F1 2021 Free this Weekend on Steam

Maybe PSVR2 will prompt them into putting VR in, until then im out.

Boby Kim said:

Bought it, tried it for ten minutes and refunded the game, its that bad. A pure console game

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Its not a bad game if you want something different from a proper sim, something with decent side stuff like the career and story.

Not sure what you were expecting when you bought it, its always been relatively similar.

Slapped said:

This isn't a lack of desire to do it, this is a condition of the license. Truthfully the damage model in the F1 games is actually better than most other sims. Take ACC for example - drive into the barrier at 250kph and the worst you'll see on the car is a bit of a scratch and a mild dent. At least in the F1 games the wings and wheels come off.

The only sim that really has damage modelling is Wreckfest, and that's because they don't use licensed cars.

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on the topic of unlicensed cars, i still dream of a sim without officially licensed cars, we have the same cars in every sim anyway, in which devs could just worry to focus on proper physics work instead of being constantly limited in budget caps due to licensing costs that just bring half baked content for the sake of "the more cars the better" (take reiza for example). i really don't care of having the version number 20 of the same ferrari 488 gt3, just give me a generic gt3 car (same applies for any other series) and just spend the always precious development time to focus on a believable physics and damage model. this thing of licensed content or nothing is getting out of hands for me, and is limiting big time a lot of small dev teams. this was the idea behind live for speed, and despite all difficulties and a tiny studio they managed to make a sim that is still very enjoyable after all those years, so just imagine a new sim with the same core idea developed in 2021.

"I don't get rFactor - none of the cars seem to drive right"- well, just a half an hour ago, I fired up rF2 in VR, just for fun.
As the great Ayrton would say: "The circuit was a tunnel and I just kept going and going and going. And I realised I was way beyond my conscious understanding."
That's rFactor2 for you, alright.
If you've ever driven a non-power steering car on a bumpy road, you would know what I'm talking about.

SuperMonacoGP said:

on the topic of unlicensed cars, i still dream of a sim without officially licensed cars, we have the same cars in every sim anyway, in which devs could just worry to focus on proper physics work instead of being constantly limited in budget caps due to licensing costs that just bring half baked content for the sake of "the more cars the better" (take reiza for example). i really don't care of having the version number 20 of the same ferrari 488 gt3, just give me a generic gt3 car (same applies for any other series) and just spend the always precious development time to focus on a believable physics and damage model. this thing of licensed content or nothing is getting out of hands for me, and is limiting big time a lot of small dev teams. this was the idea behind live for speed, and despite all difficulties and a tiny studio they managed to make a sim that is still very enjoyable after all those years, so just imagine a new sim with the same core idea developed in 2021.

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Licensed cars and tracks sell much better. Pure simheads just want a great driving car.
But the rest of the audience want to drive the latest shiny Porsche or Ferrari Supercar.

Slapped said:

This isn't a lack of desire to do it, this is a condition of the license. Truthfully the damage model in the F1 games is actually better than most other sims. Take ACC for example - drive into the barrier at 250kph and the worst you'll see on the car is a bit of a scratch and a mild dent. At least in the F1 games the wings and wheels come off.

The only sim that really has damage modelling is Wreckfest, and that's because they don't use licensed cars.

Click to expand...

Not just Wreckfest; add iRacing to that list. All licensed cars there and not only do their parts all bend, weaken and eventually break (or break outright depending on impact), but you can also feel in the FFB exactly what's going on (example if you bend one side of your front wing, when cornering under speeds where aero grip is dominant, you feel the unevenness of turning left vs. turning right. Once at Le Mans, I got a good whack on the side and thought the pit crew got everything fixed fairly well...to only blow the engine 3 laps later because apparently the radiator got damaged and, in my haste to make up time, I wasn't watching the temp gauge.

gawd lose lap time in rFactor 2 to drive arcade why not i drive Wreckfest !

bozakn said:

"I don't get rFactor - none of the cars seem to drive right"- well, just a half an hour ago, I fired up rF2 in VR, just for fun.
As the great Ayrton would say: "The circuit was a tunnel and I just kept going and going and going. And I realised I was way beyond my conscious understanding."
That's rFactor2 for you, alright.
If you've ever driven a non-power steering car on a bumpy road, you would know what I'm talking about.

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...........I should believe you why ? your a professional ?
unprofessional to bag any sim whilst discussing another subject

SuperMonacoGP said:

on the topic of unlicensed cars, i still dream of a sim without officially licensed cars, we have the same cars in every sim anyway, in which devs could just worry to focus on proper physics work instead of being constantly limited in budget caps due to licensing costs that just bring half baked content for the sake of "the more cars the better" (take reiza for example). i really don't care of having the version number 20 of the same ferrari 488 gt3, just give me a generic gt3 car (same applies for any other series) and just spend the always precious development time to focus on a believable physics and damage model. this thing of licensed content or nothing is getting out of hands for me, and is limiting big time a lot of small dev teams. this was the idea behind live for speed, and despite all difficulties and a tiny studio they managed to make a sim that is still very enjoyable after all those years, so just imagine a new sim with the same core idea developed in 2021.

