GAMERTIMES

Last season, we were used to hearing the phrase, “It’s lights out, and away we go!” and “Max Verstappen wins” became a regular part of our weekends. Soon after, we would hear the Dutch [Netherlands] National Anthem playing in celebration. Now, a new season is upon us, and with it comes another exciting installment with new liveries, cars, upgrades, etc.

The last two F1 games were good and showed consistent improvement. F1 22 didn’t feature the “Braking Point” story mode, but driving the cars around the circuits was still enjoyable. F1 23 saw the return of the story mode, along with improved car handling and a wide range of accessibility options. Now, F1 24 has arrived a bit early without Braking Point, but EA Sports claims this game has been further enhanced for our enjoyment. However, that’s an understatement. We’ll explain why as we dive into this review.

I recently downloaded the game and jumped straight into Career Mode, which has undergone significant revisions by Codemasters. While the changes might not be immediately noticeable, they’re definitely present. For instance, you can now choose from 20 official F1 drivers and 3 F2 drivers for your career. Additionally, there are legendary drivers like Michael Schumacher, Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna, Jacques Villeneuve, and Pastor Maldonado available to call out of retirement for this mode.

So, in the Driver’s Career Mode, you set the goals for yourself like what overall ranking you want to achieve, and if you fail to achieve them, your contract with the team will in danger. Moreover, you’ll be approached by other teams for “SECRET MEETINGS” where you can negotiate a deal with teams like I was approached by Haas and I obviously, declined the deal, and few race later was approached by Mercedes, which I was obviously gonna accept. Don’t think Williams were happy when I left at the end of first season.

When Racing, you’ll be focused on achieving the targeted ranking to continue with the team. You’ll be in a rivalry with your teammate which may not look when continuing to race the whole season. Other than that, there isn’t much to talk. The racing, selection of upgrades in the R&D Department, and maximising. is still the same as before.

Let’s talk about the physics now. EA and Codemasters were boastful that the handling of the cars has been further improved over the previous game with new car models along with improved configurations for the Aerodynamics, suspension and its geometry, transmission, brakes, and tyres.

Putting these to test, you’ll often understeer or oversteer on track based on factors like right setup like proper fuel-load, configuration for front & rear wing, car height, tyre pressure, etc. But as you continue to play the game, at some point, you’ll feel the handling of the car is superb, and then you’ll just spin around at a corner like you did something wrong, but the truth is its car that decided to spun and crash into other cars or well, barriers. Many players or sim-players like a demanding and realistic experience, this game feels a bit to easy ruining the experience further making the F1 22 game feel better over this version.

We know basics like if you increase the downforce it improves cornering speed, but you get less top speed in straight line – Suspension setup impacts how the car handles bumps and corners and on adjusting, it can make the car stiffer for better cornering or softer for better handling over bumps. However, another problem is no matter how you drive or on what platform you play to drive, or what controller you choose, you just don’t feel the weight of steering on the controller like the previous version (F1 23). Real F1 drivers feel a significant increase in steering weight as they turn due to aerodynamic forces and tire grip. Plus they had to undergo through so many exercises to be able to do this.

I think Codemasters tried to make this game feel so appealing and realistic to the other players that it oversimplified some aspects of car physics – such as tire wear, fuel load effects, and dynamic track conditions – which could result in a less authentic simulation experience for the fans. Some areas, like steering feel, could be improved to enhance realism further. Moreover, there’s other issues outside racing like firing up the game and setting up a single-player career was challenging due to frequent freezes, and connectivity issues. After multiple attempts, I was finally able to start the game.

Last topic is the glitches and bug. There’s ton of them. While racing in Imola Grand Prix as “Tu Tu Tu Du, Max Verstappen; Tu Tu Tu Du, Max Verstappen”; I was about to Logan Sargeant in a Williams in Turn 1, and the AI Sargeant for some reason decided to crash into me resulting in my race to over, and have my car take off to the stands while also allowing the game to be completely freeze until I restart the application.

There’s another instance, during qualifying at the Hungarian Grand Prix, I put on a perfect lap with no track limits, or colliding in the walls, or anything, yet the game 50% of the time was showing Invalid Lap, and try again. This is last glitch or bug, I was trying to overtake Oscar Piastri to take the lead of the Monza Grand Prix, and guess what, out of nowhere, my car, Max Verstappen’s Rocky 2.0 “RB20” car just glitched through the track going watching the race from the under the track or from down seeing floating cars.

In the end, the game feels less authentic, and worth playing over the F1 23 which at least had a Story mode, “Braking Point 2.” This game feels like a cut down version of F1 23 while charging the same amount and offering little changes. If you ask me, there’s no point of buying this new game for now and you can continue holding on to the last year’s game. When there’s hefty discount, you can then decide if you want the new game or not.

“F1 24 is like F1 22, there’s improvement over F1 23, but still feels so lacked.”

“Special Thanks to EA Sports for providing us with a review code of the game.”