The interesting thing about console launches is that you never know what unexpected treasures will emerge from the first batch of games. Who could have foretold that the hero of the PlayStation launch would be a fireworks simulation (Fantavision), or that the most joyous title in the initial GameCube lineup would involve simians racing each other in giant transparent globes (Super Monkey Ball)?The latest example could well be Konami’s Survival Kids, the only new third-party game in the Switch 2 opening wave. It’s the latest in the publisher’s cult series of tropical island survival sims, which began on the Game Boy Color and, despite never really attracting vast global success, continued on to the Nintendo DS under a new name, Lost in Blue. Now it’s back as a familyfriendly co-op survival adventure, in which groups of up to four players are shipwrecked on a mysterious archipelago, and must survive by gathering resources, crafting tools, finding food and exploring a series of lush, cartoonish environments. Four people can play online, but the game also supports Switch 2’s game sharing, which lets one person who owns the game connect wirelessly with other consoles to play together.Lush, cartoonish environments … a still from Survival Kids. Photograph: Konami Digital EntertainmentAndrew Dennison, who heads the game’s developer Unity, sees this as one of the Switch 2’s key features. “With splitscreen you have one machine rendering two different versions of the game,” he says. “With GameShare, we can compress one of those views and stream it … we render everything three times and push that out to two other consoles. As much as you can deep dive into tech specs, the benefits of GameShare are delightful. Other players in the same room as you don’t have to own the game, they don’t have to download anything … they can just turn on their Switch or Switch 2, push a button and they’re playing a game.”Unlike survival titles such as Don’t Starve or Project Zomboid (or indeed Lost in Blue), there’s no mortal peril in Survival Kids. Running out of food hampers your progress, but you can’t actually starve; if you die, you just – respawn nearby. “We wanted to make sure the game was enjoyable for people at every skill level,” says Dennison. “It’s a balancing act – we don’t want to bore experienced gamers – but you can streamline gameplay challenge without simplifying to the point of making it irrelevant.” Due to the strict NDAs around the Switch 2 hardware, the developer couldn’t bring in many external testers to fine-tune the difficulty – so Dennison ended up testing the game on his nieces, and on the finance department.All about co-operation … Survival Kids Photograph: Konami Digital EntertainmentBuilding tools is key – combine a vine and a stick and you get a fishing rod with which to lasso useful objects. Construct an umbrella and you can glide across wide canyons. There are no cumbersome item-inventory screens: when you need to build a tool or contraption, you can take what you need and drop it all into a bucket that magically spits it out. Tools are all stored at base camp, not in a menu, so that you can easily take a path home to pick up what you need.As with Overcooked, Survival Kids is all about streamlined cooperation and carefully divvied-out tasks. Chopping wood and breaking rocks is faster with two people, so you need a physical labour team; meanwhile food provides the energy needed to climb cliff faces and carry heavy relics, so you’ll need a chef to gather plants and make dinner. “We really wanted people to go back and eat at the base camp together,” says Richard Jones, creative director for Konami Digital Entertainment. “This way, the base camp becomes a place to return to – a sort of communal kitchen.”skip past newsletter promotionSign up to Pushing ButtonsFree weekly newsletterKeza MacDonald's weekly look at the world of gamingPrivacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.after newsletter promotionUnlike most modern survival sims, it’s not totally open-ended: your aim is to discover more and more of the islands, which brings a sort of escape room feel to things. It’s also possible to go back and re-try levels to get a quicker time. Despite the family look and feel, there are some interesting and quite demanding physics-based challenges with multiple solutions. There’s a nice humour and lightness to the game as well, perhaps an inevitability considering that Dennison and many of the development team at Unity’s Stratford-upon-Avon office came from Codemasters and Rare.Will Konami bring more of its classic titles to Switch 2? “We know there are other Konami teams who are interested in this platform – we’ll be able to help them,” says Jones. “So yeah, fingers-crossed we’ll see some more Switch 2 projects from Konami.” For now Survival kids feels like a great test case for the new console’s family oriented game sharing.

