F1 2020 – PC Review

F1 2020

Another cycle has passed, and we are now up to the 2020 version of the
immensely popular Formula 1 game by Codemasters.

I’ve been a fan since the early days, and the game has done nothing but
improve year after year since 2015 in my opinion.

It all started with Graphical and AI improvements, feeling that you really
where apart of the team, deciding upgrades for your car, answering
journalist question after races/qualification sessions and so on.

And that left me wondering after 2019 which already was gorgeous and a ton of fun,
with so many modes to choose from, what else could Codemasters throw at 2020 to improve it.

Well it turns out Codemasters, hit the hammer on the nails head once again.

First of all;

They introduced a brand new mode called My Team.

This is exactly what the name suggests, you are now in charge of your own team
within the game, handling everything from car upgrades, research and development,
marketing, your co-driver, scheduled journalist events with questions,
even managing spare time with various activities between race weekends, to gain
resource points, and hard to come by money by participating in events such as
eSports races, simulator training, team morale events and so on.

Right at the beginning of jumping into your new team, you will be questioned by
famed F1 journalist Will Buxton (Sky Sports) about your ambitions and what not,
these questions depending on how you answer them will provide a starting point
to your team, determining at what level certain departments begin at.

This mode also includes earning Resource Points for the research and development
but also a financial aspect by signing sponsors that give you specific tasks
to fulfill during the race-weekends, but if you are not careful enough,
you might be seeing yourself in a financial struggle as the season progresses.
Maybe signing Hamilton isn’t the best financial option once you have the chance
to do so, perhaps a mature Kimi Räikkönen which is a ton cheaper for yearly
salary is the best way to go about? choices choices, these you have to deal with.

This mode for me personally, besides the classical career mode which see’s you
pretty much only as the driver for your chosen team during a season or multiple
seasons. (you also manage upgrades here)

Is the most fun of them all, and definitely the most challenging of the solo modes,
since you will be fighting against established teams who might be ahead of you
in the current upgrades and so on.

but wait…

Not only is there also the F2 season you can occupy yourself within the game as in
F1 2019, but there’s now also a split-screen mode so you and your friends can
be racing like crazy to duke it out who’s the better racer once and for all.

The game also features the classical multiplayer, with private and or open lobbies
so you can duke it out with folks from around the world.

You have also as in previous games the option to just race single tracks,
and or do Lap times on various locations. Plenty to choose from here.

There is a just a ton of content in the game, favorites returning from previous
years, such as classical cars from eras in the past, that you can race a long with;
and this year in particular has a focus on F1 turning 70 years old since the very
first race, and also paying tribute to the legend that is Michael Schumacher with
DLC liveries for cars, and racing suits / helmets and gloves.

And we shall not forget about mentioning the new tracks that have been added to the
game, Zandvoort in Holland (Netherlands) and Hanoi in Vietnam. Unfortunately
in real life, we won’t be seeing the mentioned tracks being raced on this year.
But I am glad Codemasters took the time and added in the new tracks, at least this way
we get a good understanding of the layout, in preparation for 2021.

Other aspects of the game;

The general feel of the cars in 2020 is superb, I felt sometimes the cars in 2019
where a little bit slippery, and that has definitely changed this year. Also
the start of each race, depending on if you have manual or auto clutch starts,
is not like 2019, where the AI opponent always got a super start and flew
past you in every single race. It just all comes together well balanced and
is a joy to play already with a Xbox Controller. (I think I’m going to need
to get a wheel and pedals at some point).

As I mentioned before the Graphics already were fantastic in the 2018-19 versions
of the game, and 2020 is no different, gorgeously modelled cars with the new
liveries (missing the black Mercedes one still) for us to feast our eyes on.

The sounds of the different engines are clearly distinguishable from one and
the other. And Geoff is in the game once again, only this time around you won’t
get to tell him to shut up! this has been changed to a more friendly, engineer quiet
instead. Hah!

The game runs on medium-high tier PC hardware flawlessly,

On my test/review rig that I use daily,

i5-9400
16 GB DDR4 3200mhz
RTX 2060 (6GB)

At 1440p resolution the game pumps out an solid 105-132fps depending on the track.
So definitely smooth sailing on the Engine part.

Don’t you have anything negative to say about the game?

Well there’s not really much negative to be said to be honest about the game
in general, there are though 2 things that I hope to see in the future
and perhaps one of them could be fixed in patches?

First the AI sometimes might be a little bit enthusiastic and in the moment
smack into you, this generates that you have gotten a warning from hitting an
opponent even if you clearly are not to be blamed for the incident.

Secondly, this is more of a request, since 2018 we have been blessed hearing
some really awesome Radio chatter in Formula 1, Carlos Sainz, Smooth operaaator
and Lando Norris.. being goofy, my wish is that some of this could be
replicated into the game, so at least your driver has a voice of sorts whether
he asks for advice, status or anything from the pit wall crew.

That’s it.

That concludes my review of F1 2020,

In my honest opinion, Codemasters keep knocking it out of the park with their racing
titles one after the other, F1 2020 is the best of the best.. so much content to
enjoy, if you had any hesitations of picking it up? (why would you hesitate) I hope
what I scribbled together helps you out, and you go and pick it up for yourself.

I guarantee you, that you won’t be disappointed.

Whether you play on Xbox One / Playstation 4 or PC. The game is out now