Game Details Developer: Codemasters

Publisher: Codemasters

Platform: Windows, PS4 and Xbox One

Release Date: August 19, 2016

Price: $60 / £40

ESRB Rating: E for Everyone

Links: Steam | Amazon | Official website Codemasters: Codemasters: Windows, PS4 and Xbox OneAugust 19, 2016: $60 / £40: E for Everyone

It's been quite some time since we last reviewed a Formula 1 game here at Ars. Since then, the sport itself has undergone a whole raft of changes. Naturally aspirated V8s screaming away to 18,000 RPM have given way to muted turbocharged V6s muzzled by fuel flow regulations. There are artificial aids to overtaking like the drag reduction system, or DRS. And the cars now race on tires that were purposely designed to degrade quickly, preventing drivers from racing flat-out to the checkered flag. Combine this with two years of total dominance from Mercedes-Benz and the result has been pretty lackluster, certainly to this long-time fan of the sport. Happily I can report that the latest installment of Codemasters' official franchise manages to faithfully replicate real Formula 1, with one giant exception: it's actually exciting.

Much of that success can be attributed to F1 2016's new career mode. You're free to choose any of the 11 teams as your starting point—different long-term objectives separate the more successful teams from the back markers—and work your way through the 21-race F1 season. But it's not just a question of turning up on race day and mashing the throttle when the red lights go out. Each race weekend involves three practice sessions and a qualifying attempt, just like the real thing.

To keep players invested in the proceedings, the game gives a number of different objectives during each session. These can be fiendishly tricky! For example, the tire management program, where the goal is to complete several laps without over-stressing your rubber. That means very gentle inputs on the throttle, steering, and especially brakes. But you can't dawdle, as your engineer has also set you a minimum lap time. Complete the objectives and you gain points to use developing upgrades for your car. All that practice running will stand you in good stead come race day, which conveys well just how demanding the job of racing an F1 car can be.

Multitaskers will do well. Sure, you have to concentrate on hitting your apices and braking points, all the while avoiding running into the 21 other cars on track. But all of the sport's rules have been modeled in the game—that means no cutting corners and constantly keeping an eye out for the various marshal posts around each circuit in case there's a yellow flag (which means no overtaking). On top of that your race engineer will radio from time to time, suggesting changes to your race strategy. By all means feel free to ignore the suggestions—I was robbed of McLaren's first win in many an in-game year because I took my engineer's advice and stopped for a different set of tires.

Other additions to the game include having to deal with safety car periods, the formation lap at the beginning of the race, pit lane entry and exit regulations, and realistic race starts. That last one has caught several real F1 drivers out so far this year, since their mechanics can no longer coach them on how to operate the clutch. In F1 2016 you too have to juggle the right balance of throttle and clutch timing to make it away from the lights cleanly. "All of those things are major parts of the sport, but not everyone wants to experience that level of detail, so players can tailor them on or off depending on how they want to play," said Lee Mather, the game's principal designer.

A well-structured game is for naught if the physics are no fun; again we can report this is not the case with F1 2016. The engine shares some of the same underlying technology as the excellent DiRT Rally , which impressed us a lot earlier this year. But different development cycles meant the engines diverged. "We ended up tailoring the engine to be able to work on things like the way aero[dynamics] works in Formula 1," Mather said.

In contrast to a game like Forza, Codemasters didn't have the luxury of getting CAD files for each car direct from the manufacturers. "When it comes to hard data, that's heavily guarded by the teams. We speak to the teams and Pirelli (the tire supplier), and they give us a good idea of the direction we need to go," Mather told us, adding that the studio enjoys a close link with the sport and teams thanks to a long-term relationship as the official game franchise.

Once the cars are modeled, the game's technical advisor—professional racer (and Sky F1 commentator) Anthony Davidson—puts in some seat time to make sure that the cars feel right, particularly the relationship between the mechanical grip from the tires and the aerodynamic grip from the wings. Finally, Mather told us, "we watch the sport and see the performance levels of each of the teams and the lap times that the cars achieve. We try and achieve very close to real-world lap times with our cars as well."

Weather and track conditions are dynamically modeled over the course of a race weekend. Sudden rain late in a race? Time to gamble on whether to stay out on dry weather tires (slicks) and keep it out of the wall, or hit the pit lane for a set with treads. And as in real life, each track "rubbers in" as more and more cars run laps. That includes marbles—the little bits of rubber that get worn from the tires, so named because driving on them is like driving on marbles. In longer races, that means being careful when overtaking off-line as there may not be as much grip as you expect.

Graphics and sound are good, if not quite up there with Forza. Everything runs at a steady 60fps (and should do so on all three platforms, although we only tested the Xbox One version), although we have spotted a little tearing here and there. Some of the circuits do look a bit boring, but this is more a criticism of the anodyne nature of modern F1 track design rather than the game itself. And the cars are as flat and droney as the real article—again that's F1's fault, not Codemasters'.

Diehard F1 fans will get a kick out of the cut scenes and replays. British commentators Anthony Davidson and David Croft provide recaps, and you get a little build-up before each session, including the grid parade before the race. Another neat touch is the presence of plenty of real-world characters in the background—we're pretty sure we've spotted Jonathan Palmer hanging out in the McLaren motorhome, as well as the aforementioned Davidson so far.

And now the difficult question of whether you should buy it. At the risk of repeating myself from five years ago, if you're an F1 fan then it's probably a no-brainer. It has the latest tracks, includes all the latest rules, and the current line up of teams and drivers. If you're not an F1 fan but still like racing games, it's still probably worth your time, thanks to an engaging career mode and enough granularity in the settings to make you work for that win.

The Good:

A lot of depth to career mode to keep you playing

Quite accurately reflects the need to multitask in the middle of a race

Dynamic weather and track conditions

Tweakable difficulty to suit almost every ability level

Good cut scenes and interstitials that look a lot like the real thing

The Bad:

F1 cars sound so boring now

Losing a race because you listened to advice from your engineer

The Ugly: