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Track Acclimatisation has you driving through virtual gates placed on the racing line. There’s now proper motivation for you to drive as many laps as possible, with three separate challenges encouraging you to learn your car, the track and your own limitations. It’s simple stuff, but provides plenty of motivation to do well all the same.Īside from the race itself, it’s the Free Practice sessions that have received the biggest overhaul.
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If you’re driving for Haas, you might spend more on reducing weight or working on aero. For example, if you’re driving for McLaren, you’ll use all the points you can kick to Honda in the behind. You can use these to direct attention to the bits of the car you think need improving. There are upgrade points to unlock, which you get by completing various challenges in practice sessions and doing well in the race. You vie for No.1 status with your teammate by beating them in qualifying and the race, and you’re given a ‘Rival’, another driver who you’ll have a good chance of beating as the season progresses. Thing is, the basics of the career mode are excellent. Nothing these guys say can’t be said by a handy on-screen graphic. While some might see it as a step up from previous games where you just had an inbox to deal with, I spent a huge amount of time just waiting for my helpers to shut the hell up and let me carry on with my weekend. Unusually, Anthony Davidson isn’t present in the above screenshot I don’t know why he doesn’t just come over and say hello. You get all that, and Sky Sports F1’s Anthony Davidson hanging out in your eyeline, occasionally peering over and awkwardly looking away. In F1 2016, Codemasters has attempted to capture the feeling by plonking you, the driver, down at a desk with a laptop and phone to manage your life, with both your lead engineer and agent walking up to you, talking at you for 30 seconds before wandering off. Video: Watch our first impressions of F1 2016įormula One is known for its ridiculous city-cum-circus on wheels that goes trundling around the world, taking over 19 cities over the course of the nine-month season. To structure this review, I’m going to take you on a journey through a typical race weekend of the game’s 10-season Career mode. It’s not perfect, but the small tweaks the team has made have worked wonders for a series that was beginning to look like it had reached its limits. Available for PS4, Xbox One and PC (version tested)Īfter years of skirting around compromises between immersion and development cycles, Codemasters has finally jumped head first into the most in-depth Formula One game in years.
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