F1 2021 "Features" trailer

Today, Codemasters and EA Games premiered the new “Features” trailer for F1 2021, the official videogame of the FIA F1 series. F1 2021 is the latest in a long series of official F1 games from Codemasters. This trailer shows off F1 2021’s new narrative-driven feature, "Braking Point". F1 2021 is Codemasters biggest attempt to reflect real life more than ever with new dynamic options. For players engaging in the “My Team” mode, the stats of real-world F1 drivers update throughout the season to reflect the action on the track, while “Real-Season Start” allows players to jump in at any race weekend in the 2021 F1 calendar that has already occurred with up-to-date standings.

Braking Point Story Mode

Braking Point is a new linear narrative story mode that allows players to rise from F2 and work their way up to the top tier Formula 1 championship. The story features a combination of on and off-track moments, through a mix of racing action and dramatic cutscenes written by veterans who have worked on popular Netflix shows. In fact, the developers have stated that a large inspiration for the “Braking Point” story mode was the success of Netflix’s Drive to Survive F1 docu-series.

In this story mode players can choose between 5 different teams to race for in the story mode including: Racing Point/Aston Martin, Alfa Romeo, Alpha Tauri, Haas, or Williams. Within the story mode players will compete against the current F1 driver line-up and make a name for themselves against a new and returning cast of characters.

2 Player Career Mode

The new two-player Career feature offers a way for two people to experience the full Career mode, allowing players to partner with a single constructor or race head to head with rival teams in synchronous sessions. For more casual experience, the two-player split-screen feature from previous F1 games returns, allowing for competitive couch play.

The only bummer is that it is one or the other. So two players cannot do the career mode in split screen it appears. Though that is probably for the best as you wouldn’t want your rival to peek at your half of the screen and see your strategies.

Real Season Start

As mentioned previously, Real-Season Start is a new way for players to experience the career mode by jumping into the current F1 season from any race weekend that has already taken place.

The player would effectively “replace” a real, current driver and inherit any championship points that driver had earned up until the point that the player takes over. The game updates after every real-life F1 race weekend and will sync with the current driver standings, constructors standings, and even the R&D progress of teams. So, if Ferrari develops a new part that suddenly sees them dominating AMG-Mercedes, expect Ferrari to do the same thing in the game.

Next-Gen Graphics

F1 2021 will be the first F1 game from Codemasters to launch on the new Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 consoles. That means players can expect the game to take advantage of the graphical horsepower that’s found on the new hardware.

F1 2021 will target up to 120 frames per second in performance mode and see graphic enhancements like ray-tracing and 4K resolution when playing in quality mode. The SSD harddrives found on the new consoles mean there will be “virtually no loading times” according to the development team.

Those who haven’t upgraded to the new consoles yet can rest easy as F1 2021 is still going to release for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

Developers are confident in F1 2021

“F1 2021 is a tour de force offering something for every type of racing fan,” said Lee Mather, Franchise Game Director at Codemasters. “The Features trailer gives an insight into all the exciting innovations that await our players. Whether they want to experience their F1 story in Braking Point or compete with and against friends, F1 2021 is lights-out, the ultimate next-generation racing experience.”

Considering how many F1 games Codemasters has produced. Mather is making some big claims. However F1 2020 was easily the best game in the franchise so far, so if F1 2021 manages to build off that success then they would have certainly backed up their claims.

F1 2021 Deluxe Edition

For players who don’t mind investing their cash to get the biggest experience that Codemasters can offer, there is the “Deluxe Edition” of F1 2021. The digital Deluxe Edition includes seven iconic F1 drivers for use in “My Team” mode which has the player taking the role of team manager and driver. The iconic driver pack includes: Michael Schumacher, Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost, Jenson Button, Nico Rosberg, Felippe Massa, and David Coultard. It also features exclusive customization content, 18,000 “PitCoins”, the Braking Point Content Pack (a set of in-game items inspired by the fictional stars of the new story experience), and three days early access.

Are you going to pick up Codemasters’ F1 2021? Let us know on Twitter at @GTChannel. We’re definitely interested to see how things turn out. By the way, the game launches on July 19th 2021 so we don’t have long to wait!

New "Features" Trailer For F1 2021 Released