F1® has always been a feast for the senses – from the striking look of the cars, to the smell of burning rubber, to the cacophony of noise that soundtracks the pinnacle of motorsport.
When F1® Manager 2022 launches from August 25 on PC, Xbox, and PlayStation, the game’s audio design will play a huge role in immersing the player into the world of F1®, with familiar voices and true-to-life sounds. In our latest behind-the-scenes video, ‘Sounds of the Track’, we pull back the curtain on how a stunningly authentic soundscape has been brought to life:
Using audio from real F1® Grand Prix weekends, players will hear an array of sounds that accurately reflect the real sport. Engine sounds, riding over curbs, gear changes, and more are all precisely recreated in F1® Manager 2022 – and all dynamically changed based on environmental factors, such weather, camera angle, and position of the crowd.
It’s not just the machines that are represented in a pitch-perfect way, either. Players will hear real-world team radio messages from all 20 drivers on the 2022 F1® grid, as well as radio from race engineers and other drivers, that add another layer of realism as you issue commands to your team during a race weekend, or as drivers react to significant moments.
“When it comes to our game,” said Robbie Mann, Senior Dialogue Designer on F1® Manager 2022, “we wanted the player to feel like they were communicating with their drivers, and to have some sort of tangible feedback when issuing driver commands, or reacting to events throughout the race. “As a dialogue team, we’re incredibly excited to help provide a truly unique experience and perspective of running an F1 team, and we’re even more excited to continue developing and growing these aspects of our game.”
On the topic of real-world team radio messages, Tim Bartlett, Senior Audio Designer, reveals: “Over 50,000 files were delivered to the game team, a smaller subset actually used in the game. Even though this sounds like an enormous number, you can never have too many files for this kind of system which needs to cover all 20 engineers and 20 drivers. We have implemented as much as we can for this game - this is a system ripe for further development on future titles.
“And yes, we did keep the swearing in – but it has been obscured by the usual beeps!”
Players will also hear more recognisable voices away from the track and pit wall, as former F1® driver and current analyst Karun Chandhok and lead commentator David Croft will call the action in F1® Manager 2022. David and Karun’s commentary will feature before and after sessions in a race weekend, along with reactions to in-race highlights.
F1® Manager 2022 launches on August 30 on Steam, Epic Games Store, PS5, Xbox Series X, PS4, and Xbox One. Pre-order the game digitally to receive a 10% discount and five days’ early access, so you can play from August 25*! *Early access and discount is exclusively available to those pre-ordering digitally. On PlayStation platforms, players must be a PlayStation Plus subscriber to receive the 10% pre-order discount.