F1 2016 Review - Race Around the World as an Up and Coming F1 Racer

Written by Brandon Hofer  on September 06, 2016

Reviews: Codemasters has developed a really deep F1 racing title for the hardcore racing fan but should be accessible for the casual fan as well.

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F1 2016 is the latest game in the Formula 1 franchise and one that fans should enjoy playing. There is a ton of content for you to enjoy from the career mode, the championship season, multiplayer and more. Aesthetically the game looks great and it sounds like you are really at the race track when you are playing the game. Overall this is a package that racing fans will be spending quite a lot of time with.

When you begin your career you will have the option of starting a normal career or a pro career. The pro career is “the ultimate challenge” so if you are new to this franchise or are just a casual racing game fan then you will most likely want to stick with the normal career. With that said F1 2016 is definitely much more for the serious racing fan. There are assists that you can turn on and off to try and help guide you if you are a rookie to these games but you might get frustrated quickly if you aren’t used to a more simulation based racing game. In your career you will select which team to sign with and then have to go through your career negotiating your way through not just races but also upgrades, trying to line up sponsorships and more. After a race you will frequently find yourself in a team lounge with your laptop where you can try and make some changes that will help your career out or simply advance to the next set of races. Your laptop features many things such as your progress in your career, how you are doing in your current rivalry, personal details, what items are being researched and developed, your trophy room and much more. If you want it to be F1 2016 can be a really deep game which should definitely please hardcore F1 fans.



Another possible route to take when you boot the game up is tackling the championship season. If you choose to do this you will compete against some of the giants in the Formula One world to try and become world champion. It should go without saying that this is going to be quite difficult to do as you take on the best Formula One has to offer. If you choose to go this route there are a number of different options for you to choose from. If you don’t have a lot of time you can go for the short weekend which is essentially a Formula One weekend in a compact package. If time is not an issue then you can go for the full weekend where you will get the true Formula One experience from beginning to end. If you want to go somewhere in between you can also create a custom weekend and have things set to your preferences.

If you only have a few minutes and you want to get in some quick races there is also “quick race” and “time trial”. In quick race you can create a custom season or simply race a single circuit. Going down this route will allow you to choose where you want to race whether it is in Brazil, Russia, Azaerbaijan, Austria or wherever. The game will also give you useful information such as the track difficulty, how many turns there are, how many laps needed to complete the race and more. Time Trial should be pretty self explanatory as you try and set the best times you possibly and then see where you rank on the global leaderboard as well as on your friends leaderboard.



If you are someone to wants to play against other players there is also the online multiplayer suite. You can create your own custom race or championship or simply jump into matchmaking. If you choose to create a custom race or session then you will have a number of different options available to you, including who can join your session. If you want to make it so anyone can join you can do that or if you want to make sure only people on your friends list join you can do that as well. Of course you can also make it invite only so you are in direct control of who joins your session. Once you do that you are presented with a plethora of options to choose from. You can choose that maximum number of players in your group, the practice type, the session start time and more. You can also set the difficulty level for the AI, turn collisions on or off, turn vehicle damage on and off and a lot more. There is a lot for you to dive into here and it should make it fairly easy for you to race exactly how you want while being able to cut out some options you don’t really care about.

In terms of actually racing online I had some great experiences. I’m not all that good at these types of games but I still had fun racing around the different tracks. The cars seemed to handle really well,although you have to really pay attention to those turns or you can spin out really easily or run into a wall. I didn’t notice any lag at all during my online play sessions and everything seemed to run pretty flawlessly. The development team did a great job here giving gamers a smooth online experience and it is one I’m sure a lot of racing fans will enjoy.



F1 2016 is a really great racing game. I do think it is geared more towards the hardcore racing fans but casual fans should be able to find something to enjoy as well. The career is really deep and will keep you busy for quite a while, especially if you want to try and do everything. The online multiplayer is a lot of fun racing against other gamers and there is some size bite size content too in case you only have a few minutes to play. Overall if you are a F1 fan then I would definitely recommend playing this game. If you aren’t sure then I would rent it first so that you can experience the simulation aspect and see whether you like it or no.