F1 2012

Having owned Formula 1: Championship mode and the Codemasters games (and not seeing much difference in quality apart from updated teams) i was far from excited like most of us when a new game comes out. Having now played F1 2012, I am so glad i made the plunge regardless.

First thing i enjoyed was the new Young Drivers Test. This gives you a detailed, but simplistic look at the science behind racing an F1 car. Gone are the days when you just raced with default aerodynamics, or default tyres, as this feature will show you what the little tweaks actually do.

Second major difference was the difficulty/realism. On past games I would start a career in a Torro Rosso (or similar guff team) and win or at least be in the points every race. Obviously this is ridiculous and makes for not much of a challenge (no way trying hard difficulty as i would get completely trashed = no fun). Playing this game on similar difficulties didn't seem much different at first (started in 24th, was 8th after the first corner) but as the first lap got going i realised that the cars in front were pulling away and the cars behind were being held up. The result of this was that i started to defend my position and by matter of working harder, i got faster and more aggressive in my driving. This made for 'sick to the power of rad' driving and i found myself eating away at the laps. Soon enough the 15 lap race (the minimum laps) was over and i had finished 12th, which on previous games would have been utterly terrible, but on this, i felt a great sense of achievement.

Pros: -

- Smoother Graphics
- Better AI - More challenging and better defending fellow racers
- Smoother gameplay

Cons: -

- Menu is quite weird to try and navigate as you seem to go all over the place, just to get where you want.
- Games Teams and Drivers will run out soon as it is this current season's cars.

Having played every f1 game on the Ps3 so far, i can say that this is the best. The graphics are incredible and the gameplay is much improved.

The menus look really slick and the in game graphics show an amazing amount of detail, even down to the moving of the grass blades by the track. Even the track from Austin Texas is included and it is really good. If you are an F1 fan, you need this game.

Full marks to Codemasters and all who have been involved in this game. A good job !

F1 2012 is by far the best F1 game that Codemasters have made. They've taken the negative comments from last years release and turned them into positive improvements.

The game play is simply fantastic, the graphics are amazing, the AI are intelligent and the handling of the cars is much much better. But what really makes this game stand out compared to its predecessors are the game modes that are additional to the standard 20 race career mode.

Season Challenge Mode is an enjoyable condensed version of a season where you race at random tracks with the aim of beating a rival. Once successful you have the option to drive in their seat at their team making the season more interesting as you can hop up and down the grid, with a fresh rival to beat at every other race.

There's also Champions Mode where there are six scenarios where you are placed against each of the F1 World Champions where you have so many laps to overcome a special circumstance, such as a safety car period, rain or a pit stop to beat them. The seventh scenario puts you against all 6 world champions in a race where you must beat them all.

Another nice touch is the Young Drivers Test which is basically a tutorial which allows you to master the controls and progress on to you career. More teams are available to drive for at the start of a season depending on how well you do here.

TV style commentary has also made a brief return with commentary snippets used before scenarios in season and champions challenge modes. It eradicates any loneliness felt in the last few games.

Penalties have also been improved dramatically, if you accidentally completely cut across a chicane the game automatically slows you done so you can't be penalised for cheating. If you continuously take too much kerb and effectively cut across a corner you will punished which is fair enough. The best feature though is the fact that if you over take somebody by cutting a bend you are asked to surrender back the position to you rival with a set time limit, a really nice feature.

My only grumble is the fact that the changeable weather in the races can cause problems. One moment the track is dry and then the next minute it starts raining and the track is wet, fair enough, but even though the track is wet you can continue racing on dry tyres for laps and laps, and if you were to pit for intermediates or wets you'd have no grip whatsoever. It is so unpredictable whether or not your tyres will work. Your engineer isn't much help either, as in one race at Malaysia, he kept on informing me that rain was due in five minutes, even though it was already chucking it down. Likewise in practice sessions and qualifying you have no idea what the state of the track is like as there is no option to view the cameras out on track to determine whether it is raining or not. You can view the race director page which enlightens you to what tyres the other cars are on, but surely there could be a better way of doing this? Fortunately you can switch the weather mode off.

But generally speaking this is by far the best f1 game out on the PlayStation, it is a vast improvement on last years title. Maybe next years game will be even better.