Codemasters has confirmed that F1 2018, the new game based on the 2018 Formula 1 racing season, will launch on August 24, for PS4, Xbox One, and PC- which means it actually comes out on the weekend of the Formula 1 2018 Belgian GP at the Spa-Francorchamps Circuit.

Among the many things the new game will have, Codemasters has promised an even deeper career mode (which really is saying something, because the career mode in last year’s game was already staggeringly deep), as well as more classic cars for fans of vintage vehicles.

“We were delighted by the reception that the highly-acclaimed F1 2017 game received, and are extremely excited to be able to further build on such a strong starting point with F1 2018” said Paul Jeal, F1 Franchise Director at Codemasters.

“Over the past few years we have engaged heavily with our fan-base to understand what is important to them and we cannot wait to unveil more details on features we know our fans will love. Career mode has been further expanded to immerse players even deeper into the world of F1 than before, with the return of a highly requested feature back into the franchise. We are also adding more classic cars, again listening to our fans as to which of the historical F1 cars they would most like to virtually drive next. Outside of those headline additions there are many other great enhancements to be revealed before the game launches.”

All of this sounds good, and should endear the game greatly to F1 video game fans- I am sure they will be looking forward to this game when it launches. It’s not far from now- August 24 2018, for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Hopefully we do get to see some gameplay footage for it some time soon.

F1 2017 is actually a really fun game, regardless of where you fall on the ‘car enthusiast’ scale. It’s got a great mix of authentic racing that is challenging and rewarding for fans of the motorsport, but fair and different from a lot of other titles on the market for newcomers to the concept.

And now, it has gotten better. A new update for the game has been released, which adds, among other things, a Photo Mode to the game, LAN multiplayer, car liveries, a new TV broadcast style ‘spectator mode’, and more. You can check out the full list of changes and additions to the game brought to the table by this new update for yourself.

F1 2017 launched earlier this year for the Xbox One, PS4, and PC. In it, Codemasters continued their steady year-on-year improvement via a successful iteration of their winning formula. Make sure to check out our review of the game here.

The update brings the much heralded Photo Mode to consoles for the first time giving players the ability to create, save and share incredible action shots from within the game. A number of enhanced Esports-related features are also included, the most notable of which is a brand new spectator mode which adds “TV-style” broadcast element on the left hand side of the screen. You can now showcase the current running order as well as various other statistics, such as:
· Gap to the race leader
· Gap to the car ahead or behind
· Positions lost or gained
· Fastest lap times
· Current tyre compound
· In the pits
· Number of pit stops

As a spectator, you will now be able to control what information is shown. You can also see live timing for the car you are watching, fastest laps, as well as sector specific yellow flags. If you do not want to see any of this information as a spectator, though, you will be able to disable this as you please.

Another year, another Formula One game. Codemaster’s F1 2017 may very well be the series’ best entry till date. Not only have the fine folks at Codemasters nailed down the racing mechanics in F1 2017, they have somehow managed to make the overall package better by including RPG like mechanics such as as the skills and resource upgrade system. Not only does this add a level of dynamism to gameplay, but it also helps players remain invested in races. After all, winning and performing well over the race weekend results into more resource points which in turn means more more skills for your vehicle.

We recently went hands on with F1 2017 across all console versions including the PS4, Xbox One and PS4 Pro. So first of all, what are the differences between the PS4 and Xbox One versions? To begin with both versions target a 60 frames per second cap, however both of them face minor frame rate drops here and there. The drops are a bit more frequent on the Xbox One version. Suffice to say, both versions don’t run flawlessly at 60 frames per second. On the image quality front, both versions’ vertical resolution renders at 1080p. However on the PS4 the horizontal runs at 1920. On the Xbox One, we observed a slightly more softer look at times which possibly indicates that the game is employing a dynamic or less than 1920 horizontal resolution.

Codemasters have also revealed that F1 2017 utilizes PS4 Pro’s FP16 operations (which is the only console it’s available for right now), which has resulted into optimized shaders and reduction in instruction counts on the GPU front. This has given the developers enough room to render the game at a much higher resolution and frame rates.

If you are a PS4 Pro owner and if you own a 4K TV, then F1 2017 will be rendered in full 4K output resolution of 3840 x 2160, achieved through a checkerboard reconstruction technique. This results into better shadow quality, reflections, better draw distances, sharper textures and high quality shaders on vehicle and environmental materials.

