The Tour de France is one of the most prestigious events on the annual sporting calendar, and like many other showpieces like the FIFA World Cup and the Olympics, there is a long running video game franchise tie-in, handled by Cyanide Studios for publisher NACON. We were lucky enough to be sent to beautiful Paris to experience a hands-on with the 2025 edition and speak to the guys behind the game to find out what players can expect from the latest instalment.
Running on Unreal Engine, the first thing I noticed about Tour De France 2025 was just how impressive it looks. The visual of seeing the plethora of bikes and their riders snaking through the beautiful French countryside is a real treat, and I was even able to take on stages based in actual places I have visited in France as a child, which was fantastic. You really notice not only the level of detail in the environments, but the fidelity of the sprites, and the superb lighting and shadow effects are a serious improvement on the last time I played a Tour de France title.
Gameplay in cycling games is very niche as the inherent nature of the Tour is that of endurance with stages taking place over several hundred kilometres. As a pure simulation it is as gruelling as the event itself, however you do get the ability to partially hand over control to the computer by allowing your rider to follow teammates or opponents, or fast forward sections of the races.
The gameplay revolves around conserving energy, knowing when to use boosts and put in effort, and employing use of things like the slipstream of other riders and aerodynamics in sections when you can surrender your rider to the momentum of the undulating hills and downhill sections. Dare I say it, I really enjoyed the times when I was forced to take control, to use these elements to take on tricky corners and winding parts of the track with the most economical use of my energy and using the track to my advantage.
There are plenty of modes on offer and I got to play all of them apart from some of the online ones. You can take on individual stages, or even carve a custom path through stages of your choice in a kind of pick and mix. There is a Club Tour Mode which on launch features online opponents and you can gain rewards by taking part in special challenges and move up the rankings.
Pro Team allows you to manage and recruit riders over a career, whilst Pro Leader allows you to create a rider from a cool creation suite and complete missions from season to season. There is a huge amount of licenced stuff, I didn’t realise how big business the Tour really is until I saw all of this not only in-game, but in the room where we spent the preview session absolutely kitted out in cool cycling memorabilia and merchandise.
The actual bikes are something to behold: truly amazing aerodynamically engineered beauties. And these are all fully translated into Tour De France 2025. The big hitters in the sport are all present and correct too including the current master of endurance cycling Tadej Pogacar and his great rival Jonas Vingegaard. The training mode is a great place to start learning about the intricacies of the game and really effective in teaching you all of the mechanics and ways of managing your rider. I spent a lot of time on this and as a result was able to much better appreciate the main game.
As I have said: it is highly niche, but fans of the sport will absolutely love this, and I began to fall for it myself. Once you are more confident and want to fully sim this one you can even alter a lot of parameters such as incident frequency, whether falls result in injuries and accidents, and the overall level of realism and dare I say it, peril on the track.
I came away very impressed by what I saw and played of Tour de France 2025, and the gameplay has enough about it now to genuinely entice new players who fancy a bit of something different. With thrilling fast-paced action coupled with the intricacies and nuances of what is a truly elite sport. I can’t wait to try the full game when it releases soon.
Tour de France 2025 is coming to PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series S|X on June 5th. Preview impressions based on hands-on at event with travel and accommodation paid for by publisher.
