Ok, so I did couple of 25% races (+FP and Q) and some TT, I'll cut down the suspense, despite being very skeptical Codemasters clearly didn't only removed a lot of content. The game has an overall good feeling, a lot more fun than F1 2014.
UI is clearer, car handling is a bit more precise, sound is a lot better than last year although I find that the engine sound is a bit too quiet and/or lacks energy (I already see V6 hybrid comments coming
).
Graphics (PS4) didn't impress me at all this far, I'm yet to see night races, wet track and stuff but I have the feeling pCARS is sometime better looking on a dry track if you want a reference point. There's nothing to say really, not good not bad, it's of course much better than PS360 games.
Not sure the
physics changed drastically although they did as I said above, it's more fun and you feel much more in control of the car especially in corner exit. Talking about that I tried with the wheel too (T300GTE), ok
FFB is clearly better than what Codies are used to but it's still minimalistic, nothing to brag about. I'll stick with the pad for several reasons but the FFB is finally decent and enjoyable, you feel what is going on but don't expect too much if you're used to games that have good FFB.
Most of all, wheel and pad are back to an even balance now (no more artificial TCS on the pad).
Collisions are still very generic though, didn't encounter side pod bugs or anything but nothing happens when wheels touch each other or when I bump the guy in front...
The
TV style coverage is nice but I'm sure it'll loop and eventually get repetitive soon unfortunately. Cutscenes are not all clumsy, some are even recycled from old career ones (objective failed or accomplished) but there are new ones too.
Didn't have the opportunity to see much the drivers without their helmet and their weird facial animations on the podium yet but many drivers' models are in the uncanny valley (Alonso on the top list
) but I have to admit it's not as bad as I'd thought.
Onboard cam while waiting in the box is back too.
There are also a lot of small changes that makes the game feel overall more immersive and/or enjoyable
e.g. :
- you now only rely on your feeling and what your engineer tells you for tyre/brakes temps/wear and fuel usage
- tyre/brakes temps now have a real impact on performances, but not as real as a sim
- in your box you can have current weather along with the next 15/30/45/90 mins and the overall tendency
- fuel
strategy is back for the races and (sorry re-checked and it's not the case...) is displayed in fuel weight, there is still an estimation of # of laps though
- radio is a lot more fluid since you can ask for info instead of waiting for it
(didn't try vocal commands yet) Update: Just tried out the vocal commands, it works surprisingly well considering I switched the game in english and my accent isn't exactly the best out there... The engineer got it 9 out 10.
- I think track engineers aren't clones anymore . Raced for McLaren and he was Japanese. Red Bull had the old bald guy. Minor detail but still !
- new tuning options : tyre pressures, ballast position, differential but no more brake tuning AT ALL (no pressure, no bias except when you're in the car). And some weird advices (put weight at the rear for more oversteer... wait what ?!)
- but Codies, why still no pitstops during Practice and Quali ? You now loose even more time when boxing because the mechanics lift you car off into the garage. That's lacking.
My overall advice would be, if you're not too sure and still having fun with F1 2014 or any other racing game and not craving for licensed F1 races then you probably should wait for 2016, because what Codemasters just did here is building a very solid base to build on in the future but the content is poor. Chances are next year it will be slightly better and with new or returning features.
In the other case you can go for it, it seems to be a good game and a step forward gameplay-wise, only missing crucial features but nothing we can do about it right now.
Oh and I forgot but that will concern a minority of people here, on console we still don't have the option to switch the game's language in order to have english speaking engineer. It's important for immersion IMO and it's annoying I have to switch my system language in order to achieve this...
