F1 25 Review – READY TO RACE?

It’s time for another round of vroom-vroom, ladies and gents. Will F1 25 be much the same as last year? Or as strange-looking as the limited edition Piastri burgers down under? Let’s zoom in.

A Show-Stopping Finale

First things first: Braking Point 3. Is it worth picking up the game for? Heck, yeah! Even though you can complete the story’s 15 chapters in under 5 hours or so, the narrative is quite juicy and chuckle-worthy at points, featuring a lot of well-acted drama and high-stakes moments that Konnersport need to navigate on and off the track. Think Drive to Survive with a hint of soap opera sass. Alliances will be dashed, cars will be smashed, and people will get very, very mad.

Our returning trio: Callie, Aiden and everyone’s favourite former tool Devon, are a lot less whiny and annoying in Braking Point 3, leading to some scenes that you may or may not see coming—in a good way. Same thing applies on the track. About half of the races throw a cheeky spanner in the works; a punctured tyre here, a dodgy gearbox there.
“Just deal with it” says the game. “Oh, and try and complete these extra objectives too if you wanna further boost your reputation and performance.” Bloody brilliant, I say.

In between races, players need to make decisions for a few key members of Konnersport, as a random dude with an iPad will often swing around your desk and plant ya in a predicament. These decisions also affect your on-track performance and reputation, locking out certain responses with the iPad guy and in media interviews if your rep isn’t high enough. So it is worth considering what the best approach is, even if it can be a… shot in the dark, to say the least. Regardless of your choices, it’s quality popcorn fodder seeing it all unfold. Especially when you scroll through emails and the social media feed as the main cast call each other up, shenanigans are bound to ensue.

Back on Track

The handling on a PS5 controller feels extremely intuitive this time around, with none of that slippery dippery-ness to be found from yesteryear. While you can casually cut across certain corners without losing barely any speed or traction, it still feels like a fairly realistic Formula 1 sim. If you’re a loosey goose of a driver like me, don’t fret. Codemasters have made it that even your oldest grandma can have a good time. Every possible accessibility toggle from brake and steering assists, to racing lines and a rewind option can be turned on so you can easily drive with panache and pretend any annoying bumps off the track never happened. What was that now? Speaking of, there were only one or two glitches that occurred, like receiving the completely wrong time info on how far ahead my opponent was or the calendar not advancing in Career mode, though they were few and far between.

Driver Career and F1 World feel largely the same as last year, albeit My Team has shaken things up a tad. You now take on the role of Team Owner, juggling finances, R&D, and more while your two drivers handle the racing. It’s a cool idea, but it can feel like you’re drowning in spreadsheets if you’re not careful. While there are no classic cars available, both Career modes can feature classic icons like Schumacher and Senna. F1 25 also includes either Konnersport or APXGP from the upcoming F1 movie as an 11th team. If you’ve ever wanted to race as Brad Pitt himself, go for your life, dude.

F1 The Movie mode isn’t available to play until June 30th, unfortunately, being rolled out several days after the film drops, so you don’t end up spoiling yourself. However, if it’s anything like Braking Point, the six promised scenarios from EA should be worth checking out, as they’re supposed to “blend the movie’s cinematics with on-track gameplay”. Maybe it’ll be something similar to WWE 2K’s Showcase mode? At any rate, we’ll have to wait and see. Thankfully, the game’s visuals have been noticeably improved with a stable 60FPS on the Quality setting and up to 120FPS on Performance for those still using a base PS5. But then you spot a few janky-looking trees or gravel effects and go, “Hang on, is this still 2016?” though it won’t exactly break the immersion. Just crank up the adaptive trigger strength to ‘Strong’ and you’ll be loving life.

Decision

F1 25 doesn’t reinvent the wheel, yet it sure polishes it up real nice. Braking Point 3 alone is a cracking reason to jump in, and the improved handling and visuals help keep the racing swift and sharp. A couple of Recycled modes, an overwhelming My Team and some minor gameplay quirks hold it back from being an outstanding sim racer. Still, if you’re a filthy casual, fanatic F1 fan, or just keen to steer Brad Pitt’s car into a wall for fun, there’s plenty for everyone to enjoy here.

By Anthony Culinas – Reviewed on PS5

Excellent

F1 25 doesn’t shake up the formula, but it fine-tunes the experience with slicker handling, sharper visuals and a surprisingly spicy Braking Point 3 story mode that’s well worth the ride.

This game was reviewed using a download code provided by EA. The Beta Network uses affiliate partnerships, however, this does not influence reviews or any other content published. The Beta Network may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links that are on the website.