There is little doubt that MotoGP 24 is a great two-wheel driving simulator. Better than its predecessor and better, we explain in the review, than many other licensed products, in this case armored, which color the panorama of modern sim racing. Yet, after a short week-long test, there are still doubts about the rejuvenation process carried out in a somewhat idle manner. at Milestone where, it should be noted, the games are made with care, talent and passion. Perhaps, this time, with little imagination, although the few innovations introduced have been tastefully mixed into the playful mix that has been slowly cooking for over a decade.
MotoGP 24: if you ride it’s a pleasure
The criticism, although composed, could still appear a little ungrateful. In recent years, but not only, the Milanese software house has also shown a certain courage in developing variations on the genre. From Gravel to Hot Wheels, the Italian team demonstrated good adaptability, not always rewarded by the public. For this reason, we certainly don’t feel blamed if the new episode of the successful annual series beats the well-known asphalt of the world championship circuits. All classes, all riders, all bikes and liveries. For a MotoGP enthusiast it is impossible not to be satisfied, even entranced by the encyclopedic work carried out.
Milestone, in short, has been able to optimize the small and large steps forward that, in the last decade, have characterized their productions. On the other hand, in MotoGP 24 there is even a hint of the physics of Ride 5, small pearl reviewed positively by the international press not even a year ago. In short, everything is beautiful and everything is right? Almost, because once the aforementioned wonder has vanished, a bit of a bitter taste remains in the mouth about what didn’t happen. About what could have been. On what, with the usual hope, we postpone until next year. Prudence, always, as the legend Nico Cereghini taught us more than twenty years ago.
The MotoGP World Championship is long
MotoGP 24 is the new chapter of the playful video series which, between classic races, multiplayer competitions and a long and well-structured career, tells the story of this year’s MotoGP. The protagonists are the pilots, centaurs without fear and infinite courage. They are the protagonists, the motorbikes with colorful liveries which, never really tamed, unleash their brutal power on the asphalt of circuits all over the world. There is no room for arcade ambitions in MotoGP24. The aforementioned physics “made in Milestone”, the legacy of a painstaking study on the behavior of motorbikes and weight management already shown in the fifth chapter of Ride, leaves any attempt to radically simplify the original approach required by the simulator in the pits. To overcome what might appear to a casual audience to be an insurmountable obstacle, the development team has put in place various accessibility options aimed at simplifying the experience in some way. Right from the start it is possible to select a control system that best suits your abilities on the track, making as many compromises as possible with the almost exaggerated realism of the gameplay.
Unlike other racing games branded as sim-cade, MotoGP 24 never distorts its vision. The game also offers a series of limitations that are far too incisive when selected. Artificial assistance, they might say. Better not to overdo it, though. In these cases, the game goes from being difficult to becoming simply boring. For this reason, taking into account the initial obstacles, the advice is to make an effort to approach the title as it deserves, avoiding the most extreme driving aids and instead giving yourself a long period of practice. Having done this, even considering the possibilities offered by the new adaptable difficulty system, the time has come, for us too. That magical moment of fastening your helmet tightly on your head and hitting the track. Cereghini docet, obviously.
The whole championship and even more!
Speaking of the feeling, which is excellent if and when you start riding without worries, MotoGP 24, like and more than its predecessors, offers a highly respectable content offering. An offer “limited” by an important license, but exploited as always with great skill. Time trials, race weekends and official seasons. The methods are always the same and do not require, for obvious reasons, rivers of characters or great imagination to be explained. This year’s innovations deserve more attention, capable of fleshing out the offer and making the seasonal udpate interesting even for veterans. To those who are now at home among the circuits scattered around the globe. The most impactful innovation, according to the writer, is the introduction to the Career mode of the Driver Market. Based on the results and experience, the virtual centaur is now allowed to change teams. The pace will be dictated by the constant updating of the rosters which is renewed from season to season. Starting from Moto 3, just to give an example, the adrenaline-filled need to earn every point before every podium and every victory is tangible. Thus, the sense of progression is ensured by promotions and therefore by the interest of the most famous teams.
The system set up by Milestone, clamored for by enthusiasts over the years, is not perfect. Yet it works. It guarantees a long, lasting, practically infinite single player experience. Year of grace 2024, we have few doubts about the scope of an innovation which, in some ways, looks to the past, when online multiplayer represented only a small slice of the global experience. However, this is not the case. To say, on the competitive front the team seems to have done great things with the Live GP Championship. The mode is a sort of championship within the championship, with its own dedicated ranking to climb, race after race, to aim for the top places in the world. And, again, cross-play, although limited to the current gen, promises the creation and maintenance of a highly respectable community. A “crew” perhaps pampered by the themed events which, in the last decade, have made the series a reference on the eSports scene.
MotoGP 24, good and bad weather on the track
Also for this reason, Milestone has promised an intransigent Race Direction, with intensified and addressed controls on behavior on the track, including penalties, warnings and Long Lap Penalties. Rules to be followed always and in any case, both for the player and for the AI. These are successful introductions but which, for obvious reasons linked to the timing of the modern era, will have to be evaluated in their entirety in the weeks following the launch. In fact, only after some time will the real validity of the path taken will be clear. Yet, we are optimistic. MotoGP 24, thanks to the newfound local enthusiasm injected by the performance of an increasingly competitive and charismatic “Pecco” Bagnaia, seems to be a small and prudent experiment that worked really well. On the other hand, although far from the technical miracles offered by a Gran Turismo and from a Force whatever, even on the visual front the situation is solid, although not surprising. True, some appreciated artistic peaks are missing from Ride 5. Yet the Unreal Engine metabolized for five years by the Milanese graphic designers does not lose one of the 60 frames per second promised by PlayStation 5console used for the test and embellished with a good use of the DualSense in terms of feedback. Further note of merit for a game also capable of adequately exploiting hardware resources in the use of dynamic weather effects. Rain, heat and cold which, both in graphics and in sensations, can also radically change the story of a grand prix that seemed closed and which, instead, was only just beginning.
Excellent customization possibilities between helmets, suits, liveries and stickers. High level audio sector with regards to sound effects and less, much less, in music and dubbing. Even more beautiful are the new interlude scenes between paddocks, podiums and awards ceremonies. MotoGP 24 is the same old story, with some variations on a classic theme and, let’s not deny it, we would have expected something more in terms of technical and playful innovation. MotoGP 24 is also a really difficult and difficult game or, alternatively, aids activated, go-go, quite the opposite. And yet, do you know what a shame it is not to delve deeper into the driving system and really tame those horses clattering under the colorful fairings?
MotoGP 24 is, as we reiterated in the review, a solid, high-level production. That level which, within European borders, is increasingly “Milestone stuff”, a software house that, over the years, has been able to transform a craft work into something that could compete on the market with the main international players. Isn’t this the same thing that, mutatis mutandis, our riders, our Pecco, our Ducati have been able to do? From which, every season, we expect more and more!
