How F1 is holding its games back

It took a while, but over the last 12 months Formula 1 has set about playing 21st century catch-up. Social media, YouTube and mobile apps have all finally had some light shone on them by the bigwigs behind the pinnacle of motorsport, after years of being overlooked.

But there is one glaring arena where F1 is still yet to wake up to the possibilities at its disposal, amid the clamour to engage new, younger fans: gaming.

Codemasters, which since 2010 has held the licence to produce the official Formula 1 game every year, has breathed fresh life into its series with F1 2015, the first title to appear for the latest-generation Playstation 4 and Xbox One consoles.

The game has its limitations, which we'll explore in more depth later, but it would be wrong to throw all of the criticism - particularly any related to a lack of depth or flexibility in the game - in the direction of its creators. Codemasters has a very strict brief: produce an accurate representation of the current F1 season, and for the moment the amount of room it has to get creative beyond that is limited.

So far, F1's chiefs have not shown much interest in wanting the official series of games to keep pace with other major sports by giving players more than just the opportunity to play an exact copy of the latest campaign.

You can be a virtual Will Stevens, but personalisation isn't allowed

But in 2015 that's not enough - gamers have been spoilt by titles allowing them to do all kinds of things beyond simply competing in the category in question.

Whether it's football, basketball, golf, wrestling, or any other major sport you can think of, their games have evolved to the point where the player lives and breathes the sport on so many levels. The lines between role-playing games and pure sporting creations have long been blurred, but F1's contractual restrictions have prevented it from keeping pace.

Right now we're not here to talk about what the game should have - mainly because we let you put many of those suggestions directly to Codemasters in a recent Q&A ahead of the launch of F1 2015.

When ideas such as customisation, team management or adding support series were suggested, F1 2015's principal games designer Lee Mather offered a glimmer of hope that change is on the horizon.

"We've spoken in-depth with Formula 1 about things we'd like to do in the future, and they are very open to some of the ideas we've got," he said. "We've opened a dialogue over what we can do in the future, and we want to do something a bit special."

In a recent interview, game director Paul Jeal admitted Codemasters would "love to have a completely free world, where all the drivers are free to move teams, but that's quite political".

F1's two-dimensional, '20th century' approach to its contracts and various forms of image rights is short-changing gamers in an industry that offers a huge promotional platform.

Handling and tyre wear characteristics are much improved

So how does F1 2015 stack up? The game has been on sale for a few weeks now, giving us plenty of time to get acquainted with it and make more than just a few snap judgements.

Codemasters promised revolutionised artificial intelligence (AI) and an overhaul of the handling model, and it has delivered on both.

No longer are computerised opponents frightened off the road, after decades of their in-game predecessors failing to have the balls to stand up to over-aggressive human players.

If you half-heartedly show your nose down a straight or in a braking zone and expect your rivals to jump out of the way, or if you try to cut across the front of an opponent in battle to defend your position, you're in for a shock - and a few shunts while you learn how little you can get away with.

Another big positive is the way the AI cars interact with each other. They're just as likely to have collisions all of their own making as they are to come to blows with the human car, and that adds a deeper level of realism to your virtual grand prix: now, you know incidents that are nothing to do with you will happen in a race, and that makes watching the replays afterwards much more fun than before.

This works well alongside an improved penalty system, which is not quite as quick to penalise you for the slightest of accidental touches in a pack of cars, and you'll now see your rivals picking up more punishments for causing collisions. We've even seen a car excluded from qualifying, and time penalties dished out for yellow flag infringements. Good attention to detail.

The vastly-improved AI is one of the most significant factors of the game that proves Codemasters has not just applied a lick of paint to its previous series of titles to make F1 look prettier on more powerful machinery. There were understandable fears this might be the case, particularly as the PS3/Xbox 360 generation of games (F1 2010-2014) appeared to be losing momentum.

The AI cars now collide among themselves - even the Mercedes!

But a lot of time was devoted to the 2015 release, which was under even more pressure as it had to hit the shelves mid-season rather than late in the year like the previous games. That was a great move, as it always felt strange starting your virtual campaign with the Australian Grand Prix when the real season was already coming to an end.

Getting the game out before F1's summer break - and still managing to update it with McLaren's Spanish GP-onwards livery (via download) is worthy of recognition. Let's hope it's the norm from now on.

