Review for F1 2018. Game for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the video game was released on 24/08/2018
F1 2018 is the game you don't expect, the champion's kickback: Basically is the title that every Italian fan of the Circus would have liked to receive in a historical moment, sporting speaking, as delicate as the current one.
A cornucopia of potentially nefarious events has in fact hit the Liberty Media sportainment: Fernando Alonso who decides to greet his fans, Niki Lauda who almost leaves us his pens, Sergio Marchionne's farewell. But the zeros and ones that come out of this sporty creature manage to lull, delight, being able to make up for a reality that, misfortunes aside, sees Formula One immersed in a faint, but perfectly perceptible, blanket of chaos.
Controversy over the alleged irregularity of some single-seaters lined up on the starting grid, rules rewritten every other year as well, dramatically decreasing public, at least here, in the Bel Paese. And then there's him, the big game by Codemasters, who turns off worries, resets the brain and reconciles with the world.
The overwhelmingly noticeable changes compared to last season, although not exactly seminal, project this latest episode of the series into the Olympus of four-wheeled productions, bringing the voluptuous synapses of the virtual driver closer to remembering the dreamy roars of Geoff Crammond and Grand Prix 4 engines from every sound frequency. The quattropuntozero Ego Engine pumps directly on the retinas of homo ludens, describing course scenarios characterized by a degree of definition and gross cleanliness such as to convert so much visual beauty into a nerve impulse from coaclal opening.
And it's nice, to squirt in this mar: able to render UHD images at constant 60 frames per second on the most performing hardware, the F1 2018 graphics engine draws new life into the implementation of an improved rendering process for particle effects linked to clouds, fog and rain which, in the event of a wet race, make driving a real challenge, due to very poor visibility. And there is no hand on the zebedees that he can hold, in the unfortunate case in which one becomes the best of Pastor Maldonado's emulators: weaving one's metal sheets into the rear of the car that follows is almost certain if, in prohibitive weather conditions, use the foresight to moderate your pace.
An improved refraction effect of the asphalt and greater attention paid to the constituent details of each of the circuits present also ensure that the binary pilot overwhelmingly feels the need to go faster and faster, beyond all limits. Need for Speed anyone?
Like the visual sector, the playful features of F1 2018 have also been revamped and enhanced. In addition to the fetishist reproduction of the aesthetically almost obscene Halo, possibly semi-removable to ensure a clearer view to the player, the developers have focused their attention on the creation of a career mode that is genuinely rich in nuances, dynamic and characterized by a discreet freshness.
The introduction of interviews to the press is very relevant, to which the gamer can respond by selecting one of the available options. Depending on the phrases chosen to charm the digital audience, the virtual driver will have the opportunity to build his own intellectual identity at will, shaping its characteristics and consequently attracting the attention of the media, opponents and teams to himself, sometimes even providing valuable feedback. to the engineers on the behavior of the car. The possibility of redefining the main characteristics of the driver's personality is reflected in the - at least for the franchise - innovative opportunity to propose to the teams to try to get them a contract, perhaps renouncing some of the privileges previously unlocked. Some teams will want to protect under their aegis a driver like Hamilton, who is particularly attentive to relations with the public, while others will be looking for drivers with little smoke, a lot of roast. Vettel, for example.
Also implemented change of rules between one championship and another: strategically very interesting, this intrinsic fluidity in the sporting code leaves the player and his R&D team the need to dose well the resources at their disposal to develop the car, trying to keep adequate development points not only for the current season, but also for future ones.
The driving model may appear substantially similar to the one sported by F1 2017, but actually the differences are there, and how. They have been renewed the physics of the suspension as well as the reactions of the chassis to changes in the set-up, to begin with. The internal tire temperature, an introduction that makes it impossible to exploit the tires to the limit from the very first laps without completely burning the compound and irreparably degrading the car's performance.
An additional element that the pilot can decide to modifying as needed is the interference of the ERS, the energy recovery system, in the speed performance of the car. Similarly to the possibility of dosing the amount of fuel consumed per lap, F1 2018 allows you to redistribute the power delivered by the battery called to store the heat dissipated by the brakes and thermal engine. That's hot.
Unfortunately, the algorithms that regulate the damage have not undergone particular changes in the representation of the deformation of the various cars following collisions of any intensity. Speaking of clashes, note how CPU-governed opponents can boast of behavioral routines that are much closer to reality, being generally more aggressive (sometimes even too much), not disdaining others yes to defend their position in a decidedly less staid way than in the past.
Finally, they intervene to seal the product content eight new vintage racing cars - including the 001 Brawn GP-2009, world champion along with Jenson Button - the addition of the spectacular French circuit of Le Castellet and the very welcome return of the Teutonic Hockenheim circuit.
But as an old, pirellic advertising adage said, power is nothing without control: usability through any type of command remains, fortunately, as always at the top, as support for some steering wheels has also been extended beautifully ignored in da past. The feeling with the pad remains substantially more than acceptable, but obviously the force feedback provided by a good driving wheel outclasses any other solution existing on the globe.
Parallel to the decisive upgrades poured into the Career, Codemasters has finally managed to implement - in a similar way to what made by Gran Turismo Sport - an online mode characterized by the presence of a ranking system capable of monitoring, in addition to the talent of each driver, also their behavior and their own level of sportsmanship.
A novelty, the latter, which will be evaluated in the long term, promptly verifying the obvious repercussions on matchmaking.
F1 2018 is the best gift that Codemasters could give to racing game enthusiasts, rising to a decidedly exciting production, carefully packaged and characterized by the presence of numerous features that enrich an ever-evolving series through small, but carefully thought-out, steps forward. Really good graphics, much improved offline career and a multiplayer mode that finally sets a solid foundation for the franchise's near future. Evolution pack.
► F1 2018 is a racing-Simulation game developed and published by Codemasters for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the video game was released on 24/08/2018
