The lives of real drivers, including safety cars

When Codemasters first obtained their Formula 1 license in 2009, they had this slogan for F1 2010, their cross-platform debut: “Be an engine. Live the life”. Be the pilot, live the life. And at the time, he kept that premise to the best of his ability: he attended conferences and press meetings, and was generally researching The world of Formula 1 from a first person perspective. But after the run was over and I finished fiddling with the menus, the lights went out.

The series has gone through all kinds of variations on the topic since then, from classic cars to research and development and team management. It follows the semi-cinematic story of a young driver making his way From F2 to First Class, in a series of playable sequences torn between one movie scene and another. But, this year, the British developer went back to the original premise: F1 22 wants you to live the life of a star driver, on and off the track.

And as far as we’ve seen so far, this does not include the problematic Instagram posts, passing along with other riders and screaming while interviewing him Or open vegetarian restaurant chains. On the contrary, F1 22 introduces many new components that will give you a break from exhausting the adrenaline-pumping races of Formula 1.

Life F1 –

F1 Life is the most important of these. It’s a new central area, similar to the NBA 2K Neighborhood at first glance, where players can customize everything they find around them, hang out with other pilots, and display their fancy stuff. And pilots at these levels don’t have too many problems when it comes to spending: when it comes to luxury items, they have to be really luxurious. Like a super car.

Which brings up the other major area of ​​innovation for the series, which is the introduction of drivable road vehicles. Inspired by the events of the Pirelli Hot Lap on real Formula One weekends, where drivers take journalists and celebrities to the track for some of the most gastrointestinal minutes they will experience in their lives, the new chapter adds driving challenges like… McLaren 720s, Mercedes AMG GT Black Edition and Aston Martin Vantage.

Safety car yes, braking point no –

The last two cars, of course, are the official safety cars for the 2022 season, and while that doesn’t mean it would be possible to drive a real safety car in a racing scenario, you can at least take the same vehicles to a track and enjoy a few laps on board, away from delta and hog times Modern Formula 1 racing. While the developers haven’t made it completely clear, the implication is that these vehicles, such as the upholstery visible in F1 Life scenes and its driver clothing, will be available for purchase with in-game currency, which in previous iterations were acquired By completing in-game objectives or paying real money.

What will not be included is another cinematic journey like braking point, this year. Senior Creative Director Lee Mather reveals that the development time required to create these stories is a two-year cycle. You hardly see anyone taking to the streets to protest this removal, but the explanation in this regard is certainly out of the ordinary. The journey of FIFA and the various episodes of the NBA 2K career have brought new stories year on year, albeit with dramatically different budgets and development teams. Milestone just presented an innovative playable documentary, Nine: 2009 season, at MotoGP 22 Assisted by documentary filmmaker Mark Neal. One would suspect that, with EA’s guidance and huge budget, the F1 series could have launched a combo mode again this year – if it really wanted to.

How to drive in F1 22 –

Instead, the focus was on reinterpreting the leadership model. This is partly due to Radical change in regulations in 2022, which introduced heavier cars with a radically different appearance, and rocked the hierarchies between the stables. You’ll feel that extra weight when cornering thanks to the force of wheel feedback or vibration in the control units, Mather explains. Historically, the F1 series has done a great job in this regard, providing the finest details with only two vibration motors, so you can believe it wouldn’t be an exaggeration.

This first preview provided by Codemasters also gave access to a few circuits in the new chapter, included the Miami GP. After spending a lot of laps on it, it’s clear that the characteristic precision of the power feedback has been retained, and that there are some noticeable differences in the car’s behaviour, especially at the start of the races, where everyone is moving at a very fast pace • slower and with low traction, which results in big drag from Smoke from tires. The restrictions aren’t as lethal as they were until last year, disrupting downforce to the ground less and, as much as we’ve been able to experience so far, rarely causing heavy laps for F1 2021.

Two historical problems –

But don’t expect a transformational move. There seem to be two lingering problems, no matter what the cars look like, and that’s disappointing to look at from a game that took a year with its great story mode to focus on driving. The first is that there is something artificial about How do cars lose traction?And that’s not particularly pleasant to deal with. When other sim racers give a sense of where the car weighs and why you might lose grip (eg the suspension touching the bottom on one side because you threw the chassis in a corner too hard), it’s no use here. ‘Reactions are similar.’ And trying to correct on the go is almost an achievement, especially on the pillow. The feel is especially noticeable in the high-speed corners, which are available in industrial quantities at the new Miami circuit.

to me: AI is still very shy about overtaking, even when it’s at a faster pace. This is a centuries-old problem and means you’ll often end up with cars in one coil behind you, ten drivers separated by about 1.5 seconds: that way, once you stop in the pits, you’ll miss a devastating number of stops, which would make anyone arbitrary.. a sense of strategy in the race.

F1 22, referee (for now) –

These are impressions born of construction work in progress, of course, so hopefully these concerns will be overcome by the final version, or at least made secondary in the face of the quality of the new additions. The components of the off-track lifestyle look really fun, and anyone who wanted to drive a safety car as a kid. But for everything else to make sense to fans, It is important to do the basics As it should in F1 22.

Written by Phil Iwanyuk for GLHF