F1 2015: Introduction

Welcome to Part 1 of our six-part review of the newest Formula 1 game.

The first thing you will notice about the game was that you have the choice between the 2014 and 2015 seasons. I thought that was a really neat feature and also a bit of a tacit apology for last year's game failing to live up to expectations. And no, the classic cars from 2013 did not return.

Once you begin a season, you can choose your favorite driver and you then go on to play as them, racing for their respective team. I chose the Manor F1 Team because who doesn't love an underdog? Once you enter the Australian Grand Prix practice, you're greeted by David Croft in what is made to feel like an actual Sky broadcast. Golden star for the the effort to immerse a player into the race weekend atmosphere.

Jumping into qualifying, my favorite aspect of it was the not-so new concept of a ghost car. You could see the car that was currently in pole position while doing your own flying lap. It was as if I was in an actual race with Lewis Hamilton, which added some excitement to time trials. It let me know when I needed to push, where I was losing to him with something much more appealing than simply showing sector times.

Speaking of Hamilton, you can expect him and Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg to be winning ... a lot. The game made the strength of the field quite accurate in regards to reality. You won't see Roberto Merhi on the front row or Sebastian Vettel finishing 15th for no reason. And yes, battles outside of your own can go wrong and cause incidents.

Part 2: Graphics