Gran Turismo Sport

Whether this is a “true” franchise sequel or not, Polyphony Digital’s Gran Turismo Sport is superb. It’s razor sharp in its focus on photo-realism, which is aided by lightning, material quality, global illumination and real-time shadows for everything. Vehicles look highly detailed, whether it’s reflecting the outside world or when admiring from the driver’s set. With numerous cars and tracks added over the years, Gran Turismo Sport is the way to go before Gran Turismo 7’s release.

Sony’s streaming service PlayStation Now continues to grow in terms of its games line-up. Last month saw Persona 5, Hollow Knight and Middle-Earth: Shadow of War join the roster – this month is about PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, Wolfenstein: The Old Blood and F1 2019. All three games are currently available for streaming.

The PlayStation Blog also revealed the top most played games on PlayStation Now in November. Unsurprisingly, Grand Theft Auto 5 and God of War lead the pack, followed by Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, Middle-Earth: Shadow of War and Rocket League. What is noteworthy is that three of the top five games will only be available on the service till January 2nd 2020.

For the most part, it seems that Sony’s strategy is paying off. PlayStation Now boasts one million subscribers as of October 30th and currently offers over 800 games on PS2, PS3 and PS4. Subscriptions cost $9.99 per month or $59.99 per year with a free seven day trial available for PC and PS4.

Given that Codemasters almost exclusively deals in racing games of various types, it is a legitimate surprise that it took this long for this to happen, but yes, they have gone ahead and acquired Slightly Mad Studios. Slightly Mad Studios is most recently known for Project CARS and its follow up. However, they have also gained notoriety in the last few months for their apparently totally unironic announcement of their own high end console, the Mad Box.

The Mad Box is apparently not the reason Codemasters has bought Slightly Mad, however. Speaking in the press release that officially announced the acquisition, Codemasters CEO Frank Sagnier said,“We are delighted to bring such an incredible racing game developer to the Codemasters family, and this unequivocally establishes us as a global powerhouse in the development of racing titles.

“We share the same passion and vision and our new partnership will accelerate our growth. With more streaming services coming to market and the next generation of games consoles due in 2020, this is the perfect time for Codemasters to take its next step.”

They even mention streaming services, but they very carefully do not bring up the new console allegedly in the works at Slightly Mad. Maybe it’s just vaporware now, and will not be happening. Which, I am sure, will be devastating news to… someone, I’m sure.

UKIE/Gfk Chart-Track have released video games physical sales data for UK during the week ending July 13th, and it’s been a quiet week for boxed sales in the region overall, with not many changes in the top 10. A total of just a little over 148,000 copies of games were sold at retail in the UK last week (via GamesIndustry).

Super Mario Maker 2 had an impressive debut, and continues to hold on to the top spot for the third week running since its launch. Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled is also in second place, just as it was last week, though its lifetime sales in the region are still ahead of Nintendo’s platformer (though it’s worth mentioning that the kart racer is a multiplatform title, while Mario Maker 2 is available exclusively on the Switch).

The next two positions also see no changes, being occupied by F1 2019 and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe respectively. The only new entrant in the top 10 is Dragon Quest Builders 2, debuting at fifth place, which enjoyed a 67 per cent share of its sales on the Nintendo Switch (have also launched on the PS4).

The remaining top 10 sees games changing around in terms of their positioning, but remains largely the same apart from that. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has dropped out of the top 10 this week though, giving way to FIFA 19, which re-enters at #10.

You can take a look at the full top 10 below.

1. Super Mario Maker 2
2. Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled
3. F1 2019
4. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
5. Dragon Quest Builders 2
6. Grand Theft Auto 5
7. Mortal Kombat 11
8. Super Smash Bros Ultimate
9. Red Dead Redemption 2
10. FIFA 19

Super Mario Maker 2 had an impressive debut in last week’s UK retail sales charts as per data revealed by GFK Chart-Track/UKIE, selling twice as much as its predecessor did at launch, and it has retained the top spot in the charts for the week ending July 6 (via GamesIndustry), seeing just a 47 per cent drop in sales week-on-week.

Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled also retains its place in the top 10, coming in at second place, while Codemasters’ F1 2019 is also still in third place. That said, Sega’s Judgment, which debuted in fourth place last week, has seen a significant drop, dropping out of the top 10 entirely.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has also performed very well in what has been a strong week for Nintendo Switch sales, coming in at fourth place, while fellow Switch exclusive Super Smash Bros. Ultimate also impresses with strong sales, coming in at fifth place. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild at ninth place is yet another Switch exclusive in the top 10. Mortal Kombat 11 has seen a noticeable rise in sales as well, jumping straight from 24th place last week to 10th place this week.

