REVIEW – Milestone has once again produced a game adaptation of the MotoGP championship, with the big innovation being something we’ve seen in another annual racing license for years, but perhaps it will still be able to capture the public’s attention, although here again it’s fair to wonder if it will work in the longer term.

When you are talking about an annual licensed game, it is very difficult to expect it to improve significantly between installments, and MotoGP 24 has failed to do that. The question is how Liberty Media, the new owners of the championship, will handle the series (and whether Milestone will retain the license).

Still cross-gen riding

What’s unusual is that the game is being released for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. They’re 11 years old this year, and the fact that the game is on weaker platforms is certainly a bit of a setback (the same can be said for Nintendo Switch, and there are compromises there too, especially in multiplayer modes). But anyway, the first major innovation in the game is that we and the AI drivers can be approached with offers, and we can even move up a class or switch teams. F1 2019 already did this. So five years ago. That is a significant gap in comparison. So Marc Marquez (who is on a non-factory Ducati) could very well end up on a factory Ducati, and whoever ends up on Honda, well, good luck to them. The pilot market also has an impact on the rivalry and the fictional community platform launched last year, where rumors about who goes where can start. The other big new feature is the Neural Assist function: the Italian developers have tinkered with the adaptive difficulty level, so that the machine’s performance is based on your performance over races and seasons (and also on the capabilities of your engine), and the more you play, the more accurately it calibrates, so that you don’t run away with the championship so easily with a few races left in the season.

However, if you turn this feature on (the on/off effect usually requires two events, such as two free practice sessions, or one free practice and one qualifying session), you won’t be able to adjust the difficulty level from weekend to weekend, but in return, if you make a mistake, the AI will likely follow suit. This would only be rubberbanding if the others slowed down a lot to catch up. The third thing is the race stewards: if you make a mistake in the free practice/time trial, you should get the penalty in the race (time penalty, long lap penalty, letting the other driver pass you in time). The stewards can be a bit lenient or strict. On PlayStation you can access the rules by pressing R3. The stewards have been left out of the online races, but Milestone will expand this later this year. It’s a bit puzzling why they were left out of the base game, but maybe it’s not coming too late.

Another round of asphalt shredding

Milestone also worked a bit on the podium scenes (sprint podiums) and there is a small but welcome change as the riders no longer wear gloves on the podium (which has been present in previous games for several years). The tracks also look a bit different from the previous ones, as the lighting has been changed and the atmosphere has been improved. Lusail (at night, of course), Buddh and Sokol are playable, of course. There are some elements missing though, for example the telemetry was missing in the pre-launch version, and the 2024 colors will be in the game at launch, and from May 9th the 3D models will be changed to the new ones. (Again, it’s odd that they’re adding these so late.) Moto3 and Moto2 bikes and paint schemes will be updated “shortly after launch,” and MotoE won’t be back in the game until sometime in 2024. WTF? At least the game modes aren’t being updated after the fact (or the tracks, buildings, and pit lanes were finalized before launch). There’s the tutorials, MotoGP Academy, where you can become a pro on any track (learning the ins and outs of each segment), Time Trial, Grand Prix, Championship, where you can even use older tracks (there are five), and Career. In the first season of the career mode, you will participate in the last three races of the Moto3 season, then you can choose between Moto2 and MotoGP, and then you can decide whether the driver market will be active from the beginning or the end of the season.

Turning Points allow you to move up to a better team or higher class more quickly, improve your bike’s capabilities and gain an advantage. The relationships you build with other riders on the social platform will affect how they interact with you on track, and can also help (or hinder) you during the rider signing period. Dynamic weather is thankfully not left out (it would have been a huge setback if it had been), but you need at least 25% of the track to use it. If you’re playing offline, you can even adjust the game speed (you can set it between 60 and 100%), so you can slow it down a bit. In terms of physics, Milestone has tried to make it more realistic with feedback from players as well as drivers, engineers and experts. They wanted to improve the learning curve without sacrificing realism, so that braking, cornering and faster cornering would be available to beginners. Stickers, helmets, butt patches and our race number can be customized, and on PlayStation and Xbox, it can be cross-generational. And in addition to slower game speeds, accessibility features include one-handed controls and different color palettes for colorblind players. In multiplayer, there is no cross-play on PC and Switch (why not on PC?) for 2-12 pilots, you can play with someone else in split-screen (not on Switch), and the live service element is present with LiveGP. It lasts for 12 months, with 10 events per month, and the points you accumulate lead to a leaderboard. When that expires, we can buy the new game next year.

Aprilia versus Ducati-squad

The sound of the bikes is quite interesting. The Moto3 KTM felt a bit like a lawn mower (even with the helmet camera angle you can adjust with the right analog stick), but the Moto2 is harder to handle (rightly so) and the sound is much more aggressive, which is pleasing. Overall, the physics seemed easier to get used to and felt more precise. The MotoGP bikes may not sound as good as the Moto2 ones, but they are really harder to handle, and if you harassed them, they teleported back to the bike (you used to be able to lift and move on, there seems to be the slight backlash here that often characterizes the studio). The graphics are fair, but will certainly look better on more powerful configurations (and on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, there will simply be no complaints about performance). There were no major complaints about the AI this time around.

KTM = keep the marque

Last year MotoGP 23 got a 7.5/10 because it was getting serious. This year it’s improved a bit, but maybe it still doesn’t deserve an eight in its release state. Sure, it came out in June last year and May this year, but it would have been fitting to release it with the latest bikes and models. That said, MotoGP 24 is good, but everyone will forget about it next year.

-V-

Publisher: Milestone

Developer: Milestone

Style: game adaptation of the World Speed ​​​​Motorcycle Championship

Release: May 2, 2024