In case you were scared this would be another incremental update over last year's , fear not: F1 2015 feels like a new game. You'll notice the difference as soon as it loads up, and again as you pull away on your first lap. It looks and feels totally different.

For starters, the car feels a lot heavier than it did before. It's harder to maintain your direction under braking and in all but full traction-control enabled acceleration, the car fishtails out of corners frequently. On medium settings (which was my personal preference during the demo), you need to be careful on acceleration and keep the car dancing on the edge of control. Getting into a close race while you and your opponent are both squirming around looks and feels terrific, and makes for a really fun experience as soon as you start playing. That said, it's worth noting you won't be doing that locally with a friend this time round. There's no split-screen mode. Not that you probably care – I don't.

Graphically, the game is clearly running on better hardware, but this demo version of the game is still clearly unfinished, so polishing is still to come. Even so, the gameplay is indeed 1080p and 60fps, which is beautifully solid. While this build of the game is unfinished, I did notice the replays run at 30fps. Yes, I do have robot eyes. does the same thing (presumably thanks to more filters in external views), but that isn't running on a PS4. We'll see if the final game is 60 throughout. I do hope so.

The new pit animations are excellent, with your race engineer handing you a tablet computer so you can request aero changes – it all feels much more natural. The drivers have all been rendered in 3D too, and are immediately recognisable.

The new Pro mode - which restricts you to cockpit cam only and no assists - wasn't available in this version, but I tried quick races at Canada, Monaco, Spa, Brazil and the returning (and butchered) Mexico circuit, before taking on a ghost mode time attack around Monaco, which was as absorbing as ever.

Although the damage is underwhelming in this demo (which may or may not be indicative of the final damage modeling), I did have a rather awesome, race-ending accident at Interlagos. So hit play on the video below to see that lap on PS4 and then how it all went horribly wrong. You can also click on through for fo and brand new screenshots. After all that, take solace in the fact the game is out on July 10, so look for a review on GamesRadar+ very soon.

FIFA 16, the latest entry in gaming’s biggest football series, is changing the record this year. Grown men are out, replaced with one-eyed, shaven-all-over monkeys. In a nod to the dev team’s love of Minecraft, balls are to become…squares. And pitches will be relocated to Diego Garcia, Pluto, and the surface of Pete from 30 Rock’s head. Yes!

Okay, it’s the same as it always was. Footballers whacking synthetic spheres in the general direction of a large netted rectangle. But! There are exciting changes afoot, with women players being introduced at long long long long (long) last, improved defending, new face scans, Harry freakin’ Kane, and, well, a whole lot more. But don’t just take our word for it. Take our great many words which follow your imminent click of the ‘>’ button…

Fed up with trick-sticking online trolls dribbling rings around your back four? Help is at hand. Er, foot. All the major changes made to FIFA 16 are defensive ones, and it’s welcome news. 25 new animations have been implemented to aid your defenders in one-on-one battles with skilful strikers, turning circles for players back-pedalling towards goal are tighter, and – best of all – you can break out of slide tackle animations (and instantly back to your feet) which a second tap of the same button.

Depending on their attributes, midfielders and forwards hustle back harder than in previous years, and players in all positions break on loose balls when appropriate – instead of looking lost when there isn’t an opponent in their immediate vicinity. Overall, it makes chance creation really difficult; but we’d rather that than fear conceding every time a foe crosses the halfway line.

While attacking changes aren’t as pronounced as defensive ones, those implemented do add variation and – crucially – give you some means of breaking down the competent-at-long-last back fours. Pressing R1 and X (on PS4), for instance, triggers a new driven pass which, when timed right, can be lethal in catching a full back out of position or splitting two previously faultless central defenders.

No-touch dribbling (hold L1) enables you to move your player without adjusting the movement of the ball, thereby fooling a tackling opponent if timed right, while dynamic crossing sees widemen delivering balls in behind defenders, with true whip. Shot trajectories have been flattened out, volleys reanimated, and a few new skill moves added – including Yannick Bolasie’s physics-defying flick debuted .

