Howdy all! Just finished another shift diggin’ for gold, and me beard is itchin’ for a new vein to explore. What mines games have you been spelunkin playin’ this week? Found any diamonds in the rough? Let’s swap some nuggets of wisdom in the comments below!
Bought F1 Manager 2023 and have been having a good time with it. Has been more exciting than the actual product F1 has been serving so far, at least.
If you like F1 and can find it on sale I recommend it. It’s not the deepest sim/management game ever, but there is enough to it to be enjoyable - especially since the presentation is stellar. The graphics are great, but more importantly official licensing stuff like soundbytes and radio snippets from the actual drivers and engineers make it very immersive.
If you’re a true F1 nerd you might find some things (like tyre temperature effects) to be a little simplistic and unrealistic, but they seem to have aimed for a slightly more casual target audience, nonetheless without straying all the way into complete arcadeyness. I actually think it’s a pretty decent balance point to strike. There is enough here for an F1 enthusiast to chew on, but you don’t need a PhD to play it.
I’ve been thinking about loading up Motorsport Manager in recent weeks. How does it compare to that?
I haven’t played it, but from what I’ve heard Motorsport Manager is better at more bigger picture stuff, making your own team and building it from the ground up, more freedom with sponsors and youth systems and lower divisions and stuff like that. Maybe more mechanical depth in general.
F1 Manager has stellar presentation, especially the race-day experience is superb. Official licensing, cockpit cam, radio messages and great graphics. I’m enjoying the in-race management too and feel there is enough to it to be entertaining. The development side seems fine, you can choose your focus with both car parts and individual attribute sliders. Finances has been a big challenge, with the budget cap being the main thing to consider. The game definitely seems to reward careful planning.
I’m still at the tail end of the first season and have focused heavily on research for next year, so we’ll see how it pans out soon. The in-season development race has been a challenge year one (playing with both difficulties on Hard), and I’m hoping the AI continues to put up a fight. It hasn’t felt too easy so far.