Don't let the play time fool you. This game is not worth playing without mods that alter the AI to more accurately mirror real world 2014 performance, but even then, it's a flawed experience. I don't recommend it because F1 2013 is a superior, more challenging F1 simulation, and it's cheaper and has more content. With the Ultimate Realizm mod and the True to Life AI mod, the gap between the two games gets even wider in F1 2013's favor.

The biggest issue I have with the game, one where I have not at this point found a mod to correct, is that the AI does not suffer tyre wear, and as result, their lap times do not suffer either. If they are running, say, 1:28.2xx consistently on a new set of Options, they will be setting the same times throughout that stint, right up until the game decides they should pit in and replace their spotless, unworn tyres. Meanwhile, you actually do suffer tyre degradation, and your lap times will suffer as a result. This type of artificial difficulty really rubs me the wrong way.

At the same time, AI that are behind seem incapable of passing you. Even with a mod installed that improves AI braking points to make them more realistic by not braking as soon, they still back off in situations where they are in superior position and could clearly overtake. Meanwhile, if you can manage to get an opportunity, you can pass in almost every instance with relative ease, as the AI doesn't make an attempt to retain their position

And I will add, that driving simply feels way too easy. Cars feel glued to the road, even with no assists. It's nearly impossible to lock the brakes, even when purposely trying to do so. You can essentially brake as late as you want and still get through a corner okay. No lockups, nothing. Now try this in F1 2013 with no assists and see how long you last. CM weren't kidding when they said this was going to be the most "accessible" F1 game to date. In gaming, I've generally found that translates to "we dumbed everything down in an attempt to appeal to a more casual audience, while saying ♥♥♥♥ you to those who want a challenging experience." This is F1 2014. Now, F1 2013 on the other hand with all assists disabled on Expert or Legend, demands intense concentration, and quite a lot of skill to do well and meet your objectives. You brake too hard or too late, and you are going to lock up and/or run wide. You floor it rather than easing onto the accelerator coming out of a corner, and you will lose traction and possibly spin. F1 2014? As I mentioned before, you can brake late, never lock up, then mash the accelerator out of a corner and not suffer much if any wheelspin, let alone actually be at risk of losing control and spinning around.

In short, F1 2013 is superior. Don't be like me and waste 185 hours on an inferior game before realizing there is a cheaper, better option available. Hopefully CM step it up for F1 2015, because this game feels like nothing more than a half ♥♥♥♥♥ cash grab. However, given their total lack of support for this game post launch, save for a small update that added support for a few wheels, I am betting we'll be relying on the modding community to make improvements and correct problems in the next game as well.

F1 2013 is not a perfect experience by default; I highly recommend the aforementioned Ultimate Realizm Mod and True to Life AI mod for the optimal experience at the very least, but there are numerous others to enhance the experience, such as one of my personal favorites that completely remove all HUD elements like the annoying time remaining timer stuck in the middle of the screen near the end of practice and qualifying. These mods go along way to enhance the experience of an already superior game, so pass on this and play F1 2013 instead.

*Edited on Dec. 23 to add more to the review.*

Quite strange changes to the game were made, which feel odd in the first hours, but afterwards it really becames nice and I do consider it better than the previous F1 games, even though there are a few things missing. Annoying can be a few bugs regarding the setups, or used exploits by top split guys.

I was very disappointed to find that this is very much an arcade style racing game. I wish they're was a way to completely turn off all the assists, meaning even with the assists turned off in the game menu I can definetely still feel the traction control preventing wheel spin.

Setting up my T500 will take hours of frustrating testing and tweaking to make it feel like I'm acctually in control of these cars. Code Masters? More like Code ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥s. They've butchered something with great potential by ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥izing the controls and not spending the time to make it feel real.

If you're a 10 year old boy with a game pad, you're gonna love this game. If you're looking for a serious F1 racing experience, look somewhere else.

Disclaimer: If there was an option to give the game a "mixed feelings" option instead of just Yes or No, I would choose that. Since Yes and No are the two options, however, I'll give it a Yes.

With the livery of every single car, the engine sounds, gears and everything else changed to match the 2014 season, I expected great things from this game. However... after I bought it (on sale, mind you), I remembered how quickly I got bored of F1 2013, and that game had many more features such as the Classic cars and tracks. I started to think I had made a massive mistake.

