Thank you Milestone S.r.l. for sending us this game to review!

Like many similar racing titles, the MotoGP series has taken a yearly release cadence, where each new version is only one year from the previous one.  Some years there will be massive upgrades, while others there will be small, incremental upgrades from last year.  I didn't get to review MotoGP 23, so I can't say for sure everything that is new.  But what I can say is that, at least for me, MotoGP 24 seems like a bit of a simplified entry, and with the Neural assists, make for a much for accessible game compared to MotoGP 22 (https://www.christcenteredgamer.com/reviews/pc-mac/motogp-22-pc) that I reviewed last.

MotoGP 24, like many seasonal sports games, takes you through the 2024 MotoGP motorcycle racing calendar.  This is the officially licensed MotoGP racing simulator game, so all tracks and other details like bikes and racers are represented.  Motorcycle racing is a truly world-wide sport, and every continent is also present.  The classes of racers, like Moto3, Moto2, and MotoGP and the new MotoE are represented, with each class offering more and more powerful bikes.  The difference in power is startling, as it's much easier not to wipe out with the smaller, 250cc bikes on offer in Moto3 than it is with the massive engines used in the others, with Moto2 being limited to 765cc engines, and MotoGP utilizing 1000cc+ engines with massive horsepower.  MotoE uses all electric engines, and the unique midband torque curve makes them accelerate crazy fast and really dangerous as well.

There are quite a few game modes on offer, starting with of course the Career mode, which is where the bulk of the single-player content is.  There are quick play modes, that includes Grand Prix, where you play an entire weekend race, Time Trial where you just hit the track for a best time, and Championship, where you play an entire season, one race after another.  There is a Split Screen mode, which I love to see.  It's great to finally see this, as it's always fun to see who can race better with the friend sitting next to you.

Outside of the quick play modes, there are a few big ones to note.  The career mode is where the meat of the simulation aspects of the game is accessed.  It is here where we not only play through the entire season similar to the quick play mode, but also research upgrades for your bike and negotiate various contracts.  From what I can tell, it seems quite a bit simplified compared to MotoGP 22, but it's still fun to play.  Depending on how well you do, you get switch contracts at the end of the season, or even mid season if you do really well.  You can progress to the next class if you do well enough.

No matter which mode you pick, the simulation aspects are top-notch, and it will likely take you quite some time to figure out how not to crash at the first turn.  If you find yourself crashing a lot like I do, then I recommend turning on the Neural assists.  Start with Brakes and Throttle, then turn off Throttle after a while and go from there.  Neural Brakes alone is enough for me to be able to do reasonably well with some practice.  I find that with all 3 assists on the game almost plays itself, so I don't recommend that unless that's what you want.  I still make a lot of mistakes and crash a lot, but at least it's possible for me with those assists.  As I got better I would turn them down and try to retain or even improve lap times without the previous assist.  It takes time, but it's a good way to train up I feel.  Without those assists, the game is still extremely punishing, and requires incredibly precise riding if you plan on doing anything other than going in a straight line.

If you are first starting out, there are tutorials to help you along, and a MotoGP Academy that helps you nail down racing lines and times for each section of the track.  I was surprised how many lessons there are, approximately five per track, to help you get better without having to do full laps.  I do wish it did more hand holding and didn't require you to do a rolling start each time, as that's a lot of wasted time in between runs, making practice take longer per repetition than I would have hoped.  Perhaps that's something they can improve for next year.

In many racing games, I have a tendency to be pretty aggressive with the throttle.  This simply doesn't work here, because you need to learn to slow down into the corners.  If you want you can enable breaking assist, which will force you to slow down into turns, this helps a lot - but from what I was able to tell, even with the assist, you still need to make near perfect turns in order to place well, or slowly turn down the assists because it might help you too much, keeping you near the back of the pack.  I then tried just driving carefully, avoiding crashing at all costs, and turning down the assists, but this just meant that I was last place then, also.  It took me a lot of practice and careful tuning of assist options before I could start winning - until the dynamic difficulty level started to catch up to me, after which I started losing again.  This game is not for the faint of heart, or at least those not willing to put in lots of practice time in.  This is the kind of game that you treat like a sport, rather than a game.  That is to say: practice, practice, practice!

Unfortunately, one thing that somewhat takes away from the simulation slightly is that the control options –are basically just keyboard and gamepads.  If you are one who likes to race with a more complex racing rig, you might want to look elsewhere, as DirectInput devices are not supported.  That said, if you can emulate Xbox gamepads, I'm sure you can make it work.  There is gyro support via PlayStation controllers, which is a neat addition, though I'm not sure any serious racers would use this.  Keyboard is supported and functions like you would expect, though I doubt most serious racers would want to play this way, either.  Bring along a gamepad if you're going to play this game.

The racing experience itself is quite engaging.  The tracks, environment, and racers look great.  You can hit other racers and knock them off their bike, but you are penalized when that happens.  While racing I found myself far more likely to fall off my own without help, anyway.  As you might expect, motorcycles can go crazy fast on a dime, so most of the challenge is managing braking and acceleration so that you don't wipe out.  I found that keeping turns, acceleration, and braking clean and smooth was the key to a fast ride.  If you throttle too hard into a turn, or stop too quickly, a wipeout is all but guaranteed.  You absolutely can flip your bike, do an unintentional wheelie, and slide into the pavement when leaning in hard hoping to turn faster than the physics of the world simulation allows.  There are quite a few assists available to make the game easier, but they can only do so much; if you intend to really master the simulation, consider keeping on as few assists as possible to properly get used to how the physics model works.  Otherwise, you may quickly find yourself making bad habits before you realize it.  

Before and during races, you can customize your bike by spending time in the pit.  You can changing tire types and hardness levels, different suspension settings that includes hardness, oil, compression settings, extension levels, and more that I don't have a full grasp on.  You can adjust the geometry of the bike - what level of tilt each section has, and more common things like the transmission gear ratios, the ECU (electronic controls like traction control), and fuel levels, all of which modify the feel of the bike.  On top of this, you can adjust all of the ECU settings during a race - you can adjust power levels, traction control, wheelie avoidance, and more.  You can also adjust breaking strength (at the cost of making flipping easier), and so on.  There is a ton to take in, and the effort involved to make this simulation as realistic as possible is quite obvious once you really dive into it.  On top of this, when it rains, the physics change dramatically - so you really do have to adjust for the weather.

Despite all of this, the actual racing itself feels really solid and is quite enjoyable - even if crashing is not always easy to avoid, until you learn the ropes.  This is a game that gives you plenty of opportunity to learn, if you keep racing and test driving until you figure out how it all works together.  Doing so can be quite rewarding, but also time consuming - don't go into this game expecting to be winning races in a few hours; if you are looking for something like that, I'd recommend a racer with a more arcade-style focus.

Like many racers, this one is quite clean.  You can crash, and hit other racers who also can crash.  That's pretty much about it.

From a technical perspective, the game runs flawlessly.  On my high-end gaming rig with a RTX 3080, I am able to run it at 4k with all of the effects at max outside of rendering resolution, since that pushes the pixel count insanely high.  It runs really well on Linux systems like the Steam Deck also.

MotoGP 24 is a fun but incredibly challenging motorcycle racing game that rewards patient effort and continued practice.  If you aren't willing to put that effort in, it's probably not the best choice for you.  I feel like it's simplified just a bit compared to the older MotoGP 22, but that's not a bad thing, at least for me.   If you are willing to put in the effort, you'll be rewarded with a gorgeous racing title with about twenty-seven expertly crafted tracks that take quite a long time to master.