Last’s year’s tie-in with the Premier League saw more than 200 players facially scanned, right down to obscure West Brom youth prospects such as Kamar Roofe and Bradley Garmston. But a few who’d go on to have huge seasons slipped through the net – most noticeably Harry ’21 goals and 21,000,000 fantasy points’ Kane. As the above image confirms, he’s in this year.

It also appears that the entire league have been rescanned for this season in order to update hairstyles and facial fluff, with Leicester’s Jeff Schlupp and Everton’s Romelu Lukaku among those to share pics of their FIFA photo shoots on social media. Rumours persist too that the full French league is to feature, with PSG’s squad definitely scanned and Monaco promising a ‘range of benefits’ from its newly-announced partnership with EA Sports.

And mercifully, we don’t mean in the ‘ich liebe Sabine Lisicki für immer’ sense. Of the 12 female teams taking their bow in FIFA 16, it’s our longstanding Teutonic rivals who threaten to dominate the online scene. Only one player, left back Babett Peter, has an OVR of less than 80, and four boast OVRs of 86 or above (skipper and 2014 world player of the year Nadine Kessler is an astonishing 90).

My first game playing as the dainty yet fearsome Deutsch Frauen, against the almost-as-good USA, is a 9-0 win. (Nine!) It must be said that the all-ladies mode is excellent, with much less focus on speed and physicality than you’re used to from previous (all-male) years, which actively encourages finesse football. And it you’re one of those troglodytes moaning that you really don’t want to play as the women? Then, y’know, don’t play as the women. Duh.

Well, duh. No sports game developer is going to sit down at the big table-o-brainstorms and pipe up with “I know! Let’s make it look like an Atari Lynx game!”. But it’s worth noting that FIFA has taken another Yaya-Toure-sized stride forward in the cosmetics department. (No Mr Beckham, we do not wish to try your new cologne.) Randomised weather means you see more of upgraded effects such as heat haze or lightning during matches, and players look noticeably lass plastic-y thanks to new skin and eye textures and shaders.

Plus the introduction of women players has had a happy knock-on effect on blokeball too. New scaleable skeletons mean Peter Crouch no longer looks like he’s been stretched on a torture rack, ponytails behave like ponytails, and players track every single motion of the ball. So no more odd instances of your skipper volleying home while making eyes at number three’s wife in an executive box. (Sorry, John.)

The reason Sony sim MLB The Show has led the sporting pack for so long is it gets all the intricacies of baseball right in addition to the onfield stuff. And while it’s still no quite on par, this year sees FIFA 16 again move in a similar direction. For instance, referees in real life now use foam spray to ensure players keep ten yards back at free kicks – and now the officials in FIFA do the same.

And in addition to busting out a wealth of dandy moves, goalscorers can celebrate //into the TV// simply by making a beeline to the pitch-side cameraman after finding the onion bag. One frustration – as covered in our initial FIFA 16 preview – is not being able to specify which players go upfield for attacking set pieces, but generally the series is closing the gap on its bat-swinging counterpart.

For months it’s been rumoured that this might be the year where EA snaps up the Champions League license. That’s been quashed thanks to Konami locking in a new deal with UEFA for PES, but EA still maintains that big improvements to both career mode and Ultimate Team are on the way. It won’t elaborate, but we can speculate, and a novel job listing on EA’s website earlier this year throws up an intriguing possibility: specific storylines that take place outside of matches.

In April the company was looking for two ‘narrative designers’ who would “bring the player’s experience to explosive life in its story-telling mode… [capturing] emotional experiences that drive the story forward through non-linear storytelling techniques.” Juggling player contracts while managing our star striker’s Smash Hits Top Trumps addiction and trying to get just one member of the team to wear boots that aren’t blinding like the surface of the sun? By Joe Ledley’s beard, are we in.