Once I got into the game, though, I felt like it wasn't all that bad. The cars were nice to drive and the new tracks were very well done. I did face the same problem I did in 2013 and that was the Intermediate difficulty was too easy for me and the Expert difficulty was just too hard, but that's probably just me.

Overall I would recommend this game, but I'd advise you only buy it if it's on sale. It's not worth paying full price for it if you have any of the older games.

I really want to enjoy this game. As someone that has played F1 2011 onward this is somewhat dissapointing, it's far too Arcady for me, F1 2013 was a good challenge, this isn't, even with all driver assists off the car is easy to control. The steering does not feel connected to the car at all, when I'm stood still and I turn my wheel 90 degrees, the wheel in the car does the same, when I'm moving this is not true, there is still assistance on the steering and it really frustrates me. I never know how much I need to turn the wheel to go through a corner, because it changes depending on how the game feels.

It's a big shame, but save your money and get F1 2013, or for a really good experience, iRacing. Hopefully CM will fix this for F1 2015, but I won't be pre-ordering this time.

Amazing game, better grafics than the previous, amazing to play, the only thing is if you do not have a whell your performance will be not as that good, and more good is your times if you have a better wheel, the new tracks are awesome, the game has reflected the formula 1 2014 almost perfectly, fo who used to play f1 2012 and 2013, of course is a totally different world, but for better.

Pros:

- Removed the annoying young driver test, has been replaced by a 1 lap race to determine your difficulty, or you can skip it entirely and set the difficulty yourself! Really like this feature personally
- New cars, liveries, tracks, generally looks more streamlined and visually appealing
- Handling/braking feel better and more realistic than previous versions (to me anyway)
- Cheaper price than previous versions at launch

Cons:
- New game coming out early in 2015 so unless you're a diehard fan of F1, probably wait until then
- Small steps and improvements from previous versions, nothing gamechanging
- Would've been nice to see scenario mode and/or season challenge extended in some way so they're not something you just play through once and forget about

It's a solid game, my initial impressions are it's pretty good and worth buying if you like the F1 series. If you're just a casual gamer and occasionally play racing games then I'd probably wait until the next one comes out.

F1 2014 is the successor of F1 2013 and when Codemasters announced this game, they mentioned that there won't be any major changes in it. The reason for the lack of new features in the game is simply that Codemasters is focusing on the New-Gen F1 2015 game completely, to make it even better than the current games. They will also use and develop a completely new engine for F1 2015, which is taking time and that's probably why they didn't change much from F1 2013 to F1 2014, yet there are minor changes which have a big influence on the Gameplay.

First off, you will notice that the Young Drivers' Test is no longer in the game, but has been replaced by the Evaluation-Test, which is automatically adjusting the AI-Level to your personal skill-level. The Young Drivers' Test helped to understand the basics and kind of guided you through the game. Now with the new Evaluation-Test you are thrown into a lap of Monza without any explanations at all. I recommend retaking the test several times to get used to the handling etc.
Also, you can now pick whatever Team you want to pick in Career mode and you therefore don't have to wait for a contract offer.

Now we're coming to the gameplay-changing part of F1 2014. First, there is this in my opinion annoying sound of the new V6 engines, which is awful but unfortunately realistic, so it isn't Codemasters fault. Also there are 8 gears instead of the 7 gears of the F1 2013 Season and you can't adjust the gear ratios anymore. The design of the cars is good, but unluckily the Williams Design was changed a bit, because Codemasters had licensing-issues with Martini but there are mods already which allow you to use the original design of Williams.
The handling has also changed in F1 2014. You can actually feel that there is less mechanical grip. In addition to that, the car also has a more unstable rear end now, causing more oversteer and this is making driving without assists even tougher than it was back in F1 2013.

Now we're coming to the AI:
The AI (atleast on Legend) is now more aggressive than it was in 2013, which is providing a bigger challenge for Players. Also, the overtakes of the AI in corners got improved, so if they overtake on the outside, they actually stay on track rather than leave the track and lose 4 Positions like in 2013. Yet still, if they overtake on the inside, they still back off and don't even try to go for a gap.

All in all, the game has made minor improvements, but does not feature any major changes to F1 2013. For me, as a League and Multiplayer-Racer, it is crucial to get this game, as it is a very long period of time until F1 2015 will be released. I recommend buying the game if you are a F1-Fan even if you already played F1 2013, because F1 2014 features the new Season, new cars, new handling etc.

