Codemasters Game Reviews
Review EA Sports F1 25 (PS5) - Another Fine Racer That Mostly Sticks to the Formula
That's a good Sainz
You know this song and dance by now; Codemasters is well versed in the realm of Formula 1, and its latest entry in the annual racing series further fine-tunes the long-established series. The first iteration to release only on current-gen consoles, EA Sports F1 25 makes some adjustments in its ongoing mission to somehow cater...
Review EA Sports WRC (PS5) - Don't Swerve This Intense, Well-Rounded Rally Racer
Get a Loeb of this
When EA acquired Codemasters a couple of years ago, the UK-based racing specialist came with a couple of extra perks. It already held the licences to produce official games for Formula One, which it had been doing successfully for a good while, as well as World Rally Championship, which had yet to bear fruit. The latter always...
Review F1 23 (PS5) - A FIFA Level Experience for F1 Fans
Lights out and away we go
The world of Formula 1 is bigger than ever, with its popularity steadily increasing thanks to the likes of the Drive to Survive series. So it feels fitting that F1 23 is speeding onto PS5 with the biggest offering the series has seen to date. These yearly EA Sports releases can often feel too iterative to warrant full...
Review F1 22 (PS5) - Another Solid Sim Racer, But Room for Improvement
Fit for porpoise
In some ways, F1 22 feels like quite a different game compared to its predecessor, though that's not a huge surprise. The current season brought with it some serious regulation changes, not to mention a drastically altered car model, so Codemasters had its work cut out in order to echo all that in this year's racing sim. On the...
Review GRID Legends (PS5) - A Solid Racer with a Lacklustre Narrative
Not quite legendary
GRID Legends finds itself in a bit of a tough spot. Launching a racing game in close proximity to any competition can be a bit dicey, but Codemaster’s latest entry in the GRID series is releasing just a mere week ahead of Polyphony’s much-anticipated Gran Turismo 7. Considering the near nine-year gap since the last properly...
Review DIRT 5 (PS5) - Raucous Arcade Racer Looks and Plays Best on Next-Gen
Mucking around
Republished on Wednesday 29th December, 2021: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of January 2022's PS Plus lineup. The original text follows. We've already delivered our main verdict on DIRT 5 with the PlayStation 4 release, which you can read about through the link. However, Codemasters has...
Review DIRT 5 (PS4) - Rambunctious Off-Road Racer Returns with Plenty of Personality
Va va vroom
Republished on Wednesday 29th December, 2021: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of January 2022's PS Plus lineup. The original text follows. The DIRT franchise has gone through a lot of change over the years. The second and third entries deviated from the pure rally experience, going big on...
Review F1 2021 (PS5) - Great Additions Make This the Best, and Most Accessible, F1 Sim
Put your pedal to the Vettel
As a general rule, annual sports games get just that little bit better with each passing year, and that's certainly true for Codemasters' Formula One series. The officially licensed sim racer has been gradually improving each summer, and with F1 2021, the studio has made some wonderful additions that make this year's...
Review F1 2020 - More Complete Than the Real Thing
Simulating
2020 has been hurtling down the grid in turbulent air. You know something’s gone awry when Codemasters release the latest in its annual Formula 1 series in line with the beginning of the real F1 season. Usually the developer’s fashionably late; this year, thanks to a worldwide pandemic delaying the start of the season, it’s...
Review DiRT Rally 2.0 - The Lean Mean Rally Sim Makes a Triumphant Return
The long and winding road
Republished on Tuesday 24th March 2020: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the leak of April's PlayStation Plus lineup. The original text follows. Codemasters' DiRT franchise, which has roots in its historic Colin McRae series, has gone through a few changes. It's swerved between flashy,...
Review GRID - Codemasters Is Driving Safe with a Solid PS4 Reboot
It's not quite a Jaguar
The GRID series has an interesting history. The inaugural title, Race Driver: GRID, was a cracking debut that served as a sort of successor to the TOCA franchise. It laid down some incredibly solid groundwork that sequels didn't quite build upon properly. Codemasters has seen fit to revisit the series with the appropriately...
Review F1 2019 - Solid But Evolutionary Formula One Driving Sim
The old F1-F2
F1 2019 is the next instalment in Codemasters’ hugely popular Formula One racing franchise, and it’s arriving nearly two months earlier in the calendar than the previous games. But with the addition of F2, a couple of racing legends, and a visual polish, does this entry take franchise pole position? Fire up a race in F1 2019 as a...
Drive club
Republished on Wednesday 28th November 2018: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of December's PlayStation Plus lineup. The original text follows. It may look a helluva lot like MotorStorm, but Onrush is a completely different beast. The first multiformat project from the developer formerly known...
Trulli awesome
Codemasters’ newest instalment in its celebrated F1 franchise is finally here, promising high-speed thrills, new modes and improved racing mechanics. Essentially, however, F1 2018 is a polished version of F1 2017. Last season’s effort already impressed, but small changes to the 2018 instalment have elevated the game to the most...
