F1 24 Preview: First Impressions, Handling & New Game Modes

TeddyBearx · May 23, 2024

TomLehockySVK said:
A lot of people do not understand just having fun anymore. Especially those who say "I rather play AC", not realizing that many play the F1 games because unlike AC, F1 actually provides a truly GREAT single player experience.

the worst is AI from AC is totally useless, and of course F1 games are very good, it's hard to beat them on steam.

Zemlanin · May 23, 2024

kilder said:
Like it or not, F1 delivers a really portion of fun to who really like racing games.

Very correct. I love simulators, when I run F1 it is very difficult for me to drive. Somehow everything is wrong and not right. But after almost seven laps, when you get used to the local physics, you can very easily have fun. F1 is an excellent simulator, although not physics, but certainly competition.

Metla · May 23, 2024

The issue being that both sectors of the market have different standards in regards to game play.

Cant really be surprised the company made the game they intended to make, in a format to suit the market they are aiming for.

Sure, Its a load of crap, But that is also an expectation.

RichardHessels · May 23, 2024

My guess is that largest amount of money goes to licensing the F1 brand, all the cars and drivers.
In total I would not be surprised if the total amount is beyond 50 million dollars per year.

Most customers will drive this game with a controller.
People that connect a steering wheel are a large minority, VR even less.

Looking at their sales, they get away with every year.
Besides a few hundred hardcore sim complainers.

Alexandre Costa · May 23, 2024

So VR is still crap? That's a shame, this could be a fun game.

Nitro McClean · May 23, 2024

Why is it necessary to say again and again that you prefer to drive Assetto Corsa or rF2 because EA / Codenmasters F1 is not a real simulator? That's right. It's an F1 game. But a very nice F1 game that gives you the whole experience and not just driving around in circles. Saying that the physics of F1 2024 are still not as good as Assetto Corsa or rF2 is about the same as saying that you get wet outside when it rains. I also like driving a simulator more than an EA / Codemasters F1 game. And all the extra game stuff doesn't interest me at all. But still I'm thinking about buying it. In our country there are more and more "race simulator centers" where you can all race against each other. Not interesting to just go there if you can do it at home every day. But it can be a lot of fun with a group of friends together. Unfortunately at these "race simulator centers" they have EA / Codemasters F1 games. It's a bit of a shame when you only discover that it drives much differently than you're used to. Then it's nice to get used to it at home, so that you don't look like a monkey in front of your friends because you regularly drive into the guardrails. But other than that I see little reason to buy another EA / Codemasters F1 game...

Richard Wilks · May 23, 2024

The mythical "real simulator" , that nobody can explain what it is, except about "feel"...

TomLehockySVK · May 23, 2024

Richard Wilks said:
The mythical "real simulator" , that nobody can explain what it is, except about "feel"...

Or because a real driver says "it is real" and then you see what they actually had to say about those games.

Large Style · May 23, 2024

kilder said:
Yeah of course, a bunch of negative comments to a game just because ItS NoT ReAlIsTic AgAiN. Meanwhile, F1 series still crushes every single game so called "Simulators" on steam just because the majority of real gamers play to have fun, not to simulate anything.

Like it or not, F1 delivers a really portion of fun to who really like racing games.

Some people would like / prefer the F1 games to be more realistic and there's nothing wrong with voicing that desire. If you don't like reading such comments then perhaps don't read the comments section. Are you really trying to advocate that you're allowed to say you prefer having fun in games but others aren't allowed to express other desires? Do you want others to be censored and muted just to keep you and your feelings happy and safe?

The F1 games are often high on the Steam charts as they are clearly directed toward the biggest age demographic (18-25 range) who more-often-than-not only use controllers and therefore can't even feel the shortcomings of the games handling & FFB.

Also, if a game is high in the Steam charts, that isn't a definitive argument that having fun and being a "real gamer" (whatever the heck that's supposed to mean) is better than by opposition being an "unreal gamer" who prefers sims. Those statistics are less a measure of success and more of popularity and commonality - argue that all you want with your real gamer beliefs but that's just how statistics work.

Also you can't argue that F1 24 will also be high up the Steam charts (consistently) as it's obviously not even out yet, and all the current signs are indicating that it's a worse game than '23.

