Review of F1 2021, the famous driving game that comes with obvious playable changes and more game modes to give us the most complete experience possible.
Formula 1 is leaving us with one of the most interesting seasons in recent years in which Red Bull is racing head-to-head with Mercedes and in which the middle of the grid is tight, very tight, with teams like Ferrari , McLaren or Alpine competing for the points in each race and with Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz , drivers from Spain, offering us a great show in many Grands Prix.
Video analysis
Now, to the great expectation that the competition has caused during this year, we must add the launch of F1 2021 , the game between the arcade and the simulation of Codemasters and EA Sports that we have already been able to test to bring you their analysis and tell you what It seemed to us the most obvious improvements in gameplay with respect to the 2020 delivery and, of course, the new game modes that have Braking Point as the main novelty of this delivery.
Braking Point, the most vaunted novelty of F1 2021
We are going to start this analysis by writing, precisely, about Braking Point , a new story mode that we have already told you about previously that stars Aiden Jackson, a promising driver that we took control of from his last race in F2 to his two first seasons in Formula 1 in which he will see first-hand the toughness of the Great Circus.
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As we told you in our impressions , this mode allows us to enjoy somewhat different races with different objectives that range from finishing in the points to beating our teammate to overtaking the cars of the rival team, giving up the training or qualifying to focus on the high point of the Grand Prix, sometimes competing in full races and at other times starting the GP from a certain lap
The experience with Braking Point in general lines has been quite positive and gives some freshness to F1 2021 with an interesting story mode as a starting point to improve it during the next years in which we hope that there will be a greater depth offering more different objectives, giving weighting the driver’s decision in developing the car and offering a more engaging story than this debut. As we say, the sensations are good and we have enjoyed the entire campaign lasting about 6 or 8 hours, but you can see that it is a mode that has just landed and that it comes as a basis to make it grow in future installments.
Interesting changes in My Team and Cooperative Career
The other two star modes for a player are My Team and Driver , which also come with some interesting changes that will please the players of the series. The most obvious are a new, more complete and intuitive R&D system to improve the parts of our car throughout the season, as well as a new way of approaching free practice to make it less tiring and more “enjoyable” for Players. In fact, we can even deal with free ones automatically, earning fewer development points than if we do them manually.
The R&D department of Career and My Team modes has improvements that we see from our first game.
Beyond this, without a doubt, the greatest attraction we find is the possibility of playing the Race in “doubles” mode over the internet, being able to enjoy with a friend in this way over the internet in a unique way, being part of the same team to work together for the constructors ‘world championship or compete as rivals trying to be higher than the other in the drivers’ classification.
A multiplayer that performs well and targets esports
Now let’s talk about the multiplayer mode in which we do not see too many changes being able to play informal fast races (with modes for beginners and experts), qualifiers, leagues, weekly events and personalized big prizes, as well as esports tournaments that have their own section within of the game. In addition, like previous years we will have a system of rank and progressions and a “season pass” to obtain different cosmetic items.
In competitive multiplayer modes there are not too many differences while its performance at the connection level is good.
With the performance of the online mode we are very satisfied , with few waiting times on PC and without encountering lags or slowdowns, being able to enjoy a similar driving experience to the one we have alone. The main problem, especially until we get rank, will be avoiding the newer players or with a more reckless driving.
Better physics on the track
Already on the track we see some obvious changes in the gameplay, especially in terms of the physics of the car, emphasizing the more realistic braking than in the previous edition and the behavior of the car when we go at high speed, being more Difficult than in other editions to be precise in the curves if we are going over speed or if we do not get on a good line.
Perhaps the most obvious thing while we play is found in the pianos, which destabilize the car much more than in previous years, punishing those players who use them excessively or who “eat” part of the curve using them, an obvious example being the chicane of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya that before could be clearly cut by stepping on the yellow border without wasting time and that now “spits” at our car, obviously losing control. You can see another graphic example in the small video below in which we lose control of the F1 after stepping on one of the Spa-Francorchamps pianos:
The AI has also improved , especially when it comes to closing the door well in overtaking, with some drivers like Carlos Sainz being very difficult to beat in the race. In addition, our rivals pressure us better when they have to overtake us, punishing any mistake or poorly taken corner to overcome us if they are close enough. Even so, sometimes we notice how the pilots in intermediate positions sometimes go slower just until we overcome them, at which point they start to push, or at least that is what we have noticed with the Difficulty 72 with which we have “competed “in the different game modes.
An experience for all kinds of players
As always, F1 2021 will allow us to have an experience for all kinds of players , from those who are new to the driving title to those who have enjoyed it for years with a command that we want a more demanding title, but with some help of our own. our control until we reach, of course, to satisfy the most experienced players who “face” F1 2021 with their steering wheel and pedals and want an experience as close as possible to the simulation.
As always, we can enjoy an experience suitable for all types of players, from the newest to those expert simulation lovers who play with a steering wheel and pedals.
In fact, one of the greatness of the Codemasters saga is to be able to offer a perfect experience for a wide range of players, something that they achieve thanks to the so-called “piloting styles” allowing us to choose between Casual, Standard and Expert as well as being able to choose in a personalized way our preferences such as the degree of traction aid, if we want a guide for the layout of the circuits or that our vehicle may suffer spontaneous breakdowns depending on the reliability of our car.
With hardly any leap at the graphic level
The most continuous point of F1 2021 is, without a doubt, its graphic aspect , without great news compared to last year, noting that we are clearly facing an intergenerational title. For example, ray tracing this year only arrives during the Grand Prix on PC, limiting itself to replays or exhibitors on the console.
At a graphical level, we did not find notable jumps beyond improvements in the animations and faces of the pilots during the Braking Point cinematics.
We didn’t find big changes in the textures or in the rain either, beyond small updates, although there is an evident jump in the cinematics that we see in Braking Point , with several very successful facial animations that make the pilots look more realistic than ever.
Regarding performance, to test F1 2021 on PC we have used a computer with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti graphics , AMD Ryzen 5900X processor, 32 GB of RAM, 1 TB SSD and Windows 10, enjoying the game without problems at 4K and about 158 fps with DLSS activated offering a fairly stable performance, although sometimes we have encountered some ghosting problems in other cars when we go at high speed.
Finally, the PS5 and Xbox Series X consoles will feature graphics and performance modes, optimization for 3D sound, and the aforementioned Ray Tracing during replays and at exhibits. In the Sony console Codemasters has announced support for the adaptive triggers of the DualSense and compatibility with the activity system while in XSX it comes with the well-known Smart Delivery of Microsoft consoles.
The most complete F1 game
F1 2021 is the most complete F1 game that we have had to date with several improvements at the playable level compared to last year both on the track and within its game modes and also adding new content in the form of Braking Point, a story mode that lays the foundations of this type of experience for the future of the series, and of the Career Mode for two players.
Our experience with the title of Codemasters and EA Sports has been very positive , although we would have appreciated a greater leap at the graphic level and perhaps a somewhat less conformist story mode, small details along with the ghosting problems that do not prevent us from believing that F1 2021 It is a title that all motor racing fans will enjoy who will be able to play for hours and hours both alone and in the company of a friend in cooperative.