You can check out the full top 10 below.

1. Super Mario Maker 2
2. Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled
3. F1 2019
4. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
5. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
6. Grand Theft Auto 5
7. Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
8. Red Dead Redemption 2
9. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
10. Mortal Kombat 11

A bit of context about the F1 series, first. Codemasters acquired the official license to Formula 1 in 2008 and since 2010, has released more or less annual updates to the franchise. As it’s an officially licensed franchise, the F1 games incorporate real-world Formula 1 tracks, cars, and players. Because of the annual release cycle, there’s not a lot that can be iterated on technically. Nevertheless, F1 2019 is an impressive step ahead of last year’s title.

PS4 Pro vs Xbox One X vs PC Comparison

Performance is the EGO Engine’s strong suit and we’re happy to report that, at least on this front, F1 2019 delivers. The game scales wonderfully across the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X.  On the console front, we analyzed the game’s performance by taking some sample scenes from the game and running it through trdrop, an open source software. Note that this tool gives us a mere demonstration of the game’s performance, because an exact 1:1 representation of performance can only be provided by the developers themselves since they have access to vast of array of tools and profilers.

Both enhanced consoles target a 4K/60 FPS update and the situation is as expected. They reliably hit the 60 FPS target, combined with the excellent motion blur, meaning that in practice, F1 2019 is plenty smooth. While 4K is the resolution target for both enhanced consoles, Xbox One X output is definitely sharper than the Pro, suggesting that dynamic resolution scaling or a checkerboard solution is at work here. We also noticed minor differences in LOD scaling across the platforms but this isn’t something you’ll notice unless you’re actually doing a side-by-side comparison.

The PC version of F1 2019 is, unsurprisingly, the best way to experience the game, both in terms of visuals and framerate. Our test PC includes a GTX 1080Ti, 16GB of GDDR4 memory and Ryzen 1700 CPU. F1 2019 provides a decent number of graphical settings to tinker with including but not limited to post process, lighting quality, shadows, smoke shadows, anti-aliasing, screen space reflections, crowd quality and weather effects. An in-game benchmark tool is also provided which provided a decent overview of the kind of performance you can expect from your hardware.

Our set up had no problems at all, handing in a very consistent 60fps with every setting maxed out. Mainstream hardware performs admirably well, too. As expected, the PC version is noticeably better than what’s available on the base consoles. Overall, while we’re not particularly impressed with the visuals (more on this in a bit), the game scales well across multiple hardware configurations and it’s understandable that some things had to give in order to hit that 60 FPS target reliably.

Engine Overview

F1 2019, along with all of Codemaster’s other racing games, is built on the in-house EGO Engine. EGO has seen multiple iterations ever since its first appearance in 2008’s GRID: Autosport, each building substantially on the other. Ten years and one and half console generations later, Codemaster’s iterative additions to the now-ageing engine have been just about enough to allow it to keep pace with modern racers on a technical level.

Because it was built primarily with sim racers in mind, the EGO Engine places a strong focus on hitting a 60 FPS target across platformsWe won’t lie by saying that there were no compromises made to get there. Stacked side by side with the likes of Gran Turismo 7 or any of the Forza Horizon titles, the EGO engine’s mid-2000s roots are all too easy to see. We have a run-of-the-mill deferred renderer here, albeit with a minimum number of dynamic light sources.

The EGO Engine made the transition to deferred rendering with 2015’s F1 iteration. The move to full dynamic lighting was accompanied by a decline in image quality, though. MSAA allowed for a very clean presentation in the earlier F1 titles. However, the dynamic lighting plays a big role in enabling some of F1 2019’s more compelling visual features, including smoke shadows. Realistic weather effects are one of F1 2019’s big draws and the relatively flat lighting isn’t a deal-breaker, at least during cloudy weather conditions. However, lighting is noticeably worse in comparison to other current games

Material Rendering

What about material rendering? This is one of F1 2019’s definite weak points. While a physically based material rendering pipeline was integrated into the EGO Engine with its F1 2018 outing, Codemasters’ implementation of PBR is one of the least convincing we’ve seen this generation. Material properties just don’t look right. PBR algorithms differentiate between metallic and non-metallic surfaces. This is in order to accommodate the differences in how metallic and vitreous objects in the real world reflect light differently, even if they’re equally glossy. Car surfaces don’t look right, while other metal objects, such as fences to a combination of poor material quality, low-res textures, and the flat lighting. When it comes to non-metallic surfaces, tarmac is represented faithfully—screenspace reflections in rainy conditions help here—while other surfaces like concrete and plastic are not. Materials are very much a mixed bag with most surfaces looking quite poor.

