F1 2021

BrentMused

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrJ8PddAMIw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMcrXmaocv0

Anyone else really looking forward to this?:D

An excellent sim IMO and you know it's good when F1 drivers such as Lando Norris spend most of their spare time playing it!

Release date is 16th July 2021 which coincides with the British Grand Prix weekend at Silverstone.

The only thing I am wary of is this is the first F1 game in almost 20 years under the EA Sports umbrella. Seeing how they're going down an icon driver mode already leads me to think they might be leaning towards doing something similar to what they do with FIFA etc.

Knowing them, we will probably have to purchase F1 Points in order to buy tyres for the car!

martyos121

Somehow I either missed or just forgot that EA bought Codemasters. Never been the biggest F1 fan but I love this series even though many of the finer details go over my head a little (custom car setups, ERS, the very in-depth controller settings etc.).

I also appreciate that those finer details are what makes these games so great though and you can fully expect all of that to be dumbed down over the coming years now that EA have their grubby paws all over it. They’ll try to make it as accessible and beginner-friendly as possible so they can shill their MTXs to the masses.

This one should be great though, it’s the future titles I’d be concerned about.

quokula

EA won't have had time to influence this game yet, but with that said Codemasters were already heading down the MTX path all by themselves with season passes being a major part of the previous game - I get the impression they basically added the create a team mode purely to give themselves a venue to sell liveries and stuff.

With that said, it's an absolutely excellent game on track so looking forward to seeing how it looks on next gen consoles in particular. Interesting that they've had a couple of trailers but shown no gameplay at all yet.

Also, is it just me, or have they modelled Alain Prost at his current age rather than when he was racing? Looks kind of odd. Also not sure how the likes of Rosberg and Coulthard made the cut alongside Prost, Senna and Schumacher. Personally I'd rather see more proper legends like Lauda or Clark.

ZiabR

EA have already come out to say they want Codemasters to stay Codemasters. I do expect some of EAs "Battlepass" things to sneak into F1 games of the future but I dont really see how its going to affect the core game. Ive played every F1 game since 2015 and it has been getting better and better with every instalment.

I really believe that the rise of ESports, particularly the F1 league with actual F1 drivers driving in it has lead EA to pursue Codemasters. Esports is expected to grow massively over the next 5 years and driving sims are growing at an astonishing rate. Its a clever move from EA.

BrentMused

quokula wrote: »

Also, is it just me, or have they modelled Alain Prost at his current age rather than when he was racing? Looks kind of odd. Also not sure how the likes of Rosberg and Coulthard made the cut alongside Prost, Senna and Schumacher. Personally I'd rather see more proper legends like Lauda or Clark.

A problem they've found with adding icons to FIFA has been getting the rights.

There are a number of legends who aren't in FIFA that really should be and 90% of the time the reason is that the player has refused or has passed away and their family have denied EA.

I'm sure they did try for the likes of Lauda but may have been refused permission.

blockfighter

Really enjoyed My Team mode in the current game. Would be nice to have a story mode built around that. I'll be waiting for reviews. I'm assuming online will continue to be the mess it usually is.

SMC92Ian

ZiabR wrote: »

EA have already come out to say they want Codemasters to stay Codemasters. I do expect some of EAs "Battlepass" things to sneak into F1 games of the future but I dont really see how its going to affect the core game. Ive played every F1 game since 2015 and it has been getting better and better with every instalment.

I really believe that the rise of ESports, particularly the F1 league with actual F1 drivers driving in it has lead EA to pursue Codemasters. Esports is expected to grow massively over the next 5 years and driving sims are growing at an astonishing rate. Its a clever move from EA.

Have you played the last 2 F1 games. Battlepass like content has already been there... EA don't do battlepasses btw.

I wish they'd add the 99/00 Jordan.

BrentMused

Bumping this to say that this is out next week!

Loads of videos online of gameplay doing the rounds.

SMC92Ian

I watched the latest trailer and cannot wait now, really interested in the new story mode. It's needed.

quokula

Played a fair bit of story mode, I'm up to Spa 2021. I like the main two characters but I don't understand why they brought Devon Butler back - I know you're not supposed to like him but he's just such a stupid character. I do really like how the social media posts, news articles etc feel authentic to the wider world of F1. The story's been ok so far, it's kind of typical F1 teammate fare, incidents on track and disagreements over preferential treatment, but I like that it hasn't gone overboard and doesn't feel overly melodramatic.

What I'm not so keen on is how it integrates with actual gameplay, it usually tosses you into a race where you have an objective to overtake half a dozen cars in just a few laps. The AI is slow enough that this isn't difficult, but it feels more like an arcade game than F1 as you're picking people off every other corner. I'd prefer an intense race where I'm just trying to catch one guy and catching him by a couple of tenths per lap, but it doesn't seem to cater to that kind of gameplay at all. Also I'm not sure what impact gameplay has on the story, if any. I've never failed to complete an objective so I don't know if you have to retry or if the story changes a bit when that happens. But I have done things like hit and spun my teammate off, and caught and passed the two Mercedes to win one race in my Alfa Romeo, and those events get completely ignored as the story picks back up post race.

