Last year’s F1 22 was my first full Formula 1 gaming experience. I became a fan of the real life sport back in 2019 (thanks to Drive to Survive on Netflix). Back then, I’d wake up extra early and drive to my friend’s house for Formula 1 Breakfast Race Parties.
During the pandemic, F1 races were a reason to wake up early and get excited for something on the weekend. Last season, I sort of dropped off but now after playing the new F1 23 I think I’m back and ready for the next race this coming weekend — Canada 2023!
My racing game fandom began with arcade and kart racers (Mario Kart, Diddy Kong Racing, Road Rash and Cruis’n USA). This was way before I could legally drive a car. Through the years, the games got better and more realistic (Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec and Forza Motorsport 2 and 3). I was never great at these games, but I still enjoyed driving fast cars.
These days I’m not much better at racing games, but I do understand the rules and concepts. I’m no PRO, but I am more of an “expert” now due to games like Gran Turismo Sport and Gran Turismo 7. Playing the F1 series is a big leap forward when it comes to racing games. It’s a much more complicated virtual racing experience overall.
*Side Quest Racing Mistakes:
When it comes to Kart racers, you get an unlimited amount of errors before you have no chance at winning the race.
Getting hit by a blue shell in Mario Kart is an annoyance, but one you can almost always recover from.
In realistic racing sim games, featuring street cars, you are allowed a couple of mistakes before you’re out of the race, depending on the number of total laps.
In F1 and supercar racing games, one little mistake can ruin the whole race for you and other drivers. A small
error can lead to a big spinout, leaving you facing the wrong direction, as every car quickly drives past you.
Like with any other real sports sims, F1 23 offers a variety of ways to play. F1 World is its own collection of game modes. League Racing is great for competitive online battles. Local Multiplayer offers two ways to play together — two-player split screen or LAN (Local Area Network) connected racing.
I always play my sports sims the same way. I stick to season play (franchise, career, dynasty, or whatever the mode is called depending on the game). I also go with my home team (Dolphins in Madden, Heat in NBA 2K/NBA Live, the Marlins in any baseball game, and always Chelsea FC in FIFA).
For this years F1 23, there were two game modes that really caught my attention — Career and Braking
Point 2. Career can be enjoyed solo or as a two-player experience. Braking Point 2 marks the return of the fictional F1 story mode, which was not present in F1 22.
Gameplay Updates
When booting up F1 23, did I immediately notice the difference in performance, control and the overall feel of the game? Sort of, but this is due to me replaying some F1 22 not too long ago to prepare for the launch of F1 23. The menu layout and UX (User Experience) sports a much cleaner and sleek design.
There’s definitely been some work done “under the hood.” With the technical level that games have reached today it can sometimes be hard to point out any specific differences in annualized games from year to year. From what I read and felt, the team has worked a bit on improving the driver physics and handling for both controller and racing wheel players.
In F1 23, so much can be done to create the optimal driving experience for players of all skill levels. These settings may even be easily tinkered with on the fly, mid-race in the pause menus. Look at all of the options above.
My Career
In last year’s F1 22, I started my career as an F1 driver. I chose to drive for one of the bottom teams (Williams), with Alex Albon as my teammate.
This year I started my career a bit differently. I created my character (Ferdinand “Mayhem” Magellan) and chose to drive for the ART Racing F2 team. The F2 sixteen race season works as a tutorial to get you ready to drive in Formula 1. Once I became the F2 World Champion, I was able to pick my F1 team. I went with McLaren and chose Lando Norris as my racing teammate.
I began my F2 career with the Dynamic Racing Lines set to “Corners Only.” Around the final races, I was able to turn the lines off and continue using only the “Suggested Gear” setting, so I knew where to aim on each corner using the 150-50 signs. Once I became an F1 driver, I immediately had to turn the Dynamic Racing Lines back on, due to the ultra-high speed and overall mayhem of F1.
Racing in F1 23 and any F1 game is all about learning the track. That’s why race weekends have multiple practice sessions before qualifying. This gives drivers a chance to memorize the track conditions, learn the corners and speed traps, and really become comfortable over a couple of sessions.
What I learned is that any time I qualify on pole position (starting #1), I had no problems holding that position throughout the whole race and even building a nice gap between myself and the pack. My problem was starting off in the middle of the grid, especially on a tight track (one with walls), and trying to overtake drivers.
