Games
F1 2018 is nearly here. We speak with Codemasters’ game director, Lee Mather, as he gives us the rundown on what to expect from this year’s brand new title.
It’s nearly time to line up on the starting grid and fire up those engines: F1 2018 is right around the corner. With a fresh new look, a revamped career mode and even more classic cars, there’s plenty to dive into when it lands on your consoles or PC come August 24. Expect driver rivalries, updated visuals and on-track physics when hitting the track.
Ahead of the game’s launch, we caught up with the Codemasters game director, Lee Mather, to dive into just what makes this year’s title feel so fresh, the latest additions to the series and why they’ve decided to go even more in-depth with their career mode – including a feature that has you taking on what we’re sure is even more challenging that some of the most difficult circuits: talking to the press.
What gameplay tweaks have you made with this year’s game? Will fans of the series have to re-learn their already honed skills?
With all of the off-track changes and the obvious inclusion of ERS, we’ve also worked on the wheel-to-wheel racing aspect of the game, as well as the vehicle physics. We have increased the rate at which the suspension and chassis updates occur, which gives the car an amazing feeling of grip and fidelity, while picking up every nuance of the track surface and kerbs.
We’ve also continued to enhance our tyre model. The key update to the tyre mode this year is the inclusion of the carcass temperature. As in real life, a hot lap only really impacts the outer temperature of the tyre, whereas sustained fast running can impact on the overall internal temperature of the tyre, which can also be detrimental to performance. All of this work has come about through our strong collaboration with some of the technical boffins at Formula 1.
Career mode has been padded out even more than before in this year’s title; what’s new here, what have you changed, and how much fan feedback did you implement for 2018?
We have a long term plan for where we’re taking the F1 series. Part of that is taking onboard fan feedback and working out ways where we can learn from it, or incorporate it in to the game – while not just catering for one segment of our audience. F1 2018 takes living the life of an F1 driver to the next level. As we see regularly within the sport, being the fastest on track is only part of what teams want to see of a driver. That’s what we want the player to experience.
The driver’s conduct and attitude away from the circuit will play a huge part in the Career in F1 2018. Between sessions, the player can be approached by a journalist who will ask questions about the session, season, team, car, development and even rivalries between you and other drivers. How you chose to answer will determine what sort of a character you are viewed as within the paddock; do you exhibit showmanship over sportsmanship or vice versa?
Certain teams prefer drivers of certain character traits. Your answers will also impact on department motivation and your value within the team. Motivation impacts upon the delivery of upgrades, while your value as a driver impacts on how strong a position you are in when either negotiating with a new team, or renegotiating for a better deal with your existing team.
Beyond all of this, we’ve also added the ability for the player to challenge another driver as their rival, which again impacts on your value as a driver. Additionally, we’ve added a new element to the research and development system in the game. Inspired by the sport, we sometimes apply a rules change between seasons. This results in teams needing to protect their R&D so as not to start the next season on the back foot. The result of this is, the season starting performance order can be vastly different each times the rules change. No season will be the same for the player.
Circuit Paul Ricard returns to F1 and is in this year’s game; tell us about the track creation process. Did you guys fly down to the track and record every inch? What exactly goes into making a realistic in-game circuit?
We use a wide range of resources when building a new circuit. Unlike some of the completely new tracks we’ve added in the past, Paul Ricard already existed, so that made things easier to get good reference earlier in the process. We receive CAD data for the circuit, as well as map data for elevation changes. We also have access to drone footage, as well as a photographer who walks the entire circuit, taking 360 degree images.
Doing it this way also allows the photographer to call out unique and quirky elements of the circuit, which we can then include. Plus, in the case of Paul Ricard, the race has now taken place, so we scrutinise all of the footage for any last minute changes.
One of the game’s new concepts is the player-managed energy recovery system – what can you tell us about this and what difference will it make to players?
Funnily enough, I’ve just completed the new Practice Programme for the energy recovery system, while racing Baku. As in real life, it’s all about finding the most effective and efficient usage of the additional power delivered by the ERS. On a circuit such as Baku, it took me until the third lap of the test to get a handle on how best to use it.
Lap times are significantly affected by how the ERS is used, with a reduction of up to 160bhp when the system isn’t deploying. This means that the racing is incredibly varied. It may appear that a player is punching above their weight, as it did in a recent race I ran where I felt I could compete further up the field than I realistically should have been able to. It turns out, I was pushing too hard at the start, and spent the later stages of the race trying to get on top of my fuel and ERS levels, which saw me slip back down the field. It also allows for some great strategic overtaking and defending.
What was your reasoning when offering players the chance to disable the ‘halo’ safety feature? Was this a result of the feature’s reception IRL?
The halo is part of the sport this year, and is likely to be so for the foreseeable future. As always, we want to represent the sport accurately, so rather than allowing the player to disable the halo in its entirety, we allow the player to remove the central column when racing in cockpit camera. We feel this is the best solution: it prevents visibility issues, which aren’t present in real life, but are when viewing an image on a monitor, while still staying true to the sport of Formula 1, as it is in 2018.
What additions have been made to the classic car roster, and will there be any surprises for players?
Both the Brawn GP001 and the Williams FW25 have been added to the C1 class, to compete with the likes of the Red Bull RB6 and Ferrari F2007, which are returning in F1 2018, along with the rest of the classic cars we included in F1 2017. We also have a new exciting class of classic cars including icons from the 1970s and 1980s, and you'll be able to drive legendary cars like James Hunt's 1976 championship winning McLaren M23D and Niki Lauda’s Ferrari 312 T2. Check out the full list on Codemasters' blog.
What’s the newest thing within the game you’re most proud of in this year’s title?
It’s tough to call out just one element, as it’s often the case that a lot of smaller things go together to make up the complete package. If I detailed all of the systems and changes we’ve made to Career, I’d be writing a weekly column! But it’s that balance of incredible on-track action, and managing all of the off-track elements which sets F1 2018 apart from other racing titles. That’s something I’m incredibly proud of.
F1 2018 is out for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC on August 24, 2018.
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