MotoGP 24: Review of the new Milestone simulator

It's been that way for over ten years in a row Milestone creates the official MotoGP game. The first dates back to 2007, but in the 2010-2011 biennium, the license briefly moved to Capcom and then back to Milan in 2013. With this awareness we can say with absolute certainty that their simulator of the craziest and most popular two-wheeled tournament is the most Sincerity in the market. This year, the physics of MotoGP 24 are spot on and will really make you feel like your elbows are just a few centimeters from the pavement.

However, the main problem with this chapter is the artificial intelligence, which is erratic, inconsistent, and, in some cases, almost incorrect. Being an annual game, there aren't many new features, but we're particularly happy with the newest additions. Firstly, Demo marketwhich from the first season of the career mode sets intermediate goals and objectives to achieve that encourage you to do better.

Makes your head spin

Anyone who has ridden a motorcycle even in the real world knows that to take a good turn, you have to look where you want to go by turning your head, and the motorcycle will do the rest (or almost) itself. The feeling of 'driving' that MotoGP 24 offers, whether from a first or third person perspective, is so realistic that in the tightest corners and in the millimeter of overtakes, It was natural for us to turn our heads Just like in real life, hoping to get a few extra millimeters of bend. The immersion is complete, the controls are precise, and the car's behavior certainly resembles that of the motorcycles you see on Sundays on TV.

The direct result of this approach is that, at any level of difficulty, MotoGP 24 is an unforgiving game. Mistakes will cost you dearly in terms of seconds, and with the stewards set, if you are blatantly wrong either in the race or in qualifying, you will be punished with cautions and long lap penalties. Fortunately, the time rewind function will save you from most of these risks. Last year, an unnamed social network was added to the game where you can see what people are talking about at the track and where you can interact with other drivers and representatives of other teams. These interactions will also affect the new market in the middle and end of the season. This will allow the creation of rumors and connections between potential future teammates and affiliations: all of these factors will influence the offers that will reach you and competing drivers controlled by AI in new sections of the market.

The in-pit and on-platform videos are still a bit grueling, but throughout the rest of the game, especially when it's raining, the graphics are really improved. Especially from a first-person perspective, MotoGP 24 does a great job. There is never too much visual stimulation, while the on-screen graphics, which are perfectly in keeping with the style of the current season, will leave you feeling Live during the race weekend. If we were to make a ranking, we would say that the most enjoyable categories to play are, in order, MotoGP, Moto3 and Moto2 with MotoE which we will only be able to evaluate later, when it is released with the update.

Missing mentoring experience

If you're a veteran player of the series, MotoGP 24 offers an excellent simulation experience. If you are a beginner and have recently approached the world of high-level motorcycling, this is the game for you It won't do much to help you. First, there is no proper educational program consisting of track sections, explanations of motorcycle racing rules, and a complete description of what the individual components of the motorcycle do and how changing them affects its behavior. All of this information is already in the game, but it's scattered across different experiences and different sections and it's very difficult to orient yourself. There is a MotoGP Academy, but it's only used for learning the tracks, and there are mini-tutorials with gameplay for some features like flag-to-flag (when you have to change bikes due to bad weather conditions), but it's all disconnected and chaotic. You learn everything by playing, but we'd like an experience (optional, of course) to quietly introduce new players to the world of MotoGP.

The second secondary importance of this game is the track line, in simple words the “line” that must be followed on the track. Veterans practically do not need it, but for all other players it is necessary and the fact that it is inaccurate in indicating speed and in some cases wrong in determining the path. It makes the experience really frustrating. The most striking case we encountered was the first corner of the Portimão circuit, which we only learned by imitating AI opponents who did not follow the line, cutting it cleanly. However, the main problem with this racing line is the indication of ideal speed: it lacks a lot of precision, nuance and consistency. From red we expect to have to brake like crazy, from blue we expect to hit the proverbial accelerator. Instead, intermediate colors appear and disappear within a few seconds and do not provide the desired indications.

If these two aspects can be completely ignored and by playing you feel them less and less because you learn the main aspects of the racing world and the behavior that must be followed at each track, the aspect that MotoGP 24 lacks is from the point of view of artificial intelligence And its relationship to managing difficulty. No matter what difficulty level you play on, it is unbelievable to finish a Grand Prix 20 seconds behind world champion Francesco Bagnaia. Likewise, it is quite frustrating, in a Moto3 race, to spend all the laps fighting for 13th place, because suddenly, the competitors find themselves in a hard fighting situation.

The height of reckless difficulty management was when, in order to become the number one driver for our team, we had the goal of finishing ahead of our teammate. If all the competitors, even the previous race, were behaving like little lambs, suddenly, as soon as this variable was introduced into the game, They have become more aggressive than ever And from fighting for the podium we went to fighting for eleventh place. It's not possible to have such sudden increases in difficulty just because a major career goal is at stake, the experience has to be progressive, especially if Milestone considers itself a core component of the experience.