The last installment of Codemaster’s F1 franchise , F1 2011, I praised to be the best F1 game ever to release. F1 2012 only improves on the last outing making it a much more refined racing experience.
Of course the F1 2012 sees changes in the driver and circuit line up, corresponding with now last years F1 season. Bahrain sees a return, whilst Austin also makes a new appearance, sadly the Turkish Grand Prix at Istanbul is omitted. There’s also the annual change in circuit of the German Grand Prix with Hockenhiem taking the lime light this year.
As for the drivers there are plenty of changes. Most notable is the return of the 2007 World Champion Kimi Raikkonen. Any F1 fan should be familiar with the teams and drivers.
Visually the game has improved from last year’s iteration. The cars look more detailed, with a lovely reflection during dry sunny races on the nose. Track detail is much sharper with off track stands and environments looking more life like.
Overall the accuracy and authenticity in terms of design for the cars and circuits is spot on. The same goes for the engine sounds, which are beautiful to listen to.
The main racing mechanics is where I feel the game has improved greatly. There’s now a lot more emphasis on the correct amount of braking and accelerating when cornering. You can focus your braking to either the front or back wheels or a neutral approach. This allows you to brake more heavily at sharp corners and then later brake weaker at smooth fast corners. All controlled from the d-pad mid race.
There is a lovely shine and reflection off the cars nose.
If you don’t get the combination or balance of the deceleration and acceleration correctly when cornering then don’t be surprised to see the car glide off the road into the gravel. There’s little room for error – something very relate-able with the sport!
Steering is also a lot more sensitive. I’d advise not to make sudden direction changes with the analogue stick, instead slow controlled movement is more beneficial, otherwise you could again see yourself suddenly plunged into the barriers with the blink of an eye.
You could say that there is a need for full concentration from the player in order to play this game. I can see now that it has taken a huge step in becoming more like a simulator than arcade racer.
Although the cars are slightly slower this year it doesn’t at all in anyway feel like that when racing. So there’s a great element of speed which is sure to get your blood pumping and adrenaline rising.
In terms of content F1 2012 offers a lot more than the last installment There’s a few more single player modes to delve into which are a nice change to the standard career. First of all you have the Young Driver Course which acts as an advanced tutorial.
You also have Champions Mode and Season Challenge. The former pits you against the previous World Champions in a pre laid scenario. For example you could be Jenson Button’s new rookie team mate and you have to out race him in heavy rain to finish first at Sau Paulo. On the highest difficulty challenge these can be really tough.
The seven previous World Champions in this years season.
Season Challenge is a little different. Over ten races you have to choose a rival, if you beat finish ahead of them two times you get to take their place at their current team. Starting from the back of the field you gradually make your way up to the front of the grid to take the seat of the likes of Vettel or Alonso.
I must say I have really enjoyed these two new modes and I think they are both really good ideas to creating a challenging single player mode outside of the usual career path. I hope other players share my enthusiasm for these additions and I also sincerely hope they stay in next years game.
Moving on to the multiplayer options; there’s the return of online gaming and split screen. I have some real gripes with both online and split screen racing. Although, the gameplay mechanics remain unchanged there are some serious hit detection issues and problems with the penalty system.
Many times have I been well away from the car in front for it to spin out and see me receiving a time penalty for causing a collision. It’s really frustrating. What’s more is when another player is constantly ramming your car they don’t receive any penalty at all for their actions. It’s completely unfair.
If you get this close in multiplayer it could prove disastrous.
I’m sad to say this has severely damaged my experience online, and now as a result I return very rarely to race with online players. If you mix a very competitive game with an unfair penalty system you can get very angry at the game to say the least.
You also have the case of that minority of players that purposely go out to ruin other peoples experience with the game. But that’s present in nearly every game these days so it’s not too worrying, but again is slightly frustrating when they receive no punishment in game.
Amidst all the hit detection and penalty system problems online there is still a lot of fun to be had when racing others from around the world. Just don’t get too frustrated.
All in all I’m very pleased with the game. Beside the points mentioned above this years game improves greatly from last years installment. The racing is refined with more sensitive steering and realistic cornering. There’s also a few new additions in the content department which I believe are wonderful ideas.
9/10
