Latest news with #Codemasters
The Star
06-06-2025
- Automotive
- The Star
Three must-have racing games for every petrolhead
BERLIN: Whether it's a well-tuned off-road truck or a high-tech Formula 1 car, these three graphically sophisticated racing games offer fast-paced fun for genre pros and beginners alike. They all manage to convey a realistic driving experience that can make players almost forget that this is a simulation and not a real race. Forza Motorsport: The one for racing purists (Xbox, PC) Since 2005, the name Forza Motorsport from Turn 10 Studios has held a firm place in the hearts of racing game fans. Unlike its big sister Forza Horizon , this isn't an arcade racer, but rather a simulation for discerning racing fans. Expect endless fast-paced action in Forza Motorsport. — Turn 10 Studios/Microsoft/dpa It's a completely remastered remake of the original, with 20 different tracks and around 500 cars, competing with Sony's flagship game, Gran Turismo 7 – the main alternative for anyone with a PlayStation. In career mode, fans get to know the cars and tracks before demonstrating their skills in online races against other players. Thanks to the driver assists, even beginners can enjoy it. Those who want can skip everything and customise their racing strategy, including fuel consumption and tyre wear. Experienced players can tinker with the perfect setup to optimally navigate corners in any weather. Successful manoeuvres earn experience points that unlock new options in the workshop. Forza Motorsport looks professional, and it is. And yet beginners can still have a lot of fun with this racing game thanks to various switchable driving aids. — Turn 10 Studios/Microsoft/dpa Forza Motorsport impresses with a near-perfect driving experience and numerous customisation options. However, beyond the maturity of the gameplay and the detailed visuals, the game lacks a bit in scope. Where the competition focuses on spectacle, Forza Motorsport celebrates the pure joy of driving. This is a game for racing purists who enjoy tinkering with details to chase the best lap time. It's available for Windows PCs and the Xbox Series. Dirt 5: Lots of mud, lots of thrills (PS4/5, Xbox, PC) Buckle up, foot down and hit the dirt. In Dirt 5 , developer studio Codemasters sends racing fans on an outdoor rally halfway around the world. It's an arcade racer that focuses on speed, mud-plugging and excitement rather than realism. This will appeal especially to newcomers who appreciate the easy access and impressive visuals. Dirt 5 offers precise controls but lacks any simulation aspect. Damage to the car is purely cosmetic, and players have no tuning options. — Codemasters/Electronic Arts/dpa The heart of Dirt 5 is the career mode. Players collect prize money on over 70 tracks, seek out new sponsors and invest the winnings in new cars. An off-road truck handles more sluggishly than a converted street car and every steering error costs valuable seconds. In addition to the racing events, players can also complete several skill tests in the "Playground" game mode to earn victory points. In addition to the online multiplayer mode, up to four players can compete against each other on their own screen in split-screen mode. Dirt 5 offers precise controls but lacks any simulation aspect. Damage to the car is purely cosmetic, and players have no tuning options. Race halfway around the world: Dirt 5 offers more than 70 tracks. — Codemasters/Electronic Arts/dpa However, the developers have invested a lot of time in the audiovisual presentation. When the engines roar and the tires spray mud all over the place, the lack of realism hardly bothers you. The game provides straightforward, fast-paced racing fun for anyone who wants to dive right into the spectacle without any preparation. It's available for Windows PCs, the PS4/5 and the Xbox One/Series. F1 24: All Formula 1 drivers and tracks (PS4/5 , Xbox, PC) F1 24 is the official game of the Formula 1 World Championship. Every driver, every track and every car: No other racing simulation captures the excitement of Formula 1 as authentically as the video game series from developer Codemasters. It doesn't get much more realistic than this: Here you are travelling as Ferrari driver Ollie Bearman at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. — Codemasters/Electronic Arts/dpa The 16th instalment features a revamped career mode in which players can become Formula 1 champions. The 17th instalment, F1 25 , was slated to arrive at the end of May. In F1 24 , fans can either enter the race as a racing legend or create their own character. Then it all gets going: qualifying, racing and the winner's podium. Thanks