NO. JUST NO. NO MORE.

While I agree with the general state of affairs that Codemasters is the developer (i.e. the only people to touch the code) and EA is the publisher (i.e. marketing, sales, etc.), I also agree that since the tie-in with EA, the game's gone downhill, and it feels like it's the influence/direction that EA want which is steering Codemasters into making the game they've made. The total focus on F1 World now while the career modes feel like a forgotten corner of the game feels very much like an EA decision that Codemasters have had to follow. They're essentially handcuffed. They've sold out.

But the main thing above all that has put me right off purchasing any future F1 games is the total lack of regard for bugfixing:

• People report bugs
• Bugs claim to be fixed in patchnotes
• Bugs turn out not to have been touched at all
• Next patch is released 2 to 4 weeks later.
• Bugs claim to be fixed in patchnotes again
• Bugs still not touched.
• Ad infinitum.

This has happened repeatedly, patch after patch, since the release of F1 22, co-incidentally the first game in the fully connected EA franchise. I don't know the structure of things but I'm guessing that EA have taken over Quality Assurance? Because this is a similar pattern I've seen people complain about with Battlefield 2142.

There's no communication. No acknowledgments, no fixes for the things that really matter such as issues with red flags, this years big feature addition. It's almost as if the game's been abandoned already if it weren't for the patch fixing stuff with F1 World, a mode that more and more people seem to care less and less about. I hate it when I see people in comments say "dead game", but I feel like I'm experiencing one for the first time now. It feels like they've already given up.

It's different at WRC, they have one thing that the F1 franchise has been missing since the old forums, and that's a community liason guy with a genuine passion for the sport. They've got PJ Tierney, we had Barry at the old forums but nobody has really taken his place. We've got the already-in-place EA community guys, but seemingly nobody who's hands-on with the game behind the scenes, someone who wants to play it as much as we do. So there's a missing link and instead we're left in the dark.