F1 25 is a near-perfect mix of realism and playability that offers much of the drama from the real-life sport and a sprinkling of fiction and, uh, Brad Pitt just becauseTech18:11, 02 Jun 2025This year's game looks better than everIn many ways, writing an F1 25 review should be the easiest of this year’s critical assessments. Codemasters is legendary for its commitment to digital recreations of automotive competition (I’ve been playing its games since TOCA on the PS1 ), and having the F1 licence means it’ll always be cutting-edge in terms of racers, tracks, and more.If you’re an F1 fan, you’ve almost certainly already bought it, and while non-fans of sports games will baulk at paying for a “roster update” each year, Codemasters simply refuses to coast, keeping its foot firmly on the gas and moving from last year’s podium finish to Championship-winning form with this year’s entry.‌Conditions can be treacherous‌Last year’s F1 24 was easily one of the most impressive games to look at on PS5 Pro, and while Codemasters had talked a good game about visual fidelity , I wasn’t sure it would be able to take much of a realistic step beyond.And yet, F1 25 is frequently stunning. In motion, it’s hard to see anything wholly new, but that’s more down to the speed at which you’ll be taking corners of meticulously detailed tracks. Slow things down a tad, though, and you’ll find things a little less sterile than they had been.Whereas F1 24 circuits felt a little too clean at times, there’s a little more dirt here and there, more wear on the track, and even correctly identified tree species in tracks that have been scanned via LiDAR.Article continues belowIt’s likely an ongoing process, with Bahrain, Miami, Melbourne, Suzuka and Imola getting the scanned treatment so far, but it’s an impressive taste of what’s to come and could mean upcoming games look even better.On track, the handling model feels much breezier. You can still crank up the difficulty by leaving the assists in the pits, but cars feel more responsive than ever.You’ll need that, too, because some tracks can be driven in reverse (complete with mirrored pit lanes).‌You can still race, but you'll pick one of your stars to "follow" for the weekendThe crown jewel of this year’s entry, however, is My Team. The mode has always been solid, but lacking in ambition, but this year sees Codemasters really go to town on its underlying machinery.While you’ll no longer be some team owner/driver hybrid superstar like Tony Stark in Iron Man 2, that adds an interesting new flavour to the mode. You’ll start as boss of an existing team or form your own, and then hire drivers, work to improve your car, and try to woo sponsors.‌Because you’re no longer racing yourself, there are more magnanimous decisions to be made about car parts. Research costs time, manufacturing costs money, and then you’re left to decide which of your racers gets the added boost.Consistently upsetting one can see them look elsewhere, while you can plan for next season’s drivers right from the off, making a Lewis Hamilton-esque switch to a rival a pressing concern throughout the year.While much of My Team takes place in menus, they all feel dynamic enough to feel much more enjoyable than you might expect, and while it doesn’t get quite as deep as F1 Manager, it’s still full of potential.‌You can even sneak some star power onto the grid, too, taking the reins of Brad Pitt’s racing team from the upcoming F1 movie , or signing iconic former drivers to build a dream lineup.As an aside, I love that EA is experimenting with things like this in its career modes, especially since EA FC added Icons to its own version. Long may it continue.Konnersport are now vying for titles(Image: EA)‌Another big return this year comes from Braking Point , marking its third instalment. The mode that essentially condenses a season’s worth of drama into playable chunks with a healthy dose of inspiration from Netflix ’s Drive to Survive is back as part of its “one season off, one season on” cadence.It’s packed with sporting cliches and no small amount of cheese, but it humanises a sport that can sometimes feel more focuses on cutting seconds off a lap than it can the drivers doing that work.After years of building a team, Konnersport is finally competing for the Championship, and players can switch between their driver roster to achieve different objectives, and there’s an alternative ending for those willing to commit.Article continues belowF1 25 is the best entry in years, with changes big and small piling up to offer a truly immersive and feature-packed title.My Team will get the plaudits (and rightfully so), but Braking Point’s return and Codemasters’ continued commitment to realism shouldn’t be forgotten.Reviewed on PS5 Pro. Review copy provided by the publisher.‌‌‌

Formula One aficionados are famously fanatical, but they still need a few good reasons to splash out on the annual instalment of the sport’s officially licensed game. Luckily F1 25 – crafted, as ever, in Birmingham by Codemasters – has many. There’s the return of Braking Point, the game’s story mode; a revamp of My Team, the most popular career mode; a tie-up with the forthcoming F1: The Movie; and perhaps most intriguing of all, the chance to race round three tracks in the reverse direction to normal.F1 25 feels like something of a culmination – last year’s F1 24, for example, introduced a new physics model which required tweaks after launch, but has now been thoroughly fettled, so F1 25’s essential building blocks of car handling (and tyre wear) plus state-of-the-art graphics (this year, Codemasters has moved on from previous-gen consoles) are simply impeccable.Impeccable graphics … F1 25. Photograph: Electronic ArtsThis has freed the company to delve into the sort of fantasy elements that you can find in games but not real life. Chief among those is the aforementioned third instalment of Braking Point, which follows the fortunes of the fictional