MotoGP 26 Review: The Best MotoGP Ever?

MotoGP 26: Is Milestone still the leader of the MotoGP World Championship?

Do you live by the myth of Valentino Rossi? Does your heart beat for Ducati and Marc Marquez? Or perhaps you dream of riding with Marco Bezzecchi and winning the world championship with Aprilia? If you answered yes to even one of these questions, stay with us and warm up your engines: all you have to do is read our review of MotoGP 26! We tested the game in the PlayStation 5 edition, but it is also available for PC, Nintendo Switch 1 & 2, and Xbox Series X/S. Milestone's latest effort continues what is now a true tradition for fans of video game motorcycling and offers modes for all tastes, allowing you to both impersonate your favorite champion and create a virtual alter ego to climb the ranks of the MotoGP World Championship. Naturally, we are talking about the official video game of the Liberty Media circus, where we will find all the official riders and bikes, not to mention the circuits where our heroes will battle, including Goiania, the big news of the season that brings the competition back to Brazil. In short, the premises seem excellent, so all that remains is to lower the visor and hit the gas!

Compared to previous installments, MotoGP 26 offers the same formula but carries forward a work of optimization and improvement that sees constant progress from practically every point of view. As is obvious, we are not facing a revolution, and those who have already played past chapters will feel at home, in a comfort zone made of two-wheeled speed and gameplay that aims to please both gamers looking for a simulation gameplay and those who prefer to hit the track in arcade style and have fun without too many frills. Like the recent Ride 5, MotoGP 26 also embraces this philosophy, although as an old-school player of Milestone titles, I struggled quite a bit to use it satisfactorily. More than anything because after years of learning the basics of the physics of the two series, I found the more permissive management of lean angles and brakes disorienting, but it is obvious that a newcomer might be very happy to challenge Marc Marquez and company from the first laps. As every year, my usual advice remains: if you really want to accept this challenge, it's much better to start immediately from "Pro", arm yourself with patience, and learn to dominate these beasts on two wheels: there will be many falls, but once a certain level of experience is reached, the satisfactions will be incalculable. Once again, Milestone has worked with a chisel, improving physics and gameplay without distorting itself, trying to get one step closer to the real behavior of motorcycles.

MotoGP 26: All the new features

After several laps, what seemed most different from the previous installment was the behavior of the brakes, which I found more effective than in the past, especially in wet asphalt conditions. At the same time, I struggled a bit to get a feel for the behavior of the front tire, but nothing that a few laps on the track and a meeting with our mechanics couldn't fix. We can always adjust multiple settings to find the most suitable setup for every occasion, not to mention the possibility of increasing or decreasing the impact of electronics on the bike. The continuous work of the development team is evident, and once again, virtual riders can enjoy trying to master every vehicle at their disposal. As in the past, the different bikes have behaviors that realistically reflect their real counterparts, and riding an Aprilia is very different from a Yamaha. Minibikes, flat tracks, and supermotos return, to which races with production bikes are added, one for each of the five MotoGP manufacturers. You can ride beasts like the Ducati Panigale V4 S or the Aprilia RSV4 1100, perhaps to vary the gaming experience between one Grand Prix and another. As always, also thanks to the experience gained from the Ride series, Milestone does not disappoint and manages to deliver credible driving sensations on every occasion and with every vehicle category.

