F1 2020

I haven't played an F1 game in many years... lets just say Magny Cours was still on the calendar back then.  That said, I'm being tempted by the new F12020 game by *gulp* Codemasters.  Yea, yea, I know... 

All standard complaints aside, everyone seems to love it:

https://www.gtplanet.net/f1-2020-review-a-winning-formula/

https://www.ign.com/articles/f1-2020-review

https://wccftech.com/review/f1-2020-review/

https://www.thesixthaxis.com/2020/07/06/f1-2020-review/

They've added a "My Team" feature that lets you run your own F1 team in addition to all the real teams.  It has all the Motorsport Manager type elements, plus the actual racing of the cars.

Complaints seem to land in the "reused cutscene and characters" to the "added microtransactions for podium celebrations" areas.

Any one else looked at it?

I have F1 2012 for PS3. Used to like it. It didn't have multiplayer as far as I remember. 

It interested me, so I sucked it up and paid for it... paid a lot... bought the Schumacher edition for $70.  That hurt.  Most I've ever spent on a single game?

I spent about an hour with it last night, a lot of that was the setup for My Team.  Had to create my driver, then my livery, then my logo, then pick a sponsor, then an engine manufacturer, then a #2 driver, team colors (although the can grab these straight from your livery), then be interviewed by Will Buxton, then go through the HQ tutorials... and finally got to the first race weekend.  There's a lot there in the My Team setup stuff.  I'll keep playing with it.

How does it drive?  I drove for roughly ~25 minutes of FP1 and immediately it was better than my last remembering of driving the F1 game.  I turned off almost all of the driver aids.  I left Traction control at Medium (only other options were Off or Full), and I left on ABS.  I left them on mostly because I don't know the Melbourne track at all really and figured I could use the extra buffer of the ABS and not lighting up the tires every other corner.  At those settings, they weren't too invasive.  I still did manage to loop the car a couple times, but that was just me being an idiot.  Driving is frantic.  Things move pretty fast in these cars.  8 gears is a lot of shifting... when you are used to 6, you can get lost.  Then there's the DRS zones that put a chirp in your ear to remind you to hit the button.  The weight on the wheel was pretty heavy, especially compared to PCars2 but I quickly adapted and forgot about it.  The general feel of the force feedback was actually better than PC2.  So, after my driving session, I was last (not surprising considering I didn't know where I was going), about 2 seconds off the fast AI lap, and just under a second off my #2 driver running a softer compound.

After 1 play session, I'm pretty positive on this one.  I didn't even get to the race, but I had fun driving.

More to come.

BradLTL said:

I still did manage to loop the car a couple times, but that was just me being an idiot.  Driving is frantic.  

So, you spun a couple of times, got beaten by your team mate, and were a couple seconds iff the pace.....is it safe to assume you are Seb and your team is red?

Nah.  You know my racing color is green.

Last night I made it through my first complete race weekend.  I didn't know the Melbourne track, but 3x30 minute practice sessions helped a lot.  The game actually makes practice fun by providing challenges to do during practice and help with data collection to setup race strategy.  They have a learn the track program where you have to drive through gates on the track and hit the DRS at the right time; there's the tire wear program where you have to run consecutive laps at a specific delta time, fuel save program were you drive a lap trying to save gas while still hitting a minimum lap time, qualifying programs, drs program... it made it feel like I was doing something other than just putting miles on the car.

I had qualifying setup to the simple mode for this first season, which means a single 18 minute session (not the knock out style).  I only ran 2 laps in qualifying, but the second was a great lap.  I benefited from a tow and nailed the first 2 sectors.  I ended up with the fastest time, 3 tenths clear of Hamilton.

On to the race.  Shortened to 15 laps, or roughly 22 minutes of a race.  I was presented with 2 strategies (that I could further customize) that showed predicted tire wear and total race time.  Based on the wear it suggested pitting on lap 6 to go to the medium tires.  I had not done a race start yet, and had the option for formation lap off.  Luckily, the game has the tutorials on the pause menu.  So I watched that, and just went for it.  I actually started in 6th not on pole because of my 5 grid place penalty from FP1.  I managed a good start (I suspect due to still having traction control on at medium), got up to 3rd and alongside Max in 2nd going into T1.  We banged wheels in T1 and he backed off and I took P2.  I set off chasing Hamilton very proud of myself for a good start.  I ran a good lap and caught up to him, before realizing that I haven't really run in any traffic yet and wasn't used to how quick these cars stop and missed a brake point, swerved and went into the grass.  The AI didn't wait on me to rejoin... I was very quickly dropped to 6th behind both Ferraris.  I got back in a rhythm and was chasing Vettel for a bit, I couldn't really find a good place to pass and over cooked it being aggressive again and they got a bit away from me.  About that time, my race engineer came on and started talking about Sainez having trouble and having to retire the car.  As I came around the Safety Car was released and I had to slow.  Then I was told that I was allowed to overtake and reform the queue.  It was lap 5, so I hit my MFD and told the team I was coming in for my pit on this lap.  I ran as quick as lap as I could.  The 2 cars behind me were also allowed to overtake the SC.  When we came around to the pits, I dove in and they stayed out.  I came out in 8th and then ran as fast as I could to catch the field.  I caught up right at the start of sector 3.  My Race Engineer told me the SC was coming in this lap.  As we came around to the pit lane, the SC and all the cars in front of me hit the pit lane just as the track went green.  By the start/finish line, I was in first with Lance Stroll and Kimi behind me.  I started pulling a gap on Stroll (obviously).  A few laps later, my Race Engineer told me he was having a problem and was slowing.  Timing showed Kimi in P2 and catching me.  As I was watching that, I screwed up bad.  Missed a brake point, off in the grass, spun, nosed into a barrier.  Ugh.  I hit the pause but and decided to try the "flashback" feature.  Basically it is a replay, but it allows you to pick up at a point in the replay.  I did that.  It's a bit of a cheat, but whatever.  Second time around I didn't miss my brake point.  I stopped worrying about the gaps, and just tried to focus on the laps.  I pulled a couple second gap and held it through the end of the race coming in for a win on debut.  Probably should work the AI up a bit, and start trying without TC/ABS and see how I do.

