F1 2016 Review

Codemasters are back with a new entry in the F1 series of games. Following on from last years F1 2015, a title which at the time felt like the team may have just been warming their tyres on the new consoles, F1 2016 brings with it a huge host of new features, sure to make hardcore fans of the sport happy.

That’s not to say that casual players will be pushed away from it either, there’s plenty of options on offer here to ensure that racers who prefer a pick-up-and-play aspect are covered, automatic gears, traction control, racing lines et al. Most notably for me though, is that you can modify the positioning and field of view when using cockpit view. On paper it seems like a small detail, but in practice, the difference that options like these can make to racing is huge.

Online lobbies have been updated to support a full grid of cars, so you and 21 others can pit yourselves against one-another, helping build toward a virtual atmosphere of an F1 race. You can also compete in a “Multiplayer Championship”, allowing you to compete against a full grid of human competitors across a full season.

But the icing on the cake for F1 2016 is the myriad of improvements that’s been made to the single player career mode. From launching, you’re first asked to customise your driver, choosing what they look like (from a pre-set list of avatars), what helmet design you want, your nationality, a number to race under and your name. All of which goes toward making it feel like your career, and that you’re not just absent-mindedly puppeteering an existing established racer around the circuits. From here, you choose the team you wish to drive for - each of which have specific goals for you to achieve, replacing one of the two drivers from the official team.

It’s off to the ‘hub’ from here, where you’ll be introduced to your agent, your contract, your laptop (bearing a similar design to your helmet) and the chief of vehicle development (who appears after your first race session, but more on that in a moment). Once the pleasantries are dealt with, you’re sent off to Albert Park to take part in the first race of the ten seasons in career mode.

This is where you’re introduced to even more of the new features that Codemasters have added to F1 2016. There’s been an emphasis to include activities that the teams do outside of the races, such as researching tyre wear and fuel efficiency around a circuit, as well as learning the layout. These all fall under the “Practice Development Program” and greatly extends the longevity of the career mode. They’re still somewhat optional, but they give you points with which you can hand off to your research and development crew in order to improve your car’s performance, which, in my eyes makes them a requirement. It’s added a usefulness to practice sessions that has always felt somewhat absent in previous games.

These points can be spent on improving your car, allocating them to certain aspects of your vehicle then letting the research and development crew take care of the work. You’ll receive the upgrades at the start of the next race, so you can plan your upgrades according to what the next race may require.

Along with that, the Safety Car makes a reappearance in the franchise, as well as the addition of the Virtual Safety Car making its series debut. Additions that really give traction to the overall immersion that F1 2016 aims to deliver.

On the track, the cars react to surfaces and your inputs in exactly the ways you’d expect. Without assists, it’s easy to get the back end of the car stepping out on the exit of a corner - especially if you’re a bit lead-footed. I’m an advocate that racing games are much better played with a wheel than a pad (where appropriate… for example, kart racers tend to be better the other way around) and F1 2016 is no exception to that rule - cornering is smoother and gives you a greater ability to cinch the apex of the turn. Something that really helps in getting a fast lap on tracks like the new Azerbaijan circuit in Baku.

There’s also manual pit entry, where you have to get the speed of your car right to ensure you don’t receive a penalty when entering the pits, as well as the addition of manual starts and being able to run a formation lap before you start your race.

Overall, the additions to F1 2016 are much welcomed, and more than make up for their absence from F1 2015. It looks like Codemasters have finally got the grasp on the F1 series that they’ve been looking for since 2008, just a bit of a shame it’s taken this long to get there.

P.S. In one of the races I completed, Rosberg appeared and gave me something of a gentle nudge into a barrier. Nice to see that they’ve captured his racing style accurately…