Konnersport team. Over 15 chapters it knits together a deliciously tortuous soap opera-style storyline with some cleverly varied on-track action.More fundamentally, the most popular of the career modes – My Team, which ramps up the management element by casting you as the owner of a new team – has received the bulk of Codemasters’ attentions. This time around, you stay in your corporate lane and drive instead as either of the two drivers you’ve hired, which makes much more sense than previously. As does separating research and development, meaning you must allocate new parts to specific drivers. Further effective tweaks render My Team 2.0, as Codemasters calls it, much more convincing and realistic.As ever, you can jump online, against various standards of opposition, or on to individual tracks, or play split-screen against a friend. But there’s a new mode called Challenge Career, which lets you play timed scenarios offline, then post them to a global leaderboard. It’s a nice idea, designed to take you out of your driver-aids comfort zone, but the scenarios will only get going properly after launch, so the jury remains out on its merits. A number of scenarios from F1: The Movie will also be delivered as post-launch episodes, but it’s pretty cool to be able to step into a Formula One car as Brad Pitt playing a fictional racer.For diehard Formula One fans, though, the chance to race around Silverstone, Zandvoort and Austria’s Red Bull Ring in the wrong direction (with the tracks remodelled to accommodate new pit lanes and the like) might just be the clincher. Reversing the tracks’ direction completely changes their nature in a deliciously intriguing manner.With a real-life rule-change next year due to change the cars radically, Formula One currently feels like it’s at a generational peak, and F1 25 is so brilliantly crafted and full of elements that generate an irresistible mix of nailed-on realism and fantasy that it, too, feels like the culmination of a generation of officially licensed Formula One games. F1 25? Peak F1.

May 30, 2025 Race Your Way with the Return of Braking Point, Revamped My Team, and F1® THE MOVIE Scenarios Featuring Fictional Team APXGP Watch F1® 25 Iconic Edition Cover Star Lewis Hamilton and Football Superstar, Kylian Mbappé, Test Their Speed as the Iconic Rivals Go Head-to-Head HERE REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Today, Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: EA) invites players to race their way with F1® 25, an official game of the 2025 FIA Formula One World Championship™, available today on PlayStation®5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. Through a variety of gameplay features, players can take the lead as team owner in My Team 2.0, and live the emotional highs and lows of competing at the front of the grid in the return of fan-favourite story mode, Braking Point. Players can also take to the track as fictional team APXGP from Apple Original Films’ F1® THE MOVIE with a preview chapter, with additional chapter scenarios (sold separately) available post-launch beginning June 30th.* As part of the launch day celebrations, F1® 25 Iconic Edition cover star Lewis Hamilton challenged three-time EA SPORTS cover star Kylian Mbappé to a thrilling sprint race ahead of the FORMULA 1 ARAMCO GRAN PREMIO DE ESPAÑA 2025. Watch the action unfold HERE.Standard Edition cover art of EA Sports F1 25 featuring F1 drivers Oscar Piastri, Carlos Sainz, and Oliver Bearman“F1 25 delivers more ways for players to tell their F1 story, from battling for the World Championship to securing a front row seat and interacting with the racing movie of the summer,” said Lee Mather, Senior Creative Director at Codemasters. “With story-driven features, Braking Point and F1® THE MOVIE, taking the lead in My Team and Driver Career, or jumping into F1 World with a multitude of bite-sized challenges, customisation enhancements, multiplayer and cooperative gameplay, F1 25 is all-out, unabashed action for every racing fan.”Players will experience the third instalment of fan-favourite story mode, Braking Point. Set across two seasons, the returning cast encounter a dramatic event that threatens to throw a title-contending season into chaos. For the first time, players encounter more variety through different driver perspectives, giving the mode a new dimension and alternate endings to the story. Additionally, Konnersport is now available to choose in My Team with a further option to become the 11th team on the grid in Driver Career.F1® 25 gets players closer to the real world than ever before with a series of innovations both on and off the track. Players who want to call the shots can jump into My Team 2.0 and take on the role of team owner. Alongside running the entire operations from the Team HQ, focusing on Engineering, Personnel, and Corporate, players manage the fate of both drivers and can switch between the two for race weekends.Five circuits - Bahrain, Miami, Melbourne, Suzuka, and Imola - join Silverstone as those that have all been digitally scanned during race weekends. Through millions of data points, LIDAR technology delivers pinpoint accuracy from asphalt surface details and kerb heights to the positioning of broadcast towers, barriers, trees, and foliage. These advancements, in conjunction with changes to handling, tested pre-launch by esports drivers and the F1® community, ensure players feel every bump and elevation change, just like the real F1® drivers.F1® 25 delivers greater customisation through the new Decal Editor. Driver numbers receive a visual overhaul with new fonts and colours. Players can bring their personalities to life with the freedom to move, rotate, and resize designs with variants to unlock throughout the game and use across My Team and F1® World. Players can also use the newly introduced sponsor liveries built around the visual identity of the fictional brands in the game, alongside new driver numbers which