Also, all racers race to have fun, they just find that fun through different means. So called "serious sims" are just labelled as that just as a measure of accuracy and realism, not because of if you have fun or are grumpy when playing. By your logic, everyone who races in real life can't have fun because they're essentially racing in the ultimate hardcore sim.

Also, wHy dO yOu wRiTe LiKe tHiS? Are you 6 years old or are you trying to imply that people who aren't real gamers are? Either way, your entire post reeks of coming from a young mind, written in such a way that doesn't promote mature reasoning, and your views could be considered short sighted / truncated and therefore off the mark.

I regularly play several "real gamers" titles such as GT7, Grid Legends, Dirt 5, Forza 4 & Wreckfest and they can be fun, but they don't fulfil the simulation aspects that I also desire. I play F1 23 every real race weekend and even though it's obviously not a "serious sim" I take it for what it is and generally enjoy that, but there's mainly 3 underlying problems in these F1 games...

1) The handling and FFB model has some fundamental flaws. I find the main area of concern being when accelerating hard out of slow corners while applying a fair amount of steering, during which the FFB doesn't communicate anything to indicate grip levels (especially in the rear tyres) and impending slides. Racing well, be it for fun or serious is all about racing on or very near the limit, and if the game can't / doesn't convey that limit then in those moments it can't / doesn't provide a good racing experience, which is obviously not a good situation for a racing game to be in.

2) Both fun and serious handling models can be accommodated and that is often done by making a serious sim first then applying driving aids to make it less serious for those who prefer it that way - yet they insist on trying to settle in a middle-ground which is where a lot of frustrations lie as they're approaching a point of fulfilling everyone's desires but they continually fall short and fail to deliver, either through laziness, complacency, lack of interest, ignorance, incompetence, and / or they want to hold back on delivering so they can dangle the carrot for next year.

3) Being the only true complete and official F1 package, it's only natural and reasonable to want the license and series to be put into one complete, comprehensive, and inclusive package that can suit all racers, but in my opinion they've never reached that status for many years now (I regard 2013 to be the last best flawless F1 game). They squander the opportunity while excluding anyone else for being allowed the opportunity to do better, hence why there's an element of resentment at play here.

Ultimately, you have your reasons to like the game and others have theirs to not like it as much, and that's fine both ways so there's no purpose or benefit trying to argue or complain otherwise.

Richard Wilks · May 23, 2024

Large Style said:
Some people would like / prefer the F1 games to be more realistic and there's nothing wrong with voicing that desire. If you don't like reading such comments then perhaps don't read the comments section. Are you really trying to advocate that you're allowed to say you prefer having fun in games but others aren't allowed to express other desires? Do you want others to be censored and muted just to keep you and your feelings happy and safe?

The F1 games are often high on the Steam charts as they are clearly directed toward the biggest age demographic (18-25 range) who more-often-than-not only use controllers and therefore can't even feel the shortcomings of the games handling & FFB.

Also, if a game is high in the Steam charts, that isn't a definitive argument that having fun and being a "real gamer" (whatever the heck that's supposed to mean) is better than by opposition being an "unreal gamer" who prefers sims. Those statistics are less a measure of success and more of popularity and commonality - argue that all you want with your real gamer beliefs but that's just how statistics work.

Also you can't argue that F1 24 will also be high up the Steam charts (consistently) as it's obviously not even out yet, and all the current signs are indicating that it's a worse game than '23.

Also, all racers race to have fun, they just find that fun through different means. So called "serious sims" are just labelled as that just as a measure of accuracy and realism, not because of if you have fun or are grumpy when playing. By your logic, everyone who races in real life can't have fun because they're essentially racing in the ultimate hardcore sim.

Also, wHy dO yOu wRiTe LiKe tHiS? Are you 6 years old or are you trying to imply that people who aren't real gamers are? Either way, your entire post reeks of coming from a young mind, written in such a way that doesn't promote mature reasoning, and your views could be considered short sighted / truncated and therefore off the mark.

I regularly play several "real gamers" titles such as GT7, Grid Legends, Dirt 5, Forza 4 & Wreckfest and they can be fun, but they don't fulfil the simulation aspects that I also desire. I play F1 23 every real race weekend and even though it's obviously not a "serious sim" I take it for what it is and generally enjoy that, but there's mainly 3 underlying problems in these F1 games...

