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F1'15 Evaluation

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 Tl:dr: Great racing, lacking game. Essentially, only half the product it could have been :/

game
ɡeɪm/
noun
  • 2.
    an activity that one engages in for amusement.
    "a computer game"
  • Being a huge F1 fan, I was always going to get the game on Day1, earlier still if I could get my hands on it before then. Having skipped '14 out of protest for not being "next-gen", I felt like the games as a whole always followed a path towards giving players more things to do. When I finally started up '15, I was more confused than upset, because all the omissions of various game features of the past just didn't make sense to me from a player perspective. Here's why...

    • While the racing itself is really great this time around, its very limited in the way we have control over exactly what we're doing in the game. When I start up the game, it always feels like I have to commit to a long play session right from the get-go, and if I don't there isn't really a point in starting up the game. No sense in setting up for a quick Time-Trial just to kill a few minutes.
    • Scenarios were great because you could get sucked into doing them, and keep retrying to beat the timers without having to be the only one on the track.
    • Season Challenge was good for those who wanted sprint mode races without going online, while also having a sort of progression. Also, switching cars or sticking to one team and see which gave better results wasn't too bad in its own right.
    • Career mode was always going to be hard to make "just right" in an F1 game while there is a real-life season going on concurrently. That being said, the prospect of climbing through teams or sticking it out in a backmarker and making the car better through the RnD objectives had a good appeal. This feeling of progress is absent this year, and makes Season mode in F1'15 feel very static.
    • To further iterate on the above point, this will spread the purists from the casuals, but with this year's iteration sticking so close to what's actually happening out on the real track, it feels like picking a Team is more like setting a predetermined handicap. Driving a Mercedes can easily outpace a Manor by 4 seconds depending on the track - and this is by car performance, not the player making the difference. So yes, the game portrays the real deal quite well, but this means even ingame, Mercedes wins the majority of the time, Ferrari and Williams are occasionally competitive, and everything feels set in stone before you even get started playing this game. Real, yes, but with the Mercedes dominance being scrutinized even in real life, it feels disappointing to see the same exact thing in game. Picking a team isn't just about being in the car you like most, its actually like setting the difficulty level within the actual difficulty.
    • Pro-Mode is somehow the shining feature of the game. In addition to being bugged right now, it's simply a ruse to bolster the main menu. Its the same "feature" as the Championship mode with predetermined settings. Removing the UI? I've seen racing games have that option well before this calendar year. Counter-argument: why is this level of immersion actually kept from players who can't post fast lap times?
    • Dropping Co-op actually feels like a bit of a crime. I can't explain it outright, but I feel wronged with the removal of this feature. I feel like I shouldn't even have to justify myself as to why it sucks not being able to play with friends who are physically sitting in the same room as me.
    • The net-code for the online portion of the game makes it pretty much unplayable if you're looking for actual racing, and this isn't just for serious lobbies, its across the whole board. Even short races for the point of having a good time usually have inexplicable events occur that completely remove any aspiration of partaking.
    • Last, but certainly not least, even the simple removal of in game stats is beyond my comprehension. Not only is F1 a sport about performances that result in pure numbers, but not a single race weekend goes by where you're barraged with statistics of success and failures. Everyone knows Vettel is the youngest 4-Time Champ, Hamilton is amongst the greatest Qualifiers, Button is on his way to become a true dinosaur of F1... the list goes on. Somehow, a game that actually tracks your some of your stats for achievements and trophies doesn't let you see them.

    Overall, I feel this game is a huge disconnect to what this particular entry could have been. The racing itself, as mentioned above, is pure gold. Things like being able to talk to your engineer should be something that is a really great addition to the franchise, but with the list of features I'm sorely missing, yelling at my goon to get new tires seems more like a gimmick. Yes, this is a nice improvement from the button presses to set up a pit stop, but honestly, I would rather have had the old feature list than this if it were an either-or scenario. Just like Crofty and his statements - so ambiguous that they're never wrong, but always reminding us that Mercedes will most likely be able to stop for a picnic halfway through and still get a 1-2. Another nice finishing touch, but only if the game actually felt finished. 

    So, instead of a stellar entry we have a game that feels like a tech demo. Not a bad one, mind you, but it feels like CM had such tunnel vision on some aspects of the game that they forgot to question if they should really cut out so much content. While '15 feels like a great base to improve upon next year, I have to be honest and say I'm disgruntled to a point where I'm not sure I really feel like getting next year's entry. I already skipped '14 and did just fine.

    It'd be great if CM came out of their shell and told us what the plans are for this year. Are they going to add features that really should have been in the game when it went gold? Will we see a serious effort at fixing the bugs that have eluded the Q&A Team, in no small part because this game was being handled so secretive that they couldn't get outside testers to give feedback? At this point, the absence of any comment at all has me wondering if there's even a heartbeat at their office anymore at this point. In many ways, this is the actual kick in the face, not the state of the game that simply tripped up the player community.

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    I would love to read CM response  to this thread   BUT  I very much doubt  that they will even acknowledge it . I would not be surprised to see this forum be deleted again like it was before the last time WE  gave them negative feed back on there copy and paste  game  ...

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    I love the game. Everything for me is spot on although I do have one issue which codemasters could fix in a patch. When it comes to lapping the back markers they need to be improved. I play 100% race distance so lapping them happens quite alot and everytime they are dangerous to pass and not in a good way. Patch this codies and I'm one happy customer. 4.5 stars if you sort this out!

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    I agree, excellent game. Just a few things to fix, for me engineer volume number 1, pit stacking number 2, stuck in 2nd gear after pits sometimes number 3. All these should be fixable, hopefully patch will arrive within a month from now.

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