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You would think they would wake up join forces and develop a better engine for all to use. No more physics argument for good

If the cleverest people in sims can't work out what would be best physics we are doomed

SuperMonacoGP said:

on the topic of unlicensed cars, i still dream of a sim without officially licensed cars, we have the same cars in every sim anyway, in which devs could just worry to focus on proper physics work instead of being constantly limited in budget caps due to licensing costs that just bring half baked content for the sake of "the more cars the better" (take reiza for example). i really don't care of having the version number 20 of the same ferrari 488 gt3, just give me a generic gt3 car (same applies for any other series) and just spend the always precious development time to focus on a believable physics and damage model. this thing of licensed content or nothing is getting out of hands for me, and is limiting big time a lot of small dev teams. this was the idea behind live for speed, and despite all difficulties and a tiny studio they managed to make a sim that is still very enjoyable after all those years, so just imagine a new sim with the same core idea developed in 2021.

Click to expand...

We're getting a little off topic, but I wouldn't blame Reiza.

Funny enough, that sim has existed for 5 years and it's called Automobilista 1 or AMS 1 (not 2), made by the same Reiza Studios. One of the best feeling sims ever, but because it didn't look as modern as its counterparts, didn't have native VR (it does have triple screen support though) or have the annoying GT3 stable and Euro-centric track list that every other sim has (and that's what the most vocal sim racers salivate over apparently), people kept flocking to AC and left AMS 1 behind. Pretty much every iteration of F1 cars from the 1960's to today, with fresh tracks that most people hadn't driven before, and it's ignored by most of the community...they tried exactly what you said (and it was moddable!) and it didn't work out for them compared to AC.

Sadly, Reiza then tries to keep up with the Joneses and follows suit with AMS 2; shiny graphics engine, GT3's at Spa and all...but IMO it doesn't capture the driving feel that AMS 1 had (although it has gotten better over time)...and I was an early backer and wanted it to succeed more than anything.

Having purchased the last two versions and being completely disappointed I feel I can easily pass up this one.

I have no issue with a user-freindly driving model, But they could have done it so much better. So many of these legacy games seem to base the mechanics on what was reasonable 15 years ago and our systems and their coders are capable of so much better then that. And our expectations should be higher.

The likes of Forza Motorsport, Forza Horizon, Need For Speed, Grid, all utterly terrible compared to what they could be while still retaining the arcade elements.

Wreckfest is a perfect example of a sit down and thrash it game that has a detailed and engaging experience on a wheel or gamepad and does enough in the background to even give the keyboard players an even playing field.

BP said:

We're getting a little off topic, but I wouldn't blame Reiza.

Funny enough, that sim has existed for 5 years and it's called Automobilista 1 or AMS 1 (not 2), made by the same Reiza Studios. One of the best feeling sims ever, but because it didn't look as modern as its counterparts, didn't have native VR (it does have triple screen support though) or have the annoying GT3 stable and Euro-centric track list that every other sim has (and that's what the most vocal sim racers salivate over apparently), people kept flocking to AC and left AMS 1 behind. Pretty much every iteration of F1 cars from the 1960's to today, with fresh tracks that most people hadn't driven before, and it's ignored by most of the community...they tried exactly what you said (and it was moddable!) and it didn't work out for them compared to AC.

Sadly, Reiza then tries to keep up with the Joneses and follows suit with AMS 2; shiny graphics engine, GT3's at Spa and all...but IMO it doesn't capture the driving feel that AMS 1 had (although it has gotten better over time)...and I was an early backer and wanted it to succeed more than anything.

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"although it has gotten better over time"

It has gotten WAY better over time. It's actually the best sim at this moment by far imo.

This since 1.2.0.0. is released, it completely changed the game.

I spent most of the time in the settings trying to get it looking good and running well. I'm the end I used GeForce Experience to optimize the game for me and that allowed both max raytracing and improved anti-aliasing a touch (4790K/2070 SUPER). But it always seems to have a weird reflection/blur of the car behind the car that I haven't got rid of yet.

Otherwise it let me take enough video to add it to my Every PC F1 Game playlist on YouTube (that I've neglected since 2018, but will get back to when I've finished rally games!).

Also, I believe Portimao will be added soon, from a letter-based teaser on Codemasters' Twitter.