First off, let me open by disagreeing with most people's statements of "it's just 2013 but with new engine sounds/team rosters/tracks" while yes, on the surface, it seems that way, however, when you dig a little deeper, it's oh so much more.

for this review, I'll begin with Pros/Cons, then go through each of the main focuses of negative comments about the game.

Pros:
-New Turbo engine sounds are awesome (in my opinion)
-The handling rework has made the game so much more about skill now. 2013 required a lot of skill to drive, but 2014 makes you re-learn all the tracks with added braking zones due to the new car physics.
-The AI is now extremely competitive, and will give you an even greater challenge while racing.
-Young Driver Test: out, single lap of Monza with the option to skip: in. Frankly, I found the test to be both rewarding and infuriating in 2013. most challenges in it were fairly simple and easy, however, when it came to getting that one silver medal converted into gold to unlock all the teams at the start of career, it got rather frustrating when it got to a point where I simply couldn't squeeze any more time out of the lap. This game, however, has you driving a single lap around the Italian GP circuit of Monza which you can even skip and select the game difficulty yourself.
-Career mode now has the option of Short/Medium/Long career featuring 7/12/19 races respectively. So if you want to race an F1 career, but don't have the patience for the entire calendar, then you can miss 7 or 12 races out if you like.

Cons:
-Codemasters is very limited (much in the same way as EA is with Fifa) that they are contractually obliged to release a new F1 game every season, no matter how much/little has changed, which explains why 2013 and 2014 are extremely similar.
-Some would've liked to see a new UI (I'm fine with re-using the old one, I'd rather not have to re-learn where everything is in menus as well as having to re-learn how to drive properly)
-Mercedes is stupidly OP compared to all other teams.
-Still no formation lap prior to the race and no podium scenes
-No F1 Classics this season

Now the Pros and Cons are out of the way, time for some issue addressing.

-"It's Exactly the same as F1 2013"
Wrong. it isn't. Why don't you go ahead and do a lap of Monza on F1 2013, then play 2014 and try driving the exact same lines at the exact same speed as the previous game. I guarantee that 100% of the time, you'll massively understeer at the first of the Lesmo turns. The lower downforce on the 2014 cars is really shown in the game, and credit to Codemasters for their execution of how different the handling has been this year. Additionally, as I stated above, Codemasters (or whoever holds the contract) is obliged to make a new game for the franchise EVERY year, no matter how much has changed within the sport, so you can't always expect a game that's drastically different to the previous installment.

-"There's no KERS"
Wrong again. What F1 2013 fans know as KERS, is now one half of the new ERS (Energy Recovery System) The KERS part is now known as MGU-K which draws energy under braking, and MGU-H draws energy from exhaust heat. While in 2013, the drivers could choose when to deploy their KERS energy, in 2014, from what I can tell, it's all controlled by the onboard ECU chip in the engine, which utilises the additional 33 seconds of increased horsepower as and when it needs to. So before you go moaning about the lack of deployable KERS, try watching an actual race and see if the drivers are even in control of their energy deployment.

-"The menus are exactly the same"
Yes... they are, but as the saying goes, if it isn't broke, don't fix it.

-"The Williams livery isn't right"
No, it isn't, this is because Codemasters were unable to secure the rights to use the Williams Martini livery, so they used the alternate livery from races where advertising alcohol is banned.

-"What happened to F1 Classics mode?"
This was asked on the official forums, and the response was "Because this year's cars are so drastically different in performance from the old cars, we have chosen not to include classics in F1 2014"

This is about all I can think of for now, but if I can think of anything more than just needs to be mentioned, then I'll be sure to edit the review (mainly after I start playing multiplayer more)

hmm.. well there isnt much to report. It is exactly the same as 2013.. Literally nothing different except engine sound, 8 gears, and less traction to similate the new 2014 F1 cars... And a couple of new tracks, per the F1 season.

Other than that it is F1 2013.. Like, same everything, as if the files were not even touched. Just simply cut and pasted. No graphic updates, no new menu styles or colors, no new voices, just nothing..

Got halfway through 1st practice session at season opener Melbourne and turned it off.

a waste, unfortunately

F1 2014 is the latest addition to the Codemasters racing game series.
Earlier this year announced Codemasters that they were working on two Formula 1 titles, one for the old consoles and one for the new consoles, and unfortunately this is something you'll quickly notice in F1 2014 for generally there has not been much in compared to the 2013 edition, and it can actually be quite difficult to see why there should be changes if you are not familiar with Formula 1 in advance.