Bottom line is it was probably the most fun (not involving drinking) I've had in a race in awhile.  Even in a short race there was strategy and variables, I had ups and downs, but when the race was over I was very satisfied with how it all came out.

(this guy looks EXACTLY like me... clearly)

The other cool thing the game did was it put together a highlight replay for my race automatically.  It had the full option, and the race highlights.  It was not bad.  Catches your overtakes, the start and the finish.

BradLTL said:

It interested me, so I sucked it up and paid for it... paid a lot... bought the Schumacher edition for $70.  That hurt.  Most I've ever spent on a single game?

Damn, I haven't paid that much for a game since fall of 1992.

In reply to ProDarwin :

Well, now I have to ask... what game was it you bought in 1992?

Mortal Kombat

Hanoi is a sucky track.

Let me talk you around a lap.... long straight into hairpin / weird ass horseshoe corner, long straight into hairpin / horseshoe corner, long straight into hairpin, bunch of small corners with walls.  That's it.  

I'm still enjoying the game, getting to grips with the physics and car control.  I'm upping the AI difficulty each race weekend.  A lot of the tracks that F1 runs, I don't have a lot of laps on (if any) from any other game, so I'm having to spend a lot time dedicated to learning the track.  I use the Time Trial mode for this most of the time.  In the My Team career mode, it tracks mileage on all your components and they wear.  So running a million laps in practice to just figure out where the track goes ends up hurting the car and race performance.  Time trial doesn't allow you to run your career car, but you can run as many laps without doing any damage to your career.  My times are all over the place.  The first two events my learning lap times were in the top 20-30%, for Hanoi I was in the bottom 30%.  I did actually get a reasonable lap during the race as I got more comfortable.

The game seems to do a really good job of simulating things that actually happen in F1 races.  If Gasly jukes to block my overtake 1 more time, I swear I'm going to punt him as far as I can with these cars.  It is refreshing to see AI that will defend their position.  It caught me off guard the first time I came flying up to overtake and they switched lanes on me.  They only make the 1 move, but they'll make it.  It's also intimidating as hell to watch a car come flying up from behind you with a full DRS speed difference.  It makes the races really engaging.  

The Hanoi race (round 3) was a challenge because I've upped the AI's pace and I didn't know the track.  Add to it a worn engine, and my fastest lap in any practice session was only good enough for 7th.  By some small miracle, in Qualifying I put together a good lap and ran nearly 4 seconds faster than I did in practice.  That managed to get me on pole, but I knew I wasn't consistent so it was going to be tough to hold it.  I got a clean start, but didn't really pull any gap on the Mercs behind me.  They hounded me for the first 6 laps of the race.  I was having to use ERS to defend from their DRS a number of times.  I pitted first from P1, both the Mercs stayed out.  I came out in 11th behind my favorite driver (Stroll... ugh).  I couldn't find a place to make a pass, so I was caught in traffic.  Hamilton pitted the next lap and rejoined literally on my back wing (closing a gap of like 2 seconds).  Gradually the cars in front took to the pits, including Bottas who had been running in clean air for 2 laps past my pit.  As I came around T2, he shot out of the pits in front of me, pulling off the "over cut" on the pit stop.  Damnit.  Pissed, I over cooked a corner and gave him some space to get away.  It took me another full lap to close the gap back down.  Even still, with the power of the Merc, I couldn't get enough of a run on him to make a pass at the end of any of the straights.  I got super close in T1 and T2, so I tightened my line and stuck my nose in going into T3.  I left him no where to go, I got to the corner first and he had to back off.  That left him compromised into T4 and down the next straight.  That was enough for me get fully ahead and into a defendable position.  I was never comfortable, I finished the race with both Mercs right on my tail and almost no ERS charge left to defend.  Another lap or 2 and I wouldn't have won.  I expect my winning streak to come to an end at the next event as I up the AI even more.

