F1 25 Iconic Edition

I've been waiting for Codemasters to sort out the physics since F1 24 made the cars feel like they were on ice skates, and F1 25 is the correction the series badly needed. The handling model has been overhauled from scratch: cars now carry proper weight at high speed, and the old trick of flicking the car aggressively through a corner no longer works. You have to actually drive these things, which is both humbling and deeply satisfying once it clicks. Full controller support is solid, DualSense haptics add real texture to kerb strikes and tyre degradation, and if you're on a wheel-and-pedal setup you'll feel the difference immediately. VR support is also in, though you'll want a capable GPU to push it at a sensible frame rate. The biggest structural change is My Team 2.0, and it's a genuine overhaul rather than a coat of paint. You now run the operation as a team owner, not a driver-manager hybrid. You hire two drivers and choose which seat you take in each race. Research and development are now split into separate processes - researching a part costs resource points earned on track, while actually building it costs money. Three facility branches (Engineering, Personnel, and Corporate) give the management layer real shape. If the old My Team started to feel like busywork, this version gives it back some teeth. Driver Career mode returns alongside it, with improved off-track decision trees that nudge your trajectory in ways that actually feel consequential. Braking Point 3 continues the Konnersport saga, and opinions are genuinely split on it. The production quality is high - think short TV drama quality cutscenes - but if you haven't played the previous two chapters the story drops you in the deep end. It now comes with multiple difficulty settings, which is a thoughtful touch for newcomers. The track list gets a meaningful shot of freshness through two additions: laser-scanned circuit updates for tracks like Spa, Silverstone, Suzuka, and Qatar (meaning your old racing lines may now spit you into the gravel), plus reverse layouts available in Time Trial, multiplayer, and offline modes. Those reverse circuits are not gimmicks - they genuinely change how you read tracks you've memorised over years. The Iconic Edition bundles in the 2026 Season Pack, which adds new 2026-spec cars with Overtake and Active Aero mechanics, an entirely new circuit called the MADRING, and updated rosters and liveries. The catch is that 2025 and 2026 content runs in separate save files - you cannot carry a Driver Career save from the base game into the 2026 season content, so starting fresh is mandatory if you want to race on that new track in Career. It stings a little, but it's workable. Microtransactions are present and the cosmetic economy feels tighter than older entries, which is a fair gripe from the community. AI has improved too, with smarter defensive racing and better overtake logic, though first-lap chaos and over-cautious braking zones are still occasional guests at the party. For the split-screen crowd: yes, Shared/Split Screen PvP and Co-op are both in, which means four friends, two screens, and a lot of corner-fighting is absolutely on the table. Online multiplayer adds a Positive Play accolade system designed to reward clean racing over dive-bomb chaos, which is a smart quality-of-life addition for anyone who has suffered through ranked lobbies before. The 87% positive Steam score from over 28,000 reviews puts this comfortably as one of the better-received entries in recent memory. If you are coming back after skipping a year or two, the combination of fixed handling, a deeper My Team, and the 2026 Pack included in this edition makes the Iconic Edition the sensible entry point right now.

Riley · Scout Team

Sports & racing

Be the first to comment on F1 25 Iconic Edition.