While he might lack the traditional powers, 's Rico is most definitely a superhero. In fact, he’s the anti-Spider-Man. Ever pondered what the webbed wonder would do without all those skyscrapers to swing about on? Well he’d probably call in Rico.

Let's take a closer look at what the one-man army can do...

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Rico now has room for up to three weapons at once. There’s a slot for a primary and secondary weapon and a more explosive Special, such as a rocket launcher, to back them up. The big cause for celebration, however, is Rico’s inexplicably infinite supply of C4. Now we can get straight to planning our next demolition job.

If you couldn't tell from the title of this preview, this puzzle platformer likes to lean on the cheeky, slapstick end of the comedy spectrum. In Shiftlings, you play as intergalactic janitors who are secretly the stars on a reality TV show, The Truman Show-style. The objective of the show? Watch as two brainless idiots (controlled simultaneously by you, the player) attempt to navigate complex levels, repair malfunctioning mechanical devices, and hopefully watch them die an entertaining death. Morbid, right?

Each level has you move from point A to ending point B. You control both characters - who are tethered together by a long hose - at the same time. The thing is, one of them let loose a giant fart that inflated his airtight space suit, making him a massive, bouncy sphere. Luckily, that fart can be swapped between the two characters' suits at any time. Using this mechanic, you'll have to find ways to navigate the tricky terrain of each level, constantly swapping the noxious air to blow up and shrink their space suits to fit into small spaces, clog up passages, or bounce up to new heights.

The game is challenging enough when there's one player giving it a go, but there's also local play and online co-op, giving two players the ability to swap control (and the fart) between their respective space-janitors. With the second person involved, the challenge becomes a question of how well you can communicate with your partner. It'll take strong coordination to complete even the easiest levels, which could do well to strengthen your personal relationships, or destroy them with putrid smelling, gastrointestinal evacuations.

Check out the following slides for formation and images.

As surprising as it sounds, Distance is a high-speed, neon-flavored racing game that, quite frankly, scares me. Beneath the game's cyberpunk aesthetic lurks a callous, alien presence that is constantly toying with you, the player. I encountered its baleful influence near the end of my demo, manifesting as several seemingly random visual glitches. Around the same time I started being jarringly teleported back and forth between the familiar neon city race track and a ruined, desolate version of that same track.

This sudden change in style and tone suggests that there's something not quite right going on, and left me questioning which of the two realities was the 'real' one. Am I saying this is some bowels-voiding, P.T. demo-level of terror? No, but even so it still felt unsettling, and to see a developer attempt to mix these extremely disparate genres makes Distance worthy of your attention.

It doesn't hurt that the game also handles oh-so-smoothly. The sections I played were all single-player races (though there will be multiplayer too) that focused on survival. By utilizing my car's special abilities - we're talking flight mode, flaming booster engines, and Speed Racer-esque bounce pads - I had to avoid all manner of whirling saw blades and deadly laser grids. Of course, these powers couldn't save me against what came for me at the end, a glimpse of which you can catch at the end of the trailer below (it's that crazy orb-like entity).

Distance is through Steam Early Access, and you can click ahead through this gallery for more tidbits on the game.

It might be quicker asking The Crew’s creative director Julian Gerighty what games his Ivory Tower team hasn’t worked on--V-Rally, Need for Speed, Test Drive Unlimited, Split Second. Either the ratio of driving game developers to driving games is really low, or Ivory Tower’s pedigree is really high.

It’s probably a bit of both. In terms of ambition The Crew has few rivals, a progressive racer where players can cover the entire continent of North America, alone or with up to seven other players, without the slightest flicker of a loading screen. It’s an idealised skew, meaning some locales get the chop (sorry, Boston), but from the hustle and bustle of Times Square to the sombre wilds of the bayou, what’s there makes for a thrilling drive.

