The opinions on Codemasters’ Formula One series differ immensely which has polarized F1 fanatics into two rival camps. Some players became dismayed with the buggy AI behaviour and inconsistent penalty system whilst others perceived each release as groundbreaking. In my opinion, the franchise has progressively improved albeit in a slow and steady manner consisting of minor tweaks. F1 2013 is a major upgrade from last year’s offering featuring enhanced physics and all new classic content. Despite easily being the best version to date, F1 2013 is still plagued by fundamental AI problems which appeared in F1 2010. It is evidently clear that F1 2013 falls short in creating the definitive representation of Formula One.
Being successful revolves around consistency through smooth and precise driving. F1 2013’s physics model has been dramatically revamped making the cars more reactive to user input. The steering is looser containing greater sensitivity which allows you to change direction quickly and reposition your approach before a corner. If the car oversteers or understeers, you can skillfully correct it and prevent spinning out. It is important to remain on the racing line because if you veer away in direction, your grip will exponentially decrease. The dirty side of a circuit is littered with rubber “marbles” that destroy your grip levels and cause unwanted sliding. As you exit a corner, it is imperative to nail your breaking point, and gradually apply the throttle. This strategy reduces your wheelspin and heightens the acceleration out of technical sections. If you outbreak yourself, the tires will lock up and propel your car forwards. The overhauled physics engine instills confidence in your own abilities and creates an impression that you have greater control in comparison with previous games.
Modern Formula One is dominated by tire management and the varying levels of degradation when using option/prime compounds. Instead of constantly racing on the absolute limit, you have to take into account how your driving style impacts on tire wear and future grip levels. Being overly aggressive may yield short-term results but rapidly impedes your performance later on in the race. For example, after driving flat out for 12-20 laps, your tires will be rendered useless and require an immediate pit stop. Having to pit early on increases your time on the next set of tires which have to be managed better than those who were gentler on a previous tire choice.
The AI drives clinically and within a car’s limits to reduce widespread tire damage. This means they rarely suffer from crippling and sudden degradation. It can be difficult when deciding how hard to push and what strategy to adopt. Your fuel usage affects tire wear because it determines how fast you are going and the stress rate applied to a set of tires. Having a predetermined strategy is key in regards to who you are racing and which position is available next. If you are comfortable and have a decent gap from the car behind, you can reduce your fuel mixture to lean (1) and preserve your tires. Turning the fuel utilization up to high (3) helps you to approach cars in your vicinity. This whole tire scaling system is brilliantly authentic and reaffirms how complex Formula One has become.
The AI in F1 2013 is passive, erratic, and at times remarkably dangerous. When you attempt a qualifying run, the opposition cars on their out laps will veer into bizarre positions and almost perform brake tests. Rival cars often reduce speed on the racing line causing horrific incidents which ruin your entire qualifying session. Sanctions are imposed when ploughing into slower cars through grid penalties despite the AI being at fault. Even if you manage to avoid the stationary AI vehicles, they severely impact on your delta times. Your rivals behave in an unbelievably tentative manner during the first few corners of a race which frankly makes qualifying pointless. On the hardest difficulty setting, you can easily move up from 20th to 6th with little effort. It’s ridiculously jarring to see a Caterham which on average is 4 seconds per lap slower than top tier teams, breezing past much faster cars.
After the initial phase has ended, your rivals immediately pick up their pace and surround you. This appears like a bogus mechanic to stop AI vehicles from instigating collisions during the first corner. Your opponents with DRS, KERS and a 4 second per lap advantage still pose no threat during overtaking opportunities. The AI moves in a very predictable way and you can cut across their inside/outside line. Strict Formula One regulations state you can only make one defensive move against vehicles in your slipstream. F1 2013 disregards this concept completely, allowing you to swerve all over the place and block any overtaking move. As a result, you never feel in danger of losing track position which dulls the overall experience. On a more positive note, the AI periodically runs wide when pushing a car to its absolute limits. This is a welcome addition which creates the impression that your opposition is vulnerable and prone to pressurised mistakes.
F1 2013 features a career mode which is almost identical to the previous game. It follows the traditional format of honing your craft and reputation to acquire a better race seat. Before each event, an objective will be set outlining the team’s expectations. Exceeding your target will impress a number of prestigious teams and lead to future employment opportunities. Expectations during the qualifying round are often highly difficult and borderline impossible. A team like Caterham has the sole objective of beating Marussia and not cars out of their league. Objectives telling you to finish in 16th place are ridiculous and wholly inaccurate. This is a huge weight on the shoulders of a rookie 2nd driver who should be concentrating on matching their experienced teammate. You can also begin your career in a Lotus bypassing the usual progression system. Very few drivers in Formula One history have instantly signed with a top 5 team. Races last between 20%-100% distance with options to select a full weekend or single shot qualifying.
