And every year the groundhog says hi… as usual, a “fresh” new Formula 1 title will be released this year. The game was released on June 28th and is for Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC via Steam available. This year’s release of the officially licensed Formula 1 video game, F1 22 has the technical virtuosity needed to capitalize on the ever-growing status of real-world sport. You can find out how this behaves in our test…
A Playstation key was kindly made available to us for testing.
New mode new luck?
F1 22 includes a new mode, F1 Life, in which we can recreate the enviable lifestyle of a Formula 1 driver. We get an apartment that we decorate with virtual bling-bling, with supercars, as well as virtual clothes from real brands for our avatar. Leaving aside the clichéd tone of the virtual projection of the super-rich at a time when unprecedented numbers of people are in need of help and struggling to pay utility bills, F1 Life comes across as a cynical device to introduce microtransactions in a hitherto untainted racing game. That’s exactly what pessimists predicted when FIFA/Madden giant EA Sports bought F1 developer Codemasters last year.
F1 Life’s virtual junk can be purchased with Pitcoin, an in-game currency that can be exchanged for real money, although the game makes some of it available for free. Everything you can buy is cosmetic and doesn’t affect gameplay; nonetheless, it feels like a venerable franchise has been sullied a little.
Technically stunning…
On track, F1 22 is excellent, even for Codemasters of high standards. The new cars have bigger wheels and lower-profile tires, so Codemasters had to develop an entirely new physics model for them – but they drive very convincingly and feel significantly different than last year’s machines. While there’s no story mode, there’s plenty to do in F1 22, and the game has been upgraded with meaningful tweaks. For example, “My Team,” which combines driving and team management, cleverly now has three entry points, one of which lets us start as a top team and challenges us to maintain that status accordingly.
A number of improvements make F1 22 even more lifelike. It impressively mimics Sky’s TV broadcast, and novice drivers can turn on an AI setting to flatter their abilities, however humble. When the driving aids are turned off, the game feels like a simulator. No other mainstream racing game is as good at accommodating such a wide range of driving skills.
F1 22 is technically stunning and that combined with the ability to drive this year’s cars at this year’s circuits should make it irresistible for Formula 1 fans. As long as you manage to ignore the outrageous F1 Life.
What is your opinion on this subject?
I love it!
I love it!
Not so great!
Not so great!