250 landmarks line over 6,000km of open road, each with their own data entry and cinematic, and discovering them all feels a bit like collecting stamps on your passport. Indeed, this collect-’em-all philosophy sits at the heart of The Crew. See, beating races unlocks parts for your car, which can be modified inside and out with 20 different customisables. Banana-yellow interior with flame bonnet decals? Please.

Events and terrain change so drastically you’ll need to master several specs. Dirt spec transforms your ride into a bulky beast with squishy suspension, while circuit adds an extra layer of nuance. It’s a shame the controls generally feel too loose, the minor delay between button press and result making cars feel unresponsive. You’ll often get snagged on scenery but at least resetting is painless--a short button hold warps you back on track instantaneously.

Events and challenges make the most of the setting: inner-city traffic slaloms, state-hopping point-to-points, laps around fully licensed circuits like Laguna Seca. Best is takedown, in which players team up to smash an AI opponent. Ripping through an Arizona dust bowl in raid vehicles, trading paint and veering off ramps in pursuit of a fleeing motor, is amongst The Crew’s highlights.

Click through the gallery for the latest screens.

Project Cars is an ambitious racing sim. I know that because the presentation that preceded the hands-on preview event actually named , this game has been built around ideas and suggestions from the racing sim community and real racing drivers. And without any other new-gen, track-based racers scheduled for release this Christmas, there's certainly a neat little car-shaped hole it can fill.

The stats certainly back up its bravado. It's got 80+ tracks over 30+ locations and 70+ licensed vehicles spread over nine disciplines. Real-time or accelerated day/night and weather transitions, pit-stops, tyre wear, simulated oil pressure and fuel loads… everything a simulation should have is in here, which is rare for a console game.

The driving model is predictably exacting, but fair, and the wheel-to-wheel racing is made much more tense when open-wheel collisions behave like they would in real life. You can easily flip into the air if you misjudge a braking zone and clip the car ahead, which is as it should be.

At this stage of development, however, the PS4 version is noticeably rougher than the PC version (which is often sensational, just look at the pics), and the AI is currently too aggressive in both versions. Not even Rosberg is this bargy. There's still time for balancing before the game's November release.

The online mode is the most exciting aspect for me, as it places a large emphasis on reputation. With network time trials, community tournaments (with real-life prizes) and the ability to share a highlight reel, this should offer the most serious online racing experience on console. Provided the PS4 version can at least approximate the quality of the PC game by launch, this could become an online favourite. In certain (very fast) circles.

Check out the following slides for additional images and formation.

I bet this wasn't what you were expecting from . Multiplayer? For real? Yep! It's happening, and I'm sure you have a lot of questions. Like: How could tactical RPG combat translate to a four-player co-op scenario, and why the HELL is Bioware wasting time on a multiplayer mode for a story-based, SINGLE-player title? Hey, hey, hey. Hold on there buddy. I've got all of the details on the new co-op multiplayer mode to help bring your worries to rest.

I had the chance to play Dragon Age: Inquisition's multiplayer mode during a recent visit to the Bioware offices, and I can tell you right now, it's actually pretty awesome. Like, I'm-going-to-be-spending-way-too-much-time-playing-this awesome. Its got the economy of Mass Effect 3's multiplayer with a ton of Dragon Age elements mixed in. There's a lot to show you, so let's jump right into it.

If you're familiar with Mass Effect 3's multiplayer, you're going to feel right at home with Inquisition's new co-op mode. After sitting through the matchmaking lobby (which allows you to select the mission and difficulty settings), you'll drop into a 20 to 30 minute mission with your group of four online companions. From there, every player controls a single character, leaving it up to your group to coordinate attacks and manually execute combat strategies.

Unlike Mass Effect 3's horde-style gameplay, however, Inquisition's multiplayer challenges your team to complete a randomized mini dungeon. You play as a member of an Inquisition strike team that will need to explore every room to find hidden chests filled with gold and items, and defeat all of the enemies contained within the level--including a massive boss at the end. This is no cake walk. Coordination between players and classes is essential. "What kind of classes?" you ask. Well...