There was another big factor that needed addressing - the handling of the cars. The lazy-feeling controls of the previous games are no more: even with a gamepad (which Codemasters reckons roughly 95-97 per cent of the game's players use, rather than a steering wheel, so we feel is a more relevant test) the cars feel nimble and responsive.

That takes a while to get used to after five years of using full steering-lock far more than should be the case, but it offers those with the ability to master finger-tip driving a chance to be much more precise, and anyone who struggled with the previous games a few more get out of jail cards per lap.

With the previous control model, if you got a corner wrong to begin with it was frustratingly hard to recover from as the cars could be unresponsive. F1 2015 is a step forward in this regard, and very little of the handling model feels similar to previous titles, so Codemasters has clearly been hard at work.

Does it give a full-on feel of simulation? Not particularly, but most of the complaints in that area will come from people who have no idea what an F1 car feels like to drive, especially on the limit. Importantly, the changes allow players to attack more, and you can get into a satisfying, consistent rhythm.

Cars' behaviour is becoming more realistic while still manageable for rookie players

Real F1 cars ride kerbs well, and now their computer game counterparts can do the same. You can attack braking zones, with the car squirming underneath you if you go in a bit too late, and you can feel the time dripping away if you miss an apex by the smallest of margins. The cars move around well on the power too, but in a controllable manner.

The game seems to do a much better job than in the past of straddling the fine line between allowing inexperienced players to compete (we've even tried the driver aids, which are subtle but effective) and giving the hardcore racing gamers plenty to think about.

Taking us back to the AI, it's not just the player cars that look more lively on track now. The 'computer' cars move around just as much, even getting out of shape on the power due to the torque of the turbo engines. When tyre degradation comes into effect, it's noticeable how the frontrunning AI drivers are able to handle a car that is clearly moving around a lot more, and the player is challenged to be just as on the edge to keep up.

With an improved tyre model that Codemasters is rightly proud of comes tyre degradation that is far less frustrating than in the previous games. The drop-off in performance of the Pirellis now has the more realistic effect of making your car slower through the corners, forcing you to attack less, rather than just making it almost undriveable and too prone to spinning as we found in previous games.

We said at the beginning we'd deal with the game's limitations as well, and we're not here to only sing the praises of F1 2015, even if we're impressed overall. The game modes are limited - the only difference between doing a full season in 'quick race' mode (which is nicely customisable) and 'championship season' appears to be more pre- and post-race cut-scenes with additional commentary over them from David Croft and Anthony Davidson.

The third option is 'pro season', which means full distance races, no driver aids and the mandatory use of the 'helmet cam' - all features you can create for yourself in the other two modes.

The 'career' mode of the previous generation of games has been parked while Codemasters works out how to revive an idea that it feels had become "stagnant". That's a fair point, but it's a shame to entirely lose the ability to put your own name in the game. A minor gripe, but that's the sort of small touch people have become used to in most sports titles.

AUTOSPORT takes advantage as AI cars tangle at the start of the Mexican GP

While the customisation of weekend settings, driver aids, and even the season calendar (in quick race mode) is great, the jump in race length from five laps to 25 per cent of full distance seems a bit steep. Five laps makes for frantic, short, sharp racing, and it's great fun, but if you want a little more meat on the bones of your grand prix you have to commit a lot more time per race weekend.

As good as the game is in its improved areas, it still suffers a little from the fact it has to replicate F1's competitive order, so for excitement at the front of the field you need a race where Ferrari is on terms with Mercedes. We've even been fortunate enough (once) to have the Williams drivers getting into the mix, and it leaves you wishing the field was more closely bunched so the power of the new AI model could really be exploited.

While there's little that can be done about that until Mercedes' pursuers catch-up in real life, we wouldn't mind seeing the return of fluctuating team performance from season-to-season, which made a brief appearance in the career mode of the 2012 game.

Critics of F1 games will continue to point fingers in the direction of a lack of depth beyond simply driving a basic F1 season (or in this case, two seasons, as the 2014 campaign is included as well). But the key with this game was for the series to regain momentum, and F1 2015 achieves that.

Until the exciting developments promised for the future materialise - hopefully in F1 2016 - Codemasters has breathed life back into the series by creating the most playable, enjoyable, grand prix racing game for several years. If you fell out of love with the previous games, it's time to come back.

The people behind the F1 games have upped their game this year. Now it's time for the stakeholders responsible for the licence to release the shackles and give fans something to really get their teeth into.

Who knows, it might even hook a few more people in to watch on Sunday afternoons, too.