For PS4 Pro owners who game a 1080p TV, F1 2017 offers a downsampled image resulting into a higher quality 1920 X 1080p image buffer. This immediately results into better object detailing and smooth edges. Performance on the PS4 Pro version seems to be rock solid 60 frames per second. We barely witnessed any drops even in during the most intense situations.

Unfortunately, all three versions suffer from screen tearing. It isn’t as worst as F1 2016 but it’s definitely present on all three versions. Another downfall is the game’s atrocious character models and visuals that are now showing its age. Character models look flat and it seemed like they have been picked up from the early PS3 days. The visuals, except the cars themselves, are slowing showing their age. In an era, where a game like Forza Motorspot 7 is running at a blistering 4K resolution and 60fps with extremely high visuals, F1 2017 looks rather dated. It seems that Ego Engine 4.0 hasn’t really seen much in terms of visual upgrades from last generation. F1 2017 is by no means a bad looking game but it definitely doesn’t look like a game that is pushing boundaries in 2017.

F1 2017 continues to flesh out the excellent career mode in last year’s entry. This time around, the game takes cues from many other popular games of the day, by adding RPG elements. No, no leveling or loot systems here- but there are what are basically skill trees. These skill trees are hidden behind the R&D you get to conduct over the career mode, and can unlock 100 new abilities and perks for you.

There are four times as many abilities to unlock this time around- and the tree itself is non linear, meaning you have to put some thought into what your short term and long term goals are if you want to leverage it to the fullest possible.

Of course, you can’t just unlock things on a whim- you need Resource Points to do so, and Resource Points are a limited currency. Here are some tips to earn them a bit quicker and more efficiently:

• Win. This is… probably pretty good advice for the game in general, but win races. First place gets you 25% more Resource Points than you would have otherwise gotten.
• Sim races. Once the game is fully aware of your ability, and can simulate it well, start simming races- this will save you a lot of time.
• Become world champion early in the season. Wait, there’s more to this- once you are World Champion, basically halt all R&D. This will net you an additional 25% Resource Points, too.

F1 2017, like every other game that gets a release on PlayStation, Xbox, or Steam, has Achievements and Trophies support- there are 50 Achievements (plus an additional Platinum Trophy on PS4) for you to unlock as you play this game. In this guide, we list these out, and where possible, also include videos so you know exactly what to do.

Something to prove 
Accept a contract with McLaren or Sauber

Contender 
Accept a contract with Williams, Force India, Renault, Toro Rosso or Haas

Great expectations 
Accept a contract with Red Bull, Ferrari or Mercedes

Seasoned Veteran 
Complete a Full Season of 20 Races in Career or Championships

Hard work pays off 
Complete your first Practice Programme

Practically perfect 
Achieve a perfect result in a Practice Programme

Some assembly required 
Apply all vehicle upgrades from one department

On the shoulders of giants 
Have 75% of the vehicle upgrades applied

Underestimated 
Spend at least 75% of your season being rated as ‘Overachieving’ by your team

Back up to speed 
Improve your performance to elevate yourself out of the ‘Underachieving’ zone

On the podium 
Achieve a podium finish in any game mode

First of many? 
Take your first win in any full season

Top of the pile 
Win the Formula 1 Drivers’ Championship

It’s a team sport
Win the Formula 1 Constructors’ Championship

Don’t hold my hand 
Complete any race with all assists disabled

Jeff knows best 
Pit under the Safety Car onto the team’s suggested strategy

Top that! 
Set the fastest time in all three Practice sessions, take pole position and win the Grand Prix

Timing is everything 
Set a clean lap in any Time Trial

Time waits for no one 
Set a clean lap in Time Trial at 10 circuits

Slippery when wet 
Set wet times in Time Trial at 5 circuits

The weather man 
Create and race your own weather scenario

Déjà vu 
Use a Flashback

Back on track 
Resume a race using a Mid-Session Save

Tinker 
Use the Multi Function Display to adjust your set-up while on track

Asserting dominance
Win a total of 5 Online Races

More to come 
Complete a Race in an Online Championship

The 1% club 
Win a 25% + distance race against ‘Ultimate’ AI opponents

NOT NOW JEFF! 
Politely ask your Race Engineer to stop talking to you out on track

