So, full disclosure, the F1 series is one I struggle with each time it slides across my desk for review. It’s not that I can’t respect Formula One in general or Codemasters’ series, it’s just too sim-focused and gearhead natured for my tastes and I find it boring. I’m a kart or arcade racer, and it’s too bad yet understandble that F1 2016 does not include at least a small version of a kart/arcade mode that, several years ago, was its own standalone release. Regardless, or better still depending on how you look at it, F1 2016 does include a full-blown career mode that can last ten racing seasons. This was a mode sorely lacking in last year’s F1 game,
so serious racers are sure to appreciate its return here.
The career mode starts humbly enough with the player choosing a number and a helmet to use throughout their digital career. Choosing from one of the eleven real teams gets things started in what promises to be a time intensive mode that I am still far from completing and likely won’t. In between career races you can of course take on exhibitions and online play, which allows up to twenty-two simultaneous racers to compete over the course of a single season, which is also new to 2016. I have done very little online testing, but for what I did it played well.
Other new features include an F1 safety car, apparently a hallmark of the real F1 sport that I was unfamiliar with. I surmise that this was something also brand new to the franchise as of this new release. Other goodies like a time of day editor, a new steet circuit, and a formation lap add to the realism and robustness of what is evidently the most feature-complete game in the long-running series.
F1 is one of the few racing games that may be intimidating for newcomers or casual racers, and the game takes that into account with various optional driver assists to help you get accustomed to the nature of these wickedly fast vehicles. Learning the tracks is probably the most important thing you can do. Personally, I think it gets tedious pretty quickly, but fans of F1 will obviously feel otherwise.
With that said, there’s not a great deal more I can add about F1 2016. Of the few in the series I have played over the years, this one does look and feel the best, and it seems to be the most complete version in both offline and online modes. It’s difficult for an annual franchise to make big adjustments from year to year, but F1 2016 feels like a new plateau for the series that may very well be hard to eclipse next year.
To the summary…