When starting the game will no longer greeted by "young drivers test" but instead you get a single round at Monza where you then get proposed a severity and assists. One should therefore no longer perform a number of tasks that test a racing driver then you will get some offers from different teams depending on how well you have done. Instead, you can now sign a contract with any team so that means you can sit down in a Mercedes racing and start winning all his races immediately. One need no longer run for the slow teams and gradually earn to be a top running, you will be just. It leaves a slightly empty feeling that you are allowed to drive for a team without actually and have done to deserve it.
If you have played games series before, there are no major surprises in the career mode. Once you have selected a team starts the battle to become the team's first drive, here you will be weighed and measured on how to cope in the season according to championship points, qualification and race results. Itself, it is will be the team's first run, which will affect the car's setup and how the further development of it takes place.

As soon as career mode begins, the game shows itself from its best side when one starts his first race, it becomes clear that you are not sitting alone in the car, but that you have a whole team behind him that is ready to help someone. One's engineer is often with radio announcements with information about how you're doing in the race and how you can improve yourself. From the start the team's requirements be somewhat reluctant until that has proven its worth, and then they begin to push for delivering results to the team. You will notice that the team's confidence to a slowly being built and it shows by example. may be prompted to save the tires of qualifications because they expect that you could easily go on. It works pretty convincing for it feels namely that the team pay attention to and that they are giving thought to how to cope in the season.
In addition to the career mode, the game this year at a reunion with the fantastic scenario game mode, here is everything as usual, you have the ability to run different scenarios that are taken out of the real Formula 1 world. Scenarios opens the possibility for players who do not have time to run a full 100% run of still having to get up to handle fuel, safety car and more.
When it comes to gameplay feels the game is somewhat different than in the past, this is due to the new regulations that 2014 season has brought with him. The new hybrid cars have been a bit easier to manage because they have shorter stopping distances which makes it easier to correct the drive error as you do. The old KERS system which saved eletrisk energy which you could then use as a speed boost has been replaced with the new ERS. This means that you no longer even rådder of its electrical energy as the car is available.

Unfortunately, featuring F1 2014 no longer on the classics that had been in F1 in 2013, it is shame because it really was a feature that distinguished themselves and who could easily have imagined had been extended to 00s racing cars. It seems odd that you choose to remove such a good feature when the game does not have much new to offer.
F1 2014 is an odd game that does not really offer anything new, but you still can not accuse Codemasters to make just a reskin of the 2013 series, for under the hood, there are many changes that appear if you look hard enough, but you get nevertheless a feeling that Codemasters has just released F1 2014 will fill the void until F1 2015 is published as many racing fans are eagerly awaiting. So many places you feel that Codemasters could have done more for the game such. add podiums, running interviews, warm up laps as a fan of the series have long efterspurgt- but perhaps we see in 2015?
It is in many ways hard to recommend F1 2014, but if you a fan of Formula 1 is still hard to ignore, because of running rokaderne and the new regulations as Codemasters has implemented furnished.


Thanks to Alexander Mortensen from Pixel-TV

As you would guess. This game is basically F1 2013.5

However Codemasters are the only company in the world who could copy and paste a game and still make it worse.
Sidepod glitches are worse in my opinion while Autospin curbs still exist and the online is more unstable than ever!

For the record. The game is still quite fun and challenging to drive on the wheel, however pads have InBuilt traction control which gives them zero wheelspin and better tyre wear. In wet conditions the gap between the wheel and pad can be as large as 3 seconds, which is simply crazy. This is making league racing almost impossible, which is the only reason i play the game.

Codies have had 5 years to improve, the game however has made no significant improvments, While luke spring, Steve hood continue to ignore all of the community and continue to make broken games!

F1 2015 will be on a new engine (So they say...) So this for me is the game that will make or break codemasters f1 games. The chances of a improved game are slim, but we can only hope!

Avoiding the game would be a better option unless your a die hard fan of the series. A reskin of the 2013 version on the same engine.

Like the PC gamer review quote "

With its fundamentals unchanged and last year’s foray into classic cars removed, F1 2014 provides very little beyond a perfunctory car and track update. "
I am not impressed at all.

Don't get me wrong, it's still a fine game and if you enjoy Formula 1 you'll still like this game. But with all the additional content 2013 has, and being the same price (May get it even cheaper in a Steam Sale) I'd rather recommened that version. Besides some rule changes and the Russian Grand Prix, there's nothing new to be found in this version plus no classic modes found in 2013

Well if you were expecting a brand new game, you didnt read the internet carefully - what you did get, was the final, polished and refreshed version of a tried and true game with current season updates.

