Hands on with F1 23 - Preview
Ever since F1 Pole Position released on the Super Nintendo way back in 1992, I have had a fondness for Formula 1 racing videogames, not the actual racing, just the games. Of course, since then the games have only gotten more and more advanced, with a truer to life representation in both gameplay and presentation. Codemasters have been behind the wheel for a number of years now and they were kind enough to give me some time with the upcoming F1 23.
Now as much fun as I do have playing the games now and then, I am by no means an expert when it comes to the various layers and systems that they have included within. What I can talk about is what I played, and it was a fair bit of content, as the preview build offered up a shortened Grand Prix, a time trial mode and the first few chapters of Braking Point 2. Let me start with the Grand Prix, as I said it was a shortened experience offering up six tracks, sadly Australia was not one of them. The flow felt similar to F1 22 and while there are new tracks in this years game, like Las Vegas, all the tracks I played were returning from the previous game. Jumping into the races was fun and simple and the game did feel a little more welcoming, with its difficulty settings.
Moving away from there to Time Trials, it was mostly the same experience, except just me on the track. I probably spent more time here than in any other mode, if only because it gave me a chance to learn the tracks, so when I did go into races on them, I knew what to expect. Something that was an option to disable, it was turned on by default for the preview build, is a new feature that they call Precision Drive. You might think a F1 game would be all about precision driving, but this is actually something a little special, it works for gamepad players, and it caught me by surprise. There were times when I was going around corners a little fast, as that is the type of driver I am in videogames and the car would lose traction and slide of the track. Precision Drive meant that I felt that, the sticks and rumble all of it put feedback to my hands that made me aware that I messed up. The team have said that in races, you will feel the controller tell you when you are close to other racers and what not, but I didn’t notice it myself, as I was more concerned with just staying on the track.
The other mode that I got to spend time in was Braking Point 2, which is the next season of the narrative mode that F1 21 came with. The sequel picks up with Aiden Jackson having joined Konnersort Butler and in the first few chapters, you can see formations of discourse appearing between him and his driving partner/rival Devon Butler. For obvious reasons I won’t touch on the story too much, needless to say that it had some interesting moments and while coming in without having played through the first story line, I didn’t feel too confused. At the end of the third chapter I was able to do some press interviews and it was nice to pick answers, which will impact the story later on of course, but it did make me feel like I was Aiden and not just watching his story playout.
My time with F1 23 was shorter than I would have liked, but longer than I expected, if only because they gave a lot of content. The tracks look like they do in the real world, complete with branding and while I am sure racing purists will note the differences in handling compared to last year, for me it worked. Once I started to take my time, learn the tracks and apply some touches to the break every now and then, I was able to start getting around the tracks without too much hassle. Braking Point 2 has some interesting story beats it is setting up, of course with only a few chapters in the can, it could go a number of ways from here, but I enjoyed what I had. For those who are fans of the series, the overall feeling I took away is that its more of what was there before and for those who are like me and fair-weather fans, it is more welcoming than ever.
F1 23 will release on June 16th for PC, Xbox and PlayStation, with orders available today for all platforms.
