F1 2014 Hands-On Preview
Another F1 Season, another F1 game by Codemasters. Much like FIFA, Madden and Call of Duty, we’ve come to expect a yearly release of the racer but, as we all know, it becomes increasingly difficult to improve from the previous iteration in such a short period of time. The first F1 game was great, even if it lacked a lot of fan requested features, such as safety cars. The second game added that and a whole bunch more to make it a solid follow up and an overall improvement to the first game but, even at the third entry, Codemasters struggled to provide sufficient justification to upgrade other than a roster shuffle and one or two new tracks.
Unfortunately, it seems like F1 2014 is headed in that same direction. Releasing only on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC this will most likely also be the last F1 game to appear exclusively on last gen, although I believe they might choose to completely abandon it by next year. Therefore, it is safe to assume that the team is hard at work on the next evolution of the Formula 1 games for the next generation of consoles. This, however, translates in a 2014 iteration that seems a little bit lacking. The first thing which any one will notice is that F1 2014 still runs on the same engine - which is starting to become seriously dated by this point. Car models look shiny and detailed from afar, but as soon as you get a closer look the flat, low-resolution textures really stick out like a sore thumb. The weather effects, which just a few years ago looked fantastic, also seem to lack life and detail. Maybe I’m just used to seeing games run on a whole new standard by now, but it’s hard to be impressed with F1 2014’s presentation.
On the other hand, being the same as its predecessor isn’t always a bad thing; the handling of the cars is still very good and the different weather and track conditions greatly affect it, just like in the real sport. On a sunny day with a dry track, your car will be fast and responsive, able to take corners aggressively without spinning out of control. In a rainy day, though, you’ll have to brake much earlier and take turns much more carefully to avoid aquaplaning, which means that any race can get just as intense.
I raced on two tracks: Monza under wet conditions and Suzuka under dry conditions. Both races felt very different under the two weather conditions which resulted in rather tense battles for the top. In fact, I believe the AI has undergone some tweaking since the previous games; it is much more aggressive and smart now when it comes to overtaking, which reduces the amount of times you’ll see a huge line of cars behind a slow moving one because they can’t seem to overtake it. On the wet, however, the AI is much more careful, and rightfully so, but maybe a bit too much on the conservative side. I had a much easier time on the wet compared to the dry.
F1 2014 is a solid racing game, but if I had been playing F1 2013, I honestly would not have been able to tell the difference. The full game would need to come with a little bit more than a roster re-shuffle and the new tracks to be considered a worthy upgrade; at the same time, diehard F1 fans are still likely to find it enjoyable. Look forward to our review soon.