The new F1 22 game launches this week and here at GiveMeSport we've been lucky enough to take it for a spin ahead of its full release.

Have a look at what we think on Codemasters' PlayStation 4 version, as they, along with EA, bring the new era of Formula 1 to life...

Gameplay

First of all, the depth and detail of the game, as expected, is to be applauded.

There are a plethora of settings you can play around with both in terms of car set-up and general gameplay, meaning the game is something that newcomers to serious motorsport gamers can pick up and get enjoyment from.

Such incremental detail of course means it takes a little time for you to get to grips with everything if you are picking up an F1 title for the first time - as many new F1 fans might be - but it's well worth it and as you improve there's plenty of scope to increase the challenge by turning off assists and increasing AI difficulty.

Read more: F1 22: Release date, news, tracks, pre-order and everything we currently know

The game also captures the new regulations of the cars, and how they handle them differently from previous years. This was always going to be a big test for EA and Codemasters and ultimately you can follow rivals far closer for longer than in the past before you had issues with the car - as in real life - and that makes this game naturally more appealing given racing is what we're all playing it for in the first place.

What's new?

Aside from the obvious mechanics of the game-changing thanks to the new car regulations, there are several other new features.

Sprint is in an F1 game for the first time after its arrival in the sport last year, adding more racing action, whilst Pirelli hot-laps gives you a chance to take on different challenges on the circuits in a variety of supercars - if you want to step away from the F1 action for a bit.

One thing that stands out, though, is F1 Life which is essentially a feature that tries to encapsulate what it's like to be an F1 driver in real life.

In this feature, you can use microtransactions to buy things from supercars to drive to new clothing for your avatar, and whilst it is a different idea, we're not sure just how well it's going to go down - some might argue that it doesn't really add too much to the game.

We've not yet played a VR version of the game with it now supported on PC but that looks very impressive indeed, and could be about as close as you can get to driving an F1 car bar actually doing it - Valve Index, Oculus Quest 2 + Link Cable, Oculus Rift S, HTC Vive, HTC Vive Cosmos are the VR headsets supported.

What's to like?

We've played it on PlayStation and the graphics are superb, with each of the tracks and cars in great detail and, of course, new tracks are always fun to learn so we spent plenty of time working on our laps around Miami - there was no big opening ceremony in the game as in real life though...

We quite like career mode being a bit stripped back to a more 'classic' form, too, though there's perhaps cause for a happy medium that includes elements of Braking Point, omitted from this year's title, to give the career a story around it.

My Team also continues to be a nice feature and you can now pick things like a starting budget depending on how big a challenge you want to set yourself.

Our verdict

8/10.

There's plenty of good about F1 22.

A few things might split opinion like F1 Life and Career Mode but ultimately there are arguably more ways than ever to get your F1 racing fix with this title, and with things like VR coming into the game on PC for the first time, there are lots to explore no matter what platform you play on.

F1 2022 will be launched on July 1st, you can also pre-order the Champions Edition for 3-days early access here: http://x.ea.com/73876

You can find all of the latest F1 2022 news and everything Gaming related right here at GiveMeSport.