Still, it has made me keep wanting to do one more race to see what happens next so it's kept me engaged. I don't know if I have anything to say about the gameplay yet, I normally do 100% length races with more competitive AI so it's hard to compare when doing these little sprint arcade races story mode puts you into, without any practice or setup time. I'm on PS5 and I've been disappointed that it doesn't feel like a generational step up, it basically looks like the same game at a higher res. The scripted cut scenes look incredible, I don't see why the gameplay on the new consoles doesn't look as good as that, having just played Ratchet & Clank I know the console is capable of it. The PS5's haptics do add to the feel of the driving though, it's not totally transformative but you have much better feeling when traction is going to break as the trigger changes resistance. I look forward to a deeper dive into the gameplay when I've finished the story and start My Team mode.

johnnysmack

First impressions are poor. None of the new tracks, imola, portimao, are in it yet. Even small track changes like in Spain this year haven't been implemented. Cars don't feel great either and graphics feel like a step backwards.

Multilayer is the usual carnage. First online race was in Baku and it was more like Belgium 98 picking my way through all the crashed cars.

I suspect all their time went into developing a crap story mode instead of adding the important stuff.

And I only got the chance to write this because the game just crashed.

Avoid for a few months and it might be worth while by Christmas. F1 2020 is a superior game at the moment.

martyos121

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117620789#Comment_117620789

I know most if not all your grievances will be a problem across all platforms, but just out of curiosity are you playing on next gen, previous gen or PC?

johnnysmack

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117620862#Comment_117620862

On PS5. Also no historic cars. Whole thing just feels like a big step backwards.

martyos121

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117620868#Comment_117620868

That was my fear when EA took over, even though they’re only the publisher I’m sure their influence has affected things somewhere along the development cycle.

I was thinking of buying it on my PS5 today but I might hold off a bit yet after reading your review of it. Glad I didn’t pre-order at least.

johnnysmack

F1 2020 had issues at launch too but I don't remember feeling as dejected about it as this. The story mode is the absolute pits. Why they put this in instead of developing a proper or better at least career/my team mode I don't know. Also in story mode I'm currently in the 2020 season yet the cars are handling like the 2021 cars. A small nit pick I know but still an annoyance none the less.

johnnysmack

Also Devon butler talks like Jack sparrow haha!

quokula

An hour into an intense race at Baku and the game crashed. Not sure I’ll be able to bring myself to go back in and start that race again. Had been enjoying career mode too, it’s mostly the same as last year but there’s some welcome tweaks to streamline practice.

The race I was in had been hugely enjoyable, qualified 14th but made the medium tyres go long in the first stint and managed to get a safety car at just the right time allowing me to attack with my fresh soft tyres on the restart while the cars ahead on me were on ageing mediums, I was running up in 7th and chasing down Leclerc when it crashed.

I had enjoyed story mode too, it was an engaging enough story and didn’t outstay its welcome. Was really loving the game until it crashed.

PsychoPete

Haven't bothered with breaking point yet but playing my team. Finished season one, very enjoyable. Had a mental race at Brazil, had a coming together with Hamilton and spun into the wall but only a bit of wing damage but the 11 cars behind me all got a dnf from it as they all hit each other, leaving 11 cars in the race. People giving about no imola etc I'm sure this was planned for a some what normal season without tracks pulling out, it probably takes so much to make a track for the game. Apparently they are added tracks later in the game

quokula

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117667284#Comment_117667284

Yeah people underestimate how much work is involved, normally they know well in advance what tracks are going to be in a given season and are prepared, but the calendar has been chopped and changed so much after COVID that it was always going to be an impossible task to get them all in at short notice. It is a shame that they haven't bulked out the track list with some of the circuits from previous games that aren't on the calendar this year, I guess it's a licencing issue.

Similarly, I think EA's influence on this game is overestimated. The feature set will have been baked in long before the takeover was finalised and even next year's title will already be progressed along too far for the new owners to have time to embed people and exert much influence. If you look at Codemasters output of the last few years, they were already just as aggressive if not more than EA when it comes to microtransactions, so I don't expect that to get any worse. I don't know what impact EA will have in the long term, they have a pretty dreadful track record with studios they've taken over, but at least in the field of sports games they know what they're doing so this might be a better fit than typical. The last time EA published F1 games back in the late 90s they were pretty good, they used the licence for a proper management game I really enjoyed at the time too.

I dread to think how much more unbearable the DIRT series will get under EA's stewardship though.

PsychoPete

https://youtu.be/daqICBRm1sU

Some nice additions, looking forward to different tracks

PsychoPete

Played a few races at portimao, you really get a sense of the elevation of the track. It's not as difficult of a circuit as I thought

PsychoPete

https://youtu.be/T83INPw-NfY

Imola is finally here

RocketRaccoon

Sorry to bump an old thread but I've recently gotten back into f1 after a 15 year hiatus, thanks Netflix.

Just downloaded the demo for this for ps5 and it is excellent, the deluxe edition is for sale for €16.99, I assume its worth picking up for that price, down from €84.99. I'll only be playing single player so not bothered about online etc. New one out in July I'm guessing but I've been playing a lot of GT7 so thinking this could be something different.

awec

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118856169#Comment_118856169

It's decent. I'm playing the build your own team mode at the moment.

One thing I find is that if you have it on the easy mode it's too easy and you'll win races by miles, but the mid difficulties are a big step up. It's annoying if you go through practice and qualifying but then crash early in the race, but this is pretty realistic I suppose!

quokula

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118856169#Comment_118856169

The base game is excellent. The extra stuff in the deluxe edition isn't really worth bothering with, mainly just some custom helmets and liveries. So if the base game is cheaper I'd go or that, but €16.99 is a good price anyway.