Best Seat In The House 
Take pole position

Chris knows best 
Research a recommended upgrade

Maybe there’s another way 
Complete 10 laps on the alternate route tracks

Invite only 
Accept an invite to an Invitational event

Blast from the past
Complete an Invitational event

The prancing horse 
Complete a race in a classic Ferrari at Monza

The best of British 
Complete a race in a classic British car at Silverstone

Down but not out 
Take a grid drop penalty for switching an engine part

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UclfpyUXqpE

Feed the machine 
Complete a Fuel Management Practice Programme

It’s a marathon, not a sprint 
Complete a Race Strategy Practice Programme

Up to eleven 
Out qualify your team mate 11 times in one season

The right person for the job 
Receive a promotion to first driver

Setting up 
Complete a valid qualifying lap using the maximum fuel setting

When the stars come out 
Complete a night race at Monaco

Out with the old 
Switch out a worn engine part

Welcome to the real world 
Obtain a rank of 10 Online

Competitive Streak 
Obtain a rank of 25 Online

Another lap? 
Obtain a champion star Online

Stick or shift 
With manual gears enabled race a car with a non sequential gearbox

To the limit 
Perform a perfect pitstop with Pit Assists disabled and Rules enabled

To the victor go the spoils 
Obtain a gold medal in a championship

F1 2017 is now out, and like most Codemasters games, it’s actually a well made, well optimized port on PC. That said, the same considerations as always apply- it’s a PC game, there are a lot of permutations and combinations for PC hardware, it’s impossible to test for all of them, etc. etc. etc. You know the drill by now.

This also means, as a result, that yes, you are going to run into some errors when you try playing the game on PC- not necessarily, but you might. And if you do, we have prepared a guide to some common errors people run into while trying to play the game, as well as some handy suggested fixes. Let’s get started.

But first, the specs.

MINIMUM:

• • OS: 64bit Versions of Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10
  • Processor: Intel Core i3 530 or AMD FX 4100
  • Memory: 8 GB RAM
  • Graphics: Nvidia GTX 460 or AMD HD 5870
  • DirectX: Version 11
  • Network: Broadband Internet connection
  • Storage: 40 GB available space
  • Sound Card: DirectX Compatible Soundcard
  • Additional Notes: Supported Graphics Cards: AMD HD5870 or better, HD6870 or better, HD7790 or better, R7 260 or better, R9 260 or better Nvidia GTX460 or better Series, GTX560 or better, GTX650Ti or better, GTX750 or better, GTX950 or better

RECOMMENDED:

• • OS: 64bit Versions of Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10
  • Processor: Intel Core i5 4690 or AMD FX 8320
  • Memory: 8 GB RAM
  • Graphics: NVIDIA GTX 1070 or AMD RX 480
  • DirectX: Version 11
  • Network: Broadband Internet connection
  • Storage: 40 GB available space
  • Sound Card: DirectX Compatible Soundcard
  • Additional Notes: Supported Graphics Cards: AMD HD5870 or better, HD6870 or better, HD7790 or better, R7 260 or better, R9 260 or better Nvidia GTX460 or better Series, GTX560 or better, GTX650Ti or better, GTX750 or better, GTX950 or better

Please be advised that the following methods are to be used at the sole discretion of the system owner. GamingBolt or its staff members take no responsibility for problems that may arise or issues that may occur from trying the below. Always remember that official support is always the best support. 

GENERAL FIXES

Generally speaking, some basic troubleshooting tips should always help you resolve whatever issue you are facing with the PC version of any game. The same holds true of F1 2017 as well. If you are running into problems, maybe first attempt the following steps, and if they don’t work out, look into some of the more specific fixes we have below.

• Make sure the drivers on your PC are updated
• If you have two GPUs, make sure you are using the discrete GPU instead of the integrated one
• Set F1 2017‘s priority to High in the Task Manager
• Turn off any background programs, including firewalls, chat clients, video recorders, and overlays
• Try lowering visual settings on the game to see if that improves game performance

STUTTERING 

• Go to Nvidia control panel and disable Shader Cache. Also disable the Power Management mode.
• Go to your computer’s BIOS and turn off hyperthreading for your CPU
• Try capping the framerate for the game at 60. Simultaneously, bring down your monitor’s refresh rate to 60Hz as well.

GAME CRASHES

• Delete the “F1 2017” folder in \Documents\My Games (the game will make a new directory when it boots up, but doing so will clear the cache)
• Reinstall your game

0cx0000142 ERROR

• Reinstall the vcredist file at \SteamApps\Common\F1 2017\_CommonRedist\vcredist\2015

UNRECOGNIZED WHEEL

• Make sure you have the latest drivers
• Calibrate the wheel in the Logitech Control panel

Note: Given that the wide range of PC hardware out there, the fixes mentioned here may or may not work for you. But it’s worth giving them a shot since these have worked for players who own the PC version of F1 2017.

