REVIEW – With an annually released game, it’s almost impossible to introduce it in any meaningful way, so let’s just say the MotoGP championship this year is all about the Marquez brothers, and naturally, they play the lead roles in Milestone‘s latest adaptation of the premier class. In terms of innovation, this year’s installment doesn’t quite earn the label of being “good.”

The motorcycle championship has visited Hungary twice, in 1990 and 1992, when races were held at the Hungaroring across all three categories (125, 250, 500cc).

Arcade Mode On

The main new feature in MotoGP 25 is Arcade, which makes it easier to stay on the bike and take corners at significantly higher speeds. Compared to RIDE, it’s a radically different experience, offering a more accessible gameplay for newcomers. Those seeking tougher competition won’t be disappointed either, as the Pro option remains available. With this setting, bikes are harder to control, and even experienced players can lose control, meaning both novice and seasoned riders will find their match.

Technologically, there has been a shift as well, with the switch to Unreal Engine 5. From 2018 to 2024, Milestone used Unreal Engine 4, and now there is a noticeable visual upgrade. But this year’s MotoGP hasn’t just improved visually; the audio has seen an upgrade too, delivering a more immersive audiovisual experience. It really makes a difference when developers take sound design seriously and record audio right at the trackside. This may be the strongest-sounding entry in the series to date.

There’s also plenty of content. All three categories are present again (Moto3, Moto2, MotoGP) with all the teams and riders. Before players get started, they can take a lap around the Balaton Park Circuit (yes, that’s its name even in Hungarian, located in Balatonfőkajár). So this track is already ahead of the never-completed Balatonring (Sávoly).

Those looking to play with friends can enjoy split-screen gameplay, meaning online play is not the only option. Of course, you can also race regular Grand Prix events, do time trials, and dive into career mode. Unfortunately, the career mode isn’t anything special, and the tutorial is frankly weak. It just drops you onto a track and tells you to do a few laps without explaining how to control the bike. Previous entries did this better—this feels like a step back.

The rival system is new to the career mode, but it doesn’t consider how you behave on track. Instead, a messaging system influences the relationship, which is as absurd as the social media feed from a few years ago where you couldn’t interact with anything. Milestone has brought feature creep to video games—and it’s ridiculous.

Artificial Idiocy

The AI feels far too perfect—while players struggle with chicanes, the AI glides through without issue, completely ignoring the player’s experience. This has been a problem before.

In career mode, it’s not just the rival system that’s flawed—the overall presentation is also lacking. At least there’s the option to upgrade your bike, which would have been a major oversight if missing. Thankfully, there were no glitches this time (unlike in the late 2010s, when remaining time went negative…), and your upgrade path matters. Here too, Milestone used a dialogue system, allowing you to suggest to your engineer that, say, your engine could use more power. However, the system lacks depth compared to Codemasters‘ implementation in the F1 series (which was weak in 2016 but matured significantly from 2017 onward).

It’s a bit absurd that Milestone is charging 2 euros for offroad helmets and 1 euro for iconic liveries—these should be part of the base game.

The physics don’t feel fully accurate, and controller vibration doesn’t always work (on DualSense, throttle and brake feedback sometimes fail). Career mode seems to lack an introductory rookie season, and the game can crash in certain instances. So while there are good aspects, there are just as many bad ones. On PC, the game crashes; on console, performance isn’t stable. Some curbs are dangerously buggy too.

MotoGP 24 Minus One

This game gets a 6.5/10 only because it has the potential to be better thanks to the upgraded technology. However, because Milestone develops annually, they won’t be patching this one much, so many of the previously mentioned issues will likely remain. The common Unreal Engine 5 problems (like microstutters) are here as well, and in a racing game, that’s incredibly frustrating—so this one ends up in the gravel trap.

-V-

We received the code from Magnew Ltd.

Publisher: Milestone

Developer: Milestone

Style: the annual game adaptation of the World Championship

Release: April 30, 2025