receive a visual overhaul with new customisable fonts and colours, to create the most authentic-looking vehicle designs the franchise has ever delivered.EA Play** members get a 5-hour Trial, score a monthly 5000 XP boost, and can save 10% on EA digital purchases, including PitCoin, full game, and DLC. More details on EA Play. F1® 25 Iconic Edition owners receive a number of perks linked to F1® THE MOVIE producer Lewis Hamilton, F3™ Driver Icons Pack, 18,000 Pitcoin and much more. F1® THE MOVIE chapter scenarios are available to F1® 25 Standard Edition players through the purchase of the DLC pack, available now for purchase and playable in-game beginning June 30.To keep up-to-date with the latest F1® game news and information, visit the Formula 1® game websitesocial channels.PRESS ASSETS ARE AVAILABLE AT EAPressPortal.com*Chapter Scenarios playable beginning June 30, 2025. Requires F1® 25 (sold separately), EA account, internet connection & all game updates.**Conditions, limitations and exclusions apply. See tos.ea.com/legalapp/eaplay/US/en/PC/ for details.About Electronic ArtsElectronic Arts (NASDAQ: EA) is a global leader in digital interactive entertainment. The Company develops and delivers games, content and online services for Internet-connected consoles, mobile devices and personal computers.In fiscal year 2025, EA posted GAAP net revenue of approximately $7.5 billion. Headquartered in Redwood City, California, EA is recognized for a portfolio of critically acclaimed, high-quality brands such as EA SPORTS FC™, Battlefield™, Apex Legends™, The Sims™, EA SPORTS™ Madden NFL, EA SPORTS™ College Football, Need for Speed™, Dragon Age™, Titanfall™, Plants vs. Zombies™ and EA SPORTS F1®. More information about EA is available at www.ea.com/news.EA, EA SPORTS, EA SPORTS FC, Battlefield, Need for Speed, Apex Legends, The Sims, Dragon Age, Titanfall, and Plants vs. Zombies are trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc. John Madden, NFL, and F1 are the property of their respective owners and used with permission.F1® 25 Game - an official product of the FIA FORMULA ONE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP. © 2025 Electronic Arts Inc. EA, EA SPORTS, the EA SPORTS logo, and Codemasters are trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc. The F1 FORMULA 1 logo, F1 logo, FORMULA 1, F1, FIA FORMULA ONE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP, GRAND PRIX and related marks are trademarks of Formula One Licensing BV, a Formula 1 company. The F2 FIA FORMULA 2 CHAMPIONSHIP logo, FIA FORMULA 2 CHAMPIONSHIP, FIA FORMULA 2, FORMULA 2, F2 and related marks are trademarks of the Federation Internationale de L’Automobile and used exclusively under license. All rights reserved.About F1® THE MOVIEApple Original Films and Warner Bros. Pictures Present A Monolith Pictures / Jerry Bruckheimer / Plan B Entertainment / Dawn Apollo Films Production, A Joseph Kosinski Film, F1® THE MOVIE, distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, in theatres and IMAX® nationwide on June 27, 2025 and internationally beginning 25 June 2025.Category: EA Sports Natalia Lombardi Global Public Relations Manager [email protected] Source: Electronic Arts Inc. Multimedia Files:

As Codemasters and EA get ready for the upcoming F1 25, senior creative director Lee Mather, creative director Gavin Cooper and producer Si Lumb answered some of our burning questions, including about improvements to visuals and racing physics thanks to the studio’s use of LiDAR technology to scan race tracks. To begin with, what are the biggest changes that are coming to F1 25? Gavin: There are lots of big changes coming to F1 25 that we’re very excited to share with our players, starting with fan-favorite My Team mode receiving its largest update since its introduction, My Team now invites players to take control as the Owner of their Formula One team, placing more emphasis on managing the fates of both drivers in the team, alongside the team itself. Braking Point is also back, with Konnersport returning as an established team on the grid and battling for championships. For the first time, players can extend their Konnersport experience through other game modes. Once they’ve finished Braking Point, they can also take the team into Driver Career or My Team. Iconic Edition players can also experience post-launch gameplay chapters inspired by the film, featuring the APXGP team from the upcoming movie, F1. We’ve also incorporated LIDAR technology to more circuits to enhance authenticity and realism. In a first for the official F1 games, players can also race around Silverstone, Zandvoort, and the Red Bull Ring in a reverse track layout adding a new dimension to the racing experience. "Braking Point is also back, with Konnersport returning as an established team on the grid and battling for championships." How much will the LiDAR scanning of tracks affect the second-to-second driving gameplay? Lee: LIDAR-scanned circuits offer clear benefits to players of all skill levels. For those who are detail-oriented and appreciate the intricacies and nuances of a race track, LIDAR provides an unprecedented level of accuracy in track ribbon and curb placement. But the advantages go beyond that. All players benefit from the precise recreation of the environment surrounding the track. From grandstands to terrain, whatever players see in real life and on TV is faithfully represented in-game. What sets our LIDAR circuits apart is that the data is captured during an actual F1 race weekend, ensuring the most accurate and up-to-date representation possible. How will the latest chapter of Braking Point tie in to the stories we’ve seen in the previous games? Gavin: The latest chapter of Braking Point will tie into the previous chapters, as we continue to follow the Konnersport Team featuring Aiden Jackson, Devon Butler, and Callie Mayer. Braking Point, first introduced in 2021, centered around Aiden Jackson, a rookie