F1 2015 - My Initial Impressions

[JudgeDredd]

lol - you explained it very succinctly but it just proved my point - how expensive it is. Just the $9.99 a month is $120 a year (in pounds, I think it was considerably more....maybe even £1 to $1).

But as you say - it does depend on your take on it and the fun you get.

There have been many, many more discussions on the cost of iRacing and of course, as you rightly pointed out, each individual has to decide if it's worth it. I think when I first joined the rat race of cost discussions I stood up for it - but I was in at a very early stage. I soon found out what others discovered - that it can and will get costly.

In the end - in my case - I simply wasn't playing it enough to warrant the cost. The main reason for that was the need to practice, practice, practice. You HAD to do that so you could race and keep a clean race...practice was absolutely essential - and lots of of it. If you didn't practice, you didn't have a clean race and your rating went down down.

The other annoying thing (one of it's huge strengths and also one of it's bigger weaknesses) was the game couldn't tell the difference sometimes between you making contact and the other guy. Both were punished. Again - specifics I can't remember but I remember just wanting to qualify at the back and pick people off as they ran wide, making positions up that way rather than go toe to toe and risk my rating being reduced.

Not a bad game at all. Looked good and the service was well presented and very stable. But cost was not one of it's endearing features.

[bboyer66]

 Your absolutely correct. Having someone ram your ass from behind and you being punished for it is maddening. Luckily as you get to the higher levels it is much less frequent.  If you think someone went out of their way to screw you, there is a whole appeal process you can go through.

  Your also right on when it comes to practice. You really do have to practice in order to get good and not embarrass yourself on the track.  It is a big time sink which can leave you without a lot of time for other games.

If you ever get the time and money, I would love to see you out on the Skip Barber series. Much better racing than at the rookie levels. A good mix of veterans and noobs.

[Toonces]

I certainly don't want to get into a whole F1 vs. Iracing debate.  I think you two have hammered out the pros/cons of the two games.

I'm more or less in JD's situation.  What I really want to do is race against the AI in single player, and I want to play out a season, not a bunch of one-off races.  To that effect, I thoroughly enjoyed F1: 2014.  Despite how much it gets bagged on at SimHQ, I found that the game is exactly what I was personally looking for.  It is one of the few times where the crowd and masses simply didn't speak for me.

I haven't tried 2015 yet, but I'm surprised to hear you're having so many issues.  One would think that Codemasters could build upon their previous success fairly easily.  I hope that the game gets cleaned up.  I still have to play through the rest of the season in 2014 and at this point will likely start over since it's been so long since I left off of it.  But 2015 will be on my radar around Xmas time I would think.

[JudgeDredd]

Let me update my impressions now I have more time under my belt

My very very early impressions of F1 2015 for anyone into racing games...

• GOOD - game looks stunning and runs smooth as silk with all settings on ULTRA on my 2 year old system (which wasn't top of the range back then) (haven't tried a full grid race start yet)
  
• BAD - It's a port - and a lazy one in the sense that the "button" descriptives are for a controller (X, A etc, etc)
  
• GOOD - Great sound (tyres scrubbing, wind, engineer voice)
  
• GOOD - Graphics - stunning...seeing the sun glint off your rear wing in your mirror, seeing proper rain coming off the front of the tyres, seeing splashes from puddles near kerbs and grass etc
  
• GOOD - Garage seems to be alive and you are a person...hand asking for the tablet, getting put onto a trolley to get pushed back in, the way the pit crew wait until the last minute to take off your tyre warmers...it all really adds to the immersion
  
• BAD - AI is bad at times. They make mistakes which is nice, but sometimes there's just no reason why they've done what they've done.
  
• GOOD - car torque will really spin the car...you have to be easy with the throttle
  
• GOOD - Game is stable unless you ALT-TAB
  
• GOOD - Good particle graphics. Hit the wall and broke my front wing - Carbon fibre everywhere. Good modelling. Dust also being kicked up from the cars running wide was well done.
  
• GOOD - driving in the rain a)looks like you're driving in the rain and b)feels like you're driving in the rain - but more importantly, you CAN drive in the rain
  
• GOOD - changeable weather. I was in practice at Albert Park last night and it was reported that the rain was stopping 20 minutes. It started to get lighter and did actually stop. On top of that, lap times were picking up and there did seem to be a drying race line
  
• GOOD - imo at least - not a lot to change in the garage. Very few options, though I haven't tested to see if they actually help with anything
  

It's too soon to tell. Half my actual time playing today was trying to get rid of the FPS issue. I'm looking forward to giving this a good run through tomorrow. My daughter is out at a party and my wife is away with her aunt - so house to myself for some serious gaming.

I'm probably going to go against the grain here ans say I'm not too fussed about some of the missing things making the news - retro cars, various game play modes. They were nothing more than a distraction. I buy this to play F1 and to go through a championship. The more they make it feel like a championship (which I'm hoping they've done and the early signs are positive (pit crew, engineer interaction etc)) then the happier I'll be. Having one stale race after another never really flicked my switch.

I'm optimistic though.  O0

It's a good drive. Better than last years and better in the rain than ALL the versions before it.