Getting the setup right for your car, and your own driving style, is a daunting task.
Using a controller rather than a wheel and pedals will make manual gears and no traction control extremely difficult, so don't worry if you are still using an automatic gearbox and some traction control once every other assist is gone. As you learn the tracks you can do away with the racing line. The braking assist should be the first thing you remove, and then you can start to manage ERS and the pits yourself. While the ERS Mode assist will mean that you don't have to actively manage the new ERS system which deploys harvested electrical energy for a power boost.Īs you become more comfortable with how the car feels and handles, you can begin to remove the assists piece by piece and compete more on your own skill. The pit assists will take away the extra mechanics of slowing for the pit lane speed limit and then getting out of the box. This is particularly useful for finding the apex of corners and understanding how the track flows from corner to corner. Knowing the track is vital to setting a good time, and the dynamic racing line will show you where you should position your car on the tarmac. The braking assist will prevent you going too deep into corners or flying into barriers around the street circuits, while the traction control will help you under acceleration and prevent the car from seriously snapping on you as you exit the corner. Despite a fleet of minor improvements, I don’t feel inspired to sink another hundred hours into this game after doing it last year, because for all the halos and journalists, it’s broadly the same experience again.The beginner assists are very useful.
But with each passing year that the likes of Fortnite splurge new content on their players for free every few months, annualised models like this feel underwhelming in the new goodies they deliver and old-fashioned in their mindset. There’s nothing wrong with the new additions Codemasters has focused on, nor has the quality of racing dipped from last year’s high tide mark. That’s fine by me.ĭespite all that’s new here, I don’t love F1 2018. It’s fancy matchmaking that pairs serious racers with each other, and lets crashers crash into other crashers. Contact and corner cutting counts against you, clean driving works in your favour.
Over in multiplayer, a super license system is the big new addition, aimed to get you driving less like Max Verstappen and more like someone who grasps the concept of sportsmanship. AI opponents are sharp but fallible, as always demonstrating Codies’ uncanny ability to mimic believable racing. You really do get a sense of it when you bounce over some of the more aggressive apexes at Barcelona and Monaco. The suspension refresh rate’s increased this year, and-look, don’t laugh. Visually rich without melting your graphics card, wonderful with a pad and some assists, very nearly as wonderful with a wheel and no assists. Heading onto the track, the game’s still excellent. You still get the payoff of having proven yourself among the backmarkers and scored a deserving upgrade, but you can enjoy that rags-to-riches trajectory in an afternoon now rather than a dogged month. Anyone who’s spent the last seven consecutive games driving a turgid debut season for Sauber and holding out for a Red Bull contract the following year (because they want to feel like they earned it) will be delighted to hear that mid-season team changes are now possible. There’s a big change to contract negotiations, too.