F1 2016 Codemasters F1 2016 Released

[Chris]

Featuring all the official drivers, teams and tracks from the 2016 Formula One season, the release day for Codemasters latest Formula One iteration is finally here.

Making it's return to the series is the Safety Car, along with the newly implemented Virtual Safety Car (VSC) and a host of new and improved features such as manual starts and formation laps. Players will be able to create their own character, personalise their own helmet and choose a racing number for their career.

F1 2016 is the official video game of the 2016 FIA FORMULA ONE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP™ and features the full 2016 season calendar of 21 tracks, including the brand new Baku circuit in Azerbaijan, and the full roster of 22 drivers and 11 teams, including the new Haas F1 Team.

Many fans believe this to be the true successor to the original F1 2010 game with a greater focus on "Living the Life", as players will have to deal with media commitments, driver contracts and emails. In addition to these welcome improvements comes far more engaging practice sessions as drivers will need to complete programs and goals for the Free Practice sessions which are vital for the team's Research and Development program.
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_...earch-alias=videogames&field-keywords=f1+2016
F1 2016 is available for PC, Xbox One and Playstation 4 here

Do you own F1 2016? What are your impressions so far? Let us know!

 

[Chris]

Kimi-isms should be a thing. Shut up I know what I'm doing is the obvious one of course but should we ever get post race interviews the replies better be something like:

• Bwoaaah...
• No I, I don't want...
• Is same for everybody really...

Don't forget the classic:

• "It is what it is..."
• "We do our own thing."
• "I don't know."

 

[vee10]

My personal favorite Kimi.

 

[vee10]

Did a wet race at Barcelona last night, normally I am not big fan of racing in the rain/wet as I usually like to just give it some in the dry, well this game has totally changed my opinion. It was brilliant fun, as wet weather is usually the great leveler my lowly qualy position of 16th was worth it as I set the car up for the wet in the dry qualifying which paid dividends in the race, had a epic battle with Max for around half of the race every time I got past for 6th I would relax and make a small mistake then he was back in. Managed to get him on the last lap and stay there!

The ffb and driving in the wet felt great on T300 F1, you could induce controlled oversteer on the exit of the corner to get a decent exit, not using flashbacks was really exciting and very rewarding.

This game still has got me buzzing about it.

 

[Thorrior]

I dont know what it is...but I am not liking the placement of the onscreen display stuff. In cockpit mode, I want to have the miniHUD stuff they have on the other views, but I you don't get that (Did I hit DRS or not? not sure!).

I always wondered why they never allowed the mini HUD in cockpit view. It would be really helpful.
According to some other forums the DRS indicator should be blinking when it's available and be solid green when it's open. But I think that's not working. You can check your rear mirrors to see if it's open or not.

 

[Alex Townsend]

Did a wet race at Barcelona last night, normally I am not big fan of racing in the rain/wet as I usually like to just give it some in the dry, well this game has totally changed my opinion. It was brilliant fun, as wet weather is usually the great leveler my lowly qualy position of 16th was worth it as I set the car up for the wet in the dry qualifying which paid dividends in the race, had a epic battle with Max for around half of the race every time I got past for 6th I would relax and make a small mistake then he was back in. Managed to get him on the last lap and stay there!

The ffb and driving in the wet felt great on T300 F1, you could induce controlled oversteer on the exit of the corner to get a decent exit, not using flashbacks was really exciting and very rewarding.

This game still has got me buzzing about it.

Totally agree with this. I tried a quick race at Melbourne and it was dry all weekend apart from race day.
One of the most rewarding feelings ever just finishing the race. Thankfully I was on the podium as was racing as Nico in the Mercedes but the feeling of the car in the wet with the oversteer and grip coming back was very intuitive.
Loving this title right now and so glad I gave it a chance.

 

[Chris]

Totally agree with this. I tried a quick race at Melbourne and it was dry all weekend apart from race day.
One of the most rewarding feelings ever just finishing the race. Thankfully I was on the podium as was racing as Nico in the Mercedes but the feeling of the car in the wet with the oversteer and grip coming back was very intuitive.
Loving this title right now and so glad I gave it a chance.

Out of everything, the wet weather is probably the biggest improvement compared to the last time I played a Codemasters f1 game. The cars were on rails in the wet in earlier titles, but now there's so much less grip available. It's great!

 

[Alex Townsend]

Out of everything, the wet weather is probably the biggest improvement compared to the last time I played a Codemasters f1 game. The cars were on rails in the wet in earlier titles, but now there's so much less grip available. It's great!

It's truly amazing and I know people were saying this was going to be simcade but you turn all the assists and traction control and stability management off and drive a wet track and tell me it's not a sim. Feels like one to me. But a bit more immersion due to the awesome work Codies have done on making you feel like you're at an F1 event.