F1 2017 is out now- the newest entry in Codemasters’ annual take on the world’s most popular motorsport is a love letter to Formula One and its fans, while also being an alluring racing game on its own merits. Of course, while it is a great racing game, it can also be unforgiving and difficult at first- simply because of how different it might be from a lot of other games you play.

That’s where we come in- in this guide, we have some basic and general tips and tricks for you to be able to find your footing, if only tentatively, when you play F1 2017.

• Play the career mode! The career mode is an excellent way of getting used to the game with a smooth progression curve- but if you do play it, try playing one of the lower ranked teams. The higher ranked teams start have far harder objectives for you to complete
• Pay attention to R&D. In the career mode, you can invest in R&D and unlock new perks for your vehicles- don’t ignore this!
• Newcomers, stick to using Ferrari cars. This is because these are the ‘easiest’ to handle, so they are far friendlier to newer players to get a handle on things
• Be mindful of your surroundings! Tracks in F1 2017 are not like tracks in Mario Kart, but there are still things to keep track off- curves, slope, weather, and more
• Practice! You can get used to any car, track, or variation in the game- as long as you practice. You are not going to start winning at this game right away- but just stick with it, because if definitely pays off.
• Get used to the tracks. The Track Acclimatisation Practice Programme exists in the Career Mode to help you find your way around a circuit; that apart, you can switch on driving assists as well as download ghosts to figure out the best route as well

Happily enough, it plays well as a video game, too- it actually plays well enough that even someone like who has no experience in the series, someone who isn’t all that well acquainted with Formula One, and someone who is appallingly atrocious at this game, managed to stay engaged to keep on playing. A lot of this has to do with just how consistent and fair the game feels- yes, it is harsh, and trying any tricks from arcade racers, such as bumper to bumper racing, corner cutting, off-roading, or being too aggressive, will net in an almost certain disqualification one way or the other (or in your vehicle breaking down spectacularly)- but the game never quite feels unfair, even while it feels frustrating. A large part of this is owed to the fact that it has a very consistent ruleset (one very naturally reflecting actual F1 rules), and you are only penalized when you fall afoul of those rules.

The other part is, and this is the intangible part that’s hard to explain, the game is simply fun. Even when you are losing, the vehicles remain a joy to handle and drive over the multitude of courses that the game has on offer. There is a visceral center of gravity, handling feels tight and satisfying, the sense of speed and acceleration is exhilarating, and if you don’t like something, you can change it.

"F1 2017 is, very clearly, a love letter to anyone who loves real life motorsport."

That’s actually probably F1 2017‘s biggest strength- the granular modularity and piecemeal control that it hands over to the player. Everything, from how individual elements of the UI look (or whether they show at all) to the difficulty of the enemy AI, to the assists that you get, to the weather, time of the day, the build of your car, everything can be changed by you, the player, to your liking- which means that, given enough time and tweaking, you’re going to find the ideal combination that has the game play perfectly for you.

Even if you don’t want to spend all that time getting the game to work for you, you’ll find that the game proper is still fun to play (and, presumably, immensely satisfying for motorsport fans). The tracks are extremely well translated from their real life counterparts into the game, and while you’re not going to see the kind of crazy and inventive track design and variation you can see in arcade racers not beholden to real life accuracy and authenticity, F1 tracks are naturally designed to be a test of the racer’s skill, which is exciting and engaging enough in and of itself. Even the sound of the crew chief’s monotonous voice, which tells you when you are violating rules, in danger of disqualification, in danger of wrecking your car, in need of a pitstop, or more, can be configured- originally, it comes out from the DualShock 4’s speaker, but you can move it over to the TV (recommended).

You’ll find the game lovingly embellishing F1 in other ways, too- for instance, F1 2017 includes 11 retro F1 cars, which control fantastically well, and sound like they pack a grunt (and, let’s be honest, they sound better than the modern cars). These classic cars can be picked in the Grand Prix mode (where you end up either setting up a modern car Grand Prix, or a Classic Car one), and they also show up in special invitational challenge events in the game’s career mode.

