Long time F1 fan and long time player of F1 games F1 2012 steps back from the mistakes and problems of previous games, ignores them and then takes a big shit on your face and asks you for £30.
It's hard to know where to start, F1 2012 is so bad at so many things, but first, let's start with one of its big 'new' features, its new driving engine.
The 'new' driving engine is an improvement on the engine used in 2010 and 2011, though it's not the jump that 2011 was from 2010. The cars feel less stable and require more precise throttle control coming out of corners and better break control going into them, it makes qualifying and racing more enjoyable, to an extent but does not really push the genre or really even the previous game.
Ok, and now the bad...
For some reason known only to the dev team, they have decided to instead of building on the menu scheme and look of the previous game (which was great) they have instead moved everything around in what looks like a disorientated mess, there is zero consistency with any of the menu's and half the time you're just randomly pressing 'Enter' because you're not sure what your suppose to be looking at, it's a mess.
But now, the real problem this game has the AI and the Penalty system.
The AI of the previous games was pretty impressive and far better than that of the Forza or GT games, but the AI hasn't improved at all since F1 2010 which is a pretty big problem because in real life F1 rules and how drivers can defend attack etc etc has changed MASSIVLY.
The horrible AI then happily plays into the appalling Penalty system for a nice one-two punch.
F1 in real life is a non-contact sport, and when contact is made it usually results in one driving retiring from the race due to damage, so having rules in place that limits how aggressive drivers can be and punishes drivers who cause problems or crashes is a good thing.
F1 2012 does not understand this concept and it feels like the people making the game don't either. I cannot count the number of times in qualifying when I've been on my 'hot' lap and someone pulls out of the pit lane in front of me going so slowly and doing it so late I can do nothing but crash into the back of them... and then I get awarded a 10 place grid penalty for causing a crash. HOW... HOW does that make sense in any-fucking-way... it doesn't it makes ZERO SENSE.
Furthermore, if someone is trying to over-take you and they decided to drive into the back of you and damage their car, YOU are the one who's to fault and YOU get the penalty... again HOW DOES THAT MAKE SENSE?! They can't even manage to have even vague nonsensical consistency, it's just a random fucking mess... and it can totally ruin your race with you being totally innocent.
Tying into the AI and Penalty system for being cluster-fucks there is also the 'Team' element to F1 2012, again based on the real world of F1. In F1 the driver has a radio and is in constant contact with his team, who's in front of him who's behind what tires and strategies people are doing and how fast they need to push etc. In F1 2010 and 2011 they tried to do this and mostly failed to really achieve anything that worked right. In 2012 they completely ruined it, your team know nothing... literally nothing, and instead of telling you your pace compared to the other cars and how close/far they are from you... your only told if the person in front or behind is using all there rev's or not. In other words they give you ZERO information that actually matters. Now in the previous games this wasn't so much a big deal because you could brute force your way to the front as the physics wasn't so great and the driving engine was pretty easy and simple, but in this it's not at all and if it rains, you basically have to replay the same race 5-6 times simply so you know what the AI (who know exactly what tired to fit and when) is doing, so you can copy them and hope to have some sort of chance of not finishing last. It's a fucking joke.
The last race I played it was raining from the out-set and everyone started on Inters, fine ok I'll start on inters. The race starts and no one has any grip but I manage to work my way (from last) to the top 3, half way through the lap and the track looks dry but I have 0 grip and can see its raining and my team tell me my tires are good temp... ok fine... end of the lap comes up everyone else pits for slicks... my team tell me nothing.
Half way through that lap as I'm being over-taken by the guys who have not long pitted for new tires, my team tell me I might want to think about putting on slicks...
I don't know how your suppose to play this game?
It's a broken, disjointed cluster-fuck. And it's not even the first time Codemasters Racing have done this, they did the same thing to F1 2011, only that wasn't as hard to drive so driving around its problems was doable, but in this you don't stand a fucking chance.
If you're thinking of buying or getting into an F1 game, do not DO NOT buy this title, it's a broken disjointed mess, you'd be better off with F1 2011.