After playing both F1 2011 and 2012 I was very disappointed by this game. I tried everything and simply couldn’t drive the car at all.

Amazing graphics (for me, that grew up playing SNES), great handling - it isn't a simulator, but still very accurate. Exciting races, great AI (the best, comparing to the past codemasters F1 games). The only thing that lost it's appeal comparing to the old ones was the career mode: not much interactive.

I liked this a lot more than I thought I would. Previously playing other Codemasters games such as the DIRT and GRID series, I went into F1 2013 (currently free until May 31st 2015) thinking it would take the same direction with an F1 theme. Boy, was I so very wrong. F1 2013 is one of the deepest and possibly the most faithful-to-its-source racing I have ever played. Every track, every team and every driver is available from the 2013 F1 season, including classic content such as teams and tracks from the 1980s pre-packaged in the game, and 1990s content available through DLC. Safe to say, you won't be left wanting in regard to content. With depth comes difficulty. Opponents on-track behave just as they would in the real life motorsport, never unfairly riding along your tail or lagging behind, but do make the occasional mistake when gunning for position. I'm surprised at how good the AI actually is, a rare occurrence in most racing games these days. To keep up with the pack and defend your position you have modern racing concepts at your disposal such as the Drag Reduction System (DRS) and the Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) which are regulated in-game as the FIA actually permits. Not only that, every attribute within the car's disposal is important: tyre wear, fuel consumption and aerodynamic and mechanical maintenance all play a massive role when out on the track, especially in the most dangerous of conditions. Safe to say, the racing gameplay alone justifies the depth of the game. The career mode is deep and near flawless, fairing well with the participation setup of each race, consisting of qualifiers that determine position and then the actual race, all of which can be regulated for chance of a change in weather, as well as the current track condition. The one problem I have with the career, and fair enough it is a nitpick, a problem that other recent Codemasters racing games share, is an unskippable narrator, who is informative and straight to the point, but at the same time, can become irritating due to his high volume commentary. Past that though, it's difficult enough to criticise the career for what it achieves: to replicate the 2013 F1 season. Aside from career and gameplay, the graphics are pretty solid; the cars look amazing, the lighting is near perfect, and the tracks are quite detailed too and well re-created, yet not perfect detail-wise. The ability to save a race mid-session is also really nifty, allowing anybody to engage in a full-length F1 race, but still stop and rest should they feel like so. It makes the races in-game so much more accessible, couple that with the rewind feature as seen in past Codemasters racing games. Overall, if you're reading this before May 31st and have XBL Gold, and want to give this a bash, I really recommend you do, and if you're not, pick it up anyway. I promise you'll get a fair amount of game time out of this. The gameplay is fantastic, the racing is deep, the career is deep, the game looks pretty good graphically and the mid-session save feature, coupled with the rewind feature makes it one of the most accessible racing games out there for the casual or hardcore sim or sim-cade racer.