F1 2017 RD Plays F1 2017 - New Video Preview

[Paul Jeffrey]

Have a look at our first thoughts from the upcoming Formula One 2017 videogame, due to release on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC this August 25th.

Thanks to having early access to the most highly anticipated Formula One game in the history of the series, RaceDepartment have taken the opportunity to get our hands dirty and give the game a thorough test prior to its public debut later this month.

Taking the McLaren Honda McL32 through its paces in career mode, RaceDepartment's own @Joseph Wright gives us his thoughts on how the game has progressed since 2016 as he has a look at the Practice and R&D sessions, right the way through to the main feature race at the season opening Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park, Melbourne.

Following our run in the modern Grand Prix offering from Woking, we enjoy a quick invitational 'Classics' race using the Renault R26 of Fernando Alonso fame, tempting this historic beast with some gung ho driving as we get under the skin of the fine nuances between these very different cars.

Some technical stuff.

For those of you who are interested, Joseph is using the following equipment and settings during the making of this video -

Game Settings

25% Race Distance (15 Laps)
Simulation Damage
No Flashbacks
Normal Cutting
Full Qualifying

Graphic Settings

The Rig

Graphics Card: GeForce GTX 1060 6GB
Processor (CPU): Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-6400 (2.7GHz) 6MB Cache
Motherboard: ASUS® Z170-E: ATX, LG1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs
Memory (RAM): 16GB HyperX FURY DDR4 2133MHz (2 x 8GB)
Processor Cooling: Corsair H55 Hydro Cooler w/ PCS Liquid Series Ultra Quiet Fans

Gaming Chair: GT Omega PRO Racing Office Chair - Black Leather
Racing Wheel/Pedals/Gear Shifter: Logitech G29
Headset: Professional Gaming Headphone 7.1 Channel Surround Stereo Customized Noise Cancelling Extreme Base with microphone


Formula One 2017 releases Friday August 25th on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC.

If you like your Formula One games then get yourself over to the Formula One 2017 sub forum and join in the discussion! We will be having Club and League racing once the game goes live, mods, car setups, news and chat, all for you to enjoy! Join in, have fun and go discuss!

Did you enjoy our feature video? Looking forward to F1 2017? Want to see more of this type of content? Let us know in the comments section below!

 

[Joseph Wright]

I understand what you are saying, but in the name of realism and immersion I couldn't use anything but the cockpit cam. Its perfectly usable.

It is perfectly useable, yes, but I don't enjoy it so Im not going to torture myself for the 2 hours it took to record this episode

 

[yusupov]

prob an outlier but thats some godawful lighting in the screenshot, thought it was a modded rF2

 

[Chobonator]

prob an outlier but thats some godawful lighting in the screenshot, thought it was a modded rF2

A splash of motion blur, chromatic aberration, FXAA, TAA and lens flare will fix it.

 

[Andrew Harper]

It is perfectly useable, yes, but I don't enjoy it so Im not going to torture myself for the 2 hours it took to record this episode

Like you say it's all a matter of preference, I can drive using the cockpit view but I'm quicker using the t cam view. Why? Mainly field of view. In cockpit view on f1 2016 I can't see the apexes very well whereas on t cam I can. In the f3 car on AMS I don't have so much of an issue so I use cockpit view. It varies.

I find it interesting when I see most real life single seater drivers also use the same view.

 

[Chobonator]

Looks like the cockpit view is fine, better than before anyway.
31 min 28 s

 

[Wedge]

cool article and coverage, but the footage with that driving camera on top of the helmet... I can't handle even to watch.

 

[Carlitox]

Joseph, please tell me the AI is no longer a d*ck while overtaking you with DRS. It's literally the only reason I had flashbacks on on my F1 2016 career, bloody cars would sometimes get confused and throw me out of the way. I swear on my love for motorsports that I was trying my best to cover my inside line as soon as possible, and only perform one movement, yet the AI felt compelled to slam my rear end. Sorry, that came out wrong lol.

Anyway, massively excited. So happy that release day is national holiday here. And with the spectator features, will we be seeing events here?

