Reviewed: F1 2014 For Playstation 3
With the Forza franchise dominating XBOX and Gran Turismo the defacto race game for Playstation, the F1 series from Codemasters gets little to no attention from people outside of Formula One nerds. That doesn’t mean there aren’t gamers out there running laps on Monza, COTA, Dubai and the rest of the Formula One circuit, they just seem to be less vocal about it than the Forza/Gran Turismo crowd.
Now this is a review article, I’m not here to say F1 2014 is better than XYZ or vice-versa. This isn’t GameSpot or any of those other review sites, this is MotoIQ and I just want to give you an honest review and my thoughts on the newest Codemaster installment in the F1 franchise.
Codemasters has been releasing an F1 game every year since 2009. First on the Wii and Playstation Portable. The series didn’t come to Playstation/Xbox until F1 2010 was released.
For our review we will use our RaceRoom with accompanying Logitech G2 wheel and pedal set up.
The first thing I would like to cover is the graphics. Everyone wants to know about graphics, how does it look? Most gamers have seen trailers or commercials for games and then get disappointed when they actually get to play. Gameplay graphics can vary drastically from “intro” or “filler” graphics, racing games especially.
The intro and filler graphics are amazing. As you can see from this screen shot the detail is there as well as bright vibrant colors.
In my opinion the in game graphics struggle a bit. Compared to past editions of F1, specifically F1 2012, the 2014 game has moved mountains in the gameplay graphic department. I however do find the graphics to be over saturated and a few steps above cartoony, albeit less than the 2012 game which I found very unrealistic.
With all the new regulations adopted in the 2014 Formula One series, specifically the turbo V6 engine, we knew we were in for some different sounds than games past. F1 2014 did a good job of giving each powerplant (don't call them engines anymore!) a unique sound just as in real life. The game sounds are very close to what you hear when you watch the race on TV, I can't attest to real life as I've yet to get the opportunity to see an F1 race in person. In the game you get a distinct sound from the Mercedes, Ferrari and Renault engines just like their live counterparts. Along with individual power plant sounds you get to hear tires squealing, turbos spooling and Energy Recovery Systems (ERS) doing their job.
