Why F1 2015 Is The Most Fun I've Had In A Racer This Year

I’m going to be blunt: I had absolutely zero expectations for F1 2015. I’ve played the games in the past - though admittedly not for a few years - so when I was sent through a review code I set the game to download and forgot about it. I came back to my console a few hours later to find it still hadn’t finished downloading all 21GB of the game, so I climbed into bed and went to sleep. The next day, after work, I made a cup of tea and jumped behind the wheel to see what was what. And I became hooked.

The game is brilliantly accessible. With all the assists on, you can plant your foot out of a corner without fear of pulling FIA-unapproved pirouettes, which makes taming that spiky turbo power much less frustrating. That’s not to say that the game’s easy, far from it. You still have to nail braking zones and judge steering inputs to perfection if you want to take the correct line. Brake half a second too late and you’ll wash wide.

Once you start switching assists off, though, you get an incredibly challenging game that’ll keep the more hardcore sim fans happy. I’ve never driven a Formula 1 car before, so I can’t really judge how accurate the physics really are, but you get a great sense of the ridiculous downforce, and the game does well to simulate the colossal grip available through the sticky tyres.

One of the aspects of the game I was expecting to hate was the fact that the only circuits available are those that are on the F1 calendar. But you know what? It actually makes the game even more enjoyable. In the likes of Project Cars, I almost find myself trying to get through each race as quickly as possible so I can try out the next thing. In F1 2015, there’s one championship, and one set of cars. That makes each race weekend more of an event, and motivates you to make the most of it.

At every venue, I take part in a 15-minute practice session, one shot qualifying, and a 20-30 minute race. That gives me a chance to learn the circuit, put in a hot lap, then get in the zone for a race situation. The whole thing is far more satisfying than trying to blitz through the huge amount of content most games offer up. Back when I was a student and had all the free time in the world I loved trying to get 100 per cent completion on Forza, but these days I just don’t have the time.

There are a few downsides, naturally. The first thing is that the career mode is a little one dimensional. As much as I love the race weekend format, it’d be nice to do it as Darren Cassey, starting out at Marussia and earning my way to better teams as the years progress. As it is, I just walked into Mercedes as Lewis Hamilton and charged my way to pole.

Aside from that, though, I’ve really enjoyed F1 2015 so far. If you’re a hardcore sim fan it’s probably not for you, but for everyone else here’s a really enjoyable, accessible game that’s genuinely fun to get stuck into. My only major concern is longevity; my original plan was to do a season as Hamilton to get a feel for it, then switch all the assists off, jump in a Marussia, and work my way forward. As it stands, the season is taking more commitment than I expected, and I’m not sure I’ll be too fussed about going through it all again…

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