F1 2020

[Charlie Tango]

Not sure how popular Formula 1 games are these days, but just thought I'd pass on that the new F1 2020 game from Codemasters (to be available on PS4, Xbox & PC) will be released on 10th July. With the season currently scheduled to start on 28th June in France (although things are changing all the time in the current climate), that means the game will come out within a couple of weeks of what is intended to be the first race of the season.

The big features are that Formula 2 will again be part of the game, better multiplayer and there will be the option to create your very own team in a new management mode, which admittedly does sound fun. There will be a 'Michael Schumacher Deluxe' edition to celebrate the great man, which will feature four of his most iconic cars (quoting from the article now) including the Jordan 191 in which he made his debut, his title-winning Benetton B194 and B195 and the Ferrari F1-2000 that took him to the first of his five titles with the Italian team.

The only editions I've seen thus far on Amazon are for PS4, £54.99 for the 'seventy' edition and £64.99 for the Schumacher Deluxe. The Schumacher Deluxe is listed to be released three days early on 7th July. Not sure how reliable that is.

[Chris2K]

I never seem to invest enough time in the F1 games to make them worth paying full price for, I strive to find a level-ground where I can drive a midfield team without either crawling around at the back or winning the race. I can be swayed by the management mode though.

Those Schumacher cars are a bit odd. The Jordan was fairly meaningless other than its iconic 7-Up livery, the B194 was mostly illegal, the B195 was the non-illegal version of the B194, and the 2000 is a classic. Would have liked to have seen the 1992 Camel Benetton he won his first race in, and maybe the 96 or 97 Ferrari.

[Bobfoc]

The management mode sounds interesting, particularly as a new series of standalone F1 management games will be starting in 2022. I'm guessing the latter will be more in-depth and the Codemasters games will be comparatively basic. What I'd like most is a new Motorsport Manager on PC.

[Katsuya]

Yeah, the "be the 11th team" mode is actually drawing in me a lot more than I'd thought. I got F1 2019 on Steam when it was on sale the other week and I've enjoyed it, albeit with my laptop having some serious framerate issues at times making it a little less fun to play...

But the fact you can simulate people moving up from F2 also sounds like it'll be a lot of fun. Codemasters seem to finally be turning the corner on the franchise after the 15-18 kinda slum where nothing really changed.

Also, for those who don't know; Frontier (Planet Coaster/Zoo etc.) are doing an officially lincenced F1 manager sim, although I don't think it's due out until 2022...

[Chris2K]

On a completely unrelated note, I've been watching 1988 and 1989 where there were 18-20 different constructors entering every race, so calling it "Be the 11th team" shows the state F1 is in.

[METALMAN]

That potential manager game looks interesting. I used to love that old F1 manager game - think it was by EA, think it was 1999 - far more than any driving sim.

[Charlie Tango]

On 17/04/2020 at 16:18, metalman said:

That potential manager game looks interesting. I used to love that old F1 manager game - think it was by EA, think it was 1999 - far more than any driving sim.

I know the one you mean, I think it was just 'F1 Manager'. That was an awesome game and I still have working copy on an old laptop. Motorsport Manager was a lot of fun, it managed to have a bit of balance between doing more but not going too in-depth if that makes sense but for some reason it's packed up on my Steam. I'm guessing it's something to do with Windows 10 and the screen resolution maybe but I haven't been too interested to fix it.

[Bobfoc]

8 minutes ago, Charlie Tango said:

I know the one you mean, I think it was just 'F1 Manager'. That was an awesome game and I still have working copy on an old laptop. Motorsport Manager was a lot of fun, it managed to have a bit of balance between doing more but not going too in-depth if that makes sense but for some reason it's packed up on my Steam. I'm guessing it's something to do with Windows 10 and the screen resolution maybe but I haven't been too interested to fix it.

That's interesting because I've had the same problem with Motorsport Manager.

[Charlie Tango]

I've read a lot on the Steam workshops/message boards about playing with screen resolution or clearing different things from the folder but nothing worked for me. It starts, screen goes black as if it's booting up and then returns back to the Steam view. I haven't seen anything from the people behind it so I get the impression they moved on. I did try the mobile version but I went off that quickly.

It looks like with this new 'create a team' mode that F1 2020 is going down the FIFA/PES route of trying to offer playing the game with a management element, a sort of halfway house.

[MJB]

The new trailer for the My Team stuff has dropped and it looks pretty good. Definitely an extra mode to hopefully extend the playing time. 

I've bought the last four years on release day and played them for a while but 2019 didn't really grab me as much. Looking forward to the My Team stuff though along with the new circuits.

[Katsuya]

Apparently they've massively improved being able to play on controller too. Probably gonna pick the basic version up when it releases tomorrow.

[Bobfoc]

I've read good things about this game. Most reviews say it's the best one yet.

[METALMAN]

I’ve got back into F1 so I might get this next time I can go into the house of someone with a PS4, whenever that may be.

Are there aids to help rubbish people like me who can barely keep the car straight?

[Bobfoc]

4 minutes ago, metalman said:

I’ve got back into F1 so I might get this next time I can go into the house of someone with a PS4, whenever that may be.

Are there aids to help rubbish people like me who can barely keep the car straight?

There are indeed. This one is said to be the most accessible version they've done.

[MJB]

Early thoughts;

• It's a bit buggy, which is to be expected but probably not worth picking up for full price at the minute.
• Because the season has only just started, the pecking order is basically 2019, meaning that Ferrari are too strong, Racing Point not strong enough etc.
• No BLM livery on the Mercedes but I'd assume that's coming soon because Williams have their new livery. 
• The customisation in My Team is a little disappointing but you can earn/unlock more liveries and other options after playing for a little longer.
• The gameplay is improved, the AI now make mistakes which is good but they probably now make too many weird errors so there's a balancing act to find. 
• Zandvoort is huge fun, an absolute roller coaster of a circuit. It'll be dreadful for overtaking IRL but on the game in qualy or TT, it's incredible.

[Bobfoc]

What sort of bugs have you encountered? Are you playing early because you have a special edition?

[MJB]

I bought the Schumacher edition so I got it on the 7th.

• Time trial has been in and out with crashes when changing from track to track.
• I've been disqualified for not using both types of tyre, despite going from medium to soft.
• It's got a "podium pass" which has been broken for the first couple of days. I'm told it's like battlepass for Fortnite. You basically earn coins to unlock stuff as you progress through the game. I think it's still temperamental on Xbox. 
• The practice programs are ridiculously hard. You have to drop the difficulty probably 20-25 points just to get a green pass. If you then forget to up the difficulty again, you'll be on pole by more than 2s. 

I'm sure it'll all get fixed but yeah, not ready for release in its current form, IMO.

[Bobfoc]

Any suggestions for difficulty settings? I'm bad a racing games, but I'm still a long way ahead in practice with a setting of 30, while my teammate is last.

[Liam]

I really like the sound of this, but will probably wait for a price drop. I'm never certain I'll get my value out of F1 games.

[JasonM]

1 hour ago, Bobfoc said:

Any suggestions for difficulty settings? I'm bad a racing games, but I'm still a long way ahead in practice with a setting of 30, while my teammate is last.

A general tip is to not assume your FP1 time is indicative about your actual pace, I have always noticed that the AI is a lot quicker than me in the early practices (because the AI seemingly doesn't feel any effects from the lack of rubber on track), then when Quali comes around I even it out.

Just slowly ramp it up by increments of 10, then eventually 5 as you play until you feel you're on the same level as the AI is. It's always a bit tricky to gauge between one player and the next.