F1 2017 Have Your Say: The New F1 2017 Game - Good, Bad or Indifferent?

[Paul Jeffrey]

For this edition of our 'Have Your Say' feature of articles we want to know your thoughts on F1 2017, the latest Codemasters official Formula One game.

Released to much fanfare throughout the racing game world, F1 2017 finally hit the store shelves on Friday morning for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC, however has the game lived up to the hype, or does it promise more than it can ultimately deliver?

Formula One games have found themselves something of a nice little spot in the racing game marketplace these past few years. It is not quite a fully blown simulation that appeals to a minority within a minority, nor is it totally arcade with fantasy physics calculations. After eight years with the official license, have Codemasters finally found the sweet spot between simulation and mass market appeal?

The question for today is a bit more open than usual, but hopefully generates plenty of debate amongst us sim racing fans:

What is your opinion of the new Codemasters F1 game, and is it any good?

Please stay respectful and constructive in the comments (as we always say..) and let the debate begin!

 

[Coffer]

You can race in the wet in a convincing manor

But Manor no longer exist after 2016... /s

 

[Coffer]

Just did Australia on 110% and finished 4th in the Haas. Considering how much I actually got into it, it's safe to say that I can change my earlier assessment from +/- to a definite ++. I still like the 2016 cars and FFB more, but the overall feeling is still plenty good for me, and with the AI being harder this time around compared to 2016's Ultimate difficulty, it's much easier to enjoy the game without outright dominating. I still like AMS's Formula Ultimate cars more, but the feeling I came out with after yesterday's race was "I would never ever have this much fun in a simracing title, online or offline." If anything, it makes me wonder just what it would take for me to actually enjoy a simracing title these days, as even though I can handle them just fine, they never manage to interest or excite me anywhere near as much as even this one little race.

So long as Codemasters fix the major bugs plaguing the game right now, I'm likely to get another few hundred hours out of it. Hard not to be pleased with that, especially after the frustrating letdown that was Dirt 4.

 

[eljueta]

I really liked it, I played 2016 for an hour and refunded it because I hated the handling. This one has the right balance for me. It is really fun to play. You can call it Simcade but I think it errs on the Sim side on the handling model. It feels good and the car behaves like you expect it to. I cannot vouch for the accuracy.

Performance-wise I have a GTX1070 only one screen at 1080p its fully maxed out. The new Nvidia drivers made a lot of difference though.

There are some bugs to iron out graphically and otherwise, and also the tiny segments with your agent and mechanics in career mode need to be skippable . The AI sometimes tries to gain a space from behind a la Ocon-Perez, which is annoying.

But as some other people said in the comments, I'm having more fun offline in this than any other of the current sims. Sims are great for online play with you guys, but the lack of a career mode or progression hurts offline play. Also as a rhetorical question would it be better for the sim devs to focus their (usually) sparse resources into one racing series instead of dozens of different cars? Would that then result in better games with championships and maybe offline progression with more mainstream appeal instead of a driving model with menus attached to it? Just a thought.

tl;dr: IMHO if you like F1 buy it, it's really good. Unless you have a VR headset, tough luck.

 

[Coffer]

Also as a rhetorical question would it be better for the sim devs to focus their (usually) sparse resources into one racing series instead of dozens of different cars? Would that then result in better games with championships and maybe offline progression with more mainstream appeal instead of a driving model with menus attached to it? Just a thought.

Far better when it comes to offline play I'd say, since then you can actually work on getting the vibes right (and obviously the cars themselves, as well as the kind of racing you're expected to have in whatever series you're planning on focusing on). Reiza's focus on F1 and Brazilian stock cars is extremely good, as the new AI works phenomenally well with the latter and very well with the former.

I like AC in a lot of ways for instance, but the differences between the types of cars it features can be rather extreme at times, and from what I've seen, this mostly leads to fewer lobbies (already amplified by the DLC problem), less enjoyable driving (a lot of cars are really not as fine tuned as Reiza's) and more boredom (everyone's got some sort of preference, so not committing to any one of them means you're bound to bore everyone to an extent - I personally find the "regular" cars to be an absolute waste of time and one of the worst things in any simracing title, for instance).

 

[eljueta]

Far better when it comes to offline play I'd say, since then you can actually work on getting the vibes right (and obviously the cars themselves, as well as the kind of racing you're expected to have in whatever series you're planning on focusing on). Reiza's focus on F1 and Brazilian stock cars is extremely good, as the new AI works phenomenally well with the latter and very well with the former.

I like AC in a lot of ways for instance, but the differences between the types of cars it features can be rather extreme at times, and from what I've seen, this mostly leads to fewer lobbies (already amplified by the DLC problem), less enjoyable driving (a lot of cars are really not as fine tuned as Reiza's) and more boredom (everyone's got some sort of preference, so not committing to any one of them means you're bound to bore everyone to an extent - I personally find the "regular" cars to be an absolute waste of time and one of the worst things in any simracing title, for instance).

Agree 100%, that is my biggest gripe with AC. Automobilista ties with Raceroom for my favorites, the first because of the driving model and the second because of polish. But none give me the fun factor offline that F1 does. And I do most of my racing offline. I personally think that is why sims lose a lot of mainstream appeal, not because the average gamer doesn't want to learn the ins and outs of a driving model, but because they lack the incentive, in the form of championships, or career modes to do so. Less cars, more modes!

 

[Coffer]

Agree 100%, that is my biggest gripe with AC. Automobilista ties with Raceroom for my favorites, the first because of the driving model and the second because of polish. But none give me the fun factor offline that F1 does. And I do most of my racing offline. I personally think that is why sims lose a lot of mainstream appeal, not because the average gamer doesn't want to learn the ins and outs of a driving model, but because they lack the incentive, in the form of championships, or career modes to do so.

