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F1 22 Review: New car, new me

Drive the car Mercedes wanted to make.

F1 22 arrives at a somewhat strange time for Formula 1. Considered by many to be the pinnacle of motorsport, the series is currently experiencing somewhat of a golden era with new fans flooding to it in droves. This is thanks in large part to the popularity of the Netflix series Drive to Survive, and I’m sure Codemasters and its new parent EA are hoping the latest entry in their storied F1 franchise can cash in on this newfound fan base.

Of course the real-life motorsport is experiencing some tribulations too, with talk of some of the most historic and famous tracks being taken off the calendar or “rotated through” instead. There’s also a new set of regulations – rules to build the cars by, essentially – too that haven’t had the impact that was hoped. Thankfully much of that off-track drama can be ignored in game, but just how have these new rules translated across to the video game? We jumped in to find out.

The 2022 season of Formula 1 introduced a completely new style of car into the sport: gone are the complicated arrays of carbon fibre strapped to the side of the car to precisely channel air for maximum downforce, replaced instead with a system called “ground effect”. This new method of downforce generation works more by pulling the car to the ground rather than pushing it, but the scope of explaining that is far above this writer’s pay grade.

The cars and the physics model that governs their behaviour have consequently also been updated in F1 22, changing both the way they look and the way they handle. Gone are the mean looking machines of the late teens, instead replaced with a somewhat comical looking range of near identical cars – save for some industrious side pod variations. To put it more in writer words – the cars used to be Arial, but now are more Comic Sans.

These new regulations were intended to create better racing and more opportunities for cars to follow, but that has largely failed in reality. There’s been no real shake up to the sport, and while cars can follow more they still struggle to actually overtake or create exciting racing. Most of the constructors and teams remain in the same position in the championship too, with only Mercedes falling down the ladder with their different approach to car design, though this different model has not been represented in game, unfortunately.

In-game these new cars feel incredibly planted and easy to lean on through fast corners. While their real life counterparts struggle with an effect known as porpoising – quite literally bouncing up and down as they fly down long straights, caused by the ground effect “breaking” when the car gets too close to the ground – there’s none of that on display for us virtual drivers. Instead the only hint to the existence of this phenomenon is an aural one as the bouncing makes its way into the audio mix.

It’s also worth calling out the audio in particular this time, as Codemasters has done a stellar job this time around. There’s so much more detail in the mix now, and when you’re racing wheel to wheel with another car you can really feel the changes. Zoom along beside a barrier and you’ll be met with a constantly shifting soundtrack as the sound bounces off the barrier and back at your car. Downshift through a slower section of track and you’ll be greeted with the cheers of the crowd, and the distant sounds of other cars flying around other parts of the circuit. Truly this is the best the audio has been in the series in recent memory.

Back to the cars themselves though. Both veterans and newcomers will find these beasts to be incredibly driveable – perhaps too much so. I race with a wheel, pedals and a manual gearbox, and even with all assists off the cars were just so… cooperative. I really had to try to get them to do something dumb, whether that be riding a kerb and getting beached or even just losing the rear end through some overly aggressive throttle application.

The cars are just so compliant this time around, and that’s without tweaking the setups to be absolutely optimised for the particular track. The real-life cars seem to be prone to locking the brakes up too, especially into heavy braking zones, but there’s none of that here. While you definitely still can, the game does such a good job of communicating to you that a lockup is coming that you can easily wind off the pedal to let the wheel keep moving. I can’t even put my finger on exactly what is communicating that too me either, I just know that through some mixture of audio, force feedback and just plain Codemasters magic I was able to avoid a lockup even when pushing hard. It’s a truly respectable feat of game engineering.

Perhaps my least favourite aspect of the previous title in the series, F1 2021, was the inclusion of a dedicated story mode called Braking Point. Awful pun aside, the story telling and gameplay setup just never really vibed with me and I’m happy to say that Codemasters has skipped over including it this time around.

Instead we have the standard My Driver and My Team careers that can be played in single- or two-player flavours. These let you either jump into an existing team or fashion your own one to ultimately take the championship. I don’t really spend much time in these modes myself, preferring the veritable hellscape of online lobbies, but they’re both excellent in their own right. The depth on offer for those wanting to go the whole hog and run their own dream team is excellent stuff.

It’s not all the same this time around though, with F1 22 also bringing something new into the fold called F1 Life. This… strange feature is almost F1s own take on Second Life, functioning as a way to show off your own sense of style and progression to your friends who play too. It’s honestly a very weird little side system they’ve added in, the main function of which seems to be a way for brands to advertise directly to gamers. Here, you’ll find clothing from companies like Puma and Anti-Social-Social-Club available to purchase and customise your driver with.

Outside of that little oddity, F1 Life also gives you a place to display your collection of Supercars – a whole other breed of high-performance vehicles from F1 manufacturers that are available for you to take out to the track. Most often this will be before a race in one of the career modes where you can do a Time Trial or some other challenge at the circuit ahead of the race weekend. You can also choose to hot lap these cars too, though for the most part I’d advise steering clear of the game mode. While Codemasters has done a great job at making the cars feel heavier and very distinct from the regular F1s, they’re just not what I’m here to drive.

Other games have already included these cars, from the more arcade-like Forza series through to hyper simulation titles like Assetto Corsa. The F1 physics model sits closer to the simulation side of things these days, but it just can’t compete with the big boys when it comes to the Supercars. If I wanted to race a GT4-esque style of car I’d fire up Assetto Corsa Competizione or even download the actual cars models themselves for Assetto Corsa.

It feels weird to say “stay in your lane” here, but really the F1 series shines as a 80-90% of the way there simulation of Formula 1 and that’s where it should stay. Instead of these Supercars I’d love to have some of the historical cars back – the W11 Mercedes, the Mclaren Mp4-9 or the Lotus 97T. Instead of trials with these modern day cars, having the historical ones feature here – and having them usable on modern tracks – would have ben a far better inclusion.

F1 22 finally also brings with it a much requested feature in native VR support. While it was possible to get the game working in VR in the past, the jank was too much to handle for most. This time around you can launch the game in VR directly, though I wasn’t able to check that out as my VR headset didn’t arrive in time. Word on the street is that it works well though, so I’ll be jumping into that as soon as I can. Otherwise we also have some updated track layouts for Australia, Spain and Abu Dhabi, and the wholly unnecessary inclusion of the Sprint Race on offer too this time around.

Overall F1 22 continues Codemasters roll of making excellent Formula 1 games. The series has gone from strength to strength with its past few iterations, and with some more simulation focussed work could really become the best way to experience Formula 1 in a video game. While the inclusion of F1 Life is a weird step, it can mostly be ignored and ditching Braking Point sheds some weight from the game. 22 brings a whole suite of improvements to what was already a very good series, and I look forward to it consuming my life for the next few months at least.

9 out of 10

F1 22 was reviewed using a promotional code on Windows PC via Origin, as provided by the publisher. Click here to learn more about Stevivor’s scoring scale.

F1 22

1 July 2022
PC PS4 PS5 Xbox One Xbox Series S & X
 

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About the author

Hamish Lindsay

Avid reader and general geek, justifying the time I spend playing games by writing about them. I try not to discriminate by genre, but I remember story more than gameplay. I’ve been playing League for longer than Akali and I’m still Silver. Fallout 3 and MGS3 may be the pinnacle of gaming.