.:: Official F1 2013 (CodeMasters) Thread ::.

It's... Ivan Capelli.

Played it for a couple of hours tonight (PC), in that I did day 2 of the Young Drivers Test (if you have a 2012 save you can skip day 1), got into Lotus as my starting team, did one career race, did 5 classic races (3 as Eddie Irvine, 2 as David Coulthard), a classic scenario and gave split screen a go. I have to say, it is fantastic so far. Visually, it's a step up from 2012, and runs like butter on my PC (I'm curious to know of anyone who has played the PS3 version, though). Other points I gathered so far:

-The tyres do drop off a lot quicker, I was under constant attack from Perez in the last 3 laps of my career race because they had worn out so much.

-Driving in the wet is much trickier than 2012 (with a 360 pad anyway, I'll be trying it out with my wheel later).

-The AI is much more prone to making mistakes (in a good way, not robotic)

-The engineer will occasionally  give advice on a target lap time to conserve tyres 

-Seeing Jody Scheckter in a 1999 Ferarri is an odd experience considering he stopped racing in F1 in 1980

-If you are involved in a crash that the game decides wasn't your fault, your driver will lift his hand in protest

-There are now 5 difficulty levels, a new level between professional and legend has been added

-The photos on the loading screens are beautiful

-Feedback through the controller is far superior to 2012, don't have to rely solely on visual feedback anymore (again, I'll try out the wheel tomorrow)

- The penalty system, especially when it comes to crashes, is much more lenient, and doesn't give out penalties for light taps

-Driving modern cars around old tracks is weird

-Driving old cars around new tracks is weird

-It's possible to set up series of races again

-I love mid session saves 

I haven't tried online yet, but my friend is receiving his copy from me tomorrow so I'll report back once I've tried out the multiplayer.  

Good grief, the handling! It's darned good, but you'll get caught out when you're in slow corners - very quick to respond, I keep cutting corners at slow speed because I' not expecting the handling to respond so well!

Anyway, Xboxers - online race tomorrow? Not heard I've got work so can jump on. It's an Xbox Gold Unlocked weekend too (which helps!) - so even if you've not got Gold, you can join us! 

Tried it with the wheel this morning, much the same situation as 2012, no feedback at all on the straights, which is disappointing, but the kerbs are convincing and it's easier to know when you're at the edge of the grip threshold. The classic cars are still hard as hell though. Also noticed using KERS out a corner spins the wheels up much more than 2012, more careful throttle management is needed.