Why F1 25 shouldn't be the end of the road for Codemasters and Formula 1

My main way into the F1 series, in recent years, has been that I really enjoy their story mode.

The developers at Codemasters do a fresh entry in the Braking Point story mode every other year, and this year’s edition is the third Braking Point that they've done.

When I interviewed the cast about it, they were teasing that there's this giant twist, and I have now witnessed that massive twist. And wow, yeah, that does change things.

It's not quite what I would’ve guessed, but it does throw a cat amongst the pigeons, and I'm looking forward to seeing how that plays out.

I love that mode because it's a perfect synergy of gameplay and story. It gives you motivation going into a race, and it gives you a reason to try and get a certain lap time or a certain position on the leaderboard. I'm really enjoying that.

If EA and Codemasters did at some point lose the license for F1, I would be disappointed as a Braking Point fan.

I'm so invested now in these characters, and I don’t know whether another developer would carry on with Braking Point if it picked up the rights.

I assume not. I assume that is very much Codies’ little passion project that it chips away at every other year. And with that in mind, I'd like it to retain the license and keep making F1 games, purely so I can enjoy Braking Point every other year.

Also, this year's F1 game has a bunch of content about to come out, which is connected to the Brad Pitt F1 movie.

At the moment, you can play that one scene from the film. And from 30th June, you will be able to play through a number of other on-track moments of the movie.

I'm really looking forward to that as a fan of more story-driven sports games. Indeed, F1 25 does a lot for people like me.

Also, from what I understand, the games have a super engaged core audience of players who are really invested in finding the best setup for each individual track.

I've tried to look into it a bit before, and it just gets so complicated. And I would love to, at some point, talk to a proper expert who knows how to do that kind of stuff.

I always think these games look beautiful, too. I can't imagine another developer making anything graphically better than this.

The gameplay always seems to me, as a racing novice, to be pretty much the same year on year, but I'm sure there are things under the hood that are changing, if you are a super mega fan.

If Codies loses the license, and all those years of incremental changes are lost, I think that would be a shame.

But also, equally, I wonder what it would do instead. Maybe it would come up with its own IP? Maybe it could make a story-driven racing game that isn't tied to a license, where I'm sure there are rules about what you can and can't do?

All in all, even though the future looks uncertain for Codemasters with regards to the F1 series, it’s safe to say I’m pleased with what I’ve seen from F1 25, and I’m not ready for the Braking Point journey to end.

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