Sadly, any hopes that merely being ‘F1 2013 2.0’ would be enough were tanked quickly.
Booted out the door without a shower or packed lunch, F1 2014 was effectively a re-skin of the previous year’s F1 2013 to keep the series ticking over as they worked on making the jump to the PS4 and Xbox One, whilst also trying to model the brand new generation of hybrid-powered F1 cars. Unfortunately, such criticism was deserved.
When F1 Youtubers are calling for EA of all people to take the license from you, you know it’s a rough spell. Let’s start by getting one thing out the way early – the mid-2010s were not a good time for the franchise. Having played every single title in the series, I feel well-positioned to rank all ten Codemasters F1 titles in order from worst to best – and guess what? That’s exactly what I’ll be doing today. Like the best F1 teams of history, the vast majority of Codies’ campaigns have been triumphs, that doesn’t mean they weren’t immune to the odd calamity that blew its engine and crashed off on the first lap. Fortunately they have done just that, and sometimes they’ve gone one better and produced some of the greatest F1 titles ever. I mean, you’d be a bit concerned if ten years down the line they still couldn’t produce a decent F1 game. Ten years and ten (soon to be eleven) games later, and its safe to assume Codemasters’ time with the F1 license has overall been a positive one. After Studio Liverpool ended their run with the license in 2006, F1 games were in limbo until Codemasters picked up the property and brought out the first new F1 game in nearly three years with F1 2009.
The imminent release of F1 2019 will mark the tenth anniversary of Codemasters picking up this illustrious motorsport IP.