The team management side is interesting as well.  I had 1 upgrade complete and get added to the car, I had 2 fail that I'm having to redevelop.  The good news is that the redevelop cost is significantly less than the first time, and it won't fail twice (at least at this stage of the game).  If you've played Motorsport Manager, you know the basics of the team management part of this game.  I like MM, so this is fun to me as well.  You have to manage facilities, R+D, costs and sponsors, and morale of the different teams (power, aero, etc.).  It's a little thing (and I'm not really sure you can fail at it) but it adds to the engagement and immersion in the single player game.

As far as car setups go, I haven't spent too much time on them yet.  They tend to be more GTSport than Project Cars 2.  What is fairly nice is that they offer 5 presets to swap quickly.  1 being high downforce, 3 is balanced, 5 is low downforce.  At the Hanoi race, it was the first time I swapped any setup on the car.  I tried 3, 4, and 5.  I settled on 4, but I wasn't 100% happy with how the front end of the car was acting compared to 3.  Setups do matter, but I'll have to work my way into building custom setups as I get more time behind the wheel.

EDIT:

Automated race highlights from the Hanoi race.

Some images to give you context to the block of text above.

First set show the Headquarters and the Team management and R+D tree:

Now we have the at the track activities, practice programs and car setup:

Just continuing the conversation with myself over here, pay no attention...

My calf has healed up enough for me to get back into this game.  I enjoy the single player part of it a lot.  I enjoy modern F1 (I know it's not to everyone's taste), and the game does a great job of making you feel that you are in those races.  It's a lot more fun to cuss at a virtual Lance Stroll than some other randomly generated nameless AI character that won't be there the next race.

My first event back after a several week break was Monaco.  Let me summarize for you:

I ran many laps in Time Trial mode trying to get a competitive lap time in, and it was a complete waste of time.  Best I could do by the end of qualifying was dead last, about 8 seconds off of the front cars.  And that wasn't consistent.  Then I looked at the weather for the race, and it was going to rain the entire time.  Luckily though, there is a handy button that says "Simulate" on it.  I clicked that, and magically I had a 9th place finish (not bad starting from 22nd) and was moving on.

On to Baku.  Yet another circuit that I have no experience at.  It's fairly simple, but also very hard at the same time.  Its not the track that makes it hard, it's the visuals.  They trick your eye.  Being a street circuit there are walls everywhere, and runoffs at every tight corner.  Every runoff wants you to keep going down it.  It took me more laps that I want to admit to train my eye to look for specific markers for most of the corners.  That is really challenging in the tight sections with the fences / buildings / walls / castles / etc. flying by you at the speed these cars go.

The other really cool feature that the game has is the team radio.  It lets you issue commands to your pit crew and get information about the race.  What's really fun about this radio is that you can yell at it... literally.  It uses the mic and can pick out what you are asking.  Its handy and fun to yell at your virtual team.  I was leading the race and Gasly decided to eat the wall causing a safety car.  It was 1 lap prior to my scheduled stop.  I didn't have to fumble through menus to make any changes.  I just hit the radio button and yelled "Box this lap" and a second later the team came back "Confirm, Box this lap".  I came in with most of the field behind me, and managed to keep in front of them on the exit.  Rejoined in 3rd behind cars that started on the hard tires running an alternate strategy. 

I made a move Kvyat I couldn't believe I pulled off cleanly to get some space between me and the ever charging Mercs.  The AI really does a great job in this game.  I out braked him into the hairpin before the castle corner and we went through it side by side.  I had traction on my side and was able to out accelerate him and claim the position before the narrow section, effectively blocking the Mercs and letting me get away.  

Turns out I needed every bit of that space.  My engine and turbo are getting fairly worn and the Baku track did not help them at all.  The engineer was telling me to manage revs for the entire second stint of the race... how?  75% of the track is at WOT... what am I managing here?  I had lost about 10-12 mph of speed down the front straight by the end of the race.  Bottas had caught me from about 5 seconds behind and was pulling me in on the last lap.  I positioned where he couldn't get a draft and was ready to chop his nose off with my 1 move before the finish, but luckily the line got there about 0.3 seconds faster.

I don't know how good of a "sim" it is, I have nothing even close to reference the performance of a modern F1 car to.  But is gets an "A" for immersion and enjoyment.

First discount is available for this if anyone is interested.  PS Store has it for $36

https://store.playstation.com/en-us/product/UP4001-CUSA16271_00-F12020AMASTER000

Tempting. Is it just F1 cars from the current season?  It does support on line play so that could be fun. 

In reply to dean1484 :

No, it's has F2 and a bunch of historic cars.

The public online play seems like a dumpster fire.

Thanks for all the screenshots and updates! I can't wait to get another sim rig built, of course right now prices and delivery times for everything is insane. 

This seems like it will be a fun game when I don't feel like being serious with iRacing.

For you PC gamers, F1 2020 is having a free weekend on Steam of you want to give it a try