The Season Challenge mode is a simplified version of your long and complex career. Qualifying is limited to a 1 lap shootout with each race lasting only 5 laps. Tire wear and fuel usage has been removed to make the experience quicker and more accessible. You start with a small team and move up the ranks by selecting a rival to compete against.. If you manage to outperform that driver, you take his race seat and choose a new rival. The difficulty changes from Amateur, Intermediate, Professional, Expert and Legend to Easy, Medium and Hard.. The Legend setting during your Career is exceptionally challenging, so you would expect a similar difficulty curve during the Season Challenge mode. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth as it is possible to win with a lower tier team and quallify in pole position. After one season I won the championship by 92 points and some races by 20+ seconds. In contrast to this, my best qualifying performance on the Legend preset was 16th with an almost perfect lap. Ironically, there is no challenge at all making this form of gameplay dry, dull and boring.
A better inclusion is the Scenario Mode which has massively expanded on last year’s Champions Mode. These events usually occur during the climactic moments of a race and require your utmost attention. Objectives are exceptionally varied and true to real-life situations. During one such scenario, you can be on a fresh set of tires pushing to get into the top 10 after making an unexpected pit stop and losing track position. Other situations involve managing mechanical problems and trying to keep your ailing car from falling down the field. There are 25 modern challenges and 6 classic objectives to complete which is an impressive amount of content. Annoyingly, this mode also adopts the Bronze/Silver/Gold difficulty setting which makes each challenge far too easy for any decent player. While I enjoyed these brief snippets of gameplay, they quickly became repetitive because of this lower difficulty. You can compare your score will others via official leaderboards but this didn’t entice me to replay any previously completed challenges.
One feature which has been criminally overlooked for too long is the ability to save during longer race distances. Some users avoid full distances because they know the time invested is too much in one long session. Having the ability to save at any time is fantastic and encourages longer playthroughs. Instead, you can save at regular intervals and pick up where you left off before you spun out or crashed. This update is worth the price of admission alone over F1 2012. The Multiplayer aspect has remained largely unchanged and works adequately. There are quick 3-5 laps races with reduced rules and cosmetic damage but this usually descends into chaos. Many players aggressively barge into you and have no intention of taking a corner. This isn’t necessarily Codemasters fault because they can’t change the behaviour of the player base. The online experience is enjoyable if you play in a league with trusted players who respect each other. A good league will have longer races and competitive qualifying sessions. There is an option to disable collisions but the majority of races leave this setting enabled. One glaring problem is you spend too much time in the lobbies waiting for players to join and connect which leads to many users quitting before a race begins.
Codemasters has pleased pretty much every F1 fan by beautifully modelling some of the most iconic cars in Formula One history. You can drive the luscious Lotus 98T around Jerez and other legendary circuits. The cars handle magnificently and feel extraordinarily powerful with their turbochargers. Driving these cars in the game makes modern F1 vehicles appear tame and uninteresting. Each classic car has a propensity to slide more and skid during initial acceleration. As a whole, the car models are unbelievably realistic and look lifelike. F1 2013 comes in two forms with varying levels of content included. The Standard Edition comes with 5 1980s cars, Jerez and Brands Hatch tracks. There is a Classics Edition which contains the standard content plus 6 1990s cars, Estoril and Imola circuits. This paywall is disappointing because a large proportion of day 1 content is locked to genuine customers. If you buy the Standard Edition, the classic content is all too brief. The logistics of acquiring old licenses for historical cars is complicated and expensive but this doesn’t justify an additional $15 fee for consumers. Sadly, Ayrton Senna is not in the game due to commercial licensing fees which if negociable would have cost Codemasters a fortune. Reiza Studios still holds the rights to Senna’s name and have been developing a game based around him for some time.
From a performance standpoint, F1 2013 runs smoothly at 60 fps without any frame dips providing you turn VSync on. I achieved this stable frame rate with maximum settings when running at 1920×1080. Running the game without VSync causes unplayable frame hitching after 5 laps. Most Codemasters games are excellent PC ports and F1 2013 is no different with a number of options at your disposal. You can adjust the Multisampling, Shadows, Particles, Crowd Effects, Driver Details, Trees, Skidmarks and many more. There is an integrated benchmark to test your system performance and see what frame rate is attainable.
Conclusion – Is It Worth Your Money?
F1 2013 is a superb racing game let down by shoddy AI and questionable difficulty settings. The AI can only be described as primitive, weak, inconsistent and predictable which deviates from purist racing. The new physics model is a vast improvement which responds better to your reactions. Additionally, the mid-save feature eliminates those frustrations during longer races and is essential to your enjoyment. Codemasters have done a stellar job in recreating the allure of classic F1 vehicles but this is mostly restricted to Classic Edition adopters. Even with the issues experienced in this game, I would still recommend F1 2013 because it is the best Formula One title on the PC to date. The Standard Edition of F1 2013 is available from Steam for £29.99/$49.99/€44.99 while the Classic Edition retails at £39.99/$64.99/€54.99.
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