F1: 2012

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If you like real racing, not arcade racing, you will love this. I play it with a Playseat Revolution and a G25 (dremaing about buying a Fanatec Clubsport w/ forumla trim soon), playstation 3 console. I'm a true F1 fan, read news everyday and follow every race, qualifiers and sometimes practices on tv and I'm also going to Austin this year to watch the return of F1 to American soil. With all that being said, this game can simulate everything that happens at F1 in real life, from unpredictable weather to tire degradation. I have F1 2010, F1 2011 as well and I had a lot fun playing all games, career mode is fun and the best of all, playing online. I have friends that love this game for its realism and I have friends that hate this game for its realism, the second tier of friends are more into bumping, crashing and etc...This game is for someone that understand how every milisecond counts, for player that have sweating palms at the end of the race for keeping themselves focused on every detail and getting the most out or every corner. Codemasters has done a great job on every racing game that I have purchased from them, they're also de the developers of Dirt 3 and previous and later editions. There is also Grid, which I haven't played, but I saw that Grid 2 is coming out, so I'll check that out as well.

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I followed the progress of this series from the beginning, but never pulled the trigger on buying or even trying the game. I decided to take the plunge this year and I'm happier than ever.

I'm a long time racing fan, having played and owned every Gran Turismo game, old f1 games for old systems, Need for Speed, etc. Played 'em all, and I've always loved racing games....

Man is this game tough. Hopeful that it's just because I am new to the series, but I've played a few races online so far and have been getting smoked! Online competition is steep. It's tough dealing with the jokers who are out to knock people off the track. I could really do with out that. It seems like the start of every race has some idiot plowing into the field in corner 1. But, if you survive it, the racing plays out beautifully online.

I also started my career and can already tell this game is going to be fun all winter long. I can't wait to keep exploring the depths of the game and am hopeful that I can get past the learning curve enough to be competitive with the other drivers.

psThis game is already proving to be a lot more fun than Gran Turismo 5 ever was, at least for me.

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Let me start this off by saying that i've put a lot of time into the first two games (2010 and 2011) and this probably the best so far. I'll be breaking down the review into sections with a run down of the basic parts of the game.

First off, when you start the game you run into the Young Drivers Test which is smartly disguised as a tutorial for beginners to the series. Since I already knew how the games played, it felt quite tedious having the game telling me what button to press to activate KERS since i've already done it hundreds of times, but it was a great time to use to get used to the game. I had just bought a new wheel to play this game it with and it certainly helped me come to grips with it.

Once you finish the drivers test, you get to choose a team to drive for in your career. Which teams are available depends on your performance in the YDT so be sure to try your best. After that, the game drops you off in the main menu and you can choose to do what you wish.

Quick Race is what the name says. You choose a driver, track, conditions/settings, and off you go.

Multiplayer Honestly, I've only done one online race in the last two/three years and was not impressed at all. There are too many variables that you can't control that I don't think it's worth the frustration. I don't want to turn away anyone from this component of the game though, so you'll have to read other reviews if you want an insight on multiplayer since I have zero experience with this part.

Career Same as before. You start with a low to mid level team (depending on the YDT) and work your way up the chain. This years Career mode has been greatly improved, starting with a complete overhaul of the menu from previous games. Everything this year feels so much more streamlined and intuitive. The teammate challenge is focused on more this year as well, as the first page you come upon when you enter the Career menu is a comparison of how you and your teammate have performed so far. You also have less selection in terms of race distances, I forget what the smaller distances were, but the longer ones were only 25%, 50%, or 100%(where as in 2011 you had more choices). This isn't necessarily a bad thing for me, I already did 50% races in 2011, but it may make it tough for people who liked to choose the distances that have been removed.

Proving Grounds The Time Attack and Time Trial modes are back. Time Attack puts you in the seat of a pre-selected car in tracks with varying conditions with a target time to beat, it's really fun trying to find how to beat the Gold time. Time Trial is just you in a car and track you selected with your quickest time(you can also choose someone else's time from the Leaderboards) and you just try to beat the times. New this year is the Champions Mode which puts you up against the six world champions that participated in the 2012 season. Each champion has their own individual challenge (that plays to their strengths) and has a final challenge where you have to beat them all in a shootout. This is a really fun mode and trying to get Gold in every challenge is not that easy.

The game was filled with glitches that were very frustrating at times, but they have all been repaired as of the writing of this review and the game works great.

Smaller things to touch on:

-Cars handle great. It may vary with different setups, but the cars feel so great when you have a great setup on.

-Engines sound amazing as usual.

-You can now adjust brake bias when you're on track, a feature missing from the last two games.

Overall, it's a great game and certainly one that an F1 fan(new or old) will enjoy.

Edit: I see that some reviews say to try out the demo first and then decide whether to buy or not, I would not suggest this. The demo has not seen any of the patches that have gone into the current game and there is a considerable difference in how the cars handle between both versions.

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If you like F1 and you like racing games, this is a must buy. I have played a lot of F1 games over the years, the old PC EA ones up through the Sony championship edition game for Ps3 and none come close to this. This is hands down the best F1 game I've ever played. If you don't like F1 or simulation racing then this is probably not for you though. It's more realistic and challenging than Gran Turismo even. So bottom line, if you like F1 and realistic sim racing you should get this, but if you're more about arcade style racing then it's probably not for you.

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I am new to F1 2012 and decided to give it a try. I have been looking for a good racing simulation that actually reflects real racing and is fun and exciting to play and at the same time having been disappointed in some of the Nascar racing entries in recent years. I don't understand why EA and others cant make a Papyrus type sim that matches modern day graphics and playability.

So far it seems that F1 2012 is equal parts simulation and excitement. I frankly don't know much about F1 racing, being more a Nascar fan myself, but F1 seems to capture the precision of the vehicles and the excitement of individual events. Althought it demands skill and tactics over thoughtless speeding and has a bit of a learning curve. So it may make you likely lose the interest due to the difficulty at times.

The graphics are sharp and the driving and crashes seem realistic. There is a bit of a beginners tutorial which will help a bit with the learning curve but it is still difficult to drive these tracks.

F1 2012 has a lot to offer and so far I am enjoying the ride. Now if I can just get a good Nascar racing game, I would be set.