F1 2021 Announced For Later This Year

You best believe I’m singing The Rascals’ “A Beautiful Morning” today. Ok, it does help to know I’m writing this long before you’re reading it, but still. The sun is (possibly) shining, the birds are somewhere being drowned out by engines, and this morning we got back to a bit of F1 with first and second practice at Imola. Why? For the Gran Premio Dell’Emilia Romagna at the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari.

It is only the second race of the season and we’re finally getting the announcement I would have expected around the time we were testing in Bahrain a month ago. Nonetheless, the Codemasters developed and published series is back, of course with a slight change this year already. There was a conversation a while back that Codemasters would be sold to either 2K or EA, and well, I’m kind of hoping all the loot boxes and online focuses of FIFA and Madden don’t creep into F1 at all. Wishes only count in horseshoes and hand grenades, I guess.

Ok, the trailer isn’t much in the way of driving details, instead, we look to the press release. Coming to the PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC, you’ll be able to jump into the latest great F1 cars on July the 16th, just in time for the British GP weekend ahead of the Summer break. Speaking of breaks, Braking Point is a new story mode set to take you, a rising start from F2, into the high-pressure situation of being an F1 driver. A large portion of the announcement trailer plays up the drama of being held back from paddock-based punch-ups following races, and possibly being dropped by your team.

Returning with the heavy story of your rise to F1 glory is your old mate from F1 2019, Devon Butler. Though he’s not your only mate to be fighting against: There is two-player career mode which (unlike 2020‘s online player) allows you to control which assists you have active, according to the press release. This comes alongside “Real-season start” which puts you in a live season that shifts with the real series taking place until December 12th this year. Either I don’t understand the point or the release isn’t giving enough proper details of what this is going to really affect.

One thing that will cause some uproar in comment sections of F1 2021 gameplay footage is the cross-over in the generation. With the game coming to the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, there will be a bit of a facelift for the game, as the next generation pushes for higher definition. Along with this, the new consoles will be bringing better load times than that of the generation only a handful of us are able to leave behind. That said, if you are buying the game on Series X/S you’ll get Xbox Smart Delivery, and if you’re moving on up to PS5, you’ll get your free upgrade with the new console.

Of course, features of the last game will continue such as My Team, Two-player split-screen, short season, the wonderful accessibility options, F2, and a focus on adding scalable assists. Of course, they announced this the same morning as I wrote a rambling piece about how traction control is a wonderful thing once you turn it off and feel like a driving god. Thanks, EA!

That leaves two things to note, including the pre-orders. It seems this season we’re not focusing on any one star from the years gone by as we did last year with Michael. Instead, those who pre-order the “standard” (base-game) version will get the Braking Point content pack with a set of in-game guff set in the universe, and 5,000 of those PitCoins things. The Digital-Deluxe edition will feature the to-be-announced former F1 stars that will be available in My Team, three days early access, customizable guff the “scrubs” won’t get with their base game, the Braking Point content pack, and 18,000 PitCoins. I assume it is a bit like bitcoin, but worth more than a wish.

However, there is more and I am slightly too excited about this for my own good. In a free update post-launch, there will be three tracks added to the game for free. Particularly, three tracks that are part of this year’s calendar. Portugal’s Portimão which debuted last year with a slightly interesting race, Italy’s second GP as Imola returns as the Emilia Romagna GP, and Jeddah. This adds to the 23-race season, as it stands until Canada cancels its race soon enough.

Ok, the last one needs a bit of a quick rant: F1 is currently pushing a very strong “YAY diversity” thing which they used a rainbow (typically gay AF) as a logo last year for. So it only makes sense to make the second to last race of the season the Saudi Arabian GP; Where I’m pretty sure any of Sky F1, Channel 4, ESPN/ABC, and all the other broadcasters with female presenters probably won’t have half their team. Yes, F1/Liberty Media, that’s inclusion and diversity at its peak. Well, I was happy at the start, at least; roll on July the 16th for F1 2021!