It is hard to imagine how last year's "F1 2020" could have been any more fulfilling, except to accommodate calls from mothers. So in "F1 2021," they literally added a phone call from your mother. It's all part of the six-hour story mode, in which you play as two drivers from lower F1 teams, wrestling with nasty teammate rivalries and the threat of Devon Butler, a fictional driver familiar from the short story section in "F1 2019". Reaffirmation: he's a son of a bitch, and you'll want to beat him.

But that's exactly why this mode was needed. The rivalry system has always added spice to the racing game, and it's amazing the difference a little personality can make. You may have built up a good enough position to continue the story, but when Butler is closing in on you by 2.3 seconds, the motivation to go faster is compelling.

The acting in the CG cutscenes is actually quite decent, especially with regard to the two older teammates. The storyline is completely predictable and the drama is fairly stilted, but the game is richer for it. The fictional social network is also reasonably responsive to your actions, noticing when you win or defeat a rival. Nevertheless, the difficulty level is high, and even the second of three difficulty levels would be hard enough for most people.

In addition to the story mode, My Team is back, allowing you to start a new F1 team from scratch, choose a livery and sponsors, set up an R&D department, and focus on the areas you find most beneficial. And even though classic cars have been removed from this year's game, you can still choose to field classic drivers like Senna, Prost, Nico Rosberg, and David Coulthard and race with your team if you can afford to pay the fees. Sounds good.

The R&D tree has also been simplified a bit, and the practice sessions have been reduced from five R&D objectives to three for each race. There is also a game of chance to earn R&D points without actually driving the circuit at each event.

The races unfold in a surprisingly realistic manner. Weather cycles are recreated first in the air and then on the track, forcing you to make decisions about tire strategy. All kinds of technical problems arise, such as a rival car crashing off-screen, bringing in the safety car, or getting stuck in fourth gear. Of course, if the gearbox had been replaced before the race, none of that could have happened. But dealing with the problems and still winning makes for incredibly satisfying gameplay.

The handling model has been adjusted with feedback from real drivers and is more realistic than it was a few years ago; it still doesn't have the free feeling of a PC-only racing sim, but the cars behave well, and with the traction control turned down, the "too much power and The car behaves well, and with the traction control turned down, the "too much power" sensation can be experienced well enough. The racing is as tactical as ever, thanks to the overtake button that acts as a turbo boost. It's a mind-boggling experience, but all of this can be disabled if you just keep your foot on the gas pedal and steer through the corners. It looks and sounds great.

Speaking of which, the game runs really well on modest modern hardware, as long as you stick to 1080p. on the Nvidia RTX 2070, the game gets over 50fps at 1080p, even with ray tracing on and wet weather effects. 4K is all It's a bit of a stretch to drop to 22fps with ultra, but the image quality at this resolution is excellent, so if your rig can handle it, turn it up. It doesn't look much different without ray tracing, so don't consider it a necessity if you don't have the means to do so.

Also new this year is the ability to download the actual 2021 season stats and start the season with a race already held. You have to play as a made-up driver in this game, but you can also take on the name Max Verstappen and face off against Hamilton in Baku to right Hamilton's massive loss to Red Bull in a real-life race. The weather patterns of these races do not match the real world, but the chance to change the real world rankings would be welcome.

Online, the esports championship will be held later this year and will feature regular online races. By being on the same team, the main players can participate as a package no matter where they sign up, or they can play at the same time and race on different teams. Either way, it would be very pleasing for some players.

A lot of detail has been poured into the core game mode, at the expense of the other side modes we've seen so far, but that's okay; you can still play F2 for the 2020 season, and there are online time attack leaderboards, so if you like chasing times If you like chasing times, you'll have a few months of fun. There's not much else Codemasters can do at this point, but apparently the acquisition by EA has made their future plans even more ambitious. Until then, this will have to suffice. Now, let's call your mother.