Developer: Codemasters
Publisher: Codemasters
Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tested on: PS4
F1 2016 – Review
One of the most popular sports, next to football, is possibly Formula 1 racing. Hearing those engines roar and the thrilling acceleration of those cars is a sweet pleasure for a lot of people. It is probable that a lot of these fans want to get into a car and start racing. Formula 1 2016 can’t really give you the real experience, but tries to get as close as possible. Are you ready to take the chance for a career?
Story
If you’re looking for a narrative that has been predetermined for you, you won’t really get what you’re looking for. F1 2016 will provide you the possibility to write your own story with the help of the career mode. You determine where you start, keeping an eye on the needs and expectations of the possible teams, and start from there on. Depending on your skills and determination, you will be able to get into better teams or sponsors.
As this is a simulation game, it is natural that there isn’t a real prewritten story you have to follow. In the end, you are the only one that can pave the path you want to follow.
Graphics
We’ve gotten the opportunity to test the game on the PS4 and it shows that the developers tried their best to provide the best possible graphics. The sponsors or other contacts aren’t the most detailed or well-finished visuals but the tracks and racing cars surely make up for this. The scenery while driving around feels lifelike and makes it easier to get immersed. When taking a closer look at the cars, and especially the interior, it is clear that the developers did their best to represent everything as accurate as possible. The several meters, side mirrors and tires all look so realistic it’s almost like you’re watching a race rather than driving one.
When you start a career, you can customize your character to your liking but don’t expect to have a lot of possibilities as the game revolves around racing rather than character creation. Next to the facial features and helmet color, you can pick a name and that’s almost everything you’ll be able to choose.
Sound
F1 2016 gives you a nice combination of both great music and sound effects. During the career mode, you’ll hear some tunes in the background while waiting for the next event or while talking to some sponsors or contacts. This music doesn’t really dominate and is spot-on for this setting. The primary player in this game are the sound effects, especially during the races. For instance, if some elements like the roaring of the engine or the squeaking of the tires are on point, it increases the immersion into the race and makes it so much more realistic.
There is also voice acting implemented, which is mostly important for when you’re driving. The team leader gives you some details regarding weather conditions or other important intel you need to know, and the way it is brought is marvellous.
Gameplay
When buying F1 2016, you can expect to dive into a simulation formula 1 setting where you can try and be the world champion or start your own career. Choosing the latter will give you the possibility to create your own driver, the length of the events and the difficulty of the AI. In addition, you will also need to pick a starting team, depending on your skills and preferences. In this mode, you’re bound to talk to your contacts, sponsors or other interested candidates. This also gives you the opportunity to choose where you want to spend your resource points on. These points are gained by doing several practice events, like ‘Track acclimatisation’ or ‘Tyre management’. Depending on your results, you get more points which can be used to research new parts of your car. These practice events are also important to get higher in the ranking and boost your career.
Before you can start racing, you can change car settings to fit to your liking, or to improve your driving skills. While you’re on the track, you need to keep your speed in mind while also minding when you can pop DRS. If that isn’t enough, there is a multi-functional display that will give you all the information you need while trying to rock the race, and if you accidentally crash into something, you get a live update and information regarding the severity of the damage. You’ll also get enough intel from your team leader regarding the weather conditions or other important issues, which helps you if you’re in need.
If a career is not your thing, but you want to be the top driver, you can also enter a championship and show who’s boss. Here, you can choose the team you want to drive for and pick one of the several drivers. After selecting the difficulty and timetable, you’re up for kicking the dust and leaving everyone behind. There are also online possibilities, where you can compete against real racers if you’re sick of AI. This is also a good opportunity to perfect your skills. Don’t have that much time? No worries, you can just start a quick race.
Although there are different video tutorials, it might be a bit of a search to find how everything exactly works and what the attention points are. The controls feel natural, but you’ll need to estimte when to break and accelerate to get back up to speed in time. This indicates quite a learning curve at the beginning and might get frustrating after a while. One overall minority is that it doesn’t really bring anything new to the scene, which might make it quite repetititve.
Conclusion
Formula 1 2016 gives you the opportunity to start your own career on the latest generation of consoles and pc. The graphics and sound effects will surely let you forget you’re actually playing a game instead of watching a race. Even if you’re new to the genre or a full-fledged racer, you can set the difficulty to your liking. If you’re brave enough, you can also compete in an online match.
F1 2016 - Review,
No Comments