1) The handling and FFB model has some fundamental flaws. I find the main area of concern being when accelerating hard out of slow corners while applying a fair amount of steering, during which the FFB doesn't communicate anything to indicate grip levels (especially in the rear tyres) and impending slides. Racing well, be it for fun or serious is all about racing on or very near the limit, and if the game can't / doesn't convey that limit then in those moments it can't / doesn't provide a good racing experience, which is obviously not a good situation for a racing game to be in.

2) Both fun and serious handling models can be accommodated and that is often done by making a serious sim first then applying driving aids to make it less serious for those who prefer it that way - yet they insist on trying to settle in a middle-ground which is where a lot of frustrations lie as they're approaching a point of fulfilling everyone's desires but they continually fall short and fail to deliver, either through laziness, complacency, lack of interest, ignorance, incompetence, and / or they want to hold back on delivering so they can dangle the carrot for next year.

3) Being the only true complete and official F1 package, it's only natural and reasonable to want the license and series to be put into one complete, comprehensive, and inclusive package that can suit all racers, but in my opinion they've never reached that status for many years now (I regard 2013 to be the last best flawless F1 game). They squander the opportunity while excluding anyone else for being allowed the opportunity to do better, hence why there's an element of resentment at play here.

Ultimately, you have your reasons to like the game and others have theirs to not like it as much, and that's fine both ways so there's no purpose or benefit trying to argue or complain otherwise.

You see, the problem with all that is that the iracing F1 car is much faster than real life, while the codies f1 car is more close to the real laptimes. So now you will say, "that doesnt matter, its all about FEEL". Yes, great, so what "feel" is the "real" one? Are you in a position to tell us that? Is anybody actually, that is an F1 driver, and not a paid shill? Because if not, then all the arguments of "this is a sim, that is not a sim" fall flat on their faces. When does a game stops being a "sim"? Because you spin too easy? Because its too hard to spin?

I am not defending F1 24 here, which obviously has a very glaring exploit there going on, but all this "this is sim, that is not sim" without proper arguments gets tedious very quickly...

Kenny Paton · May 23, 2024

Sometimes when I read these various arguments I get this feeling

SharkVA · May 23, 2024

Seems like another "if you have the last one, you probably don't need this one" case. Glad to hear they continue to work on the aero, suspension, tires, etc. For what F1 '23 lacks in "hardcore" simulation, it makes up for in career, atmosphere and other license related stuff. Being able to manage a full career and team is great, no other experience like it available to us. Maybe '25 will bring enough to the table on top of '24 to make another buy-in worthwhile.

pai · May 23, 2024

I think a more compelling argument for the debate about this series, is that this is another title falling behind 2020 release. Comparisons against regular simulations are futile actually, but arguing that this franchise is not moving forward in terms of quality has much more weight.

TeddyBearx · May 23, 2024

pai said:
I think a more compelling argument for the debate about this series, is that this is another title falling behind 2020 release. Comparisons against regular simulations are futile actually, but arguing that this franchise is not moving forward in terms of quality has much more weight.

strange, the players are every year more and more..... the minority trashing the game can't change the success of F1 games, the best F1 game.

Pepucho Pumuqui · May 23, 2024

Ah, is this the franchise that Electronic Arts, every year, remove the "old titles" to encourage people to buy the new one? The one that sells the previous year game full price? Ah, ok, not supporting trash business model.

Large Style · May 23, 2024

Richard Wilks said:
You see, the problem with all that is that the iracing F1 car is much faster than real life, while the codies f1 car is more close to the real laptimes. So now you will say, "that doesnt matter, its all about FEEL"

Respectfully, you're just being presumptuous there and putting words into my mouth in order to fuel your beliefs. As I practice & race in '23 immediately before the IRL sessions, I then enjoy comparing lap times and gear selection choices between the two, which yes are often very similar if not the same. Those accurate comparisons are a big element of what I enjoy from the game as this allows my experience to be relatable and I can play "let's pretend" as if I were there for real. Working out gearing in particular as I progress through a practice session to then watch real life and see that I take the exact same approach as the pros fills me with joy and a real sense of accomplishment. So no, it's not all about FEEL (to me) as you put it. Also, FWIW, I personally dislike iracing.

Richard Wilks said:
so what "feel" is the "real" one? Are you in a position to tell us that?