Basically, any character type you're used to playing in the Dragon Age series is an unlockable class. You'll start off the progression system with a sword and board dwarf class, elf caster, and human archer unlocked (with nine total classes available at launch). Each of these classes has their own skill trees to unlock via experience points, special weapons to find, and armor to collect and customize. As you progress, you can unlock more specialized classes with unique skills, such as the two-handed weapon-wielding Reaver, fireball-throwing Elementalist, and stealthy Assassin.

Like Mass Effect 3's classes, Inquisition's level individually and share a loot pool. So, if you find an awesome shield playing as an Archer, you can equip it to your shield-bearing Legionnaire later on. It's always a good idea to keep more than one class equipped and ready for battle because joining a group in which all players are the same exact class is a surefire way to wipe. Variety wins the day in Inquisition's multiplayer.

When it comes to class based co-op and parties, an RPG veteran's mind can't help but think of the holy trinity: tank, DPS, and heals. In Inquisition's co-op missions, you'll definitely have a huge advantage going into a dungeon with a balanced team, plus only certain classes can open special doors containing extra loot. But if you wanted to rock a party of three Legionnaires and a magic-throwing Keeper, you can probably pull off a victory in the easier difficulties (if your team is super good).

My experience with a balanced team went quite well. I rushed my shield-bearer to the front, holding up my shield to absorb damage and gained a boost to my armor. While I did my tank thing, ranged magic casters and archers behind unleashed their skills to put down heavy damage and heal my dwarf's wounds. The trinity worked like a charm--at least, until my group encountered tougher enemies, who promptly murdered us.

Whether you finish a quest with your co-op partners or get brutally eviscerated by the demons of the Fade, you're going to get some gold for your efforts. What's that gold for? Well, duh, buying stuff. But you won't be handpicking the weapons and armor from some shopkeep or blacksmith. Inquisition's loot system is all about blind, random luck.

To get new gear, you can purchase loot chests that come in the small, medium, and large variety. These can contain temporary items like potions and buffs, or rare equipment pieces. The larger the chest, the more items you get, and the more rare the items can be. There's also the option to put down real money to speed up your looting progress. That said, you won't be able to buy any items in particular and there aren't any items you can't earn by just playing the game.

Other than purchasing loot chests to get new items, you have the option to gather materials and craft your own weapons and armor, or improve your items with new sword hilts and armor reinforcements. In Inquisition's multiplayer quests, the gold filled chests you come across might include crafting materials and recipes (or you can break down unwanted items for materials). Once you get everything a recipe calls for, you can build your new item through the multiplayer menus in the matchmaking lobby.

In Inquisition's MP you can completely outfit your character from head-to-toe (with individual armor pieces that include boots, gloves, chest pieces, and head gear). Items have different classes of rarity and distinct looks, allowing you to truly customize the abilities and appearance of your characters. The crafting system definitely adds to the loot-monger appeal. I already see myself spending way too much time trying to complete an armor set.

In Mass Effect 3, players have to play multiplayer to pump up their Galactic Readiness, which affects the single-player story events. In Inquisition, however, there won't be such interconnectivity between the single-player and multiplayer modes.

Of course, there is some narrative behind the operations and characters in the DAI co-op, but none of that will bleed into the mechanics of the single-player game. So, any players who don't want to partake don't have to (which is a good thing because the single-player will probably take up enough of your time).

As if 150 to 200 hours of single-player gameplay wasn't enough. Bioware will also provide regular updates to the multiplayer experience. So, you can expect to see new heroes, levels, and items trickling in during the weeks and months after Inquisition's launch. And probably the best thing about the upcoming content: it's all free. No subscription, no season pass, no nothin'.

There you have it. Those are all of the details we have on Inquisition's multiplayer mode so far. What do you think of the series' plunge into the multiplayer space. Are you apprehensive? Excited? Let us know in the comments below.

Read more about Inquisition in our .