F1 2015 "Must Have Otherwise Not Buying"

[Bram Hengeveld]

With the amazingly low scores that F1 2014 is receiving in the reviews the 2015 version of the game will have to offer so much more to satisfy the race gaming fans.

What has surprised me personally is that I am hearing the same complains about the series since the release of F1 2010 of fans saying "if they don't include X I am not buying".

Honestly I think game developers are def to such remarks as the fans will buy the game anyway regardless what features are missing or included. Its an officially licensed F1 game so it must be bought.

For once lets assume that they do care and actually pick up your remarks as valuable customer feedback. Are there any real deal-breakers for F1 2015?

I have been a repeating record since 2010 myself and even I got carried away with the hype every year and purchased 2010, 2011, 2012 but in 2013 I've actually stopped buying the game as I saw no more improvements. On the contrary, the game has gotten worse since the initial 2010 release that I class truly as a great racing title.

Every year I have requested dedicated server support (will do once more as this is the criteria for me as a pc racer), online file check system to avoid blatant abuse of cheats and a few more.

My passion is to race online with a full field of drivers on a properly hosted server. None of the previous F1 games by Codemasters have offered this which results in me going for offline play only, year in year out, with this game which is a bloody shame as a strong brand as "F1" is deserves a properly hosted league series, with replays, pro broadcast and a field of the best online sim racers the community has to offer. I am not buying the petty argument anymore that "the development of dedicated server support is too expensive"

Ill keep my hopes up that 2015 will actually include the above and breaks with the "milking" tradition of releasing the same game year after year.

My question to you: Which features must be included in the 2015 game to avoid that you are really not buying the game anymore?

(Note that this is not a wishlist thread, we have one here already).

 

[jimortality]

I've bought every version so far either on console or the last 2 years on PC. I've seen some vids of this release and I'm not going to bother. I can't see them changing much for the next gen version but it's got to be about physics. If small companies like Reiza can produce the goods then there is absolutely no excuse for a company the size of codemasters not to. Unfortunately, it's produced for a wider circle of people and I think it's got as good as it's going to get.

 

[Ho3n3r]

- Dedicated servers. Too many disconnects online in previous versions.
- REAL setup parameters. WTF is a 1 to 11 scale on a ride height setting?
- Option to hide the steering wheel. One of the biggest reasons I've stopped playing their games completely now - it's too distracting.
- Manual pitlane control. And I mean FULL control, i.e. when to put the limiter on, and how to approach the box etc.
- Better FFB. Car doesn't feel connected to the road at all.
- Also, after 2 years, it's about time they fix the G27 FFB @ higher than 120FPS bug. Pretty annoying to have to play with severe input lag-inducing VSync on just to get past this.
- FOV and seat position adjustment. Default seat positions are way off.

That's all I can think of now, but there was plenty more when I was still playing it, which I seem to have forgotten along the way.

 

[Mirabeau23]

Hi Bram,
Like you I bought 2010, 2011 and 2012 and they were all I ever played (I must have put over 500 hours into the three games combined).
The reason I didn't buy 2013, and won't be buying 2014 is that I'm just bored of single player career mode.
For me, the online community offering is what will make or break my decision to buy 2015, I want to be able to connect with other serious racers and race in online seasons with full weekends and race distances, and not have to worry that someone will just crash into me once they realise they can't win fairly.

 

[jimortality]

Yes dedicated servers as well.

 

[Giovaneveterano]

There are a lot of things that are to be improved!

1. ALL sessions during weekend: FP1/2/3 + Q and R.

2. Better physic system:

• an F1 car with 700hp should be really tricky to drive with all assists off.
• realistic setups, maybe you can ask tips at you engineer like in motogp 14
• the driving style should affects tyre wear and fuel management (coasting).
• improvement of the track during the weekend (green to rubbered)
• real damages. It will be awesome if you had a big crash during FP3 perhaps you can't do the Q session

3. Better career mode:

• realistic upgrade of the car during season
• transfers (maybe with rookies)
• pre-season tests

4. In-game cool things:

• formation lap
• box lap (after the race)
• manual pit lane
• a completely new and useful team radios
• official F1 TV graphic

 

[Kartik Sri Harsha]

Very Nicely put @Bram Hengeveld
To Buy F1 2015 it must have the most important features
1. Bring back what made 2010 the Big Difference -Make us BE THE DRIVER and LIVE THE LIFE with much better Paddock
2. Bring the FP's back and have a different type of runs
3. AI must be Fixed yes the AI is worse and worse a major revamp must be done in this area
4. Take out Scripted tire wear we need to have a control on it
5. Different Environment for Practice/Qualification / race in terms of Audience / Interviews
6. A Better Damage system and SC Appearance along with SC starts
7. Regarding Start procedure let us have control on it we need to engage 1st gear not a defacto 1st gear like now also having a formation lap helps

 

[Alberto Casado]

I bought 2010, put a couple hundred hours there and it was not too bad, but I was hugely disappointed with CM support.
However, I bough 2011, only to find pretty much the same bugs and almost the same game.

I did not buy 2012, 2013 and I will not buy 2014. As the series evolves (keep the bugs, keep the price, do not add much new), I guess the only way I would consider to get F1 2015 is when it is developed by somebody else.

P.S. I must add, because a post of @Bram Hengeveld in CM forums I found RaceDepartment and have been having fun ever since, so I have to indirectly thank the F1 201x series for a lot of fun... with race07 and GSC. (And directly thank Bram and RD)

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Thats good to here @Alberto Casado. Personally I think the F1 series are a good set of games to get familiar with sim racing as many have followed the same path as yourself.