No, in terms of having experience of driving F1 cars IRL I'm clearly not in that position and never claimed I was. I'm a fat disabled poor guy in my mid 40's so I'll never know. I instead was simply pointing out what I couldn't feel, which in my specific circumstantial example was pretty much absolutely nothing, which was clearly lacking realism to anyone who knows how life works. Firstly, sometimes if you can't say what is, then it can be helpful to say what isn't instead, so as to allow for process of elimination, and secondly, it wouldn't be a requisite to drive a F1 car IRL to know that you will always have some degree of feel all of the time because that's just how physics work, so when there is no feel (or variance of) then going by the laws of science, that would be wrong / inaccurate / unrealistic. Admittedly most of us are lacking the seat-of-the-pants / butt sensations that real life drivers use and rely on nor feel G-forces either, but regardless, cars shouldn't feel absolutely dead in feedback to the extent when you approach and cross over the limit and begin to spin out without feeling that. Put another way, their games lack relatively low speed high g-force based tyre slip physics (very much applicable to turn 12 of Shanghai for example) which completely turns me off racing on some tracks, and keeps me hoping for more in the sequels.

Richard Wilks said:
When does a game stops being a "sim"? Because you spin too easy? Because its too hard to spin?

Now that's actually a good question, albeit too narrowly focused on one element of simulation to solely lead you to the answer. The dictionary definition of simulate is: to do or make something that looks real but is not real. In our case of simracing it would be logical and reasonable to extend that definition to include feel along with looks. Looking at the black and white of it then, and I'm only going to focus on physics and FFB here for the sake of answering your question:

If a racing title accurately provides realistic physics and FFB then it can be / is deemed a simulation.

If a racing title provides those elements to a lesser (more simplistic) degree while therefore being moderately forgiving (of reality / physics) then it can be / is deemed "simcade" (using modern colloquialisation terminology).

If a racing title does not provide those elements in any / much significant form and instead focuses primarily on unrealistic qualities for the sake of design and / or fun, then that's arcade.

For F1 2x titles, going by EA / Codemasters' track record, they're probably not going to be firmly in simulation territory anytime soon, even though they could easily be capable of that and that I keep hoping for that too. I'd instead categorise F1 23 as being close to sim but ultimately more in the simcade category (because of the essentially incomplete physics and FFB) and by the sounds of it F1 24 is firmly in simcade territory now.

My frustration, as is many others' (going by public reception and feedback that I've seen over the past several years) is that the F1 games generally keep stepping towards being a sim, and F1 23 (in my opinion) is one of the the closest occasions of them making a sim, hence why I had a legit buzz about F1 24 possibly finally crossing that line into a whole different category and appealing towards a different demographic, but sadly that step just seemingly hasn't happened yet again and apparently took a step backwards instead.

Contrary to my essay, aside from providing some clarification, discussion of labels isn't really important here. Their games are close to being great and are already generally fun, but consistently lack the extra fundamental quality and detail required in order to become the realistic game that so many people want. Having less is fine, but to some having more would be better.

Robert_S · May 23, 2024

EA Sports, IT'S IN THE GAME

Richard Wilks · May 23, 2024

Large Style said:
Respectfully, you're just being presumptuous there and putting words into my mouth in order to fuel your beliefs. As I practice & race in '23 immediately before the IRL sessions, I then enjoy comparing lap times and gear selection choices between the two, which yes are often very similar if not the same. Those accurate comparisons are a big element of what I enjoy from the game as this allows my experience to be relatable and I can play "let's pretend" as if I were there for real. Working out gearing in particular as I progress through a practice session to then watch real life and see that I take the exact same approach as the pros fills me with joy and a real sense of accomplishment. So no, it's not all about FEEL (to me) as you put it. Also, FWIW, I personally dislike iracing.

No, in terms of having experience of driving F1 cars IRL I'm clearly not in that position and never claimed I was. I'm a fat disabled poor guy in my mid 40's so I'll never know. I instead was simply pointing out what I couldn't feel, which in my specific circumstantial example was pretty much absolutely nothing, which was clearly lacking realism to anyone who knows how life works. Firstly, sometimes if you can't say what is, then it can be helpful to say what isn't instead, so as to allow for process of elimination, and secondly, it wouldn't be a requisite to drive a F1 car IRL to know that you will always have some degree of feel all of the time because that's just how physics work, so when there is no feel (or variance of) then going by the laws of science, that would be wrong / inaccurate / unrealistic. Admittedly most of us are lacking the seat-of-the-pants / butt sensations that real life drivers use and rely on nor feel G-forces either, but regardless, cars shouldn't feel absolutely dead in feedback to the extent when you approach and cross over the limit and begin to spin out without feeling that. Put another way, their games lack relatively low speed high g-force based tyre slip physics (very much applicable to turn 12 of Shanghai for example) which completely turns me off racing on some tracks, and keeps me hoping for more in the sequels.