determined to make a name for himself while facing off against the ruthless Devon Butler, a driver willing to do whatever it took to succeed. The story continued in F1 23, with the debut of the fictional team Konnersport and the introduction of Callie Mayer, the first woman to win the F2 Championship. In this sequel, the once-feared Devon Butler saw his perspective on the sport shift, creating an opportunity for Callie to break into F1. After two tough seasons, the team made significant progress, improving their position in the sport and setting the stage for the upcoming F1 25. Nonetheless, players will be able to enjoy the story and have a complete experience regardless of whether they have played the previous games. What kind of features and enhancements can one expect in My Team? Gavin: My Team sees a host of new features and improvements this year, with one of the most significant changes being a shift in how roles are defined. Previously, players took on the dual responsibilities of both Team Owner and Driver, a setup that isn’t typical of the sport. To reflect the real-world structure more accurately, the mode has been reimagined so that players now focus solely on the responsibilities of being a Team Owner. This revamped approach brings a greater emphasis on managing both of the team’s drivers. During race weekends, players can now choose which driver to put on the track. The progression system has also been refined — Owners will work to boost their team’s Fan Rating by meeting objectives and winning high-stakes Rivalries against competing teams. Off the track, team operations are now run from a completely redesigned Team HQ — a dynamic environment that expands in size, staff, and activity as the team’s reputation grows. Decisions around workforce size, development expenses, and facility upkeep will be crucial, with owners needing to carefully manage resources to stay within the cost cap. Additionally, Research and Development have been split into distinct branches, giving players more strategic freedom over part production and deployment. For example, producing just one part from a new upgrade package is quicker, but choosing which driver receives it first can impact their morale and influence future contract negotiations. "To reflect the real-world structure more accurately, [My Team] has been reimagined so that players now focus solely on the responsibilities of being a Team Owner." How much will the new sponsor decals feature affect income in My Team? Gavin: In My Team you’re limited in terms of how many sponsor decals you can put on your car. That limit is based on your Fan Rating, so as you increase your Fan Rating (by completing team accolades, winning rivalries with competitor teams, or performing at GP weekends), your team will become more prestigious and be able to get more sponsorship – so more decals on your car. Each decal slot you fill earns you cash, but there is a drop-off in effectiveness as you add more. We devised a system to push you to wanting more decals on your car, especially as a fledgling team struggling to stay afloat. But as your livery gets more and more populated, we didn’t want to stomp all over players’ creativity by essentially forcing them to stick a new decal on every time a slot unlocked. Those later slots won’t earn you as much as your earlier ones, and if you would rather retain your design, the extra income you miss out on won’t be game-breaking. At the start of the game, you’ll only have access to a limited range of sponsors, but you can unlock more by scheduling the sponsor discovery activity between race weekends. All of this is separate to your title sponsor, which works quite differently. Your title sponsor is signed for an entire season and represents a significant chunk of your income. That sponsor is inherently displayed on the car, and building a relationship with that sponsor can, over time, unlock further decal variants and even a special car livery designed around that sponsor. Figuring out how to balance the decision between sticking with a title sponsor you have loyalty to versus jumping to a new sponsor that may be more lucrative is just a part of what you’ll have to do as Team Owner. Are interviews coming back in F1 25? Gavin: Interviews are making a return in Braking Point, where the fictional characters like Aiden and Callie allow us to deliver fully voiced, context-specific responses that feel authentic and well-integrated with the story. The storyline allows us to create tailored interviews based on whether the driver suffered a crash, a win or a key moment between rivals. Thanks to new tech like Nvidia’s Audio2Face, these interviews also now look more lifelike, much closer to what you’d expect from a real TV broadcast. Career Mode presents a tougher challenge. With so many possible outcomes and storylines, it’s hard to craft interviews that feel personal and meaningful. Figuring out what’s relevant in any given moment, not just in a race, but across an evolving season is a complex task. And without voice acting for official drivers, responses would lose the impact that makes interviews worthwhile. So while interviews won’t feature in Career Mode this time, we’re keeping the door open for the future, ensuring the mode evolves in a way that supports them properly. "The storyline allows us to create tailored interviews based on whether the driver suffered a crash, a win or a key moment between rivals." Are there any plans to bring classic F1 cars? Lee: While they are not in this year’s game, it is always an ongoing conversation. The return of Braking Point 3, My Team, the LIDAR updated and reverse tracks have been the focus areas for this year’s game. What kind of improvements have you made to the handling and physics this time around? Lee: A number of changes have been made to how cars feel in F1 25. The core handling model was developed using player feedback from F1 23 and F1 24. We invited sim racers and content