With F1 testing getting underway today, we have been eagerly awaiting the opportunity to speculate on the next F1 game. Here are five features we believe should be included in F1 23.
Image credit: Codemasters / EA
With the Formula One season not too far around the corner, the fans of the sport are inevitably excited to see the racing. But, that’s just part of the F1 fan experience, the other part is playing the yearly F1 game release.
The games don’t tend to release until the middle of the season. Typically late June and early July have been the dates at which the game becomes available in the last few years. Therefore, there is still some time to draw up a wishlist. So, here are some ideas we have for F1 23.
1. Young Driver Test
Back on F1 2012 and F1 2013, players were able to partake in a young driver’s test with either McLaren, Red Bull or Ferrari. This enabled the options to join either tail-ending or midfield teams for the career mode. Where one ended up how many of the activities were successfully completed.
These activities included very basic stuff like accelerating and braking, how to turn corners without spinning and even how use the flashback feature. These are all things that a typical F1 gamer already has down. Therefore, this feature would probably only be beneficial those who are getting into the games for the very first time. But, there is a way to use the Young Driver Test that would benefit long-time players.
In F1 22, there was a feature introduced called Adaptive AI. In theory, it sounded like an amazing idea. The game analyses how you’re doing during a race and change the AI’s difficulty accordingly, maintaining a fair level of challenge across all tracks. Unfortunately, Codemasters seemingly came to the conclusion that only players using beginner difficulty needed this feature.
If they still believe this, the very least they can do is allow players to run a practice session that concludes which AI difficulty level is best. Assetto Corsa Competizione has a feature like this, where the player runs laps around Monza in a Lamborghini Super Trofeo car in dry, rainy and night conditions. Perhaps that’s something that could be in F1 23, with the game allowing you to find out your optimum AI difficulty setting.
Plus, hopefully the Adaptive AI can be properly implemented. Seeing how they fumbled the idea from last year’s game, though, perhaps that’s wishful thinking.
2. Classic Cars
Yes, we all expected this. After ditching the classic cars from F1 2021, like toddlers who ignore a toy and then want it as soon as it’s taken away, we all want them back. With the collection of classic cars from F1 2020 and the ones from 70’s and early 80’s that were last seen in F1 2019, the developers had really refined the selection nicely.
F1 22 saw the introduction of supercars from the four major automotive brands within Formula One. It’s safe to say that many long-time players were not fans of the cars, and they won’t be missed if they don’t carry over into F1 23. But, the classic cars are something that many people want back, and maybe there is a way it can be done that Codemasters would see some benefit from.
Our editor Marvin Miller made a video talking about the pointless items that are available in the Podium Pass, another version of the ever popular Battle Pass found in many mainstream games. To either incentivise people to grind the game to rank up or cave in by spending money to get straight to the items they want, F1 22‘s Podium Pass went from the occasional race winning emote and fancy helmet, to also including a lamp or cushion to use in the player’s F1 Life apartment hub.
These are completely and utterly pointless items that players just do not want. So, if it means getting back the Classic Cars, maybe players will be encouraged to start completing objectives to tier up in the Podium Pass if they can get a classic car from it. Of course, we would prefer if they were just all available from the very start, but maybe having them locked away behind some kind of objective would make it more rewarding when the player does earn them.
Of course, there would also be those who will just purchase their way to level up, which would make EA happy for sure.
3. New Tracks
Another one we all expected. Past F1 games have had tracks not on the Grand Prix schedule. Along with classic cars, F1 2013 had 1980s and 1990s versions of Jerez, Brands Hatch, Estoril and Imola. Then, when the classic cars came back for F1 2017, short layouts for a few pre-existing circuits were brought to the game. But these were just never enough.
It would be easy to just ask for tracks that F1 have never been to in recent years, or ones that could never host an F1 race. But, there are cases where tracks that have hosted F1 within the last few seasons have been made available in the games. For example, Portimão featured on the 2020 and 2021 schedules and was introduced into the game for F1 2021. Even though it didn’t host a Grand Prix last season, it was still carried over into F1 22.
In the article linked above, we listed two very popular tracks that lost their Grand Prix in recent years, Sepang and Hockenheim. There were also all the new circuits that served as temporary additions to a shortened 2020 season that was compromised by COVID.
Included in that list of 2020 fill-in tracks were returning venues Istanbul Park and Nürburgring GP, and new additions Mugello and the sub-minute Bahrain Outer Layout. All of these tracks would serve as extremely popular additions to the F1 game. Perhaps along with putting the Classic Cars into the Podium Pass, Codemasters and EA could time the releases of these tracks to sustain the game’s lifespan.
Although this time, not locked behind a paywall of any sort. That would risk splitting the playerbase up way more than with the cars.
4. Online Quality of Life
Every time a wish list for an F1 game is created, most people will chime in with “online multiplayer that works at a basic level”. Of course, we can’t disagree with that. However, there are other things that are lacking from the current online system that would make it easier to connect with more players.
F1 22 answered one of our prayers by introducing crossplay, but there is still one piece lacking that could improve the online experience further. In F1 23, we would like to see an in-game multiplayer team system. Drivers could be invited into teams which would be used for community events. Their names could be paired up alongside a three or four letter code selected for the team.
Speaking of community events, there are features from a game that released nearly four years ago that could be hugely helpful if Codemasters implemented them into the F1 games.
In MotoGP 19, Milestone introduced many amazing features for online multiplayer which Codemasters should certainly adopt. They could add in tweaks to the current league system that can allow the organisers and moderators to make their own rules, keep score and add in drivers with which cars they’re permitted to use. Then there’s also the Race Director mode, where players can review clips and assign penalties.
It would make running an organised league so much better. The competitive online side of the F1 game is integral to sustaining the game’s lifespan. So, Codemasters and EA simply must start pushing some new online features to vastly improve it both on a functional level and also in terms of gameplay variety.
5. Personal Livery Editor
With the past few F1 game releases, players have been able to give the My Team spec car a lot of different liveries. Unfortunately, those liveries are ones that are only available through the Item Shop or the Podium Pass, and they’re never liveries that the players would actually want.
They’ve improved a lot in recent times, with liveries that have real world connections which players are actually interested in using. Such examples include the Japanese-themed Red Bull livery, the McLaren ‘Racing Future Mode’ livery that they ran last year and even the Audi launch livery.
But, when it comes to liveries that are personal to the player, the games are very limited. As such, we would like to see a custom livery editor. Through this, players could put real world brands as sponsors on their car (which has been done in other racing games), and even upload a personal logo that can also be used for that multiplayer team system we mentioned earlier.
It is frustrating, because people rarely use the spec car in anything besides My Team. Even then, many players prefer to mod in a livery rather than use any of the ones available in-game. As a result, the efforts to push the spec car with the endless amount of pre-set liveries that can be purchased from the Podium Pass and Item Shop means the player misses out on creating something unique.
But give them a chance to make their own liveries somehow, maybe they’d be more tempted to use the spec car in online races.
What features would you like in F1 23? Tell us on Twitter at @OverTake_gg or in the comments down below!