Lighting Quality

As we’d mentioned earlier, lighting quality in F1 2019 isn’t that great. The move to a deferred renderer means that multiple light sources should theoretically be casting light. However, what we noticed is that F1 2019 primarily makes use of pre-baked light maps. This is understandable considering the static nature of light sources in the game. However, car models—both yours and other cars—just don’t appear to sit correctly in the scene, missing out on the shadows they should be casting under bright street lighting. While cloudy conditions see the best use of post-processing effects, they also bring out the worst in F1 2019’s lighting, leading to sterile, flat look.

Model Quality, Texture Quality, And Post Processing

Model quality is a mixed bag. As with many racers, car models are a strong point. Car models aren’t quite up to par with what we’ve seen in Project CARS, Forza and the like. Still, we’re talking about poly counts in the upper five digits. This means smooth models with minimal blockiness and a relatively detailed cockpit camera experience. When viewed up close, we did notice some blockiness in the safety halo and steering wheel but this isn’t something you’ll likely pay attention to in the midst of the action. NPC models are an entirely different matter. It’s clear that NPC modelling had a limited budget: Characters are blocky with low poly-counts, and animations are stiff. Facial animations are reasonably expressive, but low-resolution character textures undermine this. Subsurface scattering is deployed for NPC skin, but because of the low quality of the skin texture itself, it simply makes what would otherwise be a glossy mess slightly duller.

Car texture quality is great and cockpit textures aren’t a blurry mess. This is in contrast to environmental textures which range from passable—in the case of road surfaces—to downright terrible when it comes to character and incidental environmental details.

The post-processing pipeline is F1 2019’s strong suit as we’d mentioned earlier. It’s evident that Codemaster’s technical compromises to get the game up and running at 60 FPS across platforms is most evident here: Where lighting and material quality are weak-points, smoke-and-mirrors post-processing effects are leaned on quite heavily. Per-object motion blur is utilized with a high sample count. It’s easiest to see this on the individual wheels of your car when you’ve pulled the camera back.

Together with the smooth 60 FPS update, this allows F1 2019 to really convey a fluid sense of motion. Screen space ambient occlusion is present, but SSAO is rudimentary, even in the maxed-out PC version of the game. AO around some objects, like grass, has noticeable haloing. AO coverage isn’t very comprehensive either, with some parts of the scene not being occluded when they should be. Screen-space reflections really shine in F1 2019, though (no pun intended). Car models appear to use SSR instead of cubemaps.

This has a major impact on visuals, particularly when you’re in cockpit view: while, as mentioned, material quality itself is poor, car reflections are high res and detailed. The F1 series has boasted of dynamic environmental rendering and this is reflected in the post-process pipeline, too. During rainy scenes, a subtle raindrop effects on the HUD, not enough to obscure the track, but enough to convey the sense of racing through a downpour.

In terms of the backend, Codemasters has finally committed to DX12. F1 2018’s DX12 implementation was something of an afterthought and didn’t actually yield significant performs gains, even after being patched in. In F1 2019, DX12 mode offers meaningful performance gains, especially with lower end CPUs.

Conclusion

From a technical perspective, F1 2019 is a good, not great successor to F1 2018. With the arrival of the new consoles next year, we’re excited to see how Codemasters will take the F1 franchise to the 9^th gen. Will the EGO Engine ride again, or will we finally see Codemasters craft an engine that’ll make full use of the next-gen consoles capabilities?

RAGE 2

Built on Avalanche Studios’ Apex Engine and packing the punch of an id Software shooter, RAGE 2 is a flawed but hellishly fun game. It is also a visual treat. Boasting a lot more flair and visual variety than its predecessor, and supported by the tech to back up its creative ambitions, RAGE 2 looks constantly impressive and explosive.