 

[Stig Bidstrup]

Don't forget the classic:

• "It is what it is..."
• "We do our own thing."
• "I don't know."

Different interview with the Finn he drives Alfa in private

 

[Rodent]

I for one will be sure to send Jeff a christmas greeting in the spirit of Kimi.

Edit: And just to keep in the spirit of the thread, a few days in I'm still enjoying the game quite a bit. Between this and DiRT Rally Codies are really on a roll. The sum can certainly be greater then the parts.

 

[zAmboni]

I always wondered why they never allowed the mini HUD in cockpit view. It would be really helpful.
According to some other forums the DRS indicator should be blinking when it's available and be solid green when it's open. But I think that's not working. You can check your rear mirrors to see if it's open or not.

I feel a little bit stupid for not noticing the lights on the wheel until I was doing a race last night. I did Bahrain, and it seems the AI was more aggressive than at Albert Park. They attempted to pass more often, but seemed to back out of most of the attempts. It may have been because I was running a bit more downforce than they were. They would pull aside/ahead on the straights, but I was able to brake later and turn in better...until the next straight .

I'm playing on expert because I am no alien with all of the mechanical aids off. I was able to pull a 10th in qualifying with Haas (career mode), and was able to finish 10th. I almost felt like I needed to fill out a bug report because I thought DRS was broken. It was giving me DRS in the last few laps even though I thought there was no one in front of me! It wasn't until looking at the replay when I found out that Bottas or Sainz behind me would get their nose ahead of me right at the DRS detection line, but having the inside line I never noticed it and that would trigger the DRS for me.

Because I am not too hung up on eye candy I put the graphics detail on low and lowered the resolution so I could run the game on triple screens....much better than one screen only.

Few notes and questions:
Need RPM counter on cockpit view for race starts. I am only guessing at revs at the beginning of a race.
Sound needs work. Going by the pits there is massive reverb and sounds that sound nothing like engines. Also has a constant din around the track that sounds like a muffled PA system...all louder than the car's engine.
Wish I could save the replay so I can watch it later.

Although I watch some F1 races, things about tyres I am not sure on. I had thought that you had to start the race on the same compound that one set their fastest time in Q2 with. I thought I would be able to start the race with a fresh set of tyres (of the same compound), but it looks like the game started the race with the same exact set of (worn) tyres that I used earlier (if I knew this I may not have done a second lap on them )

 

[Chris]

Although I watch some F1 races, things about tyres I am not sure on. I had thought that you had to start the race on the same compound that one set their fastest time in Q2 with. I thought I would be able to start the race with a fresh set of tyres (of the same compound), but it looks like the game started the race with the same exact set of (worn) tyres that I used earlier (if I knew this I may not have done a second lap on them )

Ah, yeah if you make it to Q2, then you'll start the race on the exact same set of tyres that you set your fastest Q2 laptime on.

One thing I wish we had more customization with is the tyre stint lengths in the pre-race strategy screen. Yesterday I wanted to try and replicate the strategy that Ricciardo ran at Hockenheim, but found that I couldn't make the yellow marked soft compound run 21 laps because the fewest it would allow was a stint of like 23 laps or something. Which in turn had a domino effect on the next two stops for super-softs.

Obviously there's nothing stopping you from coming into the pits on the desired laps, but it'd be nice to have fully customizable strategies.

 

[zAmboni]

One thing I wish we had more customization with is the tyre stint lengths in the pre-race strategy screen. Yesterday I wanted to try and replicate the strategy that Ricciardo ran at Hockenheim, but found that I couldn't make the yellow marked soft compound run 21 laps because the fewest it would allow was a stint of like 23 laps or something. Which in turn had a domino effect on the next two stops for super-softs.

I was able to get the right pitstop laps for the first two pits, but not the third.

Looks like the problem is that the game will not allow you to make a strategy where you can run the supersofts longer than 18 laps. I just thought of a workaround!....dont feel like loading the game up to find out right now though . Add a 5th stint using mediums and pit somewhere around lap 60, and it should allow you to move the pit laps for the other stops to where you want. In game, just ignore them when they yell for you to come into the pits at the end.

I'm confused with the strategy page though (maybe a bug?) The top says high tyre managment, and the bottom says low, but if you put in the same exact strategy for both, all of the info for tyre life and lap times are the same. Something seems wrong with the page. Should go look and see if anyone has posted something about this on the support forums.

 

[Hatsu]

I don't think this is wrong. First time you visit the page you get two strategies suggested, one for low and one for high tyre management. If you choose to set both strategies the same, why should they differ?
You can switch the strategies yourself and than you would have the low tyre management at the top and the high tyre management at the bottom. Wouldn't change the label.

 

[zAmboni]

The way the game has the page, the only difference between high and low tyre management is pitting more times for the latter. They just might as well label the page Strategy 1, and Strategy 2.

