get in your way sooner or later will get in your way. Take one pit stop too many? Say goodbye to your points. Choose the wrong tyres? Well, lets see how you enjoy beeing 4 seconds slower than everyone else. Thought, you could use your old turbocharger? Lets see how you like losing power during your race. To use the most popular videogame phrase in the last few years: Its the Dark Souls of racing games!

And if you take the time to learn and understand the basics, even as a non-Formula 1 fan, it is very enjoyable.

Este cea mai tare Formula 1 2017

Pros
- Graphics have definitely improved (running Ultra settings in 1440p looks noticeably better than F1 2016)
- Much better anti-aliasing compared to F1 2016 (very few jagged lines in comparison to the previous game)
- Nicer feel in terms of handling, cars feel more grippy and responsive (just like their real life counterparts this year)
- Amazing attention to detail in the car models and sounds
- The career mode animations look much better, driver models in general are much improved
- Much better R&D system
- New practice programs like Race Strategy (much better than Tyre Management... ugh)
- No game-breaking bugs on launch... fantastic!

Cons
- None so far

I would definitely recommend this game, so far it has been a solid improvement over F1 2016 in all categories.

Best F1 game ever !

Hands down the best F1 game of all time. Seriously, as good as F1 2016 was, unless you're big into previous aero spec regulations, there's not much reason to get the older game instead of this one - even when counting for sales. If you want the best singleplayer F1 experience ever made, there's nothing that should stop you from doing that. And multiplayer? Yeah... well... later on that...

Let's talk about the game in general first - I'm personally a big fan of 2017 aero regulations, which made F1 not only faster than in 2016, but most importantly - fastest of all time. Seriously, look at most track records, most of them were set in 2017. And it shows in the game as well - damn I don't remember having this much fun with an F1 game in a long time, and trust me, I've played most of them. It's an absolute joy to drive in these cars, even the slowest Sauber is aboslutely chewing through corners... not to mention that frontrunner cars are even faster and in certain areas allow you to just go flat out. It feels like you're cheating with grip if you're used to cars from previous 3 seasons.

And even then, just in case you get tired of these aero beasts, the game has classic cars for you to explore, including cars from 1988 to 2010 lifespan. I tried most of them by this point, and while I definitely prefer the modern cars, it's definitely fun to get used to different driving styles - and most importantly, this opens up a ton of options for modders, who can now make different season mods. Just a bit of shame developers didn't also include some extra tracks (3 short variations aren't that much tbh) - but I guess they need to keep some aces up their sleeve to make sure people buy future games as well lol.

Before we get to singleplayer mode, I'd like to say one more thing - this game is all about options. This trend started with 2016 and 2017 just builds on it, you can tweak almost everything. No more preset AI difficulty, you can precisely adjust their skill level just to make them fit your style - this is a big deal, because it eliminates balancing issues that previous games had for some players (like me), who found certain level of difficulty too easy, but the next step was on the other hand too damn hard. Besides AI, you can also adjust HUD positioning, camera (was in 2016 as well) and so much more. More so even for the racing itself, while it's just a cosmetic change, racing in daylight Singapore (or night Monaco) gives the otherwise well known track a fresh vibe.

AI itself is good, once you get the difficulty just right for yourself, you're in for the best time you've ever had in singleplayer racing. They are aggressive, but not murdering crazy, they go for overtakes if they see the chance, you don't scare them away as easily as you could before (it's still possible tho - if you break some clean driving rules), and they hold the line next to you even through corners when you wouldn't expect them in older titles (mostly 2015 and earlier). They even make mistakes at times, which gives them more realistic feel. My only complaint is that they are still way too careful in first lap, nobody really takes alternative lines in first few corners, they just line up behind each other no matter what difficulty you set, allowing for easy 5+ position gaining divebomb.

Now to the singleplayer mode then: The game allows good old quick race, career, championships, time trial and events. Event is a periodically changing challenge showed to all players, in which they can race for best overall score in leaderboard. Quick race and time trial are obvious - but championships, well, that's something new. It reminds me of F1 2013's and 2012 challenges, it's a set of many mini-championships set across different tracks with different rules (spec series, two races per weekend series, street race series, etc.)... it's not really something ground breaking, but it provides some sort of structured progression for people, who for some reason don't want to play career mode.

