Nocturnal 
Three new games are landing on PlayStation Plus next week, and there’s something for racing fans, horror buffs and alien-blasting completionists alike. Sony has confirmed that F1 25, Hunt: Showdown 1896 and Earth Defense Force: World Brothers 2 are October’s PlayStation Plus Monthly Games, all playable from Tuesday 6 October through to Monday 2 November.
The announcement came straight from the PlayStation Blog, with the trio confirmed across every tier of PlayStation Plus membership. It’s a varied line-up by Sony’s own admission, mixing a big-budget racer, a brutal multiplayer shooter and a split-screen co-op romp that’s a lot sillier than it sounds.
What’s actually in the lineup
F1 25 is the official game of the 2025 FIA Formula One World Championship, built by Codemasters. It comes with the usual Career and My Team 2.0 modes, letting players run their own F1 outfit from the owner’s chair, plus a new online multiplayer mode called F1 World where you race as a squad against AI drivers.
Hunt: Showdown 1896 is described by its makers as a fresh take on the “addictively unforgiving” extraction shooter. Set in corrupted, monster-infested backwaters, players hunt bosses for bounties either solo or with up to two teammates, fighting off both supernatural enemies and rival Hunters along the way. A Starter Pack for the game also lands on 6 October as a separate purchase for anyone who wants extra kit.
Rounding things off is Earth Defense Force: World Brothers 2, a voxel-art spin-off from the long-running EDF series in which players assemble four-strong squads to fight off giant alien invaders on a cube-shaped Earth. It supports four-player online co-op and two-player split screen on both PS5 and PS4, making it the most sociable of the three picks and, according to reviewers, considerably easier to get into than the mainline EDF games thanks to its forgiving combat and cartoonish style.
Reaction has been mixed on Hunt
Not every reviewer is sold on all three games. TheSixthAxis’s review of Hunt: Showdown 1896 was lukewarm, noting that in practice matches are “mostly abandoned by people either sprinting all the time or camping all the time,” adding that it’s “hard to recommend to anyone that isn’t already embedded in it.” F1 25, by contrast, got a warmer reception, with the outlet calling it “a clear improvement over last year’s entry” thanks to better handling and the returning Braking Point story mode.
Clock’s ticking on last month’s games too
Anyone who hasn’t already grabbed September’s Monthly Games needs to move fast. PlayStation Plus members have until Monday 5 October to add Sniper Elite: Resistance, MLB The Show 26, Wobbly Life and Chained Echoes to their libraries before they’re replaced.
Sony is also timing a few extras around the same date. Spider-Man: Brand New Day arrives on Sony Pictures Core on 6 October, with limited-edition avatars tied to the film available to PlayStation Plus members at no extra cost. There are also horror-themed in-game item bundles rolling out across various PS5 and PS4 titles to mark the spooky season, including a Call of Duty: Warzone bundle from 1 October.
For now, the message for subscribers is simple: claim what you can before Monday, because from Tuesday 6 October the shift is on to F1 25, Hunt: Showdown 1896 and Earth Defense Force: World Brothers 2, all included at no extra cost for existing PlayStation Plus members.
