F1 2013: The Consoles Get A Plaster

Codemasters’ Community Manager made a forum post last weekend to announce that the first F1 2013 update had been submitted for each of the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions. Along with the relevant revisions of the first four of the PC’s current five patches, there was news of “a few” console-specific changes to come. Unfortunately, there were no details given back then but the list of modifications is thankfully available now.

Better yet, Xbox 360 and PS3 players should find that their F1 2013 installation updates itself today. The patches have been rolling out since this morning, in fact and as I’m compiling this text, I’ve seen that the updates have been propagating their way through the systems.

Here’s the full set of info for the consoles’ Patch 1:

F1 2013’s MAJOR FIXES

Multi-player
When creating a game, there is now an added option in the race settings, Downloadable Content Tracks – On/Off. If you turn this to ‘Off’, any players who don’t have DLC installed will be able to find and join your game. This opens up the ability for Classic and DLC players to compete with Standard Edition players.
Improved AI replication on high latency, low bandwidth connections in on-line Custom races.

Equal car performance on-line
Fixed a couple of issues related to car wheel positions which were making some cars quicker than others when equal performance was in use.

Artificial Intelligence
AI no longer pit immediately after a safety car.

Mid-session save
Fixed a bug which prevented car set-ups from being loaded correctly when a mid-session save is created while on track in a Practice session.
Fixed an issue in Career which would cause perpetual loading when resuming a mid-session save after accepting a mid-season contract.
Also fixed instances of incorrect track initialisation and race logic. AI cars will also no longer pit to change tyres when re-loading from a mid-session save.

Factual Accuracy
Updated the tyre compound choice for Korea, Japan, India, USA and Brazil to reflect the 2013 season.

Audio
Changes to the audio volume mix while on track.
Audio memory changes, so there should be no audio drop-out after longer durations of play or sitting on the Pause menu.
Updated collision audio and fixed some cases of audio drop-out.

F1 2013’s MINOR FIXES

Added functionality to view Gamer Card or Profile on Results screens.
The race director will now be available in co-op if the one player retires from the season in Qualification or Practice.
Fixed a network issue where AI would not receive penalties correctly at the end of a race.
Fixed an occasion where AI cars could exit their box into the pit lane too fast.
Turning collisions off will now also disable the safety car.
Changed the car lighting on Yas Marina during the night.
Fixed a crash relating to a vote to end a session with players that have joined in progress.
Multi-player ghosting issues fixed.
McLaren cockpit view texture update.
Updated collision boxes on the Williams FW14B and Ferrari F92A.
Resolved an issue in Split Screen where Player One’s camera could flicker slightly.
Resolved an issue where skipping to Day 2 of the Young Drivers Test would make the Day 1 Hairpin Test very difficult to complete.
Fixed some instances of the auto-drive not correctly releasing the Ferrari 312T2.
Removed tweak in the Fanatec ClubSport wheel; updated the Logitech Wingman Formula GP Wheel action map.
AI braking distances have been improved into Turn 1 at Malaysia.
Corrected Professional and Expert AI difficulty levels on Sakhir (Bahrain) and Monza. They were the wrong way around so Professional was Expert and vice versa.
Force-feedback settings have been tweaked to remedy the mid-corner ‘drop-out’ that some players were reporting.
Fixed some instances where the player could cut certain corners at Monza and Singapore.
Lowered the Silverstone pit lane speed limit.
Added a DRS Bleep sound to inform the player that DRS is available.

That completes the round-up of today’s changes for F1 2013. As expected, there are no surprises when comparing with the PC updates but it’s good to see the improvements and fixes finally arrive on the consoles.