MotoGP is actually a new interest of mine, after a few years following F1 I was a bit hesitant on the cost of ever going to a race, and so I started following these lunatics going obscenely fast on motorcycles. I figured with the new game, MotoGP 24 coming, now was a great time to really get immersed into this world. For anyone that has never played one of these games, it is incredibly immersive. If you’re unfamiliar, much like the F1 games, these are primarily based around realism, so if you lean too far, slow down too much, or so much as touch a bump while off balance, you’re being launched from this bike. Being good at riding a motorcycle in Grand Theft Auto is going to do absolutely nothing for you here.

My first experience with MotoGP 24 was an eye opener. I had absolutely no idea what was happening and why I just couldn’t manage to keep on the bike through most of the tighter turns. There is a training mode, but much to my dismay, it really didn’t teach me much of anything. After a good amount of practice though, I understand why. MotoGP is a game you really need to feel to grasp what you’re meant to be doing to stay competitive in the races, you can’t just simply be told how to do it. After maybe an hour of practice and finally understanding better how to actually race, it was time to jump into the career mode.

First off in the career mode is a nice long and in depth character creator. I’m personally not someone who spends a lot of time with these sorts of things, it’s just not my thing to try and make a character look like me or anything along those lines, but I know a lot of people that would have fun with the options available, everywhere from your normal looks to what you’re wearing and colour of the items. Most of the colour stuff won’t matter once we’re in a team though, since every team has its own colours, lucky for me I went from black and pink, my go to, to green, my second choice.

In career mode you’ll be going through the paces of an actual race weekend. Practice on the track, followed by qualifying races. For those unfamiliar, qualifying races are essentially time trials that you do to set the best times, these are for your starting placement during the actual race. When it comes to the actual race, you’ll earn points based on your position, if you’ve never played a realistic motoracing game before like this or F1, just imagine how the cups work in Mario Kart and expand that by.. a lot.

One issue I found with the races, a lot of the time it looks very much the same. Most these courses are very grey, with a bit of red to warn you of turns, a bit of green if there’s any grass, and a bit of brownish yellow for some sand. Most of the colours you’ll see are the other bikes and drivers. I know I should be paying more attention to the road, which of course is grey, but sometimes I lose track of where I am in a track because a lot of it starts to look the same in some cases.

One big praise is the sound production in MotoGP. Honestly, the bikes sound great, the audio for the crew is clear but can still give the realism of being on the bike and what it must be like for the actual drivers in some cases. Unlike what it must be like for drivers, when you’re surrounded by other drivers you can still actually hear anything coming through on comms, which must be next to impossible in the real thing. All the sounds feel balanced, and it made it a bit easier to gauge what’s happening in the race.

As a first experience with MotoGP, 24 was a great start point. While older versions are obviously on sale now, it’s worth shelling out the extra money for the cleanest feeling game. The biggest tip I can give if this is your first go at a MotoGP game is stick with it. Figure out what’s feeling wrong, figure out why you keep taking corners too wide, or falling, or whatever else may be happening. There’s a very steep learning curve, but even though I’m still “bad” at the game, I’m learning more and getting a better feel for it every single race. Now I just really need to get down not dying in the rain.

Graphics: 7.0 The character creator is very in depth, and gives a lot of options to make your rider look however you wish for the most part. The bikes are clearly different in look from team to team, but the races are very grey and dreary for the most part, which is the only thing I can flaw the graphics on.	Gameplay: 9.0 MotoGP 24 as a whole feels really good, but has an insane learning curve. If this is your first game it will take quite a lot of getting used to before you finally, properly, have fun. When you stick with it though, it’s one of the best feeling racing games you’ll likely play.
Sound: 8.5 For the most part the races sound as they do when you watch them on TV. The communications are a little more clear than they come through watching them though, which is nice because I actually need to deal with what’s being said to me.	Fun Factor: 9.5 I’m glad I stuck with this a couple hours longer than I was originally going to (that said, I put another 20 hours in after that). If wrote this after my first few hours of experience, I would have stated my disdain for this, but suddenly it clicked and everything felt amazing. After going and trying out an older game afterwards, this is a much cleaner experience and one that I want to stick with.
Final Verdict: 8.5

MotoGP 24 is available now on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, PC and Switch.

Reviewed on Xbox Series X.

A copy of MotoGP 24 was provided by the publisher.