
PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan recovering from medical issue, cedes day-to-day control
PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan is recovering from a medical situation
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Los Angeles Lakers sign Christian Wood, veteran forward and SoCal native, AP source says
Veteran forward Christian Wood has agreed to a two-year deal with the Los Angeles Lakers, a person with knowledge of the deal told The Associated Press
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Medvedev defeats friend Fucsovics at Wimbledon
World number three Daniil Medvedev defeated close friend Marton Fucsovics to reach the Wimbledon last 16 for the...
2023-07-08 23:55

F1 Manager 23 review: In the slipstream to greatness
Managerial decisions laced with ego are brutal, and you'll get the chance to make some especially brutal decisions in F1 Manager 23, the second instalment of Frontier's F1 Manager series that looks to do for Formula One what Football Manager did for football - only with the polish of official licensing. In F1 Manager, you swap the driving seat for the boss' headset. You're less Max Verstappen and more Christian Horner. You'll develop cars, hire/fire drivers and staff, build facilites, call-in pit stops, tweak engineering, and lead race-day tactics. In essence, you're doing everything except steering the thing. You're letting your hand-picked disciples carry out your masterplan. So, those decisions? Lance Stroll was out of the door - I'm telling you. Why? Well - I wanted an Aston Martin dream team of my own making. I wanted Fernando Alonso paired with a Lewis Hamilton, a Charles Leclerc, a Lando Norris - even a Daniel Ricciardo. I wanted to transform the brand into a mythical Formula One beast, a team pairing of legend (even if it risked the Hamilton v Alonso disaster of years gone by, but they've both grown up now. I wanted a legend in that car. I prayed I could bring back Sebastian Vettel, but I couldn't. And with all of this whirring in my mind, Stroll did the damnedest thing. It's Saudi Arabia. Race week 2 of the season and my mind is made up. Despite my bias favouring Alonso in terms of car build and strategy, Stroll finishes third. Of course, my instructions nurse him to that position - but he is performing with the deck stacked against him. Monaco comes, and Stroll places ahead of Alonso. The only thing I could do is start to sandbag him and reduce his practice time - or god forbid, refuse to send him out for qualifying. That wouldn't be right though, would it? Here - in my own little world - the idea of F1 emerged in its most maximalist form. A rich playboy starts to lead the pack amongst his gifted peers. Somehow, perhaps only in my world, Stroll had pitched ahead of Alonso. His confidence was greater, and he was performing better. Nothing that F1 Manager 23 can provide will better the stories you make in your own head, but the game provides the tools to see those stories play out in a virtual sandbox - and with results you might not expect. Or be banking on. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Rewrite history The entire point of sport management simulations is to write your own history and make your own story, but new to F1 Manager this year is the entertaining ability to re-write history. The new 'Race Replay' mode offers players the perhaps 'easier' task of taking over the pitlane control and strategy for one team per real-life race weekend. Fancy taking McLaren over the finish line at the recent British Grand Prix? You can! Will you pit Norris for fresh tyres or hope he struggles to hold the pack up for Piastri to complete a 'Papaya Podium'? It's your call (I put Norris on fresh tyres and forgot about Piastri, thus failing the challenge). There are two modes within Race Replay - one, where you