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Preview: F1 2016

Regularity and consistency. They’re the two things we’re comfortable with when it comes to gaming, and there’s no greater example than with annual releases. Recently, Stevivor had the chance to preview the latest instalment in Codemasters’ F1 franchise to see what changes awaited us.

With an impressive foundation having being set with F1 2009, the franchise has gone from strength to strength over it’s now eight-year lifespan. With that, it’s often difficult to notice some of the more major improvements between titles. With F1 2016, perhaps the most noticeable change between it and last year’s iteration is undoubtedly its visuals.

While physics have been solid the past few years, there was no doubt that F1 2015 struggled with the jump from last- to current-gen consoles, namely with regards to the framerate. Even in its mid-build state, F1 2016 appears to run smoothly and with a great level of detail at that. Team decals appear crisp and both the vehicles and tracks have been recreated well in typical Codemasters’ fashion.

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I started off with a few laps on the Shanghai International Circuit to familiarise myself with the handling, and it wasn’t long before I started to feel comfortable in this year’s release. With traction control set to medium there was that perfect middle-ground between risk and reward, having to ease onto the throttle out of corners to maintain stability but not to the point where you’re struggling to keep your vehicle on-course.

I had then decided to change to career mode, and with F1 2016 you’re presented two options – Pro Career and your standard Career mode. Choosing the former, the title should set you up for what lies in store. Unlike your normal career offering, Pro Career has all assists set to off for the ultimate (read: perhaps too difficult) racing challenge. That means manual gears, full damage and no traction control. Damage, I can deal with — but with the controller, no traction assists and manual gears made even getting a close-to-competitive qualifying time difficult. The throttle control required to just prevent wheel-spin seemed borderline impossible and there was just no way I could get around the familiar corners of Albert Park in a fast enough time. I am told it’s more suited to wheel configurations.

With that ruled out I decided to switch to the standard career mode offering, and with the level of assists I was comfortable with. From this point F1 2016 offers your standard racing game campaign mode – there’s a nice opening cinematic where you meet your manager, you pick a contract, specify who you are and select your teammate. From there it’s into the pits and onto the track.

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New to F1 2016 is the ability to earn upgrade points towards R&D on your car, which you’ll obtain by meeting contract objectives each race. Objectives are driven (pun intended) depending on the choose you team to sign with, where the more prestigious the team the more the objectives demand of you. Further to that, you can participate in additional tests during your practice sessions (tyre wear test, track acclimatisation and qualifying performance) to improve these R&D benefits.

At this stage there’s few and far between when it comes to options Codemasters have available to innovate the franchise above what’s been already provided. F1 2016 looks set to continue the quality that we’ve come to expect from the publishers and the series, with a few tweaks and touches to the career mode to break the mould. It would be interesting to see if Codemasters returns with another homage to the F1 vehicles of generations past; at this stage F1 2016 looks like much the same. If you’re a fan of the franchise and in need of a new racing fix that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

F1 2016 is set to be released for Xbox One, PS4 and Windows PC on 19 August 2016.


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About the author

Nicholas Simonovski

Events and Racing Editor at Stevivor.com. Proud RX8 owner, Strange Music fan and Joe Rogan follower. Living life one cheat meal at a time.