F1 2015 PC Release is a Bug-Ridden Mess

The Formula One series from Codemasters has progressed at a fairly slow pace and can only be described as iterative in its update cycle. As a sim-racing enthusiast, I’ve been completely underwhelmed by Codemasters’ latest efforts. Why? Firstly, the games are plagued by incredibly inconsistent AI cars which struggle to overtake on Legend difficulty despite having fresher tires and a faster fuel mapping cycle. Furthermore, the physics engine in F1 2014 was ridiculously simplistic and didn’t work very well with wheel setups. Codemasters argued, the advanced physics and AI computations were not possible due to the limitations of the PS3 and Xbox 360. If this was the case, why was the PC version affected? Surely, the most cogent strategy would be to produce a complex PC sim, and scale it back for the consoles. Nevertheless, F1 2015 was touted as the first major update in the franchise and coded entirely with next generation consoles in mind. However, the final result is far from impressive and utilized a terrible blurry hue which makes the graphics seem quite dated.

According to the Steam Community, the game is littered with bugs, awful netcode and regular crashing to the desktop. Not only that, it is devoid of basic features including a Safety Car, Virtual Safety Car, Career Mode, Classic Cars, detailed transitions into the various sessions and more! YouTube channel Tiametmarduk posted a video showing the absurd glitches and complete lack of Quality Assurance. The AI behaves irrationally, the 2010 pit stop bug has returned and he’s even encountered cars ramming into each other in the pit lane.

Codemasters’ Community Manager acknowledged the scale of issues and announced the first PC patch.

“Hello everyone. We are aware of players encountering some issues with the PC build, and we have just pushed a new build to Steam.”

While this has alleviated the odd bug, it hasn’t made a dramatic change and won’t alter F1 2015’s complete lack of content. Even if the patch did fix all the problems, the game shouldn’t have launched in this state! This is pretty shocking considering Codemasters’ EGO engine has been quite reliable on a technical level. Currently, the game only has 29% positive reviews on the Steam store and Metacritic reports a user score of 3 with 5 positive ratings and 11 negative.

To put this into perspective, Batman: Arkham Knight has a better reputation with players than F1 2015 and that was removed from Steam. I sympathize with F1 fans expecting a truly next-generation experience and hope they will use the Steam refund policy to get their money back. Please, do not buy this game at the moment, it is a colossal mess. Another factor to consider is Codemasters’ delicate financial standing. Insider sources suggest at least 30 members of staff were let go with another 20 being reviewed. I honestly believe F1 2015 was a make or break product for Codemasters and feel if this isn’t sorted soon, their days could be numbered.