Reviews by Yannik Haustein

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Premium
Pros: - Graphics: Any way you look at it, the F1 games have been looking fantastic for a few years now, and F1 2021 is no exception. This is particularly noticeable in night races.

- Atmosphere: No other sim or game will come close to the way F1 reproduces the feel of a race weekend or a championship.

- Accessibility: Controller and wheel users alike will feel at home. Complete beginners have a variety of assists to choose from, with everything turned off, the cars are a challenge to drive and extract maximum pace out of them.

- Braking Point: The all-new story mode is very captivating, focusing around the careers of young Aidan Jackson and veteran Casper Akkerman.
MyTeam: Anyone who has ever dreamt of having their own F1 team or has drawn up their own F1 cars as a kid will love this mode. The best part is: You get to decide how deep the you want to dive in - the player can do all the managment and development himself or turn off some parts of the mode to focus on the driving part.

- Multiplayer: A broad base of players means no lack of multiplayer servers.

- AI: If you are looking for an offline experience, the AI helps massively with that. They are very aware of you, defend and attack, and make mistakes as well - I have been turned into pretty blatantly at times, but that happens in real life as well.
Cons: - No mouse steering in menus: A PC exclusive problem - it is impossible to navigate menus using your mouse. Finding out what button on your wheel does what can be infuriating at times.

- Missing content: Unlike in previous years, no classic cars are present in the game. The 2019 F2 cars are only playable in the very first chapter of Braking Point, the 2020 F1 cars are exclusive to that mode at the moment as well. As of the release, only the 2021 F1 and 2020 F2 cars are available for single player modes, with the 2021 F2 cars set to be added later on. The same goes for tracks like Mugello, Imola and the new street circuit in Jeddah.

- Force Feedback bug: On Thrustmaster wheels, you will have to update your firmware every time you turn on your PC before the game's FFB will work with it. The wheel and pedals itself do work as intended if the firmware remains untouched, but there will be no feedback.

- Kerbs: They seem to be very slippery in a lot of places, so having to find out the hard way where you can and cannot go is a bit of an annoyance.
Having played F1 2021 for about 12 hours at the time of this review, I am positively suprised by the game - before '21, the most recent F1 game I played was 2014. I had seen lots of videos about the series in the meantime but always heard about how it would be too arcade-y, which is not the case. Sure, it is not a full sim, but if you want it to, it can be a real challenge.

The AI know how to race you, the cars need precise input but also quick reflexes when the back steps out (which it will if you're to trigger-happy with the throttle). The atmosphere of an F1 weekend is probably unmatched and will draw any F1 fan right in.

There are a lot of game modes on offer, which will keep players busy for quite a while. The new story mode Braking Point is very interesting and captivating - at least so far, since I am in the middle of the second F1 season. I was sceptical that it might be a bit of a cheesy story, but so far, it has done a great job in keeping me motivated to play.

A bit of a downside are the various oversights like the lack of mouse support in menus on PC, a bug which requires Thrustmaster wheel users to update their firmware each time they boot up their PC if they want their FFB to work and unreasonably slippery kerbs in some places. There is no historic content either, meaning classic cars are scrapped altogehter - which is a shame if you are an F1 history nerd like myself.

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