Who’d be an F1 driver?
Fast cars, fast planes, fast money, fast girls. What a hell of a life it must be, but thanks to Codemasters, the life of an F1 driver can be yours. OK, there may not be the fast planes, money or girls, but they have kindly given us a shed load of fast cars to play around in.
Based on the current Formula One season, F1 2013 is the latest in the ever increasing line of Codies top racers. With new commentary from Sky F1’s very own David Croft and Anthony Davidson, there is a chance that this could be THE go to spot for all budding F1 racers. So what do we have?
We start off, as always, in the Young Driver Test. This is basically a tutorial and control settings mode run round the circuit of Yas Marina, Abu Dhabi. Starting off in a Red Bull, Ferrari or Mclaren you can skip the first day of testing if you have played previous games. Whilst this is a nice option, I found myself wanting to get to grips with things all over again and so hit the tarmac from the very start. Gold, silver and bronze medals are given out depending on how well you do in each short test, and these medals then get carried over into the career mode. If you only have a few medals from the test, then you’ll be forced to start at the back of the grid in a Marussia. Grab a few more and you’ll be able to race for one of the middle of the pack teams such as Force India.You aren’t however able to unlock enough to allow you a race seat in one of the big 4 teams (Red Bull, Ferrari, Mclaren or Mercedes), and so these seats are going to have to be earned. Split into 2 day long sessions, whilst day 1 is simple enough to pass, the 2nd day is a much tougher affair. If you aim to unlock a Lotus seat for your upcoming career, then you’ll have to work pretty hard to hit all those apexes and gold medals.
We can then move on to the standard Grand Prix mode. This is a custom season mode as you get to choose exactly how you want to play. Choose your race (anything from 3 or 5 laps, 25%, 50% or 100% race distance), as you play as any driver, in any team, with any weather scenario, round any track in the game. You can also recreate your own full season consisting of any number of tracks from this current season, or including a couple of great classic tracks from the past. Before you get to hit the tarmac you are given the option to watch a hot-lap video commentated on by Anthony Davidson. This is a great addition and really does help you learn where to place the car and how to hit the apexes before you race it for real. When in a race, the handling is still the same as last years effort (which to be fair was pretty damn realistic) and we get given the usual 6 camera angles and 4 difficulty levels ranging from novice driver up to superstar.
Obviously we also have a career mode. Without it, things could get pretty tiresome to say the least. You have the option to run through the young driver test again if needed, take up a season long challenge or jump straight into the full on 2013 season. Whilst the full career only lets you start in a team depending on how well you achieved in the young drivers test, if you choose to take the season challenge mode, you get to drive around in any of the teams cars in a shortened 10 race season. Unless you’re a full on F1 nut, then I can see this cutdown mode getting used alot more than the full season.
Whilst the world of online racers usually revolves around whoever can keep out of trouble as much as possible, F1 seems to be a slightly kinder place to be. I say kinder, what I really mean is no damn different. I always thought that the majority of gamers playing an F1 racing game would be in a different mindset to those who play, say Grid 2 for example. In my experience online, it doesn’t turn out to be the case and everyone goes for the first corner as if it is going to be their last! With a maximum 16 players in one race at any one time, the chances of coming up against a have-a-go hero is pretty high, and so unless you are playing solely with friends, expect to have to put up with the usual argybargy from Xbox Live randoms. The online co-op championship is probably the safer bet for anyone not wishing for their blood pressure to go through the roof but again, you’ll be needing a decent friend to make this come true. There are also the usual multiplayer standards of a split screen or system link mode available for anyone who doesn’t have Live (or who can’t afford to take the risk with their health!).
In the Proving Grounds, you’ll find a number of different scenario modes, time attacks and time trials. They basically do as you would expect. The scenarios throw you in as a specific driver trying to hit a set goal, whether that be finishing in the top 6, or just needing to beat your teammate. Time attack sees you take on one circuit, in attempt to beat certain time goals. You can add up to 4 of your friends ghost times to make things a little more competitive if you so wish. And then we have the time trials which are pretty much as above, just that you get to choose your own car whilst you go all out for that best lap times. These modes will give you medals, scores and times which can then be compared to your friends and random gamers around the world via the usual leaderboards.
The F1 classics mode is the new kid on the block. Without it, F1 2013 would be nearly identical to F1 2012, but this gives the gamer a new angle to look at F1 with. Included are 5 cars from the 80’s and a Ferrari from 1976. These have none of the new fangled electronic gizmos you’d find on a current car, and instead of DRS and KERS, they rely heavily on good old fashioned horsepower. They really are beasts and whilst they are all suitable driving experiences for even the most novice of drivers, as you would expect, they do handle very differently to todays machines and what we have been used to in previous F1 games. Within ‘Classics’, we have the usual Grand Prix, Time trial and time attack modes. I feel they could have gone into a lot more depth with the classics then they have, as at the moment, all we are given is one time attack and a couple of time trial sessions round the two new classic tracks, Brands Hatch and Jerez. The Grand Prix mode lets you race as a legendary driver, think Schumacher, Hill, Mansell and Andretti but this is a bit of an add-on that will only really appeal to the hardcore. There is a scenario mode but with this consisting of a measly 3 different scenes, it’s not going to keep us busy for very long.
Intriguingly, there is also the option to visit the Xbox Games Store to check out the downloadable content. Whilst this is empty at the moment, it does raise the question….Will they be adding more classic cars and tracks to the game soon? Let’s hope so because as it stands, it’s a bit disaapointing.
Finally we get on to My F1. This small section details all the usual driver stats, leaderboards etc… whilst also containing the now customary RaceNET. And this is possibly the biggest letdown in the game. Previous Codies titles have had in depth RaceNETs, Grid 2 for example would have numerous game challenges posted up each and every week for you to set your best time in. In F1 2013, we seemingly have only the one challenge. Yes it will change each week, but I see no reason why they didn’t at least throw in two or three instead of the measly one. This has gone from a great feature in Grid 2, to one that you will hardly ever bother with in F1.
So, not an awful lot has changed over the years but there really is only so much that can be done with the series. There were very little changes between the two seasons in the real world of Formula One and for that reason, I guess we can’t complain too much that this offering is very nearly identical in terms of car and track physics, graphics and the like to the previous game. Next year is going to be the real test when the new tracks and almost entirely new cars (with new handling characteristics), come onto the scene. Whilst 2013 is good, and any self respecting F1 fan or racing game aficionado will be more than happy with it, next years version on the Xbox One will be the must buy.
Who’d be an F1 driver? Well, me actually!
