F1 24 Review – Realism Both On Sheets and Streets

F1 24 puts players in the shoes of the greatest racers of the year as the official video game of the 2024 FIA Formula One World Championship™.  Featuring an all-new EA SPORTS Dynamic Handling System, the game promises a truly immersive experience where players will feel as one with their car.

So does it live up to its high-octane name and declarations? In this review, we test out some of the game’s many features and how it performs on the PlayStation 5.

Handling

We’ll jump straight to the main point of F1 games, which is racing. F1 24 comes with a new handling that they call Dynamic Handling. Whether it’s good or not depends on the perspective of the players. The main purpose of this feature is to make the game more realistic. We personally played it using DualSense on PlayStation 5.

The good example is that the tires now have a very strong grip. Traction control becomes more difficult in our opinion because the car slips easily if you make the slightest misstep in controlling the car. This makes it more realistic, but on the other hand, it makes it more difficult or rather challenging.

On the other hand, tire temperature is also very influential here and tire degradation can be crucial. In addition, driving a car in drizzly or rainy weather becomes much more difficult to get a grip. It feels like controlling the car on a wet floor, and it is very easy for the car to slip or spin.

Another positive is the more realistic aerodynamic model. In simple terms, the downforce effect is more prominent, especially in the Wings and Floor and this results in a stronger slipstream effect. As a result, if I’m behind an opponent’s car, I can easily overtake another team with the improved Drag Reduction System (DRS).

Driver Career Mode

One of the most notable differences in terms of features is the overhaul of the Driver Career mode. You can now use realistic F1 drivers, whether they’re in the grid this season, F2, or some famous icons like Michael Schumacher, Ayrton Senna, Kamui Kobayashi, etc. On the other hand, you can also create your own character as usual.

If you decide to use a current F1 driver, you can’t choose a team and stick to real life. However, if you use F2 or icon drivers, you can decide which F1 team you want to use at the beginning. If you want to create your own character, you can go from F2 or jump straight into F1. There is an Academy feature, so if you become a Ferrari Driver Academy, the chances of Ferrari recruiting you will be greater.

If you already decided what team you are on, players will be required to improve Driver Recognition through a new system. This will have an effect if you want to make various car upgrades and lead to performance on the grid. The better your performance compared to your teammates, the higher your Recognition will be.

There is also the Secret Meetings. This is intended for other teams / rivals to secretly recruit you. For example, you are at Mercedes, but secretly Aston Martin wants to recruit you. Although in the end you can decide to join any team at the end of the season (if your performance is good), this is a positive gimmick and adds to the realistic impression in my opinion.

MyTeam & Challenge Career

I don’t think MyTeam feels that much different compared to the Driver Career. The only real positive is the new cutscenes at the beginning, with the most noticeable one being the cutscene at the beginning of the game is the car livery showcase, it’s really cool to see your team livery shown so beautifully. It’s quite a nice addition.

Other than that, there are also new gimmicks like R&D Scenario (which applies on Driver Career too). So at the start of each season you can create unique scenarios to make the game more challenging. For example, you can only upgrade the aero part of the car, or High Inflation makes the price of car upgrades more expensive.

In addition, there is now also a Challenge Career. Players will compete with other players. In Challenge Career, you are placed in the shoes of an existing driver and team, with the same events for all players. Completing them will earn you points and a place on the global leaderboard. At the end of the season after a few weeks, the player with the most points will be crowned the Challenge Career champion.

Presentation & Visuals

Actually, there is no noticeable difference in terms of graphic quality. I have played F1 23 quite often and there is no noticeable difference. Because this game is basically still using the same engine for the past few years. It’s very outdated compared to other “next-gen” games that we see since the PS5/Xbox Series release.

Some positive things are that now some tracks are getting updates. For example, Spa as one of the iconic circuits is now very similar to the real world (which were very outdated on F1 23). This also applies to tracks like Silverstone, Lusail International, and Jeddah Corniche Circuit.

In addition, all drivers in 2024 also look more similar to what is in the real world. From facial gestures, eyes, and down to even their hairstyles.

Verdict

F1 24 is a good game with some added gimmicks to make it look like a brand new game. Handling has now become more realistic is a challenge and excitement for us. Driver Career also makes this mode more exciting and varied to keep playing, instead of monotonous like in F1 23.

But in our opinion, these changes are still not enough to be considered a completely new game. There are still many things that are lacking and have not been taken seriously, such as MyTeam, which looks neglected and does not add any meaningful changes in terms of gameplay compared to last year. Thankfully, we didn’t find any annoying bugs.

F1 24 is available on the Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PC via Steam and Epic Games.

Reviewed on the PlayStation 5.

Access Code provided by Electronic Arts.

F1® 24

Publisher: EA

Developer: Codemasters

Release Date TBC

Epic Games Store, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Steam, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S

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