The fonts and HUD have had a slight spruce up but the video interstitials between the on-track action haven’t changed experienced players will have seen these fist pumps and victory animations a thousand times. It’s crisp and gorgeous (and there’s a new garage section to ogle cars from any angle) but F1 2018 was already no slouch in the beauty stakes. Invitational events in retro cars are still sprinkled between F1 championship rounds but we’ve played this sort of gear before. There still doesn’t seem to be any point in selecting destructive answers that’ll only serve to put your R&D crew(s) offside and slow down car improvements, but I still like the concept it just hasn’t really gone anywhere since F1 2018. Morale in each of the R&D departments can still be impacted during post-session interviews, which are identical to F1 2018 – same effervescent Scottish reporter, same surly camera chap, same questions. The R&D tree system itself is the same, too, and like F1 2018 you can still gather enough points to launch regular part development even if you skip the practice sessions (which, after four years of running on the same tracks, can definitely be a bit of a slog). The Song Remains the SameThe same contract and perk system has returned from F1 2018, as has the spectre of incoming regulation changes that threaten to derail months and months of R&D gains on your car. One, the F2 prologue is top fun and two, without it, little else has changed to set F1 2019’s career mode drastically apart from last year’s version. Garages are full of tools, but here is the biggest one.The F2 content can be completely bypassed if you prefer (and doing so will prevent Weber and Butler from usurping real F1 drivers during your first season) but it’s not something I’d recommend. Weber has praised my F1 debut and Butler has continued to be a dick but, without the face-to-face interactions in the garage or paddock, the rivalry between these former F2 drivers just fades into the background and it's business as usual. Weber and Butler will make the leap alongside you (at the expense of the number two drivers for the teams they join) but the animated interactions cease and are replaced with the occasional text interview emailed through to your inbox by your agent. It’s the closest Codemasters has flirted to an engaging story mode within a racer since the Race Driver days, but don’t get used to it unfortunately, it all dries up following your driver’s promotion to F1. You’ll move to F1 regardless of how you perform in these set-ups but, depending on your decisions and finishing positions, your first-person cutscenes with Weber and Butler will change. Here Codemasters introduces a pair of fantasy drivers – the shrewd but sportsmanlike German Lukas Weber and the cocksure Devon Butler, an arrogant Brit who appears to be using his racing career as an audition to appear as the next Die Hard villain. If you want to hop straight into the regular career mode, however, F1 2019 condenses a season of F2 down into a brief string of three late-race scenarios plucked from what’s destined to be your racer’s final year in the feeder series before snaring a contact in the big leagues. Unlike F1, F2 is a spec series so all the cars are identical in terms of performance. They’re not as fast as F1 cars but they have less downforce, so they’re actually slightly trickier to drive in certain situations. “Codemasters has been adding retro F1 cars to the F1 series for some time now, all with their own handling nuances that set them apart from today’s bleeding-edge F1 cars, so it’s no surprise the studio has been able to squeeze in the Dallara F2 chassis and have it feel equally distinct.
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