For many years, racing games have been one of the best-selling genres of video games. Titles such as Burnout and Gran Turismo have become legendary in many a gamer’s mind.
But an impressive subgenre in this realm are the Formula 1 racing games that have managed to deliver an impressive emulation of all of the excitement and drama of this iconic racing sport. So here’s a quick look back at some of gaming’s F1 successes.
Formula 1 for PS1
All the way back in 1996, Sony launched its first racing game in the official Formula 1 series. This game took advantage of the ground-breaking technology at the time to deliver a highly playable racing experience that allowed players to complete a full F1 season either against computer opposition or against a fellow player.
The game was praised for its realism and gameplay, and was also notable for the introduction of in-game commentary that was used to give the game an element of excitement much like the real time F1 updates offered by the Coral site.
F-1 World Grand Prix for N64
In 1998 Nintendo gave the N64 a much needed racing game with F-1 World Grand Prix. This featured a racing competition that was based on the 1997 racing season and featured all of the stars of the era.
The game was notable for its highly realistic aspects of extreme weather conditions, as well as detailed information about how technical details such as tyre tread and fuel levels affected the driving performance.
F1 2011 – 2013
Many gamers were delighted with the news that award-winning games developers Codemasters had been granted the license for Formula One games in 2011.
The team behind great racing games such as Colin McRae Rally gave the game a much greater attention to detail, and also introduced an option that enabled gamers to drive a variety of classic cars and circuits with the skills of legendary drivers such as Nigel Mansell.
F1 2015
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InB_8kbPxoE
And finally, F1 fans got the news that they’d been waiting for recently when Codemasters announced the arrival of the latest F1 game in June of this year.
The game will feature on the new next gen consoles of PS4, Xbox One as well as PC platforms, and will include all of the updated features that you’d expect such as a spectacular visual display, along with improved handling of the cars through a new physics model of how the tyres adapt to the track.
And most interestingly, the game also promises to use voice recognition technology that will allow you to communicate to your team in the pit via a headset!