Director(s) Paul Jeal Initial release date 10 July 2015 Series Formula One | Composer(s) Mark Knight Mode(s) Single-player Genre Racing video game | |
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Distributor(s) PAL/NA: Bandai Namco EntertainmentJP: Ubisoft Release date(s) EU: 10 July 2015NA: 21 July 2015JP: 30 July 2015 Similar Codemasters games, Racing video games | ||
F1 2015 is a racing game based on the 2015 Formula One season developed by Codemasters. It is the seventh Formula One game produced by the same studio. It was released on July 10, 2015, and features the team and driver line-ups from the 2015 season, including the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez. It also features all the drivers, cars and circuits from the 2014 season (i.e. Caterham F1, and the Hockenheimring, which was removed from the calendar). It is the first title developed by Codemasters for the eighth generation consoles.
Contents
Gameplay
The game runs on an all-new version of the EGO game engine, providing a large number of improvements to the game's physics models. It features an all-new "Pro Season" mode that is more challenging than the normal gameplay because there is no HUD and no assist, which includes traction, ABS, and transmission, with the hardest level possible.
The game is also compatible with the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One's voice recognition software, allowing players to talk to their race engineers during the race and ask for race information, weather updates, and tyre status, and even request a change of tyres or wing.
The game was also noted for the fact that the AI would often wreck or make mistakes. This drew both praise and criticism from game critics.
Development and release
Unlike previous Codemasters F1 games, which have been released in September–October, F1 2015 was released in July 2015. The previous game F1 2014 was regarded as more of a "filler" game until the 2015 game was released. This game is made almost completely from scratch after Codemasters decided to base this version on an entirely new game engine, said to dramatically improve both the screen quality and the AI's abilities.
On 15 February 2015, screenshots of internal letters regarding the development of the video game were leaked onto the Internet via Facebook. Codemasters later confirmed they were indeed legitimate screenshots and had been leaked from a "confidential internal development email."
On May 22, 2015, Codemasters released a teaser trailer, pushing back the release date from June 12, 2015 to July 10, 2015 for Europe and Australia, July 21 for North America, and July 24 for Brazil. Despite this, the PC version was released on July 9 worldwide through the Steam platform.
Reception
The final product received a mixed reception with the PlayStation 4 version scoring 65 out of 100 on the review aggregator site Metacritic and 64.6% on GameRankings. IGN praised the graphics and control system, but criticised the game modes, and AI. Metro liked the weather effects, and said the game held its own in the genre.
The version released for PC received a mixed reception after release, scoring 56 of 100 from critics according to review aggregator Metacritic. Reviews on GameRankings yielded a rating of 56.33%.
The game got to number one in the Chart-Track sales chart.