Yeah, I'm with you on that. I do most of my racing either offline or with a couple of friends, usually in this series or in AMS or AC, and while the latter can be a lot of fun, for many reasons it's the game we run the least by far.

I can see why iRacing is so successful, since its online system is quite serious and provides, at least to a decent enough extent, the sort of incentive that you're mentioning. I'd give it a shot, but seeing as I'm from eastern Europe, the game's exceptionally expensive for me, and I've only once gotten any real enjoyment out of playing a simracing or simcade title with total strangers. I'm also the kind of person who enjoys these games for the competitive aspect, especially racing, and definitely not for the driving, which I enjoy doing in F1 cars far more than any others (the same way F1 is the only motorsport that interests me).

 

[vee10]

But Manor no longer exist after 2016... /s

 

[kamackeris]

I'm finally on my pc again tonight and was looking forward to buying it..... BUT.... There is one bug I've read about the qualifying bug which is putting me off... Is everyone experiencing it?

 

[eljueta]

I'm finally on my pc again tonight and was looking forward to buying it..... BUT.... There is one bug I've read about the qualifying bug which is putting me off... Is everyone experiencing it?

What exactly is this bug?

 

[Coffer]

What exactly is this bug?

Two in fact: the AI setting magic laps when you're not looking (such as when the session's ending - happens even when there's no time to set any laps anymore), and the AI being too fast in qualifying in general relative to their race pace. The former is especially bad as in Australia, the 110% AI with the magic lap bug is 1s faster than real life.

 

[vee10]

I'm finally on my pc again tonight and was looking forward to buying it..... BUT.... There is one bug I've read about the qualifying bug which is putting me off... Is everyone experiencing it?

Yeah they are too quick in quali and practice sessions. It is so easily resolved though it is not even worth worrying about. I run the A.I 90% in practice and quali and 95% in a race that works perfectly for me in my Renault career always just around the top ten in all sessions with a sniff of some points if things go in my favour. Totally realistic even my engine wears out quick.

 

[Enzo Fazzi]

The FFB is not the same as 2016, its much improved for 2017, there's plenty of sliders to adjust in the FFB menu. Not only that, the FFB is a lot stronger this year as well.

I feel all the bumps a bit better but it's still fairly light and the feel of losing and gaining load on the front tires hasn't really changed IMO.
This is with a T300 btw.

 

[Coffer]

I feel all the bumps a bit better but it's still fairly light and the feel of losing and gaining load on the front tires hasn't really changed IMO.

The latter I can give you, but with regards to the former, this is F1. You're not supposed to feel them that much in these cars. Games like rFactor 2 exaggerate them massively.

 

[kamackeris]

Yeah they are too quick in quali and practice sessions. It is so easily resolved though it is not even worth worrying about. I run the A.I 90% in practice and quali and 95% in a race that works perfectly for me in my Renault career always just around the top ten in all sessions with a sniff of some points if things go in my favour. Totally realistic even my engine wears out quick.

Cool... I was more on about this bug... Have you seen it? http://forums.codemasters.com/discussion/56473/bug-fake-times-calculated-at-the-end-of-qualy#latest

 

[Vitor M Sousa]

Cool... I was more on about this bug... Have you seen it? http://forums.codemasters.com/discussion/56473/bug-fake-times-calculated-at-the-end-of-qualy#latest

I have that happen to me but it doesn't seem to happen every time. And I always let the time run out as I do all sessions. Not sure why that doesn't happen all the time.
But saw one time drivers not on track get new times after the end of session...

For now this is the biggest issue for me. It's really frustrating to be pushing only to see this happen after the end of the session...

 

[vee10]

Cool... I was more on about this bug... Have you seen it? http://forums.codemasters.com/discussion/56473/bug-fake-times-calculated-at-the-end-of-qualy#latest

Don't think I have noticed it, I always let the timer run out but tbh I am usually at the arse end of the grid so not really bothered usually.

I am sure it will be a easy fix for codies.

 

[Coffer]

Don't think I have noticed it, I always let the timer run out but tbh I am usually at the arse end of the grid so not really bothered usually.

I am sure it will be a easy fix for codies.

You may want to look at some of the times they set before the timer runs out and then afterwards. For me in Australia for instance, Grosjean would set times in the 1:23.6-1:23.7 ballpark on 110% in Q2 without the bug and 1:22.9 with the bug. The frontrunners also went from around 1:21.7-1:22.0 to 1:21.2.

And unfortunately if it was an easy fix they would've probably fixed it after 2016, since it's present there too, just on a much smaller scale as it usually affects only 1-3 drivers. Then again, we all know how lazy CM can be at times.

 

[joe pineapples]

Was hoping for a playable demo this time..

 

[Andy_J]

Was hoping for a playable demo this time..

You can have one by buying it on steam and trying it for two hours. If you don't like it, obtain a refund. So similar to a demo only more detailed.

 

[vee10]

You may want to look at some of the times they set before the timer runs out and then afterwards. For me in Australia for instance, Grosjean would set times in the 1:23.6-1:23.7 ballpark on 110% in Q2 without the bug and 1:22.9 with the bug. The frontrunners also went from around 1:21.7-1:22.0 to 1:21.2.

And unfortunately if it was an easy fix they would've probably fixed it after 2016, since it's present there too, just on a much smaller scale as it usually affects only 1-3 drivers. Then again, we all know how lazy CM can be at times.

I will have a detailed look later be interesting to see what is going on. Hopefully it can fixed before I become more competitive in the career mode.

Probably more chance of a modder fixing it. But here's hoping CM can do it and release a patch. At least they don't have endless list of bugs to fix unlike most games these days. It is pretty robust in most areas.