“Racing hard with your F2 rivals, the pit-board shows your gap from them to you, and it’s increasing, this might be the start of your career in Formula 1.”
This year’s F1 game, F1 24, is putting an emphasis on the new and improved career mode that makes you feel like being part of the grid in greater detail. And all signs are looking towards positive in this preview, along with the new updates for some of the iconic tracks.
Calling The Shots
The new career mode starts out by asking you the most important question, who would you like to be? You can either become your own avatar and start the game at the junior category, pick up your favourite team’s driver academy of choice, which may influence you to join their team later and so on, then the racing part plays out.
OR, pick a legend of the sport, like the late great Ayrton Senna or James Hunt, or make Mika Hakkinen finally return from his sabbatical and continue their journey as a formidable F1 champion with all their stats ready to be expanded by you, the player. It’s a fascinating way to honor the legends of the sport and maybe help extend their championship numbers by a bit more than before.
The career mode itself feels more intimate, with the rivals system now tracks not only your teammate and chosen rival, but even those who are closest to you in the championship if your season hasn’t been hectic enough but that’s the beauty of F1, it’s the pressure that makes the racing exciting.
And after all that jazz is settled, it’s time to be seated into the cockpit and be ready to drive out on the circuits that have gotten quite a refresh on top of the newer handling.
Tracky Refresh
Four tracks are getting a refresh in F1 24 that takes them up towards a more up-to-date standard that you have seen in the actual F1 season, with the likes of Silverstone now having build complex structures during the Maggots and Becketts section, a new version of Spa with the new “corner” that’s for the MotoGP series that runs there as well. It’s more circuit dressing, that in a way that helps flesh out the tracks look more than ever before.
It also feels better to drive as well, with the bumpy nature of Silverstone capture rather well if your car is lowered to the ground enough and the painted kerbs at the Jeddah circuit are taken flatout, unlike previous incarnations. It’s good stuff to be able to take corners far better than previous games, and I do see this as a good step by the devs at Codemasters to make the tracks feel lifelike.
The car themselves are already rocking this season’s livery and aero-bits in this preview too, so the preparing to the towards the actual virtual grid is going along nicely.
Conclusion
So far, F1 24 feels like another good step forward as they make more effort into building the new career mode into something that longtime fans or even newcomers can dive into and enjoy. With a week to go until their earliest release, they might get the ideal lap in time.
F1 24 is set to launch on May 31st for the Deluxe Edition on the PS4, PS5, PC (Steam, Epic, and EA App), Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.
Played on PC. Preview build provided by the publisher