There were a couple of contender for my own pick for Round of the Year. 2nd Destiny: The Witch Sovereign, the redesign to at long last snag me back into Predetermination consistently, would’ve likely been my most memorable pick. That’s out because Phil already has that one for himself and his game time makes mine seem insignificant.
Vampire Survivors was the other game, but the PC Gamer team decided to give it some recognition this year, so it already has a GOTY award, which is a well-deserved honor.
However, that does not mean that my personal choice is any less deserving of praise than these two. F1 Manager 2022 satisfies an itch I had previously thought could only be satisfied by retraining as an F1 engineer and quitting my job. With little to no relevant experience, I am grateful for the opportunity to succeed Toto Wolff as Mercedes team principal, as that was never going to happen.
I’ve long wondered what all the fuss is about after witnessing what a sim manager game can do to a person from my boss’s obsession with Football Manager. Even though I watched portions of the World Cup like everyone else—that Messi, huh, he sure has two feet—I’m not a fan of football, but if a game puts me in charge of tire strategy, I’m sold.
Real-time monitoring of two Formula One vehicles’ tire degradation induces a rush of adrenaline. No, I mean it. That may not come as a surprise to me at all; the previous year, I did realize that I am somewhat obsessed with the nitty-gritty of F1 2021 setups.
F1 Manager can be surprisingly busy, despite the fact that it may appear to be a slow-paced management sim. During the actual races, you’ve two entire vehicles to make due, and elevated requirements from supports, as well. Overheating tyres and excessive fuel consumption may be waiting for you on car #2 if you are laser-focused on one car and firing radio messages like digital Bono (not the guy from U2 but the Lewis Hamilton Race engineer kind).
The number of times I’ve put all of my attention on getting Gasly to the finish line, only to find Tsunoda running almost empty with three laps to go and tyres that are worn out.
One thing I’ve gained from my experience as a group chief is that I’m all the more a Ferrari rather than a Red Bull with regards to generally procedure. I’m sorry Tifosi. For the 2022 season, I have a worse record than Ferrari’s strategists, which proves that Formula One strategy is extremely difficult. Even though I try to “do something they won’t expect,” despite my clever strategies, I typically fall back through the pack and finish dead last, as everyone else with better strategies and newer tires outperforms my lap times. During actual Formula One races, I’m even beginning to question whether I actually know more than the team.
In the end, my objective for F1 Manager 2022 was to advance Alpha Tauri to the championship crown, surpassing Red Bull and Christian Horner as the clearly superior team principal. Sadly, Alpha Tauri is in worse shape than it was when I first fired Franz Tost because this may have been too much of a feat for my rather average management skills.
However, I have ample time to establish my strategy. How and where I play F1 Manager 2022 is one of the main reasons I keep returning to the game and helping Alpha Tauri fulfill their championship aspirations. My entire time playing F1 Manager 2022 was spent on Valve’s fantastic Steam Deck, which, even with AMD’s FidelityFX Super Resolution upscaling on full blast and the graphics settings set to low, barely manages to keep up with the action.
The Steam Deck is an excellent fit for the menu-based action and appropriately low-resolution graphics of F1 Manager. Since they are mostly menu-based, you can lay the Deck flat and play as casually as you like—great for long flights. The pad controls integrate seamlessly with the Deck.
Although the game is admittedly draining on battery power, you can still play for a good few hours before the Deck runs out, so you might want to consider purchasing a powerful battery pack.
Bounty sufficient opportunity to run basically a race end of the week, inasmuch as you’re not excessively valuable about playing continuously and wouldn’t fret prudently stirring things up around town up button.
As a new sports management game franchise that plays to my own interests, I can say that I finally get what all the fuss is about with F1 Manager 2022. Although I’m not sure I feel the need to queue up for the release next year, I can probably just restart my season and boot Gasly for Nyck de Vries anyway.