Now that's actually a good question, albeit too narrowly focused on one element of simulation to solely lead you to the answer. The dictionary definition of simulate is: to do or make something that looks real but is not real. In our case of simracing it would be logical and reasonable to extend that definition to include feel along with looks. Looking at the black and white of it then, and I'm only going to focus on physics and FFB here for the sake of answering your question:

If a racing title accurately provides realistic physics and FFB then it can be / is deemed a simulation.

If a racing title provides those elements to a lesser (more simplistic) degree while therefore being moderately forgiving (of reality / physics) then it can be / is deemed "simcade" (using modern colloquialisation terminology).

If a racing title does not provide those elements in any / much significant form and instead focuses primarily on unrealistic qualities for the sake of design and / or fun, then that's arcade.

For F1 2x titles, going by EA / Codemasters' track record, they're probably not going to be firmly in simulation territory anytime soon, even though they could easily be capable of that and that I keep hoping for that too. I'd instead categorise F1 23 as being close to sim but ultimately more in the simcade category (because of the essentially incomplete physics and FFB) and by the sounds of it F1 24 is firmly in simcade territory now.

My frustration, as is many others' (going by public reception and feedback that I've seen over the past several years) is that the F1 games generally keep stepping towards being a sim, and F1 23 (in my opinion) is one of the the closest occasions of them making a sim, hence why I had a legit buzz about F1 24 possibly finally crossing that line into a whole different category and appealing towards a different demographic, but sadly that step just seemingly hasn't happened yet again and apparently took a step backwards instead.

Contrary to my essay, aside from providing some clarification, discussion of labels isn't really important here. Their games are close to being great and are already generally fun, but consistently lack the extra fundamental quality and detail required in order to become the realistic game that so many people want. Having less is fine, but to some having more would be better.

You wrote a lot, but said nothing. And please spare me your condescending tone. I didnt put words in your mouth, i asked simply, WHAT feel.

You conflate your lack of "feel" (whatever that is), to cars not having g load (grip i presume) at slow speeds. Then you go on about sim and simcades again.

I can bring up iracing, or other "hardcore sims", that have very little give, or spin "easily" at low speeds like you said. Does that make them simcades or not sims?...

Because thats a new one to me, so now codies F1s are not sims because they are too hard. Well maybe, just maybe, was that the reason why they tried to make it "easy" in F1 24?...

kilder · May 24, 2024

Richard Wilks said:
You wrote a lot, but said nothing. And please spare me your condescending tone. I didnt put words in your mouth, i asked simply, WHAT feel.

You conflate your lack of "feel" (whatever that is), to cars not having g load (grip i presume) at slow speeds. Then you go on about sim and simcades again.

I can bring up iracing, or other "hardcore sims", that have very little give, or spin "easily" at low speeds like you said. Does that make them simcades or not sims?...

Because thats a new one to me, so now codies F1s are not sims because they are too hard. Well maybe, just maybe, was that the reason why they tried to make it "easy" in F1 24?...

It's so much fun to se people complaining about physics or the "feel" in this case when probably people don't have a clue of how a race car behave. All the "experience" they have is to drive the so called "simulators" with cars that lap much faster than the real ones.

kilder · May 24, 2024

Now, talking about the game, F1 series is the ONLY game that offers proper OFFLINE experience in therms of F1 and its atmosphere.

F1 24 Preview: First Impressions, Handling & New Game Modes

F1 24 Preview: Handling​

F1 24 Preview: Career Mode​

F1 24 Challenge Career Mode​

F1 24 Preview: Enough Changes For A New Title?​

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EA Sports, IT'S IN THE GAME​

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F1 24 Preview: Handling

F1 24 Preview: Career Mode

F1 24 Challenge Career Mode

F1 24 Preview: Enough Changes For A New Title?

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