Say goodbye to Ferrari Romas and Paul Ricard. Say hello to realigned priorities
With the gradual rollout of EA SPORTS F1 24 information, from the reimagined driver career, to the re-made Spa-Francorchamps and even Carlos Sainz’s flowing locks, it could be easy to miss some of the smaller details.
Following confirmation, and justification, for using an updated version of the Ego game engine, Senior Creative Director Lee Mather was able to clarify a few of the more minor details to OverTake.
Starting with the much-vaunted, but ultimately superfluous, road-going supercars.
First part of F1 22, as part of a sofa-collecting F1 Life vision, 10 road cars could be unlocked. They were driven in a series of Pirelli Hot Laps-aping scenarios.
While initially offering something new to drive, their driving experience left a lot to be desired and perhaps the biggest faux pas was the inability to use them for single-player or online races.
They carried across to last season’s F1 23 but felt lost within the F1 World game mode.
In F1 24, they are no more.
“Supercars were relevant to something we were trying at the time,” explains Mather to us.
“We were trying to build that world around Formula 1 with F1 Life. They had a place in that year's [F1 22] game and then we wanted to try and see if they worked well in F1 World.
“We didn't feel that they were quite hitting the mark with the current scope of the game. They weren't as successful a focus as we would have hoped.
“So, we've decided to take those out at the moment. This essentially gives us the opportunity to focus on doubling down on the authenticity this year, which is what we're really going for.”
One topic that has been regularly discussed among F1 game fans online in recent times has been cheating.
Or rather, the potential ability to cheat, with league racing X accounts firing out often spurious allegations one week to the next.
The game’s pinnacle esports competition, F1 Sim Racing, has moved to a LAN format, with Dutch driver Thomas Ronhaar winning the inaugural new in-person format event last year.
However, that still leaves community events and online leagues requesting greater measures.
An anti-cheat system has been tested in F1 24’s beta, although whether or not this will be rolled out to the final release is not yet confirmed. Mather remains coy about its possible inclusion in the final product when quizzed:
“Right now, we're not going to give a definitive yes or no because we're in the process of assessing how effective and suitable the product is.
“We have been trialling it in the beta, and we're going to continue to do so. We have an anti-cheat ready to go that we're currently in the process of working out, but it's part of the bigger picture for us as well.
“It's not just purely about the competitive side of things. It's really about cleaning up the online space to create a safer place for people to go racing. This is something that EA is very big on and it's something that we really want to try and resolve in the racing space, it can get quite heated out there. It's also about generating positive play.”
Alongside the road cars, the Circuit Paul Ricard, Le Castellet, will also be missing from the roster this time according to Mather, although Portimão’s Algarve International Circuit receives a stay of execution.
While the likes of Spa-Francorchamps and Silverstone have been re-made from the ground up, and Qatar and Jeddah revised, the likes of the Hungaroring remain sadly untouched. This is something that, while perhaps off the cards this year, remains possible for future iterations.
“It's definitely on the plan to continue those levels of circuit upgrades,” explains Mather.
As we reported recently, the same is true for Formula 3, “an ongoing discussion”, while finding real-world radio clips to play if you win with Logan Sargeant, for example, has been a challenge.
“We still have to find ones that are relevant to scenarios that may have never happened,” highlights Mather.
“A lot of the work on the audio team side comes. From is ensuring clips are relevant to the outcome.”
Now, all that remains is to go hands-on with the latest instalment. To feel the latest handling systems, see if VR has received some updates and put the driver career to the test. We hope to test F1 24 before its release, stay tuned for our verdict.
With the gradual rollout of EA SPORTS F1 24 information, from the reimagined driver career, to the re-made Spa-Francorchamps and even Carlos Sainz’s flowing locks, it could be easy to miss some of the smaller details.
Following confirmation, and justification, for using an updated version of the Ego game engine, Senior Creative Director Lee Mather was able to clarify a few of the more minor details to OverTake.
Starting with the much-vaunted, but ultimately superfluous, road-going supercars.
Goodbye Supercars
First part of F1 22, as part of a sofa-collecting F1 Life vision, 10 road cars could be unlocked. They were driven in a series of Pirelli Hot Laps-aping scenarios.
While initially offering something new to drive, their driving experience left a lot to be desired and perhaps the biggest faux pas was the inability to use them for single-player or online races.
They carried across to last season’s F1 23 but felt lost within the F1 World game mode.
In F1 24, they are no more.
“Supercars were relevant to something we were trying at the time,” explains Mather to us.
“We were trying to build that world around Formula 1 with F1 Life. They had a place in that year's [F1 22] game and then we wanted to try and see if they worked well in F1 World.
“We didn't feel that they were quite hitting the mark with the current scope of the game. They weren't as successful a focus as we would have hoped.
“So, we've decided to take those out at the moment. This essentially gives us the opportunity to focus on doubling down on the authenticity this year, which is what we're really going for.”
Anti-Cheat Measures In Testing
One topic that has been regularly discussed among F1 game fans online in recent times has been cheating.
Or rather, the potential ability to cheat, with league racing X accounts firing out often spurious allegations one week to the next.
The game’s pinnacle esports competition, F1 Sim Racing, has moved to a LAN format, with Dutch driver Thomas Ronhaar winning the inaugural new in-person format event last year.
However, that still leaves community events and online leagues requesting greater measures.
An anti-cheat system has been tested in F1 24’s beta, although whether or not this will be rolled out to the final release is not yet confirmed. Mather remains coy about its possible inclusion in the final product when quizzed:
“Right now, we're not going to give a definitive yes or no because we're in the process of assessing how effective and suitable the product is.
“We have been trialling it in the beta, and we're going to continue to do so. We have an anti-cheat ready to go that we're currently in the process of working out, but it's part of the bigger picture for us as well.
“It's not just purely about the competitive side of things. It's really about cleaning up the online space to create a safer place for people to go racing. This is something that EA is very big on and it's something that we really want to try and resolve in the racing space, it can get quite heated out there. It's also about generating positive play.”
The Hungaroring and Finding Team Radio Clips
Alongside the road cars, the Circuit Paul Ricard, Le Castellet, will also be missing from the roster this time according to Mather, although Portimão’s Algarve International Circuit receives a stay of execution.
While the likes of Spa-Francorchamps and Silverstone have been re-made from the ground up, and Qatar and Jeddah revised, the likes of the Hungaroring remain sadly untouched. This is something that, while perhaps off the cards this year, remains possible for future iterations.
“It's definitely on the plan to continue those levels of circuit upgrades,” explains Mather.
As we reported recently, the same is true for Formula 3, “an ongoing discussion”, while finding real-world radio clips to play if you win with Logan Sargeant, for example, has been a challenge.
“We still have to find ones that are relevant to scenarios that may have never happened,” highlights Mather.
“A lot of the work on the audio team side comes. From is ensuring clips are relevant to the outcome.”
Now, all that remains is to go hands-on with the latest instalment. To feel the latest handling systems, see if VR has received some updates and put the driver career to the test. We hope to test F1 24 before its release, stay tuned for our verdict.
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