 

[Coffer]

Joseph, please tell me the AI is no longer a d*ck while overtaking you with DRS. It's literally the only reason I had flashbacks on on my F1 2016 career, bloody cars would sometimes get confused and throw me out of the way. I swear on my love for motorsports that I was trying my best to cover my inside line as soon as possible, and only perform one movement, yet the AI felt compelled to slam my rear end. Sorry, that came out wrong lol.

Anyway, massively excited. So happy that release day is national holiday here. And with the spectator features, will we be seeing events here?

Looking at Tiametmarduk's MP4-23 video where one of the AIs rejoins right into the path of the other cars after being knocked wide (exactly like in 2016), I'd be very surprised if CM made any serious changes to their overall behavior.

 

[Bazooka_Joe]

That overactive and ultra-happy Kimi on the podium. Soooo unrealistic

Jokes aside, the game looks pretty sweet, Codies put fixes where they were needed. It's a shame though, as it turned out to follow the Fifa series route with 'new' game released every year with patched stuff here and there and up to date lineup. And still charging like for the AAA title. Every year... The only thing missing are the DLC's to milk us even more (don't read that Codies!).

 

[Coffer]

That overactive and ultra-happy Kimi on the podium. Soooo unrealistic

Jokes aside, the game looks pretty sweet, Codies put fixes where they were needed. It's a shame though, as it turned out to follow the Fifa series route with 'new' game released every year with patched stuff here and there and up to date lineup. And still charging like for the AAA title. Every year... The only thing missing are the DLC's to milk us even more (don't read that Codies!).

Not much they can do if that's what the FIA wants.

 

[Patrik Marek]

visually it's excellent though, love the amount of detail on tracks! no deadzone like most of the sims

 

[Ilias Axarlis]

The T cam is used by the 95% of gamers out there for a reason.
You say reality... In reality u can adjust your sitting position in the car to make it more comfortable but more impotrantly to be able to see the road.
In an F1 car 1-2cm could prove more than enough to be able to do that and in games like assetto corsa you can change all these but in codemasters F1 u cant so the only option is the T cam or vomet from the cockpit.

 

[Coffer]

but in codemasters F1 u cant

Except you can in the newer games...

 

[Ilias Axarlis]

Except you can in the newer games...

Are you sure? I can change the position of the head in cockpit view?

 

[Coffer]

Are you sure? I can change the position of the head in cockpit view?

You absolutely should be able to. I had to do so in the Renault as the part of the car just ahead of the steering wheel is much too tall and was thus blinding me in the corners.

 

[Joseph Wright]

Are you sure? I can change the position of the head in cockpit view?

I can tell you that you can definitely change it in 2017. You can even adjust the T-Cams too. I believe you can actually adjust all of them, but yet to test that out.

 

[Vincent.C]

Thx for this review. Wait next friday !

 

[Mantas Jokubauskas]

Camera adjustment - if I recall correctly (from beta), camera customization is same as last year + added a few new features, such as Head Tracking with TrackIR (or alternatives) and LOOK TO APEX adjustment for cockpit cam (0-15 degrees adjustment, I personally found it nice at 10 degrees) for example.

 

[Brent Mills]

After hearing so many good things about F1 2016, I gave it a go, but was shocked at how terrible the car feels. The understeer was just the most horrible unrealistic feeling of any sim car I've ever driven. Only way to counter-act it a bit was doing a stupid setup like max ARB on back, min on front, high front wing AND reducing steering rotation to make it more twitchy. And even then it still sucked.
It was so bad for me it's almost like I had some radically wrong initial controller setup or something, but by then I was running out of time for refund period , so i didn't bother investigating further and just refunded. Does this echo anyone else's impression? For this reason I am not in the least excited about F1 2017.

 

[Leonardo Chaves]

After hearing so many good things about F1 2016, I gave it a go, but was shocked at how terrible the car feels. The understeer was just the most horrible unrealistic feeling of any sim car I've ever driven. Only way to counter-act it a bit was doing a stupid setup like max ARB on back, min on front, high front wing AND reducing steering rotation to make it more twitchy. And even then it still sucked.
It was so bad for me it's almost like I had some radically wrong initial controller setup or something, but by then I was running out of time for refund period , so i didn't bother investigating further and just refunded. Does this echo anyone else's impression? For this reason I am not in the least excited about F1 2017.

Same thing happened to me, some sims come with some layers of understeer baked in the default setups, F1 2016 had the entire cake.