1The Moore’s Law allowed our foray into the gaming industry, yet EA decides to keep something original till the end of shelf life, a Blunt philosophy
I have been playing F1 games since 1999, that is since the NES 16- bit days. Then the forerunner of the series was the fallen GOD and pioneer of the gaming industry, SEGA America. I first played the Codemaster’s version of the F1 series in 2011 at a Gaming event in a nearby city, where the local game shop set up a Sim Rig specifically designed like an Open Wheel Racer cockpit with roll cages and triple monitors.
Though the triple monitor arrangement was scuffed due to the application of Mod and horrendous FOV(Field of View). It was something though, and it showed the potential that the Sim racing market has to offer in terms of technology application.
As the F1 greats like Michael Schumacher, Ayrton Senna, Mika Hakkinen, etc. rose to fame, the viewership of the F1 as sports, increased exponentially. With improved media outreach and finances, FIA decided to improve the branding of F1 and take it to the skies(pun intended).
First Officially licenced F1 game launched in 2001 and quickly rose to fame alongside titles like NFS and Dirt. But Bernie Ecclestone era saw some major scandals, the end of partnerships and extreme mismanagement. This allowed other staple Motorsports to catch up.
F1 never had a dedicated in-game engine support for Road Simulation or Car Physics. Even modders could not help to liven up crashes.
Some of the most playable and accessible F! games to date have been all before the advent of the Denuvo era. From 2017 to 2018, Codemasters under EA managed to only change a single aspect of the gameplay, that too only for PvP lobbies. It was just an Anti-Cheat system that prevented hacked accounts from going online in the game.
EA after years in conjunction with Codemasters and TakeTwo Interactive, finally decided to put an offer forward to both. Electronic Arts put forward an offer of $8.43 per share for Codemasters in Dec 2020. Eventually, they finalised the deal and Codemasters handed over their studios to EA Executives.
F1 2021 brought back story mode but there were no major improvements in the gameplay department; although wing damage is much more precise, it is still not accurate
F1 games have always provided a unique experience. I have played every Codemaster published F1 Game since 2011, which basically means I have extensively played the recent one too. FIA has always been a step behind Manufacturers ever since the F1 started the modern V10 era. So, FIA could only keep up to the expectations of the sport, only through rule changes and design regulations. That has significantly affected the game mechanics and development path. Better graphics does not offer you better gameplay. The game mechanics have not really changed from 2017 to 2021.
Related: You can watch the E-Sports championship live from the Official F1 Twitch channel
We have to mention we are Brendon Leigh fanboys. We sincerely admire how he won the first two years of the then-budding F1 E-Sports official tournament.
The tournament was sponsored by FIA and Brendon would eventually sign up for Mercedes in his first year of the professional E-Sports career. That was way back in 2017. The interesting bit is, driver market works the same as IRL. Pro players could be released from one team and signed up by another, or have the Albon dilemma too.
The Pro F1 gamer driver market is not very dynamic due to the fixed number of seats in the F1 E-Sports Championship
The Hybrid V6 era caused the shift in general games eventually. With the addition of DRS and KERS to the systems in 2012 and then gradually shifting to MGU-K/H and engine changes, the Modus Operandi of how a driver throws his car around the circuit over the course of a race has been substituted with strategy calls from Team Boss. Also, due to sanctions on Mercedes Party mode, the qualifying times are closer than ever, both in E-Sports and F1 in IRL.
I can just hope that the E-Sports series gets a dedicated tier 2 series as an F2 E-Sports championship. That would open up more seats and drive the industry into a more dynamic Player market for teams to bid on. You know relegation stuff. It would just make the championship so much more exciting just like the F1 story mode in 2021.