creators to the studio in November to play an early build and refine the model to create a balanced and stable platform with reduced understeer and a more compliant rear under acceleration. Some of the main improvements include: Balancing the transition between mechanical and aero balance to ensure the cars feel exciting and dynamic across all speeds. Updating the gearbox and transmission to deliver seamless gear changes that don’t upset the car’s balance. Applying insights from the F1 Sim Racing tournament to fine-tune ERS, DRS, and slipstream behaviour, promoting effective overtaking in both single and multiplayer racing. Modifying tyre wear values to enable more varied tyre strategies, offering teams greater flexibility in how they run their race. With the wide range of setup options in F1 25, players can also fine-tune the car to match their driving style. Can you talk us through the various customization options available as far as car set up goes? Lee: Car setup in F1 25 offers advanced players the opportunity to tailor the car’s feel and performance to better suit their preferences. Creating a fast car isn’t just about raw performance; it’s also about player confidence and the ability to drive and race consistently. Players can adjust a wide range of setup areas to impact the car’s feel and performance. Fuel load can be adjusted, which directly impacts the car’s weight. Aerodynamics can be fine-tuned, but players should be mindful of how these adjustments affect ride height and suspension setup, which can also be modified. Additionally, transmission, brakes, and tyre pressures are open for adjustment, providing players with the tools they need to find those vital tenths of a second. With Path Tracing, how big of a leap in visuals can we expect in F1 25 over 24? Lee: Path Tracing in F1 25 significantly improves realism, offering more accurate reflections, shadows, and ambient lighting for supported PCs. Thanks to Path Tracing, the light now follows every bounced path, including that from indirect lighting and multiple reflections. Shade, light, and colours dynamically shift as they would in real-life, whether you’re racing under the thousands of lights in Bahrain or navigating the castle section in Baku at sunset. If you have a PC capable of experiencing it, Path Tracing is the most realistic simulation of light on track that we’ve ever delivered. With it, everything looks exactly like it would on the track, making the venue feel more authentic. This is particularly important for true-to-life realism in sports games. Outside of Path Tracing, we have made tonemapping improvements to create a more dramatic effect across all weather conditions throughout the game, and the track surface shader has been updated to more accurately reflect the real-life circuits. Off the asphalt, LIDAR has also helped in making trees and foliage better match the type, size and shape of their real-life counterparts, with new additions such as cherry blossom added to the track in Suzuka. "If you have a PC capable of experiencing it, Path Tracing is the most realistic simulation of light on track that we’ve ever delivered." When it comes to the console versions, will there be enhancements exclusive to the PS5 Pro? Lee: F1 25 benefits from all the technical enhancements that elevate visual quality, gameplay, and player immersion we delivered when the PlayStation®5 Pro was released last November. This includes: Upgraded Quality Mode, now featuring on-track Ray Tracing using PSSR. We leveraged Sony’s PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR) to include more Ray Traced techniques on track for increased photorealism while maintaining the 4K/60Hz target. Performance Mode now runs at 4K (on 120Hz screens only). Players choosing this high frame rate will enjoy a crisp, smooth experience and extra clarity from the increased resolution. A new Resolution Mode delivers 8K/60Hz (on 8K screens only). Resolution mode also features Ray Traced Dynamic Diffuse Global Illumination (DDGI) on track. EGO’s full suite of RT DDGI, AO, reflection and shadow effects are enabled in 8K/30Hz for cutscenes, replay Flashback and photo modes. We’re always exploring new ways to optimise and innovate on all platforms, and our commitment to delivering the best possible experience for our console players remains as strong as ever – and this year for F1 25, we have included splitscreen mode running at double the frame rate, so couch competitors get that Codemasters 60 Hz signature without compromise. Are there any plans to bring the F1 series to the Nintendo Switch 2? Lee: There are no plans at the moment to bring F1 25 to the Nintendo Switch. How vital will technologies like PSSR play in pushing visual fidelity further on PS5 Pro? Si: We were delighted that the PlayStation®5 Pro featured such a well-tuned upscaler in PSSR. For a while in graphics technologies, the upscalers have allowed rendering engines to push more fidelity into a lower resolution “input” image, and then benefit from the AI models to take those to incredible looking large resolution frames, upon which we can then apply post effects and tuning. For PS5 Pro, we originally weren’t going to use PSSR on F1 24, as we were trying to de-risk our approach. However, when testing it, it was so good at transforming from the input to high resolution output that we could actually use double resolution Ray Traced reflections as input and rely on the AI to give us a much higher quality image. It’s something we couldn’t have done with our own TAA upscaler. As we go into F1 25 with broadly the same solution as F1 24, we get the benefit of that same quality, just with far more LIDAR tracks to see the increased density and uplift that the Quality mode provides. Moving forward, and without anything specific to announce, we look forward to exploring what other areas of our title we can leverage technologies like PSSR to achieve new targets of visual quality on console hardware.

