Controller users will be pleased to learn that this year’s game feels more responsive on a pad than last year. The default wheel settings – at least on a Logitech G29 – feel good, but veterans will probably want to play with the saturation and linearity to find a better sensation of car on road. You can now select the AI performance on a one-to-110 percent scale, allowing you to strike that perfect balance between challenge and fun and even adjust for each circuit if you’re finding performance inconsistent between the 20 tracks. Monaco can be tackled as a night raceAnd it’s so much easier to find that perfect difficulty setting with the long-awaited introduction of a difficulty slider. Race as Williams and get the difficulty level right for you and you’ll find yourself unable to touch the front runners while trying holding off the Force India duo of Ocon and Perez. Ferrari and Mercedes will trade wins with Red Bull hanging around just behind to capitalise should the opportunity present itself. Watch your fuel, though, yeah? WATCH IT.Car performance feels authentic too. It’s the best F1 experience on current-gen and sets the bar for every other officially-licensed racing game. You’ll be utterly engulfed by F1 2017’s phenomenal, exhaustive recreation of a massively complex motorsport. And if you love the sport as it is today, the disappointing Classic content won’t really matter. The reality, however, is that those players old enough to remember Formula One’s golden age in detail are now a niche within a niche. Given the pre-release trailer campaign, it seemed like Classic Mode was going to be amazing, but that just isn’t the case. But with cigarette advertising understandably removed and no classic driver helmets to complete iconic imagery, disappointingly tame engine sounds, and DRS signs still in place at the trackside, it feels decidedly half-baked. There are 20 ‘invitational’ events throughout career mode, replayable once unlocked, or you can just enter classic events in each menu option. However, classic drivers are not featured this time around, which immediately halves the appeal. Last seen in the utterly stupendous F1 2013, iconic cars from yesteryear are playable here, including Nigel Mansell’s FW14B from 1992, several gorgeous Ferraris from the ’90s and early 2000s, and you can even drive the all-conquering 1988 McLaren MP4/4, as driven by Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost. There are small improvements everywhere you look, like the more assured handling model in wet weather making for more fun and competitive wet races, and graphical tweaks that bring more realistic replay footage and better human likenesses.īut there is one severe mis-step that will likely dismay the game’s target audience, and that’s the returning ‘classic’ content. From the compelling ‘rivalry’ system that gives each qualifying and race result obvious repercussions, to downloadable scenario challenges with leaderboards to keep the game fresh, there’s always something teasing your competitive instinct. The core racing isn’t spectacular enough or simple enough to enthral casual players.Ĭonversely, if you live and breathe Formula One, there’s nothing even close on any console. If that’s not you, even though you just play plain old ‘Championship mode’, foregoing all the new R&D stuff, this probably isn’t the game for you. F1 2017 is all about the career mode and that is clearly tailored towards hardcore F1 fans. And secondly, by completing these challenges, you earn Research & Development points to spend on upgrading your car.Īs you’ve probably guessed by now, there’s no point in me arguing that ‘anyone can enjoy the game regardless of skill or knowledge of the sport’, as I have easily been able to do with every past iteration. More stops for hard racers, fewer for the more measured drivers. Firstly, your actual data from the new race strategy programme is analysed and translated into a suggested strategy for the Grand Prix itself. But even better than simply teaching and testing you, there are two further benefits. The returning ‘acclimatisation’ challenge gives you gates around the track to teach you the racing line and the speed needed for optimum lap times, the familiar tyre management and new fuel-saving runs test to see whether you’re being gentle enough on the car and the controls, and the qualifying simulation lets you see how competitive your best effort really is. As with last year’s game, in the three pre-race practice sessions, you’re given scores to beat in short runs designed to gauge your driving style and teach you how to drive each course. The game manages to teach you all of these conservative nuances through unobtrusively-integrated, enjoyable microgames to play.
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