Review for F1 2020. Game for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the video game was released on 10/07/2020
This summer 2020, as well as the whole complicated and surreal year in general, will be remembered for a long time, especially by sports lovers. Thanks to the COVID-19 emergency, most of the main sporting events have been suspended or postponed, and never before have fans been experiencing a real summer in the name of sport, of "football" in the first place, usually already only a memory these days. Among the summer constants, however, there are the engines, which usually accompany the enthusiasts along a usually monotonous and flat period, and never as this year the sports belonging to this particular category are awaited with anxious anticipation. Among these, Formula 1 clearly stands out, which opted for a shorter calendar and which made its debut in the weekend just ended, in a particularly important year for the whole movement. In fact, this year the most popular four-wheel competition in the world turns 70, and what better way to celebrate the event than to launch, practically concurrently, the new chapter of the videogame saga?
F1 2020, probably the last chapter designed for current generation consoles, is therefore - by right - one of the most anticipated in recent years, both for the media importance due to the situation and because it promises to bring to the brand an important number of novelties all to try and experience, against the backdrop of an equally interesting and unpredictable “real” season. We, as good fans of both engines and video games, we promptly jumped on the new iteration of Codemasters and with the engines of our PlayStation 4 Pro still on fire we are ready to give you our definitive response. Green light: the F1 season (also videogame) has begun!
Want to win!
Once the match starts, the first thing that catches the eye of this F1 2020 is the impressive amount of game modes available, both offline and (finally) online. As mentioned, however, even in the preview phase, our attention immediately turned to the most awaited mode of production, namely the Scuderia Career. In this mode, as already mentioned, it is possible to live the complete F1 experience, taking possession of a completely new team and leading it to success in the complicated and incredibly competitive paddock, keeping every aspect of team management well under control.
In the mode Stable is critical ponder each choice, starting from the economic one, clearly the beating heart of the whole experience. Each sponsor - freely selectable according to the proposed requirements - guarantees a fundamental amount of money to carry on the development of the single-seaters, but not only. The main income also comes from participation in particular events - by invitation or not - and from the planning of “social” activities essential to make the brand known around the world. A bit like in productions such as Persona 5, managing the calendar in the best possible way is one of the most important aspects of this method, because filling the days brings always different advantages (and disadvantages), and it is therefore up to the player to choose the line that best suits his idea of managing the Scuderia.
However, developing a department or not of your team is not only linked to the economic aspect, but also and above all to a real tree of skills, to be gorged through the aid of development points, available with the completion of dynamic and non-dynamic objectives. available during the various Grand Prix, but not only.
You can therefore decide to focus heavily on aerodynamics, on enhancing the engine or chassis, to have greater stability on the track, and so on, and these choices heavily pour into the gameplay, in which we have noticed how much the development is able to change the driving style based on the choices made. Clearly, being an overall "managerial" vision of the iteration, another fundamental aspect is that relating to the choice of the driver to work alongside our avatar, who acts as both owner and "first woman" in the team. This is however related to both the economic availability both and above all to the fame of the Scuderia.
As it also happens in reality, in fact, a top-tier driver would not be interested in dealing with a novice team and, therefore, to build a winning and functional ecosystem, every resource must be sipped and considered as much as possible. It must be said that we would like to advise you to experience every race in a "total" way because, for example, in Free Practice it is possible not only to familiarize yourself with the game controls and the tracks, but also to complete fundamental dynamic objectives to receive experience points from spend on one of the available trees. The career is structured over ten seasons and with such an approach it can give you (and give us) a very important longevity, but which in the long run could show the side of a sort of "repetitiveness" that is comprehensible after all.
Similar speech but at the same time different for the "classic" mode Pilot career, which offers us the possibility to start directly among the greats or to make a plausible apprenticeship in formula 2, completely licensed and usable in its "entirety". By choosing this type of Career, very similar in structure and system of upgrades of the car and in the attention due to factors such as fame, the real point of reference concerns the area of interest, which abandons the "total" aims of the Scuderia to focus, of course, on the pilot. Factors such as rivalry on the track and perhaps less the economic aspects must therefore be kept in mind, and there are specific enhancements for the pilot, such as the faster increase in fame or the possibility of answering questions in a more specific way, and so on. away, all clearly always well aware that the main focus of the matter remains the activity on the track. Keeping everything under control, however, is absolutely necessary, and it will be up to the player to choose which of the two types of Career is right for him.
