F1® 23

Review

One of my go-to games, when I have some time to spare, is anything Formula One. They can either be management/strategy or purely simulation games like F1® 23. Until the release of F1® Manager 2022 last year, there wasn’t any good management game with the F1 brand. It is a bit different from the pure simulation aspect, where Codemasters are the leading developers in that segment. I have been playing their games for ages, as I am a nut for the sport. I played F1® 22 for many hours but didn’t review it. When F1® 23 was released on EA, I couldn’t resist getting straight into this one, but before writing a review, I had to finish my first season on the career mode. After 40 hours plus of gameplay, what is my verdict of F1® 23?

F1® 23 is a Formula 1 immersive racing game developed by Codemasters and published by Electronic Arts on the 16^th of June 2023 on EA, PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S and the Steam platforms.

F1® 23 provides you with several modes of play. The storyline mode, Braking Point, is more or less a long learning curve for newcomers. As I am accustomed to Codemasters F1 games, and even setting the difficulty on high, I found it unchallenging but still fun to play. The F1 World mode is also a bit of a driving school with short races (3 laps) with objectives to achieve to receive rewards. If you like competing online, then the League Racing is for you, but what I enjoy the most is the Career mode.

In the Career mode, you can choose which team you want to race for and who you will replace. I took Stroll's seat in my first season with the exciting Aston Martin team (I couldn’t take the seat of one of my favourite drivers, Fernando Alonso; it just didn’t feel right) and off I went on the 2023 Formula 1 calendar, which consists of 23 races. One of the big points of the F1 series games from Codemasters is the ability to adjust the difficulty settings, such as the driving assist, wear of engine components, tyres and, of course, the AI, which is a definite step up from the previous game. I will always start with 50% difficulty to test the waters, and I must acknowledge that this is the first time that I felt it was about right on the mark. As I progressively increased the AI difficulty and decreased the assists, the game got better and better as the simulation became more realistic to the point that the competitiveness felt quite real. It’s awesome to be able to play a game where you truly struggle to keep the car on the track and the other drivers behind. The component wears are more prominent in this game than in the previous one, which is an additional bonus (not so much for you while racing, but for the simulation aspect) and it is brilliant. You can also set the length of the weekend as you might feel that you only need one practice session instead of three, as well as setting how long they go for. It's the same for the qualification and race sessions.

Regarding developments and upgrades, it is straightforward. As you complete practice, qualification, sprint (depending on the Grand Prix) and race sessions, you will be awarded with experience points which you can use to research new parts for your car. Each part costs a certain number of experience points. It is important to know that not all new developments will be fruitful straight away. It may take a couple of times to successfully upgrade a part.

What I don’t like is the driver contract approach. Every 180 days, you have to decide whether to renew your current contract or sign a new contract with a different team where you might be paid more money. This doesn’t do anything for you in the game, but you get a specific amount of dollars to upgrade perks, one of which is your Facebook fan base. To me, it is rubbish! I would rather have some sort of system where you accumulate experience points (contract points, perhaps), awarded for achieving a certain place in the practice, qualifying, sprint and race sessions.  You could use these contract point to upgrade perks, rather than changing or renewing contracts every 6 months.

Fans of VR will be delighted as this game has a setting for it. Unfortunately for me, I can’t use my Vive Cosmos Elite for too long. Nothing wrong with it, but it is just my eyes, and I can’t do it. I do love VR, but I can’t use it for a long period of time; I don’t think I am alone in that regard.

I think this is the best game Codermasters has produced so far, and I don’t know how they will do it better next year. I am using an MSI RTX 4080 video card with a 4k 144Hz monitor, and I can happily tell you this game rocks. It is better to play than watch a real race.

Review written by THE CPT FROGGY for Zeepond.com

F1® 23 EA SPORTS Store Page

F1® 23 Steam Store Page