''F1 2012'' is a video game developed by

Codemasters The Codemasters Software Company Limited (trade name: Codemasters) is a British video game developer based in Southam, England, which is a subsidiary of American corporation Electronic Arts. Founded by brothers Richard and David Darling in Oct ...

based on the

2012 Formula One season The 2012 FIA Formula One World Championship was the 66th season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the 63rd FIA Formula One World Championship, a motor racing series for Formula One cars, recognised by the Fédération Internatio ...

. The game was released in September. It uses the EGO Engine. This was also the first game by Codemasters released under their "Codemasters Racing" label, which was used until 2016. The

Mac OS X macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and la ...

version of the game was released by

Feral Interactive Feral Interactive is a British video games developer and publisher for macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, Nintendo Switch and Microsoft Windows platforms. It was founded in 1996 to bring games to Mac and specialises in porting games to different p ...

on 20 December.

Features

The game features all twelve teams and twenty-four drivers competing in the 2012 season (except for mid-season changes), as well as the twenty circuits and Grands Prix — including the brand new

Circuit of the Americas Circuit of the Americas (COTA) is a Grade 1 FIA-specification motor racing track and facilities located within the extraterritorial jurisdiction of Austin, Texas, in the United States. The facility is home to the Formula One United States G ...

in Austin,

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

— included in the championship. The game also features a brand-new "Young Driver Test" mode, a tutorial mode designed to introduce new players to the handling characteristics of Formula One cars as a prologue to the career mode. As a demonstration, Codemasters approached several drivers — including Mercedes test driver

Sam Bird Sam Jamie Bird (born 9 January 1987) is a British professional racing driver who currently drives for Jaguar TCS Racing in the FIA Formula E World Championship. Career Formula BMW Bird made his name in single seater racing in the Formula B ...

and

GP2 Series The GP2 Series was a form of open wheel motor racing introduced in 2005 following the discontinuation of the long-term Formula One feeder series, Formula 3000. The GP2 format was conceived by Bernie Ecclestone and Flavio Briatore, while Eccles ...

driver Stefano Coletti — at the real-life Young Driver Tests (for drivers who have never started a Grand Prix) in Abu Dhabi in November 2011, and asked them to drive the Yas Marina Circuit in ''F1 2012'' instead of using the team simulators they would traditionally use to learn the circuit. All of the drivers who played the game reported that the game was realistic enough for them to learn the circuit to the point where they were confident enough to set competitive lap times. The game also presents a new main menu, with Codemasters saying it is now easier to navigate around the video game. The sound system has been modified, and players can now hear other cars around them.

Gameplay and modes

As well as the new young driver test mode, ''F1 2012'' features a new "Champions Mode", in which the six World Champions competing in the 2012 season — Kimi Räikkönen,

Lewis Hamilton Sir Lewis Carl Davidson Hamilton (born 7 January 1985) is a British racing driver currently competing in Formula One for Mercedes. In Formula One, Hamilton has won a joint-record seven World Drivers' Championship titles (tied with Mic ...

Jenson Button Jenson Alexander Lyons Button (born 19 January 1980) is a British racing driver. He won the 2009 Formula One World Championship when he drove for the Brawn GP team. After his F1 career, he became champion of the 2018 season of the Super G ...

, Sebastian Vettel, Fernando Alonso and

Michael Schumacher Michael Schumacher (; ; born 3 January 1969) is a German former racing driver who competed in Formula One for Jordan, Benetton, Ferrari, and Mercedes. Schumacher has a joint-record seven World Drivers' Championship titles (tied with Lewis ...

— are styled after traditional end-of-level video gaming bosses, with the player challenged to beat them while racing in conditions that suit each driver. Another new mode introduced in ''F1 2012'' is the "Season Challenge" mode. Feedback given to Codemasters was that players only played the game when they had a few hours to play. In response, Codemasters brought in this mode so that players could simply play for a short amount of time. In this mode the player will start as a team lower down the field, and over a ten race season the player will move teams mid-season, depending on their ability to beat rival drivers and objectives. Codemasters also introduced "One-Shot Qualifying", whereby a player has a single lap to qualify for the race. The One-Shot Qualifying is included in Quick Race, Season Challenge and Career Mode. The three stage knock out session is still an option, but the single 20-minute session is no longer available in career mode. There is no longer an option to include all three practice sessions in a race weekend, but instead only a single hour session is available. In career mode players are no longer able to play races of less than 25% length. In career mode the player can choose a team from the six teams. They are

Marussia Marussia Motors (russian: Маруся ) was a Russian sports car company founded in 2007. It was the first Russian company to produce a supercar. It designed, and manufactured prototypes of both the B1 and the B2 sport cars. Marussia was led by for ...

, HRT,

Caterham Caterham () is a town in the Tandridge District of Surrey, England. The town is administratively divided into two: Caterham on the Hill, and Caterham Valley, which includes the main town centre in the middle of a dry valley but rises to equal ...

Scuderia Toro Rosso Scuderia Toro Rosso (; literal translation of "Red Bull Racing Team"), commonly known as Toro Rosso or by its abbreviation STR, was an Italian Formula One racing team. It was one of two Formula One teams owned by Austrian beverage company Re ...

, Force India and Williams. The player can join a team after completing the Young Driver Test. The player can choose a team that meets the minimum medal requirements. Players get contract offers from teams as they continues their races in Career Mode. In the quick play mode the option to make a custom championship is no longer available, but instead the player selects a single race to play on.

Reception

''F1 2012'' received generally favorable reviews, earning a collective score of 81 out of 100 from

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...

gave the game a 9.0, underlining that while yearly sports releases are faced with the difficult battle of introducing new content when the sport remains relatively unchanged, ''F1 2012'' introduced noticeable tweaks to the gameplay that steadily improved it.

GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition ...

were equally-complimentary (8.5/10), applauding the developer for making the game more approachable to newcomers, but bemoaning the removal of some gameplay modes that had been included in previous releases.

References

External links