![]() MotoGP 21 captures an impressive sense of speed when played from the riders perspective. Other new additions include a recovery animation that forces you to fetch your bike after a crash (no more quick respawns), and the “long lap” penalty has been introduced for racking up too many track warnings. Once on the track, electronic assists can be adjusted on the fly for those with dexterity. The start of any race still allows you to make manual or guided adjustments to your bike based on your experience during practice laps (think more torque for quick acceleration out of a corner, or stiffer brake for going into turns late). The suspension physics has also been revised to reflect on-track response more accurately (going off the track feels even more punishing now). New in MotoGP 21 is the need to monitor brake temperature – a function of both ambient conditions and your usage – ensuring they’re neither too hot nor cold to function optimally. Fuel and tyre consumption return, punishing you for drifting off the optimal racing line and harsh cornering. Once on the track, MotoGP 21 builds on the racing model of last year’s release while adding further complexities (assuming you don’t disable them). The research aspect can feel “gamey” in its implementation but gaining incremental upgrades later in the season is worth the effort. However, if you want to come to grips with the myriad of mechanical tweaks and electronic assists that can affect on-track performance, or memorise every inch of the track, this is a worthwhile endeavour. As this a video game, there are plenty of toggles that affect the race length and complexities, and the ability to restart entire events if things do not go to plan. Once the race weekend arrives, you can participate in the entire 3-day event, tackling practice laps to tune your bike, setting lap times to determine grid position, and even a 20-minute warm-up prior to the race. You can even create and manage a junior team in the Moto3 and Moto2 class once you reach MotoGP. It’s by far the most “gamey” side of the experience, but it turns the empty weeks between events into an opportunity to provide incremental upgrades to your bike. You can assign engineers to research improvements in several fields (frame, engine power, aerodynamics, and electronics). On the managerial side, you will recruit a personal manager, chief engineer, and data analyst that provide you with new contracts, possible team members, better direction for your research. There is plenty to keep you occupied when you’re off the track. From this point onwards, MotoGP 21 provides a good blend of practice sessions, race days, and managerial elements to keep you occupied. After that, it’s time to move on and join either an official team or a newly created team (that you can also freely edit). For those with a creative streak, you can initially customise your riding gear, bike, and livery to your hearts content. The highlight, as always, is starting a new career and working your way from Moto3 up to the prestigious MotoGP. Multiplayer allows for online quick races or, if you can find some dedicated friends, a full weekend event. There are 4 classes, over 100 official riders, 20 official tracks, and you can also pick from 40 historical riders and their classic bikes. Quick races – think custom time trials, single events, or entire championships – are drawn from the full 2021 season. If you survive the extensive tutorial – and I suggest you spend some time there if you need a refresher – you’ll discover the many game modes on offer in MotoGP 21. ![]() During my first few hours, the rewind feature got a lot of use. It says a lot about a game when you start off with a two-part tutorial: the first covering basic cornering, overtaking, and track penalties the second covering the myriad of electronic assists available on modern bikes. With each successive title, Milestone has pushed the simulation aspect towards an unforgiving degree of realism. MotoGP 21 is Milestone’s tenth MotoGP title, having first developed MotoGP ’07 on the PlayStation 2. I slowly worked through the myriad of gameplay and bike assists until I had a grip on the handling and achieving this semblance of mastery was a lot of fun. I hoped my experience with rally games would serve me well (Excitebike and Road Rage sure don’t help), but MotoGP 21 still kicked my arse, dragged me back into the saddle, then repeated the process for a dozen hours. What has clearly been missing from my repertoire is motorbike sims. When it comes to racing games, I’ve been willing to dabble in everything from arcade-style street racing to technical rally sims.
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