➤ MotoGP what a passion! 🎮

Version tested: PlayStation 3

When a team that until the day before made online games finds itself having to replace a company with Milestone's experience in developing a driving title, the results are seen. And quite a lot as well. So, despite some members having already worked in MotoGP under the historic Climax, it is not surprising that, with MotoGP 09/10, Monumental Games has committed several naiveties from the first time, giving life to a technically poor product that has been trivialized in the attempt. to take refuge in a shamelessly arcade approach.

The intention to make the new chapter of the series more simulation-oriented seemed to suggest a greater confidence on the part of the developers, and the hope was that, after the apprenticeship period, they could now give birth to a worthy rival for the SBK series, satisfying the old ones. passionate about motorcycle simulations and taking advantage of all the criticisms received last year.

Where is the DesmoVale?

Unfortunately, the new chapter of the Capcom series starts already old, with a roster of riders and motorcycles that refers to the past championship. Impersonating a Valentino Rossi on the saddle of his historic Yamaha YZR-M1, while in a few days he will make his debut with Ducati in the 2011 world championship, is a bit turn-up. It is true, the name itself refers to the last year, and it is still a fairly endemic problem in sports games with official licenses, which often struggle to keep up with the latest trades. Yet at present the feeling of being in front of an obsolete title since the introduction movie remains, although it is likely that, in the coming months, Capcom will publish an update that renews the database for the 2011 championship. However, a few laps are enough to clearly notice the attempts. that the developers have done to improve the gaming experience in all respects, and it is in the corners and on the straights that, handlebar in hand, you can appreciate the most evident steps forward. An immoderate camera shake allows you to have an excellent sense of speed without necessarily resorting to a disengaged exaggeration of the blur effect, an all too convenient expedient used by many driving games in a not always successful way. Compared to the past, the physics on the curbs has also been revised which, although it still has room for improvement, has finally stopped being as insignificant as before. The behavior of the bike on the grass on the side of the track is also decidedly more credible, but the same cannot be said for collisions with other riders, botched and leading to surreal head-to-head, while everything is encouraged by a poor AI. opponents who, although they now tend to follow the player's wake more frequently, sometimes behave too fearlessly.

Fortunately the promises to make the new a MotoGP more simulative have been maintained, even if only partially: before any race it is in fact possible to choose which driving aids to activate or deactivate, customizing the approach to the handlebar according to the skills or needs of the player. In an instant you are faced with a much more complex and less accessible game, which requires you to manage and take into account different characteristics of the bike and the rider. The introduction of the two brakes is certainly the most successful and most needed part: as in SBK, now you can freely decide whether to lock the front wheel or make small corrections on the trajectory using the rear brake, thus having greater control. in the detached. Also very welcome is the possibility of managing the rider's weight and deciding when to crouch to assume an aerodynamic position, gaining an advantage on the straights but clearly sacrificing a large part of the bike's maneuverability. Unfortunately, the pitch management is less convincing: following sudden braking, in fact, the tail of the car often struggles to lift, while in the acceleration phase the bike tends to wheel up sharply even when it shouldn't, and we didn't need to change manually the stiffness of the suspension. The feeling, especially at the beginning, is like that of being on the saddle of a raging bull, more difficult to tame but which is still far from the simulation that one would expect.

PlayStation 3 Trophies

MotoGP 10/11 allows the player to unlock 43 trophies, but like last year they remain quite simple to unlock. Most can be achieved simply by progressing through your Career and getting a good reputation, winning a race or running a certain amount of kilometers. Obviously, there are some slightly more complex challenges, such as completing the Championship mode without ever losing.

Damages and accidents

Also for this year Monumental Games has not made the slightest effort to propose a serious damage system and, despite collisions and falls, the player will never see even a scratch on his bike; the only novelty is the wear of the tires, which however is almost irrelevant to the handling of the bike if the braking support is not deactivated. Obviously, newbies and lovers of more arcade experiences can leave all the aids active and enjoy a guide that is as carefree as it is unreal. Curious is the possibility to pause the game at any time and rewind the time up to several seconds before, allowing you to remedy a sensational mistake and to try again until a difficult curve or a reckless overtaking is performed correctly. It is a gimmick that pushes the player to cheat, but also allows him to understand his mistakes and the best way to overcome a given situation, becoming less and less relevant as he improves. Nothing new, however, regarding the game modes: in addition to the classic Time Trial and the possibility of facing the last season of the world championship in Championship mode, MotoGP 10 / 11 proposes a full-bodied career that, after creating an ad-hoc rider, allows you to start from the 125 class, go through the 250s and arrive at the coveted MotoGP. This part of the game is made much more interesting by the editing and management options of your team, which range from signing agreements with sponsors to buying new motorcycles, passing through the aesthetic and performance improvements of your own two wheels. There is also a multiplayer mode, which online supports races from as many as 20 players and locally gives the opportunity to challenge each other in split-screen, where a friend can enter and exit at will from the Career mode to join the player's team. Yet it is almost depressing that these premises have not been accompanied by a better presentation, and each race opens with a short cut scene that is always the same and always dull. And it is precisely on the aesthetic level that the new chapter of the series slips, tumbles off the track and crashes into a concrete wall: the graphical improvements compared to last year are there, mind you, but they are so insignificant that the game appears even more old and far from today's standards. The models of the riders and motorcycles still border on the bad, but the bottom is touched with absolutely bare and devoid of details circuits. To be commended is at least the fact that it has made the colors less saturated than last year, giving the bikes a less toy and more realistic look.

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In this new a MotoGP you could find several reasons for praise: from the full-bodied Career to the obvious steps forward made with physics on the curbs or on the sensation of speed, passing through a good online mode. The ability to disable driving aids allows novices to experience a more in-depth and complex experience, perhaps even more interesting. Yet the lovers of simulations, this year too, have good reasons to turn up their noses: because the bike, after all, still does not behave in a credible way; because the AI of the opponents, despite some improvements, still remains very questionable; or because even this year we end up regretting a 5-year-old game like Tourist Trophy. But most of all, MotoGP 10 / 11 it is graphically obsolete and incapable of presenting a competition as spectacular as MotoGP in a truly deserving way. The direction taken by Monumental Games seems to be the right one, but now the series needs a real jolt if it is to get back on track and be a worthy alternative for fans of motorcycle simulations.