Looking ahead at the lineup of games awaiting their releases in the coming months, it’s clear that by the time the year is coming to an end, 2019 will have been an exceptional one for gaming. But with half of it having zipped by in a blink, before looking ahead, maybe it’s time to pause and look back. In this feature, we’ll be listing out what have been our fifteen favourite games released in 2019 so far.

Looking at just how massive the pool for selection was for us, we’ll obviously be missing out on quite a few games, so if you notice any omissions you feel deserved a place on this list, sound off in the comments section below. Also, do note that this list is presented in a random order– we’re not ranking these games. It’s not time to do that… just yet.

RESIDENT EVIL 2

Gun to our heads, if we had to pick our Game of the Year right here, right now… well, we still wouldn’t be able to do it, but Resident Evil 2 sure as hell would be one of the games leading that race. Capcom’s survival horror franchise saw a much needed revival in 2017 with Resident Evil 7, but it’s safe to say that with this year’s remake of the beloved 1998 classic, the series is back to being the best it has ever been. Resident Evil 2 strikes the perfect balance between paying loving tribute to an older game, while also being an excellent experience in its own right, and we’re more excited now about the future of this series than we have been in a long, long time.

UKIE/Gfk Chart-Track’s data for boxed video game sales in the UK for the week ending June 29th is out, and it’s been a busy week, with three debutants ranking high in the charts. With just two days on the market, Super Mario Maker 2 has slotted right into pole position, while enjoying Nintendo’s biggest launch week in the UK for the year, beating out the previous holder of that honour, New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe  (via GamesIndustry). Other Switch exclusives like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate have also seen sales boosts, coming in at fifth and tenth respectively.

Super Mario Maker 2’s impressive debut means Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled, which itself debuted on top of charts last week, has been pushed down to second position. That said, its performance in sales has been holding steady, with only a 48 per cent week-on-week drop. The next two positions are also occupied by debutants- in third place, F1 2019 has sold similarly to last year’s game at launch (though that debuted in first place). Judgment follows in the fourth spot.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night debuted in 17th position last week, but has seen a significant jump in sales, having seemingly found its target audience on the Nintendo Switch, for which it launched only last week. It now occupies ninth place in the charts. The Switch version, in fact, has sold more in its launch week than the PS4 and Xbox One versions sold in their own launch week combined.

The Sinking City, another new release, failed to break into the top 10, coming in at twelfth place. Take a look at the full top 10 below.

1. Super Mario Maker 2
2. Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled
3. F1 2019
4. Judgment
5. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
6. Red Dead Redemption 2
7. Grand Theft Auto 5
8. Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
9. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
10. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

The crux of the experience in F1 2019 is the career mode, and this where you will likely invest a ton of your time. The game begins with a set of basic character customization options, including the likes of your name, driver number, your country, and so on and so forth. This custom character is the one that you will take through the game’s career mode, which begins with the F2 Feeder series. Based on the scenarios from 2018’s F2 championship, players will take on their teammate Lukas Weber and rival Devon Butler in a set of pre-defined sequences. These F2 sequences can entail a number of things, from your car’s front wing getting clipped, or facing engine issues, hence changing your rivalry dynamics with both of the previously mentioned drivers. For example, if you don’t allow Weber to pass you and thereby ignore team orders, Weber will react differently to you compared to, say, if you would have listened to team orders. This mix of on-track results and off-track conversations adds drama, spice, and rivalry between you and your fellow drivers.

Furthermore, you will be interviewed by the press, wherein you will be provided with a set number of answers. You have to select the answers wisely, as this will affect your Sportsmanship and Showmanship ratings. For those who are unaware, the Sportsmanship attribute is awarded for those answers that are within the spirit of the game, and the Showmanship attribute will be awarded for more self-centered answers. This isn’t a merely cosmetic gameplay element though, as this will have consequences in terms of F1 offers. Not many racing games care about the off-track drama, and it’s delightful to see Codemasters taking the extra step to deliver a narrative that fits within the boundaries of a racing game.

"Not many racing games care about the off-track drama, and it’s delightful to see Codemasters taking the extra step to deliver a narrative that fits within the boundaries of a racing game."

Once you are done with the F2 championship sequences, you will be awarded with an F1 championship offer. The contract terms of this offer differ from team to team, and depending on how you performed during the F2 championship (and the answers you selected during interviews), you will be given a list of teams to choose from. Once this is done, you now have to compete in the championship, and this is where F1 2019 truly shines. Although I have gone hands-on with almost all F1 games released in the past, F1 2019 features the best handling model by far. I was given a contract by Ferrari, and racing the red machine across the various tracks was an extremely satisfying experience. Of course, the experience will be much different if you were to select a much lower ranking team, but there is something oddly charming about driving a well-balanced car along the straights of Monza or through the curvy streets of Monte Carlo.