F1 2014 offers up the current F1 season in all its horrible sounding and looking glory.

That said -

The handling - is MASSIVLY improved. Using a wheel (G27) and no assists, you can snap the car around, lock up under breaking and even have that dreaded wheel spin on exits... its all about setting up the wheel you have CORRECTLY (and if you need, using the profiler).

I found that setups also now play a key role. Too much or too little spring/wing and the car becomes a nightmare. Thankfully gear ratios are out of the picture.

Cars have "difficulty" ratings, with the top tier cars being easiest, and bottom hardest to drive.

The sound is as good as can be expected - it mimics the real life horrible sounds perfectly. Its not Codies fault that Bernie wanted them to sound like this. After playing a while you get used to it. What still takes a while is the 8 speed gear box. I often found myself only using 7 on some tracks (I hate the 8 speed box, but this is not a fault of the game)

Current car models are spot on for Preseason and early season spec (as are the paint schemes). Easily remidied with skin mods. The stock skins are a nice quality but lack detail and realism.

The new tracks are a blast to drive! A1 ring is awesome fun. The rubbered in racing line works perfectly (as does drying line) right out of the box..
Also track lighting seems to be specific for actual race start times - ie. Melbourne is not in noon day sun but afternoon lighting with shadows across the front stretch.

The Ai is still stupid, but it will fight you harder, which makes offline racing fun. Positions between them change frequently - its no longer follow the leader.

I have yet to really delve into the online racing aspect of this title, but hopefully its improved over 2010 - 11-12-13.
From a short test I noticed that theres no warping of cars into the track.



In the end, if you are a die-hard F1 fan or race enthusiast - this game will give you hours of enjoyment. Take it at face value - a game, and you wont be disappointed.

Like stated earlier, if you were expecting a massive new update for the series, wait until F1 2015. * If you look at the reviews you will see that 90% of the "thumbs down" reviews come from people with less than 1/2 an hour in game, who are complaining about handling... but they have not played nearly enough time to set up a controller properly.

I'm one of the few people who actually liked the changes in the 2014 Formula One season, so I liked this game as well. The handling has once again been changed for the better, and I'm slightly ashamed to admit it but I don't find the new engine sound bad at all.

It's true that F1 2014 has slightly less content to offer as the classics mode is missing, but it's nothing significant. One thing I love is how it was designed with accessibility in mind - unlike the previous F1 games, you can just jump into the career right away and pick whatever car you want without grinding for points to get into a better starting team and having to work your way up.

So yeah - if you enjoyed the previous titles in the series, you're most likely going to enjoy this game too. If you have never played an F1 game before, maybe it would be better to go for F1 2013 instead.

I have played all of the Codemaster F1 games, and most F1 games going back to the Geoff Crammond series. I would say I have a long view of the genre at this point.

With that in mind, I would say that this game is quite good, and continues the incremental refinement that the series has enjoyed since 2010. You may have seen that the series has gotten lower review scores year after year, and that has more to do with the nature of yearly sports releases than anything about the game itself. 2013 was clearly a high point for the series, and it didn't have the scores that 2012 had, despite having tons of classic content, as well as a decently fleshed out career mode. One of the few shortcomings of the series is the continued lack of telemetry, which makes car setups a little less scientific than they could be.

Codemasters have a fantastic physics engine, and have successfully modeled these new engines and that just-on-the-verge-of-snapping-the-rear feel that this season's pilots have to deal with. Lots of fun. The tire models have also changed, as in real life, with much more predicable, though probably too conservative, tire life (at least for my taste).

The classic content is missed, along with the Young Driver Weekend, though I still have F1 2013 if I ever get the urge to drive Niki Lauda's Ferrari at Estoril, Portugal.

If I look at this game without any prior context, is it worth it? Certainly, yes. It's a stripped down F1 game, no doubt, but when all of the rule changes, engine outputs, tire compounds, etc., it's quite a feat that Codemasters was able to release this game during their usual release window at all. I'll definitely be looking forward to F1 2015 which promises a bigger evolution in presentation. I give this an 8/10 so far.

A final note: I loved the Geoff Crammond games, but anyone who says they were superior has selective memory. They were amazing for their time, but do not stand up to today's racers.

You can race as Caterham in USA. 0/10 for realism.

If you like F1 2013 and want a reskin then look no further. It's right here for £30.