Well first of all I was surprised CM released patch 1.2 as I assumed we had reached the end of F1 23's life cycle. Now with the announcement of F1 24 and it being less than 3 months away none the less, I'd be really shocked if there were further updates to 23 other than the final podium pass. That said for the sake of discussion let's dive in.
1. NDV is not coming back. In 15 years Codies have never added a replaced driver back in the game. You can't go back to F1?? and race as Rio Harayanto. You can't start off F1 2019 with Gasly in the Red Bull. You speak of some streak of F1 games with at least one driver transfer, but what does that matter? Are streaks not meant to be broken? Hamilton had a streak of winning at least one race every season of his career until 2022. Also, when Williams finally let Toto (Wolff, not Headphones) talk them into dropping my man Logan in favor of Mick are you going to make 10,000 topics about how Sargeant should still be in the game?
2. Yes, I think this has been well discussed by the community that the podium passes have been getting weaker each year with before hitting a complete rock bottom this year as there's been hardly any customization items and mostly F1 world stuff that most people have little interest in.
3. I was only glancing through it so I could be mistaken, but I believe the F1 24 infographic stated customization items from 23 would carry forward into 24 and beyond. backwards compatibility was not mentioned though.
4. Yes obviously we would all like the bugs to be ironed out, not going to happen for 23 as I'm pretty sure the sun has set and resources have been devoted to 24 so let's just hope those resources get put to good use between now and May 28th.
5. For pretty much all of your questions regarding F1 24 the answer is we don't know yet. All we were given was a 30ish second clip that confirmed the game existed, would be released in late May, would be releasing on PC, old gen, and new gen consoles, and that they would give us more information in April. Anything else is mostly wild and rampant speculation created from the hopes and dreams of the player base so take it with a grain of salt until we hear more in April.
You’re right, I was thinking Mick was still a Merc reserve, but I do remember hearing him getting a seat in WEC. That being said, WECis only like 8 events, one of which was this weekend I believe so I’m not sure if there’s any conflicts other than the usual Lemans/ Canada. I’d also be willing to wager all of my EA forum XP points that there’s a clause in that contract that says he can leave at any time if a full time F1 seat opens up.
@TheRagebeard wrote:You’re right, I was thinking Mick was still a Merc reserve, but I do remember hearing him getting a seat in WEC.
As far as I know Mick continues to be Merc's reserve driver for 2024, sharing his role with Frederik Vesti.
I'll probably keep on NOT recommending a purchase for this year's game unless it is for someone with a significant step gap in the franchise, e.g. someone who last played F1 21 and would be interest in getting back to it. Even so, I'll hardly recommend getting F1 24 at full price.
The franchise has too much to rectify and improve before deserving a day 1 buy from me again.
I'll be pleased if Max is heavily featured in the marketing material and box cover though. He's on the top of his form and it is safe to assume he'll be considered one of the legends of the sport. There's no other driver currently in the grid more deserving of the media spotlight for F1 24.
A game trying to capture the pinnacle of motorsports in a box should have the one driver surmounting the summit of the category in the cover art.
