As a child, I lived in Formula 1 – did not miss a single race, memorized the biographies of world champions and quietly dreamed of one day becoming one of them. But now I have matured and now I’m unlikely to even fit into the cockpit, which, however, does not prevent me from dreaming of the “queen of motorsport”. And where is better to indulge in dreams of speed and podiums than in F1 2023? However, will the novelty be able to please the heart of a fan, or is it only able to squeeze money out of it, we will discuss in this article.
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Casual Hardcore Arcade Simulator
They say that you can endlessly look at three things: how the miner’s chair burns when a crypt collapses, how exclusives flow from the PlayStation Store, and how fans of racing games argue about what F1 is. Some quite rightly say that this is a car simulator, others justly reasonably call the game an arcade.
I came up with a test for such a case: if the title is completely calm on the keyboard, we have an arcade game, and if without a high-quality steering wheel it is barely possible to complete the circle, then this is a simulator. F1 2023 on this scale is somewhere in the middle – it is better to bypass the keyboard, but it is quite comfortable to control the car from the gamepad, although the steering wheel, of course, would not hurt.
The end result is a medium-hardcore autosim that welcomes newbies in a friendly way and allows them to develop their skills. It is pointless to expect a serious simulation of the iRacing level from him – the titles have fundamentally different goals and objectives. F1 2023 is designed solely to entertain Formula 1 fans and does not seek to take automotive esports to the next level. In a sense, this is the same FIFA or NBA 2K, and you need to treat it accordingly.
The graphics in F1 2023 lack the stars from the sky, but during the race you don’t notice the plastic decorations
About complexity, insidious curbs and true potential
To fully enjoy F1 2023, you first need to decide on the difficulty. Unlike other genres, the simple trinity of “easy / normal / difficult” is not enough here. It is important to choose the appropriate help settings, the rigor of the rules, and the AI professionalism.
With the professionalism of the AI and the strictness of the rules, everything is simple. The first slider determines how fast and aggressive the other pilots will be, and the second determines how many cuts and rams you will be forgiven. With the third aspect, everything is somewhat more interesting.
When you turn on all the assistants, the game practically starts to play by itself: it will not allow you to accelerate where you do not need it, it will competently slow down and even steer when cornering. In this mode, auto-sim will be no more difficult than Need for Speed.
While it’s fun to get around Hamilton while sipping tea, it’s best to play without help to unleash your full potential in F1 2023. In this case, even keeping the car on the track will not be easy, but it will be more than possible to amuse the ego, ascribing all the merit in the passage of each lap to oneself.
First attempt to pass the track without help
As noted above, the game is far from real hardcore, but that doesn’t mean it can’t get sweaty. For perfect cornering, you will need to learn to smoothly operate the throttle and brake, as well as the steering wheel. Thousandths of seconds depend on this, which can subsequently determine the fate of the champion title. And this is not to mention the fact that rash maneuvers can lead to an accident. For example, I was repeatedly sent into a skid with too sharp collisions on the curbs. And it’s not even about the tall ones that stand on the S-shaped sections. The most insidious of all were the low stops in fast corners. Although, if you are a complete beginner, the car can start making “donuts” simply from untimely pressing the gas pedal.
In addition, the behavior of the car is not weakly affected by malfunctions. Various parts of the car can easily be completely repulsed in collisions. But do not forget about seemingly minor damage. Once I slightly touched the bump stop with the front spoiler, but decided not to change it, because there were only a few laps left to the finish line. Soon my car began to noticeably lose pace on the straights and almost stopped turning at speed.
Such seemingly insignificant damage, even at medium difficulty, causes a lot of problems.
Without assistants and with the most aggressive AI, every Grand Prix, every lap and every turn becomes a real challenge (unless you are a born motorsport guru, of course). If you set a race for a full 66 laps, then you will also have to monitor tire wear and the amount of fuel – save fuel by slowing down the rpm, and protect tires by refusing to aggressive turns. And that’s not to mention the various vehicle settings and strategies. Part of this can be done right during the race. Although how someone manages to poke around in a heap of menus at a speed of 300 km / h, I definitely do not understand.
If you are suddenly scared off by any of the above, do not be afraid. The settings here are quite subtle and allow you to customize the game for a wide variety of users. It is ideal to check your setup against a real standings – if, playing for Mercedes, you trudge at the end of the peloton, then the difficulty should be reduced, and if you climbed to the top of the podium on Haas without any problems, then it would not hurt to add hardcore.
Having won the first Grand Prix in my career by a giant margin, I realized that something had to be changed
Killer feature that shoots in the leg
The above, at first glance, sounds interesting, but in fact, absolutely the same could be said about F1 2023, F1 2019, F1 2018 … Even my beloved F1 2002 from the first PlayStation is quite consistent with the text. Changes, of course, do occur, but without a magnifying glass, it is very difficult to find the differences between the nearest parts. Therefore, in the novelty, first of all, you pay attention to the “Formula of victory” (Braking Point) mode – the only major innovation in the scale of the series.
