Checking out F1 2021 - Preview

Now that Electronic Arts are the owners of Codemasters, who themselves are known around the world for their range of racing games, the latest entry in the F1 series of games is now releasing under the EA Sports banner. Thanks to EA, we were invited to hear from Lee Mather, the franchise game director, about this year’s entry, including the return of the story mode, Braking Point.

Perhaps the most surprising thing was the news that this year’s entry is actually the 12th in the series developed by Codemasters, which is really impressive, that long on the one series. Even beyond that, the team are developing the game for five platforms this year, something they have not done in the past, with it coming to PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. Regardless of the platform you are looking to play on, all versions of the game will feature the full line up, 20 Formula 1 and 22 Formula 2 drivers, 20 race tracks for the career mode, with Imola, Portimao and Jeddah coming past release, with the China track only playable in Braking Point.

Speaking of that, let’s dive into Braking Point, now it is important to note that Braking Point is a story mode, not the career mode, so if you are looking to make a name for yourself, this is not the mode to play. However, if you are looking to enjoy a story, that has characters, cutscenes and more then this is where you will want to go, with the story taking place over a number of years, in game years of course. In Braking Point, you are Aiden Jackson, a young driver who starts out in the Formula 2 series in 2019, before being recognised and promoted to F1 for the 2020 season. Because this is a story driven experience, there are other characters as well, but as this is about the rise of you as a driver, there are teams you can sign onto, but also choices to be made. The choices will be based around things like interacting with the press, and the rival Devon Butler, but also relationships between your character and others, will also help with the story.

That is just one mode though, the team at Codemasters have added some all-new modes, which are being aimed at keeping things fresh for returning players, whilst offering something new for newcomers to sink their teeth into. One new mode is the 2-Player career, something that takes the core of the long running career mode, but adds in a second player, just like the name suggest. Something that I think is cool, is that with the options you can choose to play co-op, which means you and your friend are on the same team, working to have your team come out on top in the years championship, or you can race against each other, becoming rivals of a sort, pushing each other forward. If you choose the latter, things like Contracts come into play, meaning that you might be rivals for a while, but then your friend might get transferred to your team, forcing you to work together for a bit, before you get transferred away. Of course, the Contracts side of the coin also lets you fight it out for the best contracts, so the best driver can win, but regardless of which option you choose, all the standard career options will be present.

Another new mode, perhaps one for the real race fans is Real Season Start, which takes the real-world times and events from the most recent event and lets you start there. During the presentation, Monaco was the most recent race, so if you selected the Real Season Start option, the Monaco stats would be added to the game, letting you take over from one of the real-world drivers, complete with their standings, R&D and more. This is not going to be a mode that appeals to everyone, but for those seeking a real challenge, it might be the one to test out, as Lee pointed out Lewis Hamilton didn’t have the best race in Monaco, so if you started there and took control of him, you would have to fight back to the top of the leaderboards.

There are also updates to some of the retuning modes, like My Team, where new Department Events will require you to manage new levels of the team experience, in addition to everything else from F1 2020. Department Events can be things as simple as the simulator needing a software update and choosing to spend the money on it, or leaving it be, could impact your progress down the line. Other parts have been updated, like the Research and Development, which now features an all-new look, making it feel more like a proper management system, rather than a skill tree driven experience. The Practice Sessions have also been touched up, with additions like development boosts, which can lower the costs on researching new items, but as you can stack them, you can bring the costs way down.

Something that some players will be very keen on, the all-new Expert racing style, which is the opposite of last year’s Casual settings. Expert does not mean that the AI is now smarter, it is much more than that, you can choose to disable parts of the game, removing the meet the press experience, or changing the speed in which the AI earns rewards, in order to motivate you. The Expert settings is basically taking the blinders off and letting players tweak almost everything to their own wants and desires, if they feel like they want to.

For those that are looking to kick off their racing career on the next-gen hardware, the game has you covered, as the game is hitting Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5. The game will offer the same gameplay experience on all platforms, so there is nothing exclusive to the next-gen or past-gen systems, the upgrades come in with the hardware. For example, on Xbox Series X, players will get Smart Delivery enabled, meaning if they start on Xbox One, but later upgrade, you get the game on both generations, beyond that there will be new options for performance or graphics, along with RTX enablement for select parts of the game, such as replays or in the showroom when looking at the cars. PlayStation 5 owners will get those same features, except Smart Delivery, but the DualSense controller will also make use of those adaptive triggers.

There are even more enhancements to the game I haven’t mentioned, but that seems to be the trend that I got from hearing Lee talk about the game. This year has added some big additions, but a lot of what the team has added are more refinements, enhancing the experience for returning players, yet still welcoming new ones as well. I have put the game through its paces as well, but as a casual player of the series, all I can say is it plays well, how well the new additions shake out in the long run, well that will be for the players to decide.