To me, high tyre management means "look after the tyres" = slower lap times
Low tyre management means "go balls out" = faster lap times.
The graphs in the top and bottom should account for this. Lets just talk about the first stint. Supersofts on low tyre managment should have a shorter life shown and accordingly lower lap times. High tyre managment should show longer tyre life and longer lap times. Instead they are the same in both.

Maybe I am trying to make the page to be more than the Codies want it to be. Give me some estimates on tyre life and time estimates if I push, rather than play it safe.....Like I said, the way the data is shown they might as well change the titles to Strategy 1 and Strategy 2.

Edit: Forgot to add...this is one of the reasons why @Chris Stacey cannot replicate Ricciardo's strategy. The page is not allowing for longer tyre life for a high tyre management strategy. The pros can stretch the supersoft tyres for 21 laps, let us account for that in the strategy page! Instead we only can get 1) Nominal strategy with less stops and 2) Nominal strategy with more stops. Maybe Pirelli or F1 said to the Codies "we wont allow you to plan on using the tyres in a way we don't want the players to" and that is what we got stuck with. Who knows.

 

[Hatsu]

I agree it would be very helpful to play with the grey lines to lower or upper the lap time as well and the prospected tyre wear line would adapt. At least in career the graph shows your achieved results in tyre wear test. If you do all three you get quite good suggestions.

 

[zAmboni]

I looked over at the Codie's forum and found this thread.
It suggests that info from the Tyre management and Qualifying pace tests go into creating custom strategies for you for the race. I'm guessing that in the different practices one needs to run each of them on each compounds to get a full set of info.

Thing is that I never really paid too much attention to the strategy page to see if it changed the tyre wear/lap times in the graphs or not (for the tracks I have raced so far). I tried loading up a quick race for the tracks I did run those tests in and didn't see any difference from the graphs....but the data gotten from the tests may be specific for a single race weekend. Not sure. Wish there was some documentation or official word on the way things are supposed to work

 

[Chris]

To me, high tyre management means "look after the tyres" = slower lap times
Low tyre management means "go balls out" = faster lap times.
The graphs in the top and bottom should account for this. Lets just talk about the first stint. Supersofts on low tyre managment should have a shorter life shown and accordingly lower lap times. High tyre managment should show longer tyre life and longer lap times. Instead they are the same in both.

They do though, Fred. By default the high tyre management does mean fewer stops and/or longer stint lengths. Look at the description on the right.

 

[Drewsturr]

I haven't touched the f1 series since 2012, looks like Codemasters finally redeemed themselves to me. I am loving this game.

 

[zAmboni]

They do though, Fred. By default the high tyre management does mean fewer stops and/or longer stint lengths. Look at the description on the right.

Chris, I think I am having a problem putting down in words what I am thinking

I know what the descriptions say, but I wanted to basically check to see if the estimated race time and the graphs actually represent what is mentioned in the description, and I don't think they do. Yes there are longer stints in the default low tyre management section, but I come to the conclusion that the time on the left does not take into account longer lap times for high tyre management, and the lower times for a low tyre management strategy.

This is why I changed the low tyre management strategy to the same one as the top to see if there was any difference in times. There was not.

You can also see this in the default strategies image below:

Just take a look at the first stint. The slope of the tyre wear on the SS are the same in both strategies. Although it looks like there may be a difference in lap times, but there isn't because the Y-axis for times are different on top and bottom. If it was taking into account actual tyre savings/hammer time, the slopes of the two lines for wear should be different, and the lap times should be different.

Therefore I conclude that the game at this point is just using a "normal" driving style for the top and bottom graph. The Time listed there, to me, says if you continue to drive normally, one extra stint of SS tyres will end up being 4s slower over the course of the race.

This was along the lines of what I expected to see in the graph:

The lines are just a guestimation.

After reading that thread I linked above, I may just be seeing this because the game just does not have the data for me and my driving style in tyre saving and tyre chewing modes. I need to go through a whole race weekend, most likely with full time stints for all of the practices so I can get tyre saving/tyre chewing data for all compounds and see what the graphs look like when I choose a race strategy at the starting line. Hopefully when I have the data I'll get something that looks like the modified graph above (only cleaner!)

BTW Chris, I did a custom strategy for what you were trying to do with Ricciardo's strategy and this is what I came up with just ignore the last pitstop. (there seems to be a bug in the graphs though because on the pit laps it goes something like L44, 45, 45, 47 when you move things around....even though it says Lap 45, I put the stop on lap 46)

 

[Andy_J]

Still loving this game. I have had no slow downs in replays after the patch. Everything is working so perfect at the moment. The AI is quite good in my opinion. Better than most main stream race sims.
Above all the immersion and atmosphere is just brilliant.

Am I weird to fancy this girl? She's fit.