Codemasters’ next iteration in its flagship Formula One racing series arrives this week with F1 25. Alongside My Team 2.0 and the next chapter of Braking Point, it also offers some new events and modes. But how does it push the series’ boundaries for fidelity, especially on PS5 Pro? We spoke to creative director Lee Mathew, who confirmed three modes on the console – Quality, Performance and Resolution. Quality Mode targets 4K/60 Hz with on-track ray tracing and PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution enabled. Performance Mode delivers 4K for 120 Hz screens and offers “a crisp, smooth experience and extra clarity from the increased resolution.” Finally, there’s Resolution Mode, which debuted last year when F1 24 received PS5 Pro support. It runs at 8K/60 Hz, and supports ray traced dynamic diffuse global illumination (RT DDGI) on tracks. Ambient occlusion, reflections, shadow effects and RT DDGI are also viewable in cutscenes, Photo Mode, and replays in 8K/30 Hz. If that wasn’t enough, couch co-op in split-screen runs at 60 Hz “without compromise.” F1 25 launches on May 30th for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC, but Iconic Edition owners can start playing on May 27th. Check out our feature for everything you should know.

Codemasters has revealed that the studio has been a big fan of Sony’s PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution technology – more commonly referred to as PSSR. In a recent interview with us, producer Si Lumb has said that PSSR is a “well-tuned upscaler” that allows the studio to push graphical fidelity even harder for the PS5 Pro version of the upcoming F1 25. “We were delighted that the PlayStation 5 Pro featured such a well-tuned upscaler in PSSR,” he said. Lumb went on to explain how AI-based supersampling like we see in technologies like Nvidia’s DLSS and AMD’s FSR typically works, and how the PS5 Pro sets itself apart by being able to transform images it was given into high-resolution outputs. Lumb also revealed that, thanks to PSSR, the studio was able to double the resolution of ray traced reflections while leaving it up to PSSR to up the image quality while maintaining steady frame rates. “For a while in graphics technologies, the upscalers have allowed rendering engines to push more fidelity into a lower resolution ‘input’ image, and then benefit from the AI models to take those to incredible looking large resolution frames, upon which we can then apply post effects and tuning,” Lumb explained. “For PS5 Pro, we originally weren’t going to use PSSR on F1 24, as we were trying to de-risk our approach.“ “However, when testing it, it was so good at transforming from the input to high resolution output that we could actually use double resolution Ray Traced reflections as input and rely on the AI to give us a much higher quality image. It’s something we couldn’t have done with our own TAA upscaler.” The producer also spoke about more of the technology being used in order to enhance visual fidelity for F1 25, including the use of LiDAR scanning in order to more accurately model the game’s various racing tracks and the surrounding flora and audiences. The studio plans on making use of PSSR even more thoroughly for its next title to try and get an even higher degree of visual fidelity on the PS5 Pro. “As we go into F1 25 with broadly the same solution as F1 24, we get the benefit of that same quality, just with far more LIDAR tracks to see the increased density and uplift that the Quality mode provides,” said Lumb. “Moving forward, and without anything specific to announce, we look forward to exploring what other areas of our title we can leverage technologies like PSSR to achieve new targets of visual quality on console hardware.” In the same interview, Lumb, along with creative director Gavin Cooper, had revealed quite a few details about the upcoming F1 25, including some of the new My Team features, the evolution of the Braking Point story mode, and updates to the game’s handling and physics system. F1 25 is coming to PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S on May 30. The title will mark the return of the Braking Point storyline, and will aim for high levels of visual fidelity on PC through path tracing. For more details, here is everything you need to know about the game.

