F1 23 Review (Steam)

For this F1 23 Review, where we aim to be the last to brake in EA SPORTS F1 23, the official video game of the 2023 FIA Formula One World Championship. A new chapter in the thrilling “Braking Point” story mode delivers high-speed drama and heated rivalries.

F1 23 Review Pros:

  • Beautiful highly detailed graphics.
  • 56.61GB Download size.
  • Steam achievements.
  • Full controller support.
  • Benchmark test.
  • Graphics settings – gamma, motion blur strength, steering animation, peak nit adjustment, HDR, detail preset, skid marks, trees, ground cover, particles, crowd, skidmarks blending, ambient occlusion, asynchronous compute, texture streaming, variable rate shading, high-quality hair, NVIDIA reflex, Nvidia ser, ray tracing and individual settings, post-processing, lighting quality, and chromatic aberration.
  • Steam Workshop support for mods.
  • Video mode settings – display adaptor, resolution, display mode, v-sync, v-sync interval, refresh rate, frame rate limit, maximum fps, output monitor, anisotropic filtering, anti-aliasing, anti-aliasing mode, anti-aliasing sharpness, frame generation, and dynamic resolution.
  • VR Mode support.
  • EA login is required for online play.
  • Racing gameplay.
  • Choose if the game pops up VR or no VR Mode or if the game doesn’t mention VR again.
  • Officially licensed.
  • Full cross-play support and can be turned on and off at will.
  • Accessibility settings – subtitles, voice chat, mono mix, mono mix balancing, tinnitus relief filter, tinnitus relief filter frequency, and Colourblind mode (dynamic racing line).
  • Five game modes – Braking point, career, F1 world, local multiplayer, and league racing.
  • Three settings filter – Casual, standard, and expert.
  • EA music playlist and you can set up your own playlist.
  • Assists options – steering assist, and recurring flashback prompt.
  • On-screen display settings – on/off, OSD customisation, cockpit view, speedometer units, temperature units, track map, map rotation, delta time, proximity arrows, driver tags, start lights, virtual rear view mirror, permanent session timer, objective panel.
  • Can rebind controls for both keyboard and the controller including the ability to upload your layouts.
  • Adaptive triggers support.
  • Podium pass is a battle pass-like system where you get a paid and a free tier and unlocks rewards by playing.
  • The F1 world event is a limited event where you play as a famous driver on a particular course.
  • Career mode is single or two-player. In two players you can be on the same team or against each other.
  • Career mode has two types of play – driver (just race and sign contracts), and/or my team (manage everything and drive).
  • In the career mode, you can start in F2 or jump straight into F1.
  • Full-season or custom season options in the career mode.
  • Driver creator – avatar, country, name, audio name, helmet, podium emote, victory radio call, and driver number.
  • Acclaim – works like EXP in that you earn it from racing and your Acclaim gets you noticed by other teams.
  • Resource points – earned from free practice and practice programs and are used to upgrade your car.
  • Mid-session save option.
  • F1 world is a section where you can view trophies and display them, view cars, Theatre of unlocked clips, customisation, and virtual showroom, and pick and take part in events for both single and multiplayer modes.
  • Car R & D is split into four areas – aerodynamics, chassis, power train, and durability.
  • Tech level is based on your car in the F1 world and you earn upgrades to increase your level.
  • Live broadcast presentation.
  • Feels like a step up in the overall atmosphere and appearance.
  • Good loading times.
  • Some of the best handling in a game.
  • Press briefings-you interact with the press via multiple choice answers to questions, this has an effect on how the game moves on.
  • Button shortcuts allow you to change settings as you are driving.
  • Full weather, and day/night cycle.
  • Instant replay feature.
  • In events, you can do as much or as little as you want in terms of practice and qualifying.
  • The damage model is insanely accurate.
  • Braking Point is a story-based game mode.
  • Three difficulties for Braking a point – normal, challenging, and hard.
  • In-game cutscenes.
  • You can skip most cutscenes and interactions.
  • In Braking Point, you earn reputation and performance levels. The game can transition between racing and I’m game cutscenes.
  • The excellent production value of how they tell the story in Braking Point as it’s like a game show or mockumentary in a way with drama, hard cuts to interviews, etc.
  • In some events you go by your Steam gamer tag name instead of your created character, within this race, all over Ai drivers are named after your friend’s list.
  • You can change settings and set up your pitstop when actually racing.
  • Get real-time feedback when racing.
  • F1 world lets you just do loads of shorter events to earn upgrades and build your dream car.
  • Contracts are in the F1 world and require a certain condition to be met before you get the part.
  • As you progress in the F1 world you open up many events so you can choose what to play and they all have different criteria for winning.
  • Breakdown unwanted items/upgrades in the F1 world for resources.
  • Seamlessly jump between the modes.
  • In the F1 world can play events with multiplayer opponents and they (including you) have set rules and a license is earned and lost depending on your performance and attitude.
  • The podium pass keeps it fresh and gives an overall progression feel that is satisfying.
  • Every f1 world event has a main objective and then a few bonus or optional ones.
  • F1 world events change and rotate every week.
  • Weekly and daily goals in the F1 world with unique rewards.
  • So much to do and unlock.
  • The compendium is a massive list of optional tasks that once completed give you a sticker, images of drivers, teams, the season, and circuits are broken up and give a sense of collectibility to it all and the compendium is like a sticker book.
  • Customisation expands to your car (liveries/stickers/colors), race and casual wear, profile, badges, and my place (lighting/soft furnishings/wall art/walls/flooring/furniture/seating).
  • Choice of two commentators – David Croft and Alex Jacques.
  • Multiple choice questions and answers sections in my career.
  • In career mode, you will get one-off chances to race other car types and do different events like speed zone.
  • Career mode is all around a calendar of racing and setting up interviews, mini-games, etc. You can fast-forward time and manage what you want to do.
  • Recovery mode can be set to manual or automatic execution. This resets you to the track and does a short auto-drive sequence before handing it back to you.
  • Play how you want.
  • You can set up and test your car and tires before doing races in career mode.
  • Career mode does earn podium pass exp.
  • Eight driving views.
  • Full steering wheel support with the ability to rebind controls.
  • Ghost cars – on/off.
  • Co-op campaign allows you to still be independent in terms of car setups and bonuses.