to numerous driving aids that indicate the ideal track or the correct braking point, even newcomers to the genre will find it easy to get started. In the race, players not only fight for a place on the winner's podium, but can also complete special tasks to unlock improvements for their car. The view from the cockpit in F1 24. — Codemasters/Electronic Arts/dpa The game grows alongside the player's skill. Without driving aids, it becomes a tricky reaction test. Anyone who overtakes too riskily or brakes too late quickly ends up in the barriers. Racing enthusiasts therefore need to rely on sophisticated controls with a steering wheel and pedals and leave the gamepad aside. There's no question: F1 is in pole position among Formula 1 racing games, whether played alone or online with other players. The game is available for Windows PCs, the PS4/5 and the Xbox One/Series. – dpa
Yahoo
30-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
F1 25 Review: Play as Brad Pitt's Sonny Hayes in Video Game
Codemasters' F1 series is one of video gaming's most consistent franchises as its delivered thrilling simulation racing for well over a decade at this point. This year's release features some great under the hood upgrades graphically, additional options to the career mode, and a great crossover with the F1 movie. It all gels to create a great racing game that is filled with modes and features to keep Formula One fans busy. The core racing has always been the series' strong suit and it remains as such this year. There's a particular buzz that comes with overtaking an opponent around a turn, carefully navigating the space between success and a crash. The sense of speed is as good as ever, with some visual upgrades making the cars look better than ever as you .(hopefully) speed past them. With plenty of difficulty settings and sliders, you can make sure you're having fulfilling action on the track across the game's many modes. One of the coolest additions to F1 25 is the game's implementation of the upcoming F1 movie starring Brad Pitt. First off, both the APXGP and its drivers (Pitt and Damson Idris' characters) are available in both Driver Career and My Team modes. Additionally, there are scenarios from the film that players can relive. Currently, only one is available (more will be coming on June 30 once the film is out), where you play as Pitt's Sonny Hayes and try to match the time of Idris' Joshua Pearce, but it's presented really well as it blends movie footage to set it up before transitioning into the racing gameplay. I always love challenge modes in sports games, and I can't wait to do the rest of the challenges next month. If you enjoy the taste of off-track drama in the F1 movie mode, then you'll be glad to know that the story-based Braking Point mode returns for a third time. It picks up from last year's story — although it introduces itself well, so you won't be totally lost if you're new — and you'll have the option to race as either Callie Mayer or Aiden Jackson. I've always gotten a kick out of the mode (and wish more sports games would have narrative modes), and what's nice about this year's addition is that after you've finished the story, you can take the team into Career Mode to continue it if you wish. As a yearly release, the game is naturally iterative (as it should be with such a strong base), but there are a number of other additions. New advancements in F1 25 include five rebuilt tracks (Bahrain, Miami, Melbourne, Suzuka, and Imola) that look fantastic. You can also race around three tracks in reverse layouts, as well, so there's more variety than ever before. A lot of other nice touches, such as better facial animations and a much better decal editor, make it a better visual spectacle both on the track and during cutscenes as well. Codemasters has done it yet again as F1 25 is a fantastic offering with plenty of modes and gripping racing. I can't wait to see more of the F1 movie implementation as I love what's already in the game, and Braking Point is yet again a solid story mode. You can never go wrong with the F1 games, and F1 25 builds on the series' strong past to provide the best one yet. As ComingSoon's review policy explains, a score of 8.5 equates to 'Great.' While there are a few minor issues, this score means that the art succeeds at its goal and leaves a memorable impact. Disclosure: The publisher provided a PlayStation 5 copy for our F1 25 review. The post F1 25 Review: Play as Brad Pitt's Sonny Hayes in Video Game appeared first on - Movie Trailers, TV & Streaming News, and More.
Top Gear
30-05-2025
- Automotive
- Top Gear
Endurance Motorsport Series preview: why hasn't anyone thought of this before?