I really enjoyed the classic content in the series, classic for me being before 2000. So F1 2019 is the last opus I bought. F1 2020 lost the cars before 1990, added 2 or 3 Schumacher cars (onz from 1991, which could.make the game interesting, with the 2 other 91 cars), but their review did not seem positive. Without more interesting classic content, I'll wait for a real step up from codemasters to be interested in the F1 series again.

Slapped said:

This isn't a lack of desire to do it, this is a condition of the license. Truthfully the damage model in the F1 games is actually better than most other sims. Take ACC for example - drive into the barrier at 250kph and the worst you'll see on the car is a bit of a scratch and a mild dent. At least in the F1 games the wings and wheels come off.

The only sim that really has damage modelling is Wreckfest, and that's because they don't use licensed cars.

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yeah but if you tested other sims like ams series or ac damage better but f1 2021 isnt realistic in damage as i said f1 2006 for example damage realistic

gamma123152 said:

"although it has gotten better over time"

It has gotten WAY better over time. It's actually the best sim at this moment by far imo.

This since 1.2.0.0. is released, it completely changed the game.

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Not saying you're wrong, but when was this version released? Because I did try it again over the summer and, again while it has improved a lot, I'm not sure I'd go that far based on my experience. Maybe I needed to reinstall it from scratch as the updates didn't apply correctly?

Also, which sims have you played recently to qualify that statement?

I haven't touched a Formula 1 game in more than a decade but I downloaded this one because, well, it was for free.

I had all expectations of being a watered-down version of the sport from all reviews I've seen online and comments I've read at RD and other simracing communities. Well, it wasn't that watered-down luckily. It is, indeed, a videogame (as literally said on the cover) and I looked at it as such. My thoughts: I think the story-mode (aka 'campaign' in old-gamer lingo) is fun and well put together. It's a bit dramatic (hello Netflix!) and the animations can be more polished, but will keep you immersed in the fantasy of "being a racing driver climbing up the ranks" for as long as it lasts. The car and driver editor is good to have, but quite limited. I don't expect a Skyrim-like avatar editor, but a bit more freedom, especially on the paintjob of the cars would have been more fun. Maybe based on templates of real teams from now and old? This could add so much more to the immersion if it were better implemented. I didn't try multiplayer but ran a few races and did some hot laps on several tracks I know well to have a grasp at the driving simulation... and it is OK. I understand why many tag it as 'arcade' but it was not bad in my opinion. This is a title for everyone so it makes sense that the handling is 'user-friendly'. What's definitely NOT user friendly is the interface... abysmal. If you don't have a controller you will curse, a lot, like I did when trying to find my way around the options. Setting up a steering wheel could also be done more intuitively but it works fine once you "think in console" inteface and menu layouts.

I think it's a good videogame about Formula 1 but since I am biased towards more complex simulations it's not for me. RSS's Formula Hybrid on AC has spoiled me so I will stick to that instead. So I'll uninstall it... 'coz I need the space for AC Legends.

Boby Kim said:

Bought it, tried it for ten minutes and refunded the game, its that bad. A pure console game

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I own F1 2011, 2017, 2019, all are alike, bought when price was suitably low, experienced simracers can immediately drive flat out all the time everywhere on the track just like driving a train. Those "real" esport "simracers" drive these cars 50-60 hours per week when they practising, it's insane.

I likened it to a slot car set, sure you can over cook a turn if you try real hard but it generally just zips around like its on a fixed path.

BP said:

Not just Wreckfest; add iRacing to that list. All licensed cars there and not only do their parts all bend, weaken and eventually break (or break outright depending on impact), but you can also feel in the FFB exactly what's going on (example if you bend one side of your front wing, when cornering under speeds where aero grip is dominant, you feel the unevenness of turning left vs. turning right. Once at Le Mans, I got a good whack on the side and thought the pit crew got everything fixed fairly well...to only blow the engine 3 laps later because apparently the radiator got damaged and, in my haste to make up time, I wasn't watching the temp gauge.

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Well, I wouldn't know, and nor will I ever know. I vehemently disagree with their pricing model. If it was a monthly charge for everything then OK, or if it was FTP, or even buy once, and you needed to purchase further content then OK. Unfortunately iRacing tries to have it's cake and eat it by not only charging you a monthly rental, but expecting you to also buy the content.

If any other major company pulled consumer hostile feces like that then it'd be all over the press, and they have and it has been. However as sim-racing is niche and nobody really cares, iRacing gets away with screwing its suckers customers.

F1 2020 is on my SIM shelf next to Sims 4.

Boby Kim said:

Bought it, tried it for ten minutes and refunded the game, its that bad. A pure console game

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I agreed with your opinion but I hope F1 2022 will be a proper Sim Racer.