F1 23 Review Cons:

  • The initial load requires a load of installs of systems and is bad if you happen to be in big screen mode.
  • EA login account is required for online play.
  • A lot of EULA and terms of condition screens to scroll through.
  • Avatar is just a choice of a few models.
  • In driver creator, you are limited to numbers.
  • Feels at times you getting unfairly punished in collisions.
  • Small in-game text.
  • Never sure when the game saves.
  • So much to take in.
  • You don’t earn any Podium pass points/exp in the Braking Point game mode.
  • A lot of jargon.
  • Possible to press a button or direction by accident and just fill the screen with menus and prompts.
  • Using the rewind system can be a bit and miss.
  • Due to the speed, taking anything in or changing settings is a nightmare, would have been awesome if it had a slowdown or the ability to do it in the pause menu.
  • The hit collision seems really unfair.
  • Dealing with all the perks and contracts in the F1 world is not as straightforward.
  • The invite system is not always ideal and gives fake error messages, but never makes out you can avoid most hiccups by going through the mp menu.
  • When playing in the Co-op campaign, any lag is brutal and game-destroying.
  • A lot of connecting, waiting, and timers in the Co-op campaign.

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F1 23:

Official website.

Developer: Codemasters

Publisher: EA

Store Links –

Steam

  • 9/10
    Graphics - 9/10
  • 8/10
    Sound - 8/10
  • 9/10
    Accessibility - 9/10
  • 9/10
    Length - 9/10
  • 10/10
    Fun Factor - 10/10
9/10

Summary

It’s no secret, I thought last year’s entry into F1 gaming was top tier and I never thought another entry could grab me as strong. How wrong I was and quickly I realized it. I can’t quite put my finger on it but going through F1 World was just so addictive with rolling events, bonus contracts, and events, I couldn’t help but sink hour after hour into this game mode, and even then that was just solo, then I entered the online portion of F1 world and I then got sucked in as the game had a while license system that encourages fair driving and punishes bad/troll racers and it honestly felt like it was working. I did some of the Braking Point which is a full TV show-style story mode with cutscenes, interactions, and many set pieces. It plays really well and has many twists and turns but by the time I got to it, Fq World had already infected me with the gaming goods. I did and continue to have fun playing online Co-op career as the difficulty balance and how it plays out is really cool. No matter the mode I found something fun in it and even the podium pass is great fun, I just loved unlocking the tiers, I didn’t much care about the rewards I just wanted to unlock stuff. I think what it might be this year is that all the modes kinda feel connected and the podium pass is integrated into so much that means you play what you want and don’t miss out. I honestly enjoyed and continue to enjoy my time with what feels like a definitive F1 video game experience.

Jim Smale

Gaming since the Atari 2600, I enjoy the weirdness in games counting Densha De Go and RC De Go as my favourite titles of all time. I prefer gaming of old where buying games from a shop was a thing, Being social in person was a thing. Join me as I attempt to adapt to this new digital age!