Buffs And Mercs

Upgrade trees, a deep career mode and classic cars put F1 2017 back on track.

- Phil Iwaniuk

There are two ways to look at annualised licensed releases like F1 2017. One is to compare it to last year’s effort and take a stock inventory of all its little iterative improvements. The other way is to compare it to the real thing: everyone’s favourite waste of a Sunday afternoon, Formula One. Either one of these methods demonstrates, in F1 2017’s case, what a stellar job Codemasters has achieved this year.

FIFA’s developers can be pretty sure football will be the same cavalcade of tumbling millionaires when they set to work on a new FIFA, but for the ever-changing Formula One it’s a different story. The tires are wider and more durable this year, and the cars manufactured to a completely different set of regulations. As a result, 2017’s cars are significantly quicker than last season (so much so that drivers complained of neckache from all the G-force during preseason testing), and F1 2017 benefits from that enormously. The cars are simply more fun to drive than in the last game. They suck onto the tarmac through high-speed corners and bite into apexes as you turn in. They’re faster than ever, but not skittish like the aero-heavy cars of a decade ago.