It must be said that, in the long run, the two careers tend to resemble each other a bit and then at that point it is up to the player to decide which one to swear allegiance to.
In addition to the two “queen” modes, the playful offer of F1 is nothing short of mammoth. In addition to the classic Championships or single races and the Trials against time, the game offers an overwhelming amount of content, such as the challenges with classic cars, very interesting and above all numerous, which make the overall experience very complete and satisfying. .
To crown it all, there is a - finally - new interest in the online sector, no longer an accessory but a real "alternative" to the single player offer. The eSport component is very much felt this year, and the game puts in the player's hands the possibility of approaching it, which is well contextualized and coherent. You can participate in events in conjunction with the "real" appointments, complete with Free Practice, Race Weekend and so on, but also take part in the classic quick matches (classified and unclassified) to test yourself without too many commitments. Clearly, we have not had the opportunity to test the netcode and general stability with too much precision, which will inevitably be deepened in the coming days, when the title will be available for everyone. The races held, however, gave us excellent impressions on the quality and reliability of the infrastructure.
At the end, F1 2020 also sees the return of the much loved split-screen mode, in truth, however, implemented - according to our judgment - in a very confusing way, and which leaves the side also to technical uncertainties of no small importance.
Guidance system for all tastes!
From a playful point of view, F1 2020 accomplishes a small miracle, perfecting and expanding in this chapter of the end of the generation a very solid base already built in recent years. First of all it should be specified that before each event it is possible to choose whether to approach driving by selecting the driving style "Realism" or "Sporty". These two different types of driving offer a very different game system from each other.
Clearly, for the less accustomed or those approaching the series for the first time, the Sports one is recommended, which offers a more Arcade and less "punitive" driving system in terms of general use, but also, for example, more help also in track, a topic on which we will return shortly. The Realism mode instead offers more options designed to bring the game closer to a style simulative much more marked. We can reassure you that the two driving styles radically change the approach to racing and to the game in general: we have tried to vary by gradually increasing the level of difficulty, decreasing driving aids and alternating between the two driving systems. guide and we noticed how these help make Codemasters game play a title capable of satisfying players of all types.
The driving system also changes according to tire wear and the weather, which greatly affects driving, as for example it is possible to notice with a particularly hot track and very rapid laps how much the tires wear at a certain speed or on the wet the car loses grip very easily, failing to give the best of itself, for example when cornering, or when accelerating, elements which, especially with realistic driving, require the player to make great efforts to maintain control of the car . In general, the F1 2020 gameplay is not just a natural evolution of the previous ones, but it is really a sublimation of what the company has accomplished in recent years, making clear steps forward both in terms of spectacularity and in approaching a more simulative style so dear to many.
It is no coincidence that we were just talking about the aid system: in addition to the type of driving, it is also possible to select separately the type of aid that the game can offer the driver during the various races. In fact, you can choose whether to receive help on braking, on the general balance of acceleration and use of the DRS, and so on and also in this case we have noticed how the difference between the aids activated or not radically changes the game itself, also because with the aids set to the minimum, every single error takes on a specific weight, which can result in accidents and breakdowns of any kind.
The latter (rightly) can heavily compromise the fate of an entire race "weekend": we lost, for example, a race in a particular circuit practically at the last corner because they hit us, making us lose the wing, and the The car lost so much grip that we were overtaken by three drivers within a few meters. This upset us a lot but also made us appreciate the realism and proximity to simulation that F1 2020 is able to offer.
If we really wanted to find a nit in the gameplay it is the relative one to the excessive ease and difficulty based on the more or less high details: it doesn't make much sense, for example, that in our career with a newly created car that, given in hand, is a car with very low potential, we won a race at the second world round, also giving several seconds of gap to rivals like Ferrari and Mercedes, which is very credible and not justifiable even with the low difficulty level set, in our opinion. In a similar way we have seen how by increasing the level of difficulty and using a very good car we are very often exceeded or in any case reached too easily or we lose grip with excessive ease and speed, risking losing a race even for a single mistake not depending on our own. driving skills.