Usually in sports games, the story is combined with the career, but Codemasters decided to take it to a separate mode. And this is great, because this way you can completely skip the “plot”.
“Formula for Victory” is an utterly clichéd sports drama with a banal plot, lack of any development and an indistinct ending. The plot tells about a beginner, an old man and a pike perch. The problem of the first is that he is a newcomer to Formula 1, and it is very difficult for him. The second problem is that he is an old man in Formula 1, and it is very hard for him. The problem with the third is that he is a pike perch in Formula 1, and (for a change) it is hard for others. He spreads rumors around the paddock in the spirit of a bitch cheerleader, because of which a newcomer and an old man quarrel and almost kill each other on the track. As a result, the heroes find out that the lie turned out to be untrue, put up with it and win everyone together.
In the “Formula of Victory” you can choose one of five teams, but there is no difference from that. If the writers need you to overtake Ferrari and Red Bull, you will overtake them.
The developers can partly be understood – it is unlikely that the copyright holders would have allowed them to go through really acute problems and scandals that echo the real “Formula”. But creating something so sterile is not an option either. Could add at least something memorable! In Madden NFL, the plot and cutscenes were partially changed by the outcome of matches: your player, for example, could get into a draft or had to watch it on TV. The NASCAR Heat contributors recorded real video messages from the current pilots – it was an amazing feeling of involvement when they congratulated you on a successful race.
The only value of the “Formula of Victory” is that it allows you to survive several rare scenarios – playing into the hands of a safety car, a simultaneous pit stop, a faulty gearbox. However, all this can be experienced in other modes, and without scripts.
Unfortunately, Braking Point, apparently, was given to the developers with great difficulty, because with its addition, the mode with classic cars disappeared from the game. Given the striking similarities between F1 2023 and F1 2023, it is very difficult to find an explanation as to why there is no longer the possibility of driving historic cars in Autosim.
There is no particular point in going through the story on high difficulty because of the scripts, so you can show everyone a master class on driving on the wrong tires
Time-tested formula
The rest of the modes have not undergone major changes, except that a career can now be played in co-op with a friend, speaking for one or different teams. In addition, there are also time races, separate Grand Prix and multiplayer.
During your career, you can either focus entirely on the races, or act out as the owner of the team. In the latter case, you will have to lead research and improve the car, communicate with journalists, conclude contracts with sponsors, hire pilots, plan a PR campaign, etc.
It was for this mode that Codemasters decided to release a Deluxe Edition with additional pilots like Michael Schumacher, Ayrton Senna or Alain Prost. What is the use of them, it is difficult to say. In my Alfa Romeo from Kimi Raikkonen and his rating of 92 out of 100, there was no sense at all. So it is unlikely that a career in F1 2023 will be able to repeat the fate of Ultimate Team from FIFA.
You cannot play as a real pilot, only for your own or yours
In general, a career is going the way it should be. We take turns going through different Grand Prix, gaining points and winning the championship, repeating it all over again. The Grand Prix consists of free races, qualifications and races. During practice, by the way, you can not only get to know the track better, but also perform several tests that will help you pump the car.
By the way, about the tracks: paradoxically, in the F1 2023 career you cannot participate in all the Grand Prix of the season. Three tracks – in Imola, Portimão and Jeddah – will be added later. In addition, the track in Abu Dhabi is in 2023 state. It’s a bit unfair to blame the developers for this, because due to the coronavirus pandemic, changes to the calendar were made almost on the go.
As for the multiplayer, it has remained rather chaotic and random. Theoretically, there are enough settings to choose something suitable in style and complexity. However, in any case, a lot depends on who gets into the lobby. The likelihood that none of the 20 gamers will ram everything deliberately or out of inexperience is rather small.
If you are playing short sessions without pit stops, then the tests during the free runs will help you practice different driving styles.
We need a new model of sports simulators
It is always quite problematic to assess the “conveyor” sports simulators. Take F1 2023, for example. In a perfect spherical vacuum, it deserves all kinds of praise – it is an excellent and one of the best Formula 1 simulators, which simply cannot be called a bad or even mediocre game. But if you subtract F1 2023 from it, then in the remainder we get a mediocre story mode and three or four minor improvements. Draws maximum for a small, but very expensive DLC. And therefore it is also wrong to praise her.
If developers and publishers could step on the throat of greed and release Formula 1 and other athletes no more than once every three to five years, limited to annual updates and battle passes, then the perception of these titles would be completely different. The changes in graphics, physics and gameplay would feel much more striking.
In the current situation, F1 2023 is simply not able to surprise with something. Yes, the game is great, but with a much cheaper F1 2023, there is no need for a new product or sense. For those new to the series, this is a great entry point, but everyone else is better off waiting for the next installment to be released. In the 2023 season, the regulations and rules of Formula 1 promise to greatly shake up, perhaps this will refresh the car simulator as well.
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