Reviewed: F1 2014 For Playstation 3

,

The Ferrari powered cars have a VERY distinct sound in the game. The acceleration and turbo wine is very enjoyable, however when you decelerate the sound of the Energy Recovery System (ERS) is a little distracting, I've never noticed it while watching any of the races but in the game it sounds as if the Ferrari powered cars had a little too much to eat at Taco Bell the night before, maybe that's why Kimi and Alonso have been struggling this year. 

If you're like me, and I'm sure there's atleast one other F1 nerd out there, then just like the 2014 season you've become acustomed to the new sounds and looks of the 2014 field and no longer think about it. Just like in real life the only thing that really matters is the racing, or gameplay in our case.

The shinning factor of F1 2014 is the car control. Steering is crisp, braking is strong and all around car control is very pleasent. Now I've never driven a real Formula car and I'm not going to pretend this is anywhere near the control level and feel a real car gives you but there's a big difference between the sport cars in Gran Turismo and the Formula cars in F1 2014. 

I've done quite a few laps on F1 2012 and Gran Turismo with our RaceRoom set up. At first I found the RaceRoom to be much more difficult when transitioning from a standard PS3 controller. After a few laps you can use the feel of the steering wheel to assess feedback and you can control throttle and braking with much more precision with the pedals. You definitely need to make sure you are unwinding the steering wheel as you're applying throttle or you WILL be thrown into massive oversteer. I found the key to keeping momentum and putting down fast lap times is in controlling tire spin on corner exit. This of course is crucial in all forms of racing since when you're spinning you're not propelling forward. *Note: gameplay on my system is set to level 1 traction control and 1 braking assist. We can't all be pros now can we?

Between keeping up with my 2 year old and my  full time job here at MotoIQ I haven't been able to do a career mode yet. The primary use of racing games in my house is for myself and a few friends to battle head to head in time attack mode for bragging rights. F1 2014 has very strict rules regarding offs during time attack trials. If you go 4 off your lap will be invalidated 99% of the time. It's very far and few between that the game will not penalize you and invalidate your lap for an off. Yes it gets annoying, but it's true to form as you need to keep atleast 2 wheels on the paved surface to get a counted lap. 

So how did we do when it came to lap times? I sat down with a good friend of mine, Robert Grattan, and we challenged each other to 5 laps each in the Mercedes, best time wins. Now we could probably sit and tweak for hours on each track to get the times lower, in fact I know we can get some of these lower by a second if not more but here's what we ran under a 5 lap maximum.

In summary if you are an F1 fan and are looking for something different than Forza and/or Gran Turismo, F1 2014 can fit that bill. The biggest highlights for me were the track selection as most of these tracks are not available on GT6 and of course the Williams Martini car, if you know me you know I have an inifinity for that gorgeous machine. If you can get past some of the graphics issues I think F1 2014 can be a staple in your gaming library, unless the 2015 version of the game has some groundbreaking upgrades it will definitley be in my gaming rotation for quite some time. 

Sources

Codemasters Racing