The development team has also made significant improvements to the way AI is handled. AI drivers are much more aggressive or passive depending on the current conditions of their cars, their team position, and their respective positions within the pack. A good example of this happened in my playthrough when the safety car came out in the opening round at Melbourne in the Career mode. The safety car took a few rounds, and when it was time to go in, the driver who was leading the pack slowed down immensely, giving himself sufficient distance and time from the safety car. These kinds of AI strategies push the players to always be on their toes, thereby making the gameplay more dynamic.

The damage physics have also undergone minor changes this year. If you switch the damage model to Simulation, you will witness close to realistic damage effects. Wings will get smashed into pieces and tires will get dislodged. It goes without saying that this option is only reserved for people who are interested in eSports or are really comfortable with the team they are driving with.

F1 2019 also excels in allowing players to tune and customize their cars according to their liking. There are a ton of tuning up options that I am sure hardcore fans will tinker with. I was happy with my car’s handling at default settings, but I am sure eager players for whom even the tenth of a second matters will be playing around with these settings a lot. The career mode also brings backs the R&D tree, which focuses on improving the various parts of your car that will directly impact its reliability and durability. The R&D tree adds a bit of an RPG flavor to F1 2019, and F1 enthusiasts will definitely appreciate the nitty-gritties involved with it.

The career mode is made even better by allowing transfers for official drivers. This adds a new element of dynamism, as each of the 10 seasons in the career mode can now be different in terms of challenge. Overall, the career mode is easily the highlight of F1 2019. However, that is not all. The game also provides you with Championship modes, wherein you can enter F1 2019 and F2 world championships, along with a host of other championships that will add longevity to a game that is already brimming with content.

"F1 2019 also excels in allowing players to tune and customize their cars according to their liking. There are a ton of tuning up options that I am sure hardcore fans will tinker with."

The game also introduces an Ayrton Senna vs Alain Prost mode (as a part of the Legends DLC pack), wherein the player can take on a number of challenges. Players can take the role of either racer, and participate in various challenges such as Pursuit and Checkpoints in order to defeat the other driver. This is essentially a race against time as you need to catch up with your rival. I found this mode to be quite challenging, but at the same time intriguing, due to how addictive it was. The game also offers custom Grand Prix events across F1 2019, F2, and Classic F1. This is your standard weekend affair and is more or less like every other race in the career mode, except that you can modify various elements- like weather, for example.

F1 2019also offers a number of online modes. There is a League mode, where you can create an Online Championship, join a league, or create one. There are also ranked and unranked races, but unfortunately, no players were available for any of these modes at the time of writing this review, so I don’t have much to say about them. However, I did get the chance to try out the Weekly event, which puts players in a Grand Prix even, where players need to practice and qualify within a particular time period and then participate in Race Day. I found this to be an interesting take on weekend racing, as you have a lot of time to qualify and put in your best time till the qualifying session ends. Note that each new time will override the older one, so it’s kind of a give and take situation.

I also wanted to make a note regarding possible microtransactions in the game. You can buy cosmetic items for your car and character, but none of them have an impact on gameplay. I was not able to check the prices, since the store was not live at the time of writing this review.

F1 2019 does so many things right, but it had to do something wrong. Unfortunately, the game’s graphics are nowhere close to what we are seeing in the likes of Project CARS, Forza, and Gran Turismo. This is not to say the game looks bad, but odd texture work, anti-aliasing issues, and uneven graphics in some places can be distracting. I played the game on a PS4 Pro, and overall, the graphics were a mixed bag. Character models look odd at times (although there is an improvement from last year), car tires look like plastic, and car detailing could have been better. Having said that, the rain and lighting effects can look quite gorgeous.

"F1 2019 does so many things right, but it had to do something wrong. Unfortunately, the game’s graphics are nowhere close to what we are seeing in the likes of Project CARS, Forza, and Gran Turismo."

F1 2019 is the most complete Formula One game ever made. It’s brimming with content, and for F1 enthusiasts, there are plenty of things to play around with. An excellent career mode backed up by an in-depth Championships mode, and a host of interesting challenges make this year’s iteration one of the best F1 games of all time.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 4.