F1 2016 is a very good example of Formula 1 racing and is great fun to drive. The career mode has such potential however the systems fall flat and are not engaging. The force feedback and feeling of the car is great despite being a sim-cade. The full race weekend is surprisingly fun due to practice programmes and traditional qualifying format. Besides the chaotic start the race is incredibly fun with plenty of back and forth overtaking and robust strategy system. The graphics are average, saved only by some good post-processing and rain effects. Sound effects are weak with a lack of realistic collision sounds, though they nailed the dull engine sound. Despite its blunders F1 2016 is a great Formula 1 game that delivers an experience that legitimately feels like what Formula 1 might be like.

Story

Formula 1 is a 21 round championship where 11 teams (22 drivers) compete to earn points in the driver’s and constructor’s championships. I played the career mode where you make your own custom driver and pick what team you go into, Renault in my case. There are a couple of systems the game uses to create an illusion of stories within the season, which is a crucial element of Formula 1. Firstly you earn respect from the team depending on whether you achieve the team’s expectations, which is usually “finish above X position” and “finish better than your team mate” and then if you complete these you get points on a little bar indicating how you are doing. It’s really really limited though, and the only thing it dictates is your position in the team (as a #1 or #2 driver). The other main mechanic is the rivalry system, where the game will assign a seemingly random driver from around your position in the standings as a rival. The rivalry system works similarly to the team respect system, except you compete against a driver and the first to get 30 points ‘wins’ the rivalry. There are many ways to earn points such as get pole position, faster sectors, podium finish and finish penalty free. Your in-game manager tells you that winning rivalries boosts your popularity but the game has no indicator of your popularity. I would have liked to see how other people and teams view me with measures such as consistency, popularity (social media fans?) and marketability. I assume the game does monitor your performance because you can move up to a better team but I would’ve like to see under the hood of how they determine how well I’m doing. These mechanics are really weak, and disappointing because there was such potential here.

Gameplay

The gameplay is obviously the most important aspect of the game. F1 2016 is a sim-cade style racer, though there is thankfully plenty of customisable aides to shift the balance more to your liking. The force feedback is surprisingly good considering Codemasters usually struggles with immersive FFB, though you can feel a lot through the wheel such as curbs and vehicle stability. The main draw of F1 games is the awesome selection of tracks, as it uses all the tracks from the Formula 1 season all of which are top quality and great to drive. Driving around these tracks is an almost meditative experience and probably the best video game example of what the mentality is of Formula 1 drivers. There is not a whole lot of room for errors, and one mistake could cost you the race therefore focus is the key. You need to be thinking only about the upcoming corner, racing lines and overtaking opportunities. It’s incredible immersive and engaging.

F1 2016 follows a full race weekend structure, so you have 3 practice sessions, 3 qualifying sessions and a race. There is a small amount of customisation of these in the career mode where you can set race distance between 25%, 50% etc., which also determines how long practice sessions are. Qualifying can be set to full qualifying (3 sessions), short qualifying (1 session) or one-shot qualifying which I assume is where you do just one lap.

The practice sessions are surprisingly fun and very helpful. Usually practice sessions in racing games you just go out and drive around for a few laps, however in F1 2016 you have practice objectives and programmes. There are three programmes, one you can choose is “track acclimatisation”, which gives you markers around the track that show the racing line and you have to follow as closely as you can like slalom skiing. Another is “tyre management” where you have to achieve a certain time and conserve your tyre wear, and the last is “qualifying practice” where you go out and just set the fastest lap you can. In addition you have different practice objectives such as “set a fast sector 2”. Completing these programmes and objectives earns you research points which you can use to upgrades elements of your car throughout the season which is crucial to success. Qualifying is standard, you go out and set the fastest lap you can which determines your starting position.

The race is the main event of the weekend. Before the start on the grid you can plan your pitstop strategy, so if you want to go aggressive and push as hard as you can you will need to pit more but you might be able to make up that time with fast laps. I usually went a conservative strategy with hard compound tyres so that I had minimal pit stops. As soon as the light turns green you realise what the practice sessions did not prepare you for, which is driving in AI traffic. It’s probably the worst part of the game, the AI seems to have no care for what you are doing and it’s incredibly common to get squeezed or cut into which can be the end of your race. The time between the start and the second corner is the most chaotic thing I’ve ever seen in a racing game. However the positions to start to stabilise quickly and the cars fall in behind each other, from here the race actually begins. The overtaking in this game is very rewarding and difficult. It can be easy to late brake and try to get the apex but the opponent will probably come back at you next corner because they would have a better line. This results in a lot of back and forth when overtaking and it’s really fun. You can do minimal adjustments to your pit strategy during the race such as pitting earlier or later, which is mostly important when the rain hits and picking the right time to pit can cost you crucial seconds.

Presentation

The overall presentation of F1 2016 is passable. The graphics are average for a racing game, however the rain effects and vehicle detail are really great. I was kind of disappointed by the graphics options in the game as it was just unusual, there was no texture quality or vehicle quality instead you get things like hair quality? Besides that the game runs really well, I was playing it on high, 1440p @ ~160 FPS so it was a great experience in that regard. The sound effects are also average, collisions sound like bumper cars and lacks crunching or cracking sounds. The engine sounds are dull, though that is not really the fault of Codemasters as current Formula 1 engines sounds are dull. There are some nice postprocessing effects but overall the presentation of the game is average.