The StatMan Reviews… F1 2015

Bought F1 2015 today and thought I’d write a quick review, because why not?
I haven’t played an F1 game since F1 2013 and I barely played that, I play on PS4 with no traction control, no braking assist, ABS off, automatic gears because I don’t like constant gear changing on a gamepad and legend AI.

First Impressions
It looks quite nice, the cars handle well and are very easy to spin if you apply the throttle too quickly, and I like that. The option to race 2014 and 2015 cars and tracks is also a nice little feature. The menu screens look very nice but the animated drivers in the driver selection screen turning to look towards you are a little bit weird. Overall, good first impression.

Quick Race
Always the first thing I try and there is lots of customisation available for quick races. You can have no practice, 15 minutes, 30 or an hour, no qualifying, one lap, short or full and 3 lap, 5 lap, 25%, 50% or 100% races. Mid-session saves are very helpful for the longer race distances or sessions and you can save at any point at any lap and load exactly where you left off.

Time Trial
Not really much to say, it’s good for getting used to the game and learning braking points and tracks but not much else in my opinion.

Multiplayer
F1 2015 has a lot of different options for multiplayer, it is split by beginner, standard, hardcore, feature and custom. Beginner multiplayer races have collisions turned off (no more mass pile ups at turn one!) and are either three or five laps long, quite fun! Standard has collisions on with a five lap sprint or 25% race and one lap qualifying, I haven’t tested this yet but I imagine it will just have mass piles ups at turn one. Hardcore is either 25% with no assists or 50% with assists and half a grid of expert/legend AI. Feature race is the last/next actual F1 event with 25% race distance.

Championship Season
There is no career mode on F1 2015 so championship season is about as close as you can get. Rather than driving as yourself you have to drive as a current driver, you’re also limited to a short (15 minute practice, one lap qualifying & 25% race), normal (30 minute practice, short qualifying and 50% race) or long weekend (60 minute practice, full qualifying and 100% race), no mixing and matching available like there is in the quick race.

Pro Season
Basically Championship Season on steroids, no assists, no HUD, legend AI, all three free practice sessions in full, full qualifying and 100% race, but mid-session saves are still available. Pro Season is for the serious racers.

Pros

• The full 2014 and 2015 cars and tracks, nice to have and you can do all game modes with 2014 cars.
• Replays, after you finish a race you can view the whole thing back again from the perspective of every single driver, however if you retire you can only view up to the point where you retired.
• AI, generally improved I think, long wheel to wheel battles with the AI are fun and can last a while.
• Mid-session saves, very useful and I think I may be using them a lot.

Cons

• Lack of career, not personally a big issue for me but I know it is for a lot of people. May be possible to get around this by modding the PC version to create yourself and use the 2014 and 2015 season modes.
• AI, I know I listed this as a pro but it is also a con in other ways. Turn 1 and 2 on the first lap is still ridiculously easy, take the inside line and you easily gain at least four positions at almost every track. The AI will also often turn into you towards the entry of a corner and cause you to spin, crash and most likely retire.
• Bugs, there are a few of them! In my first multiplayer race I started the race, moved a few feet and then was suddenly watching live onboards of every other car. My car was still in the race, being driven, with my name above, but I wasn’t driving it and could not watch it from onboard, only able to see it from other cars.
• Bugs part 2, after a few hours of playing I switched to the 2014 season and started a quick race, got to the grid and nothing. Every car was on the grid, but the HUD and lights never came on and nothing ever happened. Tried five times with different tracks and drivers and still the same, I could not get the 2014 cars working until I restarted my PS4.

Thoughts
Overall a decent game, lots of fun but does need a few bugfixes and tweaks though, may be worth waiting for it to drop in price and for Codemasters to fix some parts before buying it.