News US FTC Officially Drops Antitrust Complaints Against Microsoft’s Acquisition of Activision Blizzard Microsoft president Brad Smith took to social media to celebrate the fact that the FTC has dropped its appeals against Microsoft. Posted By Joelle Daniels | On 26th, May. 2025 The US Federal Trade Commission has officially dropped its appeals for an antitrust case against Microsoft for its acquisition of Activision Blizzard entirely. The FTC released a statement, saying that at this point, public interest is “best served by dismissing the administrative litigation in this case.” “Accordingly, it is hereby ordered that the complaint in this matter be, and it hereby is, dismissed,” said the FTC in an order announcing the dismissal of the governing body’s complaint. Microsoft president Brad Smith took to social media platform X to praise the decision. “Today’s decision is a victory for players across the country and for common sense in Washington, D.C.,” wrote Smith. “We are grateful to the FTC for today’s announcement.” The FTC complaint being dropped comes a few weeks after its appeal for a denied injunction from 2023 also getting denied by the 9th Circuit US Court of Appeals. The court stated that Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard was not violating US antitrust laws, with Judge Daniel P. Collins writing that the FTC hadn’t shown the “likelihood of success on the merits as to any of its theories,” with regards to the case. Back when the FTC had first set out to fight Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, one of its core arguments was that the company would use its position in the industry to dominate the console market by releasing games exclusively on its own platforms. This led to Microsoft inking deals with both Sony and Nintendo to ensure that major franchises like Call of Duty wouldn’t be withheld from other consoles. Collins also pointed out that, despite being industry practice to have exclusive games in order to push console hardware sales, Microsoft is currently in the weakest spot behind Sony and Nintendo when it comes to having exclusives of its own. “All major manufacturers have engaged in this practice,” Collins wrote, continuing that competitors like Sony and Nintendo have “both have significantly higher number of exclusive games on their platform than [Microsoft] does.” Back in 2023, the original injunction was denied at the time because the Judge at the time noted that Microsoft’s push into cloud gaming on various platforms dispelled the idea that Activision Blizzard games being “exclusive” to Xbox in some way would harm competitors in the gaming market. This now-dropped case by the FTC was the last thing plaguing Microsoft when it came to potential antitrust issues with regards to its acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The deal has otherwise been considered complete since October 2023, however, with Microsoft Gaming boss Phil Spencer welcoming the new studios under the Xbox Game Studios banner. Tagged With: Elden Ring: Nightreign Publisher:Bandai Namco Developer:FromSoftware Platforms:PS5, Xbox Series X, PS4, Xbox One, PCView More Borderlands 4 Publisher:2K Developer:Gearbox Entertainment Platforms:PS5, Xbox Series X, PCView More Death Stranding 2: On the Beach Publisher:Sony Developer:Kojima Productions Platforms:PS5View More Amazing Articles You Might Want To Check Out! US FTC Officially Drops Antitrust Complaints Against Microsoft’s Acquisition of Activision Blizzard Microsoft president Brad Smith took to social media to celebrate the fact that the FTC has dropped its appeals... PS5 Pro’s PSSR Was So Good, F1 25 Used Double Resolution Ray-Traced Reflections F1 25 producer Si Lumb has revealed the studio's love for Sony's PSSR, and how it allowed the studio to push t... F1 25 PS5 Pro Enhancements Include Quality, Performance, and 8K Resolution Modes Resolution Mode runs in 8K and 60 Hz while offering ray traced dynamic diffuse global illumination while racin... Tekken 8 Adds Armor King in Season 2 This Fall As a series regular, debuting in 1994, the legendary luchadore returns for another round as the third DLC char... F1 25 Interview – Path Tracing, LiDAR Scanning, My Team Mode, and More Leading up to the upcoming launch of F1 racing game F1 25, Codemasters was kind enough to answer a few of our ... JDM: Japanese Drift Master Review – Toothless Roads The thrill of drifting to a faux-Initial D soundtrack is ultimately let down by iffy mission design and a bori... View More

But it has nothing to reveal right now.Switch 2 is going to be packing a lot more horsepower under the hood and it's already attracted certain third-party franchises from Electronic Arts that have been skipping Nintendo platforms for years. With this in mind, Codemasters is considering if the new hybrid system could be a "good fit" for its Formula One series.Speaking to the sim racing website Traxion recently, F1 25's creative director Gavin Cooper mentioned how his team needs "some smart people" to first look at the new Nintendo system and see what it "can actually do and whether it's actually a good fit" for the F1 video game experience.Read the full article on nintendolife.com