Yeah it is just never resolved is it. How the review scores are so favourable I'll never know. It's like the reviewers don't really have a clue.
As someone who actually reviewed the game, I take offence to that.
I've been playing F1 games on consoles and PC for the vast majority of my life. I remember getting Formula 1 '97 on PS1 for my eighth birthday and Grand Prix 3 for Christmas in 2000 and loving both to death even though they were completely different.
Codemasters series have been flawed and I've been critical of them for the silly bullshit that has affected their games with the bugs and glitches, but I happily stand by claiming that the last two entries have been the best the series has ever been.
Yeah, the handling isn't fully simulation and they still take away the player's control for things like pitstops and after crossing the line and other little things that stop it from being that fully realistic experience those hardcore fans of us want, but as a single player racing game, F1 2017 is prehaps the best we've ever had on consoles.
I do 100% distance races and when you are in the midst of a long race, it can be incredibly immersive.
I've been 48 laps into a boring race in Bahrain only for the Safety Car to be deployed because of an entirely believable accident between two AI cars that happened the complete opposite side of the circuit from where I was and I took advantage to switch to new tyres and pass a bunch of cars at the restart to take the first points of my career.
It felt so fucking cool because it was both organic and believeable and something I'd never experienced in an F1 game before even though it actually happens in real life. It was the kind of scenario that just isn't possible in 90% of F1 games throughout history that didn't have the Safety Car included - and it wouldn't ever happen in Project CARS 2, Forza 7 or GT Sport either because none of those games have that feature either.
The AI is actually pretty good on lap one. Sure, you can gain an unrealistic amount of positions at turn one, but you know what? Go back and play Grand Prix 3 or 4 or Formula 1 '97 or any of the F1 games that are held up for being the true classics and potentially the best ever. You can cheat the AI in those games MUCH more than you can in F1 2016 or 2017. I know. I've played them all.
There are so many elements involved in the current games, like fuel and tyre management, engine reliability simulated (how many F1 games have actually done that, as opposed to random failures?) the R&D system allowing you to actually take a slow team like Sauber to be Constructors' Champions (again, unique to CM games) the ability to change differential and brake bias on the fly (rare for console games), manual pit limiter, manual race starts by releasing the clutch, practice programmes to complete, fairly realistic damage modelling, AI that does actually battle each other and is fun to race against, the ability to literally speak to your engineer to get information about your car or the race... these games are rich in features that work to make it the most immersive official F1 game series we've ever had on consoles, full stop. And I say that from a lifetime of experience.
Yes, there are flaws with these games. They're not perfect, they can be samey year-to-year and it's not as hardcore a simulation as a lot would like. But at some point it begins to feel like people are actively overlooking the qualities of the games and instead choosing to see them as bad, rather than being willing to give credit where credit's due.