As a racing game, too, F1 2017 offers you a wealth of options in the moment to moment gameplay, beyond just configuring the actual experience- do you want to be aggressive and get a major lead, and risk a penalty, or do you want to be conservative, and go for the long haul? Do you want to slow down around the corner and risk letting the driver on your tail overtake you, or do you want to speed and swerve, and risk crashing? Do you want to go into the pitstop and have the damage to your car repaired, or do you want to continue racing, and risk even the slightest bump in the road throw your aspirations off? F1 2017 is as cerebral as it is quick- making it a surprisingly rich experience, even for newcomers to the sport.

Then there is the sheer wealth of modes in the game- you can participate in individual Grand Prix races (custom ones you can set up yourself, and if you are not inclined for the long form races that traditionally characterize the sport, you can set up a tournament as short as a single race one without any qualifiers, and just have one short race and move on; conversely, you can make it long, full fledged, gruelling, and a true test of your abilities); there are Events you can download and participate in, there are time trials, you can play with classic cars or modern ones, you can race on all current circuits around the world…

"It’s this game’s ability to flexibly straddle the gap between being frighteningly deep and satisfying and accessible and fun that makes it appealing to just about everybody."

Then there is the career mode, which really deserves its own section in the review. You can participate in an extremely elaborate career mode (what team you pick ends up determining what kind of career progression you have; a lower rung team will have a longer rags-to-riches career mode story, but will have a gentler difficulty curve, while a higher rung team like Mercedes has a shorter career mode that sees you maintaining their dominance over the charts, but is naturally far harder), with brand new RPG like mechanics added- an R&D development skill tree has over 100 individual upgrades for you to earn over the course of the Career mode, with more wrinkles thrown into the system thanks to the competition always conducting their own R&D independently as well. The Career Mode comes with more mechanics of its own- for instance, a reliability management system that forces you to keep upgrading your car (because the older a part is, the more prone to failure it will be).

Really, though, it’s this game’s ability to flexibly straddle the gap between being frighteningly deep and satisfying and accessible and fun that makes it appealing to just about everybody. F1 and motorsport fans are getting a full featured simulation of the sport here (if one that looks a bit rough- the graphics continue to be the weakest part of the package for yet another year). Casual racing fans are actually not going to be as well served with F1 2017, but if they stick with it, they will find it to be fun and satisfying in its own way, and they may even find it to be a gateway to deeper racing games.

And all of this culminates to bring us a fine tuned, well balanced, fun and compelling, and hugely satisfying racing game that can be recommended to motorsport enthusiasts without hesitation- but it can also be recommended to newcomers, if with some caveats. That is perhaps the game’s greatest accomplishment.

This game was reviewed on the PS4.

Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy has finally been overthrown from the top of UK charts thanks to Naughty Dog’s Uncharted: The Lost Legacy. Which is kind of fitting since Naughty Dog created the original three Crash Bandicoot games.

However, according to Gfk Chart-Track, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy’s first week sales haven’t been as lucrative as Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End. It sold less than half of that but considering that the data only represents physical sales and it’s available at a lower price, The Lost Legacy could end up doing pretty well in the long run.

F1 2017 debuted in second place with Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy falling to third place. Madden NFL 18 was another new entry and unfortunately, Agents of Mayhem fell from fourth to 13th place with sales dropping 28 percent.

It was followed by Grand Theft Auto 5, Fallout 4, Dishonored 2, Forza Horizon 3, Rainbow Six: Siege and Mario Kart 8: Deluxe. Overall, software sales at UK retail were up 67 percent week on week with over 316,000 units sold.

NVIDIA has released Game Ready Driver 385.28, which, as is the wont of Game Ready drivers, includes optimizations for several PC games, including Agents of Mayhem, which launches tomorrow in North America (and later in the week in Europe).

Of course, it’s not the only game that gets optimization profiles, either- Killing Floor: Incursion (a VR take on the popular multiplayer shooter), Crossout, and F1 2017 (though NVIDIA marks this as ‘Not Recommended’ in its notes, so make of that what you will) are all games that have received optimized drivers with this update as well.

And of course, some NVIDIA software modules have received updates as a part of this update as well. You can download the latest Game Ready driver here, or you can try downloading it directly from the GeForce Experience client. It is recommended that you do so before you proceed to play any of these games, however.

You can find full patch notes for this update below:

3D Vision Profiles
• Agents of Mayhem – Fair
• F1 2017 – Not Recommended
Software Module Versions
• NView – 148.47
• HD Audio Driver – 1.3.34.27
• NVIDIA PhysX System Software – 9.17.0524
• GeForce Experience – 3.8.0.89
• CUDA – 8.0