And about career mode - it builds on very strong foundation from 2016 game, mostly improving on micro-management systems. The game now has straight up RPG-level of car progression with a tree divided into four branches, and additional perks system that improves stuff like pit stop times reliability and such, although this side-system appears to be just statically improving over time, rather than being interactive. My only problem with car progression is, that it mostly relies on grinding out points in practice sessions- you get marginal amount of points for races and qualis themselves, even when you have decent results. I understand the sentiment behind practice being the most effective for it, and while I definitely like that practice has some actual gameplay use now, experienced F1 fans don't really need to go through track acclimatisation and other practices on every track... and so they skip... and as a penalty they get only a small margin of development points.

The second big improvement of the career mode is introduction of actual parts reliability and lifetime system, no more completely random "you get less power because engine appears to be a bit worn" stuff, you can now manage your engine parts and gearboxes through the entire season, with realistic penalties waiting for you in case you fail to fit into rules-mandated part allocation. This is actually way bigger deal than I expected, and micro-managing the car through the season really adds to the fun factor of the game. Mind you, I play in 50% race lengths, not sure how this works with shorter distance races.

And about that multiplayer... well... yeah... I think the general experience is actually worse than in 2016 to be honest. I appreciate in-game ranking profile system and all, but there are too many other issues: Out of like 10 races I only have 4 counted to my in-game profile, because the game randomly disconnected, or people get really laggy and randomly appear in front of you, hitting you... stuff like this really detracts from the multiplayer racing. And this is like 3 months since the games launched. You'd expect them to have this ironed out by now.

Add people who just race online to troll through weaving, kamikaze bombing and stupid crashing (seriously, the game should ban you from online racing for multiple offenses... at least for a day or so), and unless you have a bunch of friends who want serious racing, or get really lucky,... you just won't have as much fun. It's a bit better in longer racing sessions, most trolling happens in short 5 lap races, but it's still fairly problematic. Such a shame, this game would have been a clean 10/10 without these issues.

As for graphics - the game is pretty much on 2016 and 2015 level of graphical detail, although it significantly improved on lighting this time around. Just compare two gameplays on YouTube and you'll immediately notice the difference.

So... if you're in for the singleplayer, just buy it, it's a 9,5/10. The missing 0,5 would be filled by extra tracks DLC (Istanbul park, Bathurst... come on Codies, you already have these tracks scanned for Grid series, just do it!). For multiplayer? You better be off with some more serious racing sim, at least in public lobbies the trolling is beyond acceptable.

Still though - this is the best F1 game yet.

Career with McLaren-Honda, 2nd race: Engine failure...

Looks like Codemasters finally made F1 2017 a perfect simulation.

5/5

I can't finish every race with McLaren Honda. Very realistic.

F1 2017 is the best F1 game so far from Codemasters. Unfortunately this might the last F1 game I'm gonna buy since Codemasters might also decide to put the Halo in next year's game :(

Pros:

- Ridiculously realistic, Codemasters have finally nailed it!!! the McLaren cars actually breaks down in career mode which is the same as the real life one!
- Danii Kyvat takes you out of the race during the 1st corners in Career Mode.
- JEFF IS BACK!!!!
- The classic cars are a dream to drive specially Hamilton's MP4-23 and Senna's MP4/4.
- Better and challenging AI's compared to last year's game.
- Career Mode is more detailed and more fun compare to F1 2016, there's more of a sense of direction where you wanna go and how you wanna develop your car throughout the 10 seasons.
- Night race in Monaco is awesome.
- Have yet to try it on the G29 wheel but super happy it's supported.

Cons:
- Kimi Räikkönen smiles during the celebrations, he doesn't do that in real life.
- Vettel doesn't complain when there's a blue flag.
- Roman Grosjean doesn't complain about his brakes failing.
- Jolyon Palmer sometimes finishes in Podium on 75% AI Difficulty... wtf?
- Maldonado isn't in the game but would be cool to have him as a DLC
- Pit Stop Animations, I was expecting to have different types of pit stops because of the classic cars, I found it funny how Senna's car can be pitted as quick as the modern F1 cars.

10/10 Would recommend to any racing fans.

My race engineer radioed me mid-race telling me that there was an problem with the DRS activation......while I was driving an 1991 Mclaren.

10/10
Would buy again.

Are You going to play Online? Just run, now! As hard as you can. Don't look back.
Are you going to play career? Welcome, buy the game and enjoy the club.