Gaming Playing as driver and mechanic in online co-op? Brilliant Skip 5 photos in the image carousel and continue reading In this present chapter of the games industry, in which it's rare enough to play a game that hasn't been preceded by at least nine sequels or released twice already before its current remastered form, new ideas are thin on the ground. But the developers at KT Racing have evidently had their thinking caps on lately. Endurance Motorsport Series is a strikingly generic name for a strikingly bold, fresh racing game. In the simplest terms, you get to be the driver, the strategist and the race engineer all at once. Or stick to one role and play in co-op with your mates occupying the other roles. Advertisement - Page continues below It's as simple as that, and yet nobody's really tried this before. The line between motorsport management and racing sim has always been kept crisp and clear, and other than the Codemasters F1 series letting you run a team off the track and then drive the car at race weekends, no one has dared to step across it. Hypercars, LMP2 and GT vehicles are all on the roster here, as are a mix of real-world tracks like Spa with some supermarket own-brand fictional circuits inspired by the circuits who evidently wouldn't sign the license agreements. We're not talking Gran Turismo 7 -levels of encyclopaedic rigour, then, but that's not really what EMS is going for. You might like As we quickly discover on track at The Green Hell, the handling has a simcade character rather than an all-out simulation. KT Racing wants this to be equally compelling for direct drive wheel users and racers who like to sit back on the sofa with a gamepad in their hands, and that's a smart place to pitch the accessibility level considering there's a co-op element, which means selling the game hard like Jordan Belfort to your gaming buddies in Discord. Lower barrier for entry equals greater likelihood of getting friends involved. Oddly enough, though, it ends up being more compelling with a wheel than a controller. It takes some time to figure out that you can brake much later than when the reasoning gland in your brain starts yelling at you, and even a shade after the 'seriously, brake now' cortex chimes in. Advertisement - Page continues below You've got so much more stopping power and lateral agility than the cars in Assetto Corsa Competizione or iRacing give you, which means half the challenge is finding where the new limit is. And the analogue inputs of a wheel and pedal make that a bit easier to feel your way into than the sharper stick waggles and trigger squeezes of a gamepad. In third-person cam and using a controller, it's clear there's a bit of fine-tuning still to be done on the handling before EMS releases later in 2025. Specifically, the relationship between camera movement and turn-in rate – it's tricky at present to judge how much grip you've got, and the strange understeer-oversteer-understeer phases we experienced through Spa's corners (admittedly, in the wet) felt short of convincing. However: switching between driver and engineer is just as gratifying as it sounds. With one button tap, you're out of the car and watching several data readout screens from the pitwall. Here you're given all the information to analyse the best pit window, the optimum tyre compound, and where the clear air is on track when you exit the pits. It's enjoyable enough to play both roles, but the prospect of playing as a duo and having each co-op teammate committed to their role is genuinely exciting. Because it's genuinely new. We need to shout about these risk-taking games from the rooftops in 2025, because there aren't nearly enough of them. So keep doing what you're doing, EMS . Please make it an easy sales pitch when we get onto Discord and try convincing our mates to join us. Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Look out for your regular round-up of news, reviews and offers in your inbox. Get all the latest news, reviews and exclusives, direct to your inbox. Endurance Motorsport Series is due later in 2025.
Yahoo
30-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Major Racing Series Officially on Hiatus, Future Uncertain
Electronic Arts has put one of the longest running racing game series on hold, leaving its future uncertain. , which turns 24 years in November 2025, is 'pausing' development on future titles with immediate effect. Its developer, Codemasters, has since had its official X account pulled. EA Sports became WRC publisher in 2023 following its purchase of Codemasters in 2021. Recently, the publisher announced approximately 300 job cuts across the company, but Codemasters wasn't mentioned in the announcement. Now, Codemasters X account has disappeared. The studio, which was founded in October 1986, has been in operation for 38 years. 'Every great journey eventually finds its finish line, and today, we announce that we've reached the end of the road working on WRC,' EA wrote. 'After releasing EA Sports WRC in 2023, the 2024 season, including the recently released Hard Chargers Content pack, will be our last expansion. For now, we are pausing development plans on future rally titles.' EA reassured fans that EA Sports WRC will continue to be playable for existing and new players. How long that will last is anybody's guess, however. As for Codemasters, EA hasn't said what's next for the studio. Its fate remains unclear. The post Major Racing Series Officially on Hiatus, Future Uncertain appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.
Yahoo
30-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
EA Looking to Shut Down Long-Running Studio
It seems isn't done closing down some of its studios. A new report suggests the long-running racing developer may be next on the chopping block. Video game insider eXtas1s recently claimed the developer of games like Grid, Colin McRae Rally, Dirt, and most recently F1 25, will shut its doors. Those impacted will be put on the next F1 game or a new Need for Speed game currently in development. Additionally, the insider learned that there are about 400 'more' layoffs at EA. 'The cancellation of Black Panther will NOT be the only thing,' said eXtas1s. 'I have been able to learn that there are about 400 more layoffs coming up at EA, a total CLOSURE of the main headquarters of Codemasters and that these developers will be integrated into EA Sp (F1) and a new Need For Speed that is already in development.' EA recently closed Cliffhanger Games and cancelled its Black Panther game. According to an email from EA Entertainment president Laura Miele, this decision was to 'sharpen our focus and put our creative energy behind the most significant growth opportunities.' 'These decisions are hard,' Miele wrote. 'They affect people we've worked with, learned from, and shared real moments with. We're doing everything we can to support them — including finding opportunities within EA, where we've had success helping people land in new roles.' The status of Codemasters has been up in the air since EA paused development on future World Rally Championship titles. Around that announcement, the official Codemasters X account was pulled. While all signs are pointing to Codemasters getting shut down, EA has yet to officially confirm the closure. (Source: eXtas1s via Nintendo Life) The post EA Looking to Shut Down Long-Running Studio – Report appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.
