EA Sports
This year represents a chance for developer Codemasters to catapult its Formula One series up the hierarchy of sports games with F1 24.
A year ago, F1 23 arrived to strong responses because of the way it implemented regulation changes and put a bigger emphasis on a story mode.
Now F1 24 continues to layer atop the successes with a fresh career mode more akin to the heavyweights of the sports space, impressively overhauled visuals and a revamped handling system.
If F1 24 does more than pass an eye test, it will be the latest to improve upon the last while crafting a quality experience for newcomers and veteran players alike.
F1 23 made some serious headway in gameplay details such as braking, really driving the realism point to new levels while keeping it fun.
And while physics got a revamp last year too, a new handling system that feels like it comes from EA Sports WRC does the same again in F1 24—to fantastic results.
The game boasts new suspensions that indeed impacts the feel of a vehicle’s center of gravity, which has a ripple effect on the weightyness of each ride.
Tires are also more impacted by both temperature and actual driver behavior than in the past. There’s a notable difference in considering the longevity of tires throughout a race by playing corners as smooth as possible as opposed to wearing them down faster with aggressive driving.
The weightness and tire changes provide room for players to leave even more of a mark on their preferred style, with the tweaks more impacting weight before races now and the individual approach to a course dictating things like tire wear and stoppages.
Many of the changes, be it under-the-hood stuff or more player-facing aspects, have helped different-styled vehicles perform quite notably differently in handling.
So, even new players will end up noticing the handling nuances between types and certain parts, while those who love to dive into the tweaking of small things and on-track habits will notice gains, or at least changes, during times and overall results.
F1 23, beyond adjusting braking and vehicle weight, majored in minor things like finally letting players tweak race length settings and even upped the quality of control on a popular input like controller.
Those upgrades appear here again, with opponent A.I. also a strong suit. At times, especially early on while experimenting with the changes, it might feel unfair that the A.I. can rip-roar out of corners without missing a beat, but it’s not a thing that lasts long once a player finds their groove.
Graphics and Presentation
One needs just a few seconds to understand that F1 24 has undergone a massive visual overhaul.
This time out, there are notable upgrades to lighting and shadows work, something really amplified by the expected dynamic weather and time of day systems. This, layered atop the coloring changes brought about last year, create one of the best-looking on-track games of any series.
Arguably more impressive is the update to player models. They look great by normal tech standards for the genre, but stunningly so when compared to last year’s models because frankly, that was one area of the game that continued to have a last-gen feel.
It helps that the game has made tweaks, updating a chunk of the game’s tracks. Better foilage and sheer density to the details around the track helps. These updates include details like revamped surfaces to match real-world changes. But it also extends to more authentic details to buildings around the track at Jeddah Corniche Circuit, for example.
The long-requested authentic radio calls work for and against immersion, though. While they are fantastic to have, real-world calls or not, they can get repetitive in a hurry.
Sheerly boosting immersion, though, are new cutscenes peppered throughout the experience. This includes better replays, which help to provide a more broadcast-styled experience while showing off the revamped graphical systems and details around tracks.
Career, F1 World and More
Not to beat the last year drum too much, but F1 23 received a ton of hype for the long-awaited return of the narrative-styled campaign dubbed Braking Point 2.
This year’s game leans more into letting players insert themselves into the game—or play out alternate histories. Career in F1 24 lets players step into an established name’s journey or start from scratch as a created racer, including a Formula 2 starting point.
While doing so, the Driver Recognition system that pays attention to player’s actions on and off track can impact things like contract details, offers from teams and influence research and development. It’s a fun system and it’s nice to see the series continue to spread its wings and incorporate more of what it means to be a racer beyond events on the track.
Accolades are also flexible, from being tailored toward a real-world or legend’s own career arc to a completely blank slate for created characters.
In a fantastic development, all of the single-player features extend to a two-player career, which lets players have a co-op experience on the same team—or position themselves as rivals on different teams.
Of note, driver rating seems to have a more prominent positon in career mode than in the past, which is really a welcome change—it’s nice to have the constant feedback and rewarding to see a gradual improvement.
There’s also a mode called Challenge Career. These are smaller scenario challenges and gameplay experiences with existing teams and global leaderboards. Notable is that player input and real-world happenings can influence what tasks players will encounter in Challenge Career over the course of the game’s lifespan.
While it sounds like a small thing, this could be a welcome addition for many players who don’t have the time or patience for live multiplayer events but still want to see how they stack up in those types of scenarios against other players.
F1 World again returns and loops in overarching progression atop vehicle and team customization while pursuing goals and seasonal events.
The sophomore effort of the mode debuts Fanzone, a cooperative, time-based element where players work alongside others to accomplish set goals and complete challenges. It’s certainly a nice addition as something to grind and dial in more on a sense of community.
Podium Pass debuted last year and so did an online safety rating and it continues to be a strong part of the experience that helps curate an acceptable online environment that will be, in theory, free of griefing.
MyTeam also returns and runs the expected gamut of features, while the expected premium battle bass that even includes voicelines also makes the cut.
While premium passes still have understandable detractors, the always-something-to-earn nature of the pass and the strong player safety features combine at the right time as the series continues to reach a bigger audience.
Beyond the notable accessibility feature suite (including notables like field of view, etc.), this year’s game has some interesting functionality via cross-platform multiplayer and an EA Racenet companion app that can provide data and player feedback on race performances.
And it should go without saying for the series at this point, but the game runs well and the list of tweakable settings is staggering. It’s a boon for those who care, though the game manages to offer plenty of pick-up-play potential for the inexperienced, too.
Two of the biggest things F1 24 does—the reworked handling system and going back to a more traditional career—register as divisive, yet are ultimately successes.
Challenge Career, especially, is an underrated highlight of a package that has fallen a bit into the usual sports game cycle of not feeling dramatically different from year to year.
Even so, F1 24 is the best possible entry point for new players and the depth that put the game ahead of the pack in the first place remains for the hardcore crowd.
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