A racer has to start somewhere and the annual F1 games are great entry level games.

 

[JeffL]

It seems of just another large company focusing on profits over quality. There is no reason the licensed F1 title isn't the best online, open wheel sim in the world. Only when the profits disappear will it change.

 

[ML2166]

Far too many things wrong with the series....would be here all night typing.....A: because there is a lot to type....B: I type slower than a one fingered typist who is currently using said finger to have a good root around his nasal passage.

The next offering would have to be mind blowing to gain trust in a lot of their past consumer base. Been years now that simple things should have been ironed out/dealt with, but still they haven't been. Maybe it's a by product of the graphics engine the title is written on, who knows but this in all honesty is no more than DLC 3. Nothing seems to change too much from year to year.

Unfortunately for Codemasters this time round, they now have serious competition, albeit not in a Formula 1 guise, but in the guise of GSC in it's current form, Assetto Corsa, Project Cars on the way too, this time round I see peoples hard earned going elsewhere....

 

[Lesley Buurlage]

the only thing that makes me buy these games is the ability to mod it, if there isn't a decent mod support in 2015, or at least no more mirrored textures. i will consider buying it

 

[Lamichael]

Yes dedicated servers as well.

if codemasters did this, there would be such a small amount of lag problems and online racing would be "fresh" . aside from the cheap racers who bump you off the track, thats for leagues to coordinate

 

[Leonardo Chaves]

I could make my usual wishlist (it never changes because the complaints are never addressed lol) which would look a lot like some other wishlists floating around the internet.
Better physics, better FFB, better wheel suport, telemetry and more depth to the setup screen... you guys know the drill.

But instead of focussing on that, i'm gonna say that this series (and perhaps the F1 license) seems unfixable in the current scenario, because i don't think Codemasters aims at making the best game possible for F1/racing fans, they are desperately trying to appeal to casuals and failing, because it's borderline impossible to make a F1 game that is a good "quick fix" for Call of Duty or Assassin's Creed players.
Forza (specially in Horizon guise) and GT can pull it off, because they have cars that are fun to drive "poorly", sliding around and bumping others, F1 can't do that, F1 will always be about finding one final tenth, even the Codemasters games.

Until Codemasters learns that you can't sell F1 games to people who don't care about Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton or Sebastian Vettel anymore than you can sell Fifa to someone who doesn't know who CR7 is, until they understand that nothing is gonna change and i'm staying away.

If they change their approach to a "let's put out the best game possible and they will come" i don't see myself making a comeback.

 

[Nick Milton]

I don't understand why codemaster don't occasionally respond, is that arrogance?it would not hurt to reply to a few comments and explain there thinking, F1, as a sport is now very different, when I was 12 I used to watch the tyre testing at brands hatch, (1974), and have since then raced rally,rallycross,FF, and karts, now PS3 . Not quite same, a true fan, as codemasters claim, would keep correcting errors, the graphics are ok, accurate, the car look great, but the physics are wrong, I think GPL. had the best physics, even 15 years on.

 

[Kartik Sri Harsha]

The Problem comes from the path CM following
No one wants an Easy challenge mode after some time , I know not every one can play with Hard / legend and people are playing for fun as well but the approach CM is taking to please the Easy going players more is what making the Official F1 Game getting silly and having less real life aspects more and more
Why Driver Evaluation and Very easy Mode with the AI who wont even try to Out break and loose positions quite comfortably
CM needs to sort a lot of thing first and highest priority is to change the path they followed from 2010-14.

 

[Andrew Macpherson]

- Also, after 2 years, it's about time they fix the G27 FFB @ higher than 120FPS bug. Pretty annoying to have to play with severe input lag-inducing VSync on just to get past this.

Just so you know, there's a better fix than vsync for this. You can set a frame rate limit through Nvidia Inspector (or something similar for AMD), this solves the FFB problem and does not induce lag.

 

[Ho3n3r]

Just so you know, there's a better fix than vsync for this. You can set a frame rate limit through Nvidia Inspector (or something similar for AMD), this solves the FFB problem and does not induce lag.

I used Inspector before I switched over to AMD.

I've searched everywhere for an AMD fix, but found none.

And a permanent fix by the game creators is always better than a workaround by the users, especially considering that F1 2014 is the third edition in a row with the bug.

 

[Andrew Macpherson]

I used Inspector before I switched over to AMD.

I've searched everywhere for an AMD fix, but found none.

And a permanent fix by the game creators is always better than a workaround by the users, especially considering that F1 2014 is the third edition in a row with the bug.

Did you try this?

No question they should have fixed the bug by now, but sometimes you have to take what you can get.

 

[Leonardo Chaves]

The Problem comes from the path CM following
No one wants an Easy challenge mode after some time , I know not every one can play with Hard / legend and people are playing for fun as well but the approach CM is taking to please the Easy going players more is what making the Official F1 Game getting silly and having less real life aspects more and more
Why Driver Evaluation and Very easy Mode with the AI who wont even try to Out break and loose positions quite comfortably
CM needs to sort a lot of thing first and highest priority is to change the path they followed from 2010-14.

Look at FIFA, an yearly title like F1, and it's made to convince the same guys to buy it every year, their changes year to year are made in the direction of making it more complex, give more options to the experienced players, rewarding experience rather than lowering the floor level.

EA understands that they can't make people who aren't football fans buy FIFA, so they put work into pleasing their fans.