A few weeks before the official launch of F1 22, Electronic Arts sent us a version preview so that we can taste some of the innovations of this new opus. A short tour of the Miami International Autodrome and the adaptive AI enabled us to warm up the rubbers.
Effective for nearly a year and a half, the acquisition of Codemasters by Electronic Arts has clearly not changed the habits of the British studio. Regulated like a Swiss cuckoo clock, the developer is therefore preparing to release a new version of its Formula 1 simulation approved by the International Automobile Federation with all that this implies of official licenses. It is obviously still too early to know if it will honor the very good opus 2021, but here is already a taste.
Will Norris be able to hold the Chuck?
As much to be clear from the outset, this taste will be a little bitter given the multiple limitations of our preview. No career mode on the horizon, no more multiplayer options: neither Electronic Arts nor Codemasters wanted to show too much when we can assume that the developers are still working hard on their foal. So we were able to do a few laps on the Grand Prix and Time Trial modes.
In the same vein, the wealth of content was not yet available and if all the cars, all the drivers and all the teams were indeed there, we had to do with only five circuits. On the menu, therefore, the Italian Grand Prix at Imola, the Austrian Grand Prix at the Spielberg circuit, the indestructible English course at Silverstone and two American tracks, Austin in Texas and the Miami International Autodrome on which brilliantly shine Max Verstappen.
This circuit being the only real "little new one" of the 2022 opus, we obviously did as many races as possible on it... for our greatest pleasure. Let's admit that the design of the route with its 19 bends and its 3 DRS zones make it a fast course with interesting variations. Nothing too technical for beginners and a rendering that we imagine to be impeccable, even if we must admit that we were not able to go to Florida to reconnoitre the terrain.
Another novelty of F1 22: virtual reality. She enters the Codemasters game. Unfortunately, to be honest, we couldn't test this option due to its limitation to a handful of headsets: Valve Index, Oculus Quest 2, Oculus Rift S, HTC Vive and HTC Vive Cosmos. Of course, we will try to find the appropriate equipment at the time of the test. Electronic Arts also points out that a large performance optimization phase is still to be carried out for this VR version.
Leclerc, stop your tank!
From the races we've been able to do, F1 22 doesn't seem to be taking a lot of risks. It capitalizes on the successes of its predecessor and given the qualities of the latter, Codemasters would obviously have been wrong to deprive itself. We therefore always appreciate this gameplay which allows you to adjust the level of realism of the races according to your style of play, your habits and your objectives: there is really something to delight the most novice to the most demanding of players.
Even on this preview, the excellent driving sensations of F1 2021 are easily found. The nervousness of the single-seaters, the fierce duels between drivers and the tendency to generate moments of tension in the middle of the race do not seem to have been left in the locker room. Codemasters, however, indicates that it has worked on artificial intelligence through what the developers call adaptive AI, an interesting option that we have not yet been able to sufficiently test.
In principle, the idea is to be able to select two options from the (countless) settings in the settings menu. Set to "normal", the adaptive AI must make it possible to eliminate what the regulars call rubber banding: a concept which makes the artificial intelligence adapt to the player in order to never be too far ahead or too far behind to a logically more exhilarating result insofar as you always have someone to fight with.
This rubber banding also leaves an indelible stain on realism and while Codemasters aims to offer a real simulation, it had to remove this trick or, at least, find a solution for it. The Briton has chosen the smartest option by leaving the possibility of activating it by opting for “full” at the level of this adaptive AI setting. From what we have been able to see, it works well and even if it remains possible to adjust the level of difficulty itself, this adaptive AI option prevents the pilots managed by artificial intelligence from taking too much quickly out to sea.
Our preview version also included immersive and broadcast styles for managing pit stops or the safety car in particular. This is to offer more options so, for example, that amateurs can drive all the warm-up laps. Again, we welcome the multiplication of these options to find the right balance between realism of the grand prix and simplification, just to have fun. In the end, F1 22 seems, forgive me the expression, on the right track, even if it will be necessary to wait for a complete and optimized version to validate a release only one year after F1 2021.
Release scheduled for July 1, 2022 on PC (Steam, Epic Games Store, Origin, EA App) as well as PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S.