But let's discover all the modes that MotoGP 26 has to offer, starting with a tutorial that will test our initial skills. A range of possibilities opens up, both related to single-player and multiplayer. The latter allows you to race against virtual riders from all over the world, even cross-platform, not to mention the possibility of comparing your lap times with those of all other gamers. The option to play locally in split-screen with a friend is always appreciated, to challenge each other sitting on the same sofa, side by side. The single-player is always very varied and allows you to dedicate yourself to single races, championships, fast laps, and career mode. The latter is one of the strong points of MotoGP 26 and, as always, allows you to start as a rookie and climb the ranks, passing from Moto3 and Moto2 to dominate the premier class. We can create a virtual avatar, but also impersonate one of the official riders, perhaps to try to retrace their deeds and create interesting “what ifs”. It would have been nice if we could have relived the highlights of the most titled champions' careers, perhaps starting from the first races of the selectable riders and then making our own choices, but MotoGP 26 merely gives us the opportunity to choose one of the real riders and carry on their career, but the fact remains that being able to impersonate your favorite rider in this mode is very intriguing. Scenes related to press conferences and contract negotiations have been added, all situations that increase player immersion, as well as the 3D rendered paddock and relationships with other riders, creating friendships or rivalries, although these are only secondary options designed to add a bit more spice to the races and enrich the internal steps of the career, where achieving specific results will increase our fame. 

MotoGP 26: Is it the definitive motorcycle game?

Among the new features of MotoGP 26, it is worth noting that for each rider, scores are visible that indicate their quality and allow you to understand who is more performant. Lap time, reliability, consistency, and head-to-head fighting ability are the skills that define each rider, and as the championship progresses, each profile will be updated based on real results. The addition of collectible cards that we can receive by completing various in-game objectives is a nice touch. Divided into various rarity levels, these 100 cards were created by Japanese designer Ranka Fujiwara and add a touch of color and collectibility to MotoGP 26, to the delight of completionists. Not only new content, but also the artificial intelligence has made further progress, and in addition to being able to choose the difficulty level of the opponents, we can, as in the past, choose an adaptive AI system that calibrates our contenders based on our performance on the track, in order to keep the challenge always interesting. The system needs a few races to perform at its best, but it is a valid alternative to having to manually select the abilities of the other riders on the track. Of course, by selecting this option, you have to take into account that in the first races everything seems a bit too easy, but you just need to be patient to see the challenge improve. Compared to the past, opponent behavior has improved regarding overtakes, where I found many fewer risks, but I must say that I was T-boned more than once during braking, a sign of not exactly excellent reactivity on the part of our contenders for victory. Milestone will surely be able to improve the situation with future patches, where there will be further refinements to small bugs such as, for example, the animations of the riders' bodies that sometimes have a few moments of delay in resuming the central position on the saddle, remaining leaned over longer than necessary.

From a graphical point of view, MotoGP 26 uses Unreal Engine version 5.7, showing its muscles especially in the rendering of the bikes, which are truly stunning and increasingly close to photorealism, with reflections and lights showing improvements. The riders' faces are always the weak point of the production, but they remain secondary elements for a driving simulator. Good news also from the audio department, where the engine roars of all bikes have been recorded from their real counterparts, from Moto3 all the way to MotoGP. The entire game is in Italian, complete with commentator voices in the pre and post-race phases. Milestone, once again, has been very careful to make its game as accessible as possible, with many options, among which I greatly appreciated the camera modulation, which allows you to increase or decrease the field of view. It's a shame, however, that the use of rewind continues to be only activatable or deactivatable: years pass, and I continue to think that it would be more convenient to be able to choose a maximum limit of "rewinds" per session, so as to modulate the gaming experience for every type of gamer. 

Having tested the PS5 edition allowed me to enjoy, once again, the unique features of the DualSense. As every year, I never tire of repeating how immersive and satisfying the use of haptic feedback and adaptive triggers is. Milestone is second to none in exploiting the specifications of the PlayStation 5 controller and manages to bring sensations to the players' hands that simulate the behavior of motorcycles. Tire grip, engine revolutions, and gear changes are felt and give the edition for Sony's flagship an additional, significant charm.

MotoGP 26 is an excellent title that does not distort the saga but seeks to improve it without revolutions, offering enthusiasts an extremely enjoyable experience, especially if you are looking for a simulation experience: I can assure you that experiencing a Grand Prix, going from free practice to the race, studying the circuit in search of the best possible setup, could be one of your most satisfying racing experiences ever. Come on, go remove the tire warmers: the MotoGP World Championship needs a new champion!