On a wide open track, I was much better able to handle moving up positions throughout the race, even if that meant going a bit “off track.” There’s just more freedom to get around opponents this way.
My season in F2 began with the shortest race weekends possible. Short practices, one-shot qualifying, and zero pit stops. Just straight up 5-7 lap races. Once I entered the F1 world, I decided to try out a longer race (18 laps). This meant there would be at least one pit stop. I started the race at 13th position, which was not a problem. I quickly began to move through the grid until I lost part of my front wing on another car. This led to my first pit stop, which put me in the back of the grid. It wasn’t until a few laps later that other drivers began to hit the pits. At the end of each lap I’d move up a few positions. I started to make my comeback.
Next thing I know I had the fastest lap. I finally met up with my teammate Lando, and had a tough time passing him. In fact, this is when the first safety car was deployed. I ended up pitting two more times, and finishing in 16th place, with Lando behind me (18-20 did not finish — DNF).
The early F2 days were nice and chill, only worrying about race weekends. Once you start your F1 career there’s so much more going on during race weekends and in between. You can now customize your car, give your R&D team parts to build, choose when to change out current parts for new ones. You have to attend certain events, and talk to the team to boost morale and chemistry.
Whether you want to create a driver or use your favorite real life F1 driver, the career mode is a great way to enjoy this game. There is so much customization whether it’s for each race weekend or the length of the entire racing season. I enjoy having a goal and building a legacy in sports sims.
Braking Point 2
The one mistake I made was starting off with Career mode over Braking Point. This is the perfect mode to get a taste of Formula 1 with a salty story. Since you mostly drive through parts of races, it’s a good place to begin with all of the assists turned on, before slowly getting rid of them until you become the equivalent of a real life F1 eSports driver — or at least a better driver than you were.
F1 is the perfect setting for a dramatic series to take place. In Formula 1 you have twenty two-driver teams that are both teammates and rivals at the same time. They must work together to score points for the team (constructor), while also going head-to-head to win races. Some teams may have the perfect balance, while others may have their main and support driver. Then we have the fictional team Konnersport Racing, which is made up of two drivers who can’t stand each other — that’s your team.
The behind the scenes interviews and cutscenes are shot like F1: Drive to Survive (on Netflix). The interviews even remind me of watching The Office. The racing cutscenes are shot like an intense racing film.
What I realized while playing Braking Point is how similar a race can be to a big boss fight in an RPG. When trying to catch the driver in front, you are slowly chipping away at the interval between you and that other car. Watching the time slowly become less feels very much like fighting a huge, overpowered boss and barely hurting them. Once you’ve reached a safe “attack range” for the overtake, it’s time to bring out your ultimate or “special attack” (aka Late Braking on corners).
Being thrown into these “mid-race challenges” is when I truly felt the similarities between boss fights and racing games.
To Be Continued…
I have truly enjoyed my time with F1 23 thus far, and I look forward to completing the Braking Point 2 story mode.
It’s great to see so many real life sports sims incorporating these story modes as a way to bring in non-sports fans and sports fans alike. My first experience with this kind of gameplay was in Madden’s Face of the Franchise a few years back. I saw it as an interesting idea, but that didn’t completely click with me.
By now, many of these sports story modes have evolved. I’ve seen different games use different techniques. The WWE 2K franchise has a My Rise mode which allows players to make their decisions and build relationships and rivalries in and out of the ring. However, last year they also unveiled Showcase mode. WWE 2K22 allowed players to play through the most important matches of Rey Mysterio’s career, while WWE 2K23 did the same with John Cena.
NBA 2K23 also introduced a new “Showcase mode” by allowing players to play through Michael Jordan’s best games from college all the way through his NBA career in the Jordan Challenge.
Braking Point 2 is an interactive and intriguing story mode that may be able to pull new fans into the F1 series of games. This mode focuses more on the story, than the actual racing — and you still get to do a fair amount of racing. Since you don’t have to deal with full race weekends, it’s just a quicker way to get acclimated to this caliber of racing game.
For now, I will continue to play the Braking Point 2 story mode and my F1 career. I also plan to jump into some online races, once I feel more comfortable. Let’s see what happens, and hopefully myVGBC.com will return with more F1 23 coverage in the future.
*myVGBC.com was provided a game code for F1 23 by the publisher.
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