Pedal to the Vettel
It’s the metagame that makes Formula One such a compelling motorsport: the tactical tension of fuel management, the timing of that pivotal pit-stop, and the never-ending research and development going on behind-the-scenes. F1 2017 offers a taste of these additional activities, and it all helps to raise the stakes when you’re...
Review Micro Machines: World Series (PS4)
How the tiny have fallen
It feels like Codemasters has been testing the water for a potential return of its much loved matchbox racing franchise. A few years ago we had Toybox Turbos on PlayStation 3, which was a Micro Machines game in all but name, and a fairly good one at that. More recently, a Micro Machines mobile game popped up, and...
Riding DiRTy
DiRT Rally was a real breath of fresh air when it released on the PlayStation 4 last year. It was celebrated for its razor sharp focus on the sport, as well as its challenging and fulfilling gameplay. Codemasters stripped away the excess and released a lean, mean, and unashamedly hardcore rally game – and it was great. With DiRT...
Fast-idious
Codemasters is back, and with real assurance. It had seemed for a while that the once racing game experts had fallen off the wagon so to speak, with European rally turning to American X-Games and Formula One lacking the glitz and glamour of its real-life counterpart. Thankfully, the developer seems to be back on track following the...
We rally, rally like it
DiRT Rally is a beast – a beautiful, brilliant, and breath-taking beast that will humble you, drive you mad, and leave you grinning like an idiot once you master it's brutally tough driving challenges. Think Bloodborne but with cars and you'll understand the punishing pleasures awaiting those brave enough to strap in and...
On the Button, or in the pits?
After some unfortunate delays, Codemasters finally wheels out its debut F1 game for the current generation of consoles. Fans who have stayed with the series in its many iterations on the PlayStation 3 can now at last spin around Silverstone with the teams and drivers of the new season along with their new machines...
Review F1 2014 (PlayStation 3)
Stuck in the past
One of the hardest things to achieve in a yearly franchise is a hook to keep people coming back. It’s true of not only sports games, but the sports themselves – after all, no one wants to invest time into something that stays the same every year. For Formula 1, the answer has been the biggest shake-up in a generation, with new...
Review GRID Autosport (PlayStation 3)
Three-point turn
GRID 2 was largely seen as a disappointment by many of the series’ fans – a step in the wrong direction, lacking the focus and discipline that made the original release such a compelling outing for racing enthusiasts. GRID Autosport, the latest offering from British firm Codemasters, aims to redeem the series – and bar a few...
Review F1 2013 (PlayStation 3)
Pedal to the Vettel
After an exciting first half to the 2012 season, last year’s Formula One World Championship trudged towards an inevitable third title for Sebastian Vettel, continuing his and Red Bull’s dominance of the sport. The 2013 season was, however, supposed to be more competitive; with stable technical regulations, it was said that...
Five years in the pit lane
The racing genre is divided between arcade and simulation fans. While other genres have fairly interchangeable skill sets, what works in an arcade racer will send you straight to the hospital in a racing sim; the no holds barred action of Need for Speed caters to the former, while Gran Turismo appeals to the latter. But...
Review F1 Race Stars (PlayStation 3)
Worth the pit stop?
F1 Race Stars is a game that makes clever use of its license. It takes all of the sport's real-world teams and drivers, and slaps them into a colourful karting game. But while the title initially appears tailor made for children, it quickly transpires that there's a lot more to the arcade racer. It’s clear that Codemasters has...
Review F1 2012 (PlayStation 3)
Go, go, go!
In the high-speed world of Formula One, the slightest error can be the difference – quite literally – between life and death. Push the pedal to the metal for a tenth of a second too long and your race weekend could be over, as you end up hurtling off the track and – if you’re lucky – into a wall of tyres. This is why it’s of...
Review DiRT Showdown (PlayStation 3)
Fender bender
You get the feeling Codemasters has wanted to make DiRT Showdown for a while. Freed from the shackles of the mainline series, Showdown takes DiRT’s semi-reserved personality and steers into a head-on collision with Ken Block culture. With less subtlety than a shocking pink livery, this is a raucous, gnarly and, at times, downright...
Review F1 2011 (PlayStation Vita)
200mph+ bus ride
Nearly everyone has had the itch for speed at one point in their life. Whether it’s while driving a car on the highway or redlining a motorbike, many of us have experienced the thrill of speed and enjoyed it. The ultimate form of adrenaline in racing is Formula 1 (F1), where the world’s best drivers race extremely quick cars on...
Review F1 2011 (PlayStation 3)
While it doesn't quite pack the same punch as last year's entry, F1 2011 is still a tense and satisfying racing experience -- if you're willing to put in the hours required to master the game's merciless learning curve
When F1 2010 released on PS3 last year, it was a revelation. Codemasters breathed new life into the creaky racing genre — earning...
DiRT2 was one of our favourite PS3 games of 2009
We spent numerous hours with Codemasters' rally sequel, eventually earning the game's illusive Platinum trophy and still secretly longing for more. Codemasters' mix of arcade accessibility and simulation physics created a racing experience that not only felt unique, but also approachable without...