The feedback from the Formula 2 championship cars also convinced us: on the track they are obviously different from F1, not only for a matter of speed but also for the general performance that they offer controller in hand.
The title, however, also has another (historic) defect: we could see an annoying elastic effect, which at times appeared very evident in some races, perhaps also due to the track, not exactly ideal for such maneuvers. In general, however, this effect is limited to overtaking between the various controlled drivers from the AI, definitely uncertain in some passages, on the other hand, when it comes to overcoming the “human” driver, it is very aggressive, almost to the point of being incorrect. In some cases we were in fact thrown off the track, pushed or our car was almost destroyed. Clearly, it is good to underline how even in reality, with the new rules, overcoming has become increasingly complicated, but being a video game it could be a little more frustrating.
Technically from Pole Position!
We want to be honest: we would not have expected miracles from the visual sector, especially for the fact that we have now reached the end of the generation. And, in fact, Codemasters has focused strongly on a general optimization of the excellent material in its possession. On a strictly technical level, in fact, F1 2020 is more than solid, with very few flaws, all in all more than understandable considering the end-gen nature of the productions. Everything starts from the already more than excellent starting points, which in this chapter find a sort of refinement, clearly without revolutions, which concerns almost all the main aspects. First of all, the general image quality surprised us, which thanks to a more than satisfactory resolution on PlayStation 4 Pro (version we tested) makes the overall glance once again very solid. The lighting has also undergone major improvements, and this is particularly noticeable in the tracks where the sun's rays arrive more decisively. These elements contribute to making the general picture even more pleasant, helped by a very valid use of HDR, implemented in a skilful way.
Hand in hand with the excellent visual impact of the track and the cars, always at the top for several years, in this version we seemed to find a more attention to even the less conspicuous details, such as the outline elements of the various paths that this year enjoy a reproduction and rendering more faithful to the real counterpart and above all do not seem a sort of external and low-resolution images that clash with the general picture. Even the drivers have been faithfully reproduced, and not only the best known but also those who compete in Formula 2. Even the ability to customize the cars with sprays and liveries contributes not a little to making the glance of this F1 2020. really very good.
It must be said that this is felt even more decisively thanks also to an important stability on a technical level, in which we have never seen slowdowns or drops in frame rate: F1 2020 runs at a very stable 60 fps on PlayStation 4 Pro, except for when you take part in races with the help of the split-screen, in which the resolution and the frame rate drop dramatically, offering a very different view from the one we are used to. All this is embellished with a maniacal rendering of the tracks, especially the new ones, digitized using cutting-edge technologies that offer an incredibly realistic and detailed image. The only flaw? The "detachment" with the old tracks is very noticeable, but perhaps this is quite understandable.
But not only that: the great work done by Codemasters is visible even if only based on menu graphics, modernized and made more homogeneous and functional, and above all based on full license of Formula 1, which makes the overall picture in the menus as on the track to the limits of photorealism. Finally, the sound sector is very good, which manages to replicate the noises and sounds of Formula 1 racing cars in a very convincing way, on which, however, once again the presence of a commentary that is too dated and which is limited to very few sentences weighs heavily. often and willingly pronounced with an unconvincing and decontextualized cadence and emphasis.
F1 2020 is an incredibly rich title, both from the point of view of the playful offer and from that of general quality. The step forward made by Codemasters in practically every aspect of production is evident, and is manifested in a decisive way with a very interesting Scuderia Career mode and with greater attention to the eSport and competitive component, finally more decisive. Everything is embellished by the usual great work done in technical terms, in which, in some cases, the new iteration of the brand really seems able to border on photorealism, especially in terms of sound. A bitter taste remains in the mouth for a guide system that is super adjustable, but which in some cases reveals an excessively unbalanced level of challenge (in both senses) and for an annoying elastic effect that in some particular tracks is felt a little more than it should, but overall we cannot complain at all. In short, if you are passionate about Formula 1, this year more than usual you have no excuse: F1 2020 is the right gift for you (and for myself).
► F1 2020 is a racing-Simulation-Sport game developed and published by Codemasters for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the video game was released on 10/07/2020