can plan glory from your chosen team's starting position, another where you can dive mid-race into a selected scenario. The point is this: It lets you put your money where your mouth is. Especially if you've been losing it at Ferrari's decision making over the years (rightly so). It's an entertaining mode for the week-in and week-out fan - and a very welcome addition Practice makes perfect - and career mode is a blast (again) The meat of F1 Manager 2023 takes place in the career mode, which is simple enough to understand; but has grown quite brutal in some aspects. Not a great deal has changed - but very much like Football Manager releases, there's extra layers of polish and additional depth. The new addition of tyre temperatures adds even more discomfort to race weekends. There are fully simulated feeder leagues so that you can plan for the future. Sprint races are also a thing in-game. It also appears that the financial structures from last year have been adjusted. The cost cap is more of a presence, and you certainly feel the budget impact as a 'weaker' team when a driver whacks a car into a wall, because it will scupper your car development plans. The driving AI feels much improved, and opposition cars and managers will try to game you with pit stops and tyre changes. The pit stops are also a 'new feature' as, just like your car, you can improve your pit staff to increase your marginal gains. All of this builds into a fairly dramatic experience come raceday. The outcome hinges on your decisions, and there are a few more tactical options this time around. You can demand that Lance Stroll - for instance - defends hard against the chasing pack to make room for Fernando Alonso to catch up or progress ahead. You could tell Alonso to give it his all in overtakes. Likewise, you can tell them to cool off - in addition to the existing options of pushing tyres and fuel, All of this will have an impact on your lap times, and of course, tyre condition. Race days can be slightly boring if you're starting from the back, but there's as many unique thrills in snatching a point as there are fighting for a podium. When your strategy pays off - with help from inclement weather and drivers - it feels incredible. When a driver slips off track, or when you get your calls wrong it feels awful, plain and simple. When drivers compliment the car setup during practice, it's a neat win. When they diss it, it's a pain. And that in itself is perhaps F1 Manager's greatest achievement. It captures the intensity of race weekends in a bottle. Verdict F1 Manager could look better. It could be deeper. It could feature more customisation (likely hamstrung by licensing anyway), and certainly more audio lines from engineers and drivers to avoid robotic 2024/2025/2026 seasons. You should be able to add your own team like in the F1 2023 series. The 'jank' which comes with the territory of a math-based game engine rather than a physics-based engine is all-too noticeable once you see a race car crash (as it was last year). However, there is genuine brilliance within F1 Manager 23. Particularly for newcomers who might be put off by the depth of the game. Unlike last year, they can now can live their Drive To Survive fantasy with the Race Replay feature before jumping into career-mode Diehards can enjoy it all the same, and then get to grips with the lurking threat of tyre temperatures and tactical options. By next season, ideally we'll be talking about an F1 Manager game that is complete with all the features needed to land the perfect Formula 1 sandbox. What we have, though, is a game that is in the slipstream to greatness. It's a game that ticks all the boxes for F1 fans, who can put their knowledge to the test and enjoy building a great car, and a great team. 8/10 Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.
2023-07-29 00:45

