I've been a huge F1 fan for over twenty five years and still watch it religiously. And I've also had the chance to play a couple of the Codemasters' F1 PC games in the past, so I have a pretty good sense of what the developer brings to the racing genre. So, when I heard at the Apple keynote that Codemasters was bringing what looked like a full F1 game to mobile, I was very excited. I love racing games on mobile, and I always thought that a well-made F1 game with the actual license and tracks would be great. Now we finally got F1 2016 [$9.99], and I have to say I'm impressed in some ways and quite disappointed in others. First of all, this game has way more content than I expected it to have in terms of modes and ways to play it. At the same time, half of those modes are marred by incredibly dumb AI opponents. And on top of that, there are numerous bugs and design decisions that make playing the game frustrating at times. When the driving clicks, though, the game is really fun.
F1 2016 brings along all the current cars, drivers, and tracks, so that alone makes it a great game for those who follow the sport. Being able to race as Hamilton in the all-powerful Mercedes in Spa is definitely a treat you can't get from other games. If you don't follow the sport closely, you'll still benefit by the licensing because the game's 21 official circuits are pretty fantastic (well, almost all of them) and very fun to race in. The game offers a full Season mode, where you can race all 21...