Injured Murray out of Davis Cup clash with Djokovic
Former world number one and three-time major winner Andy Murray pulled out of the Davis Cup finals on Saturday, depriving the tournament of a likely...
2023-11-18 19:58

Steve Cohen’s Mets Flop While Orioles Win With New Breed of Moneyball
The 2023 Major League Baseball regular season marks the 20th anniversary of the publication of Moneyball, Michael Lewis’
2023-10-04 17:45

NFL picks, score predictions for every Week 5 game
Making NFL picks and score predictions for every Week 5 game, including the Cowboys-49ers NFC contenders clash, Davante Adams facing the Packers, and more.
2023-10-06 05:18

Buoyed by Bayern move, England's Stanway ready to take World Cup by storm
Georgia Stanway became a national hero for her role in England women's Euro 2022 triumph but believes she is all the better for a move away from her homeland heading...
2023-07-10 19:46

Man United produce the bare minimum to avoid more embarrassment against Luton
The choruses from a corner of Old Trafford amounted to a cascade of derision. “You are embarrassing,” sang the Luton Town supporters, even after their side trailed. It was, though, a day when Manchester United averted embarrassment. Perhaps that is as much as they can hope for at the moment, but Erik ten Hag’s side just about won what ought to have been the most winnable of games. They were scarcely impressive and there was precious little evidence to suggest a corner has been turned or that a better run will follow in an altogether tougher sequence of fixtures after the international break. But they won. Perhaps they could thank their expanding injury list for that, or Ten Hag’s recent reluctance to pick Raphael Varane. Because, when Jonny Evans was ruled out until December, Victor Lindelof was recalled. The Swede delivered just a fourth goal in almost 250 United games and United, who had only previously led at Old Trafford for 28 minutes in the Premier League all season, had 31 minutes to savour and defend an advantage. They did and a relatively uneventful victory formed a contrast with the extraordinary drama of Wednesday’s defeat in Copenhagen. United needed it: partly to stop them spiralling downhill again, partly for the points that mean that, for all their failings, they somehow finished the game sixth in the table, partly to avoid historic markers of decline. They had lost their previous two matches at Old Trafford, but still have not been beaten in three in a row on home soil since 1962. Meanwhile, Luton’s last point away at United came in 1897, at the old Bank Street ground. They have never returned from Old Trafford with as much as a draw. Rob Edwards’ side are entitled to think they could have ended that statistic. Agonisingly close to beating Liverpool last week, they could have imagined another famous scalp. Certainly United had reasons to be indebted to Andre Onana. Culpable so often this season, the Cameroonian only had one save of note to make, but it was a vital and terrific stop, preserving parity by plunging to his left to turn Carlton Morris’ first-half header away. It came during what felt an extended impasse, with United lacking incision, ideas or urgency and when the ball was often at Harry Maguire’s feet. Then another stopper turned scorer: forward for a corner, Lindelof lifted a shot into the roof of the net after Marcus Rashford’s low cross was not cleared. It was a second league goal this season for United’s centre-backs, twice as many as their various forwards have mustered. That statistic should have changed but Rasmus Hojlund’s wait for a maiden Premier League strike now stands at nine games. The Dane reacted well when an early Rashford cross was deflected but, from four yards, he only managed to knee the ball towards Thomas Kaminski, who made a point-blank block. Later, Hojlund headed Bruno Fernandes’ free kick wide before limping off: United, who lost Aaron Wan-Bissaka to illness before the game while Christian Eriksen hobbled off in the first half, may feel they have enough injury concerns already without worrying about their £72m striker. Rashford, meanwhile, produced a bright display but ought to have ended his own drought, which now extends to 12 games. Instead, he fired a shot straight at the excellent Kaminski, who also made a fine save from Scott McTominay’s header. Yet these were exceptions on a day when United fashioned too few chances. There was insufficient creativity, just a hope Rashford’s pace or Fernandes’ delivery would yield something. Mason Mount came on when Eriksen went off, but to no great effect. Antony’s cameo was eminently forgettable and United actually played better for much of the defeat in Copenhagen. If the watching Sir Alex Ferguson, returned to Old Trafford for the first time since he lost his wife, Lady Cathy, could have enjoyed the result, there were few reminders of his best teams. Given the two worlds these clubs occupy, there may be more to satisfy Luton. Barring an FA Cup tie against a lower-league outfit, there will not be a greater gulf in resources between United and their opposition this season. Yet there is no such thing as a simple match for Ten Hag’s team. And, in fairness, Luton are defying predictions they would prove cannon fodder. There is an obduracy to the Hatters; they have not lost by more than two goals since August. Well coached, well organised and spirited, they are illustrating that limited teams can still acquit themselves well. Yet the reality is that they only have six points from 12 games. Their supporters enjoyed a day out at Old Trafford, but they probably will not have another next season. Read More Victor Lindelof strike enough for Manchester United to edge past Luton Man United v Luton LIVE: Result and reaction from crucial Premier League clash Harry Maguire ‘showing he can do the job’ – Erik ten Hag Ten Hag ‘not happy’ with Rashford’s Manchester United form Rasmus Hojlund says ‘a matter of time’ until Erik ten Hag improves Man United Ten Hag calls out referee’s ‘harsh’ decision to red card Rashford
2023-11-12 01:45

Mbappe dominates on home return as PSG outclass Lens
Kylian Mbappe dominated his first home start of the season, scoring twice as Ligue 1 champions Paris-Saint Germain defeated last season's runners...
2023-08-27 05:21

Georgia hold potent sting, warns Australia lock Arnold
Australian lock Richie Arnold says Australia will "get stung" if they under-estimate their first Rugby World Cup opponents Georgia on Saturday...
2023-09-06 01:26

David Beckham reveals 'long journey' for Inter Miami to lift first ever trophy
David Beckham explains the journey for Inter Miami after their Leagues Cup triumph.
2023-08-21 05:24
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