➤ Gas hammer with MotoGP 17 🎮

MotoGP 17 presents itself with a very difficult task to complete: on the one hand it is the chapter of the return to origins after last year's yellow hangover that saw Valentino Rossi as the undisputed protagonist, while on the other it is a title that acts as a bridge to an epochal transition for Milestone ever closer to abandoning its current proprietary graphics engine to switch to the more versatile and performing Unreal Engine 4. Two extremely delicate and thorny aspects, which could discourage players even before taking the pad in hand. Nevertheless the guys from the Milanese software house exude a passion for two wheels and their latest work is a clear demonstration of this. Without touching the peaks of the series, we anticipate that MotoGP 17 has not left us disappointed at all.

Manager of themselves

The real novelty of MotoGP 17 is the arrival of a managerial career that allows us to lead a world championship team while at the same time covering the role of official rider and patron of the team, thus managing every aspect of the activity even off the track. But let's go in order. Once the team is founded, we will proceed to register for the Moto3 championship, facing the pre-season in fervent market sessions to put together the best possible group with the - few - credits available. Once the motorcycles and sponsors have been chosen, it is the turn of the two riders: as mentioned, the player will also cover the role of rider within his team, but it remains to choose the teammate among a handful of prospects of high hopes on which to invest for the future seasons. Here then emerges the first more managerial aspect of the mode that will see us constantly keep an eye on the performance of our boxmate who, being always controlled by artificial intelligence, will progressively improve thanks to the training and development of the bike. It is indeed a role-playing production: at the end of each race, each driver is improved with attributes such as braking, acceleration control, cornering ability and body position, which make it easier and more natural to control the vehicles as the seasons pass and improve the performance of our drivers.

In this sense, the freedom is very wide thanks to the possibility of investing the credits earned at each race thanks to sponsors and placements in different aspects by the team such as the Research and Development department to directly improve the bike by developing new solutions for the engine, frame. , suspensions and brakes, up to the track engineers, motorists, remote meters who help fine-tune the bike during the race weekend. There are also a great variety of figures who deal with marketing, community management, PR, but also cooks and athletic trainers who help the riders to improve performance on and off the track with a weekly investment and revenue system that will have to be managed. best to emasculate to stay broke. The season consists of the 18 official races scheduled this year, and it is a shame that the winter tests and the various sessions scheduled in the season are completely missing which would have been a very welcome addition in terms of realism to allow us to have a few weeks in more in which to work on the improvements of the bike. Between races we will have to divide into a series of extra activities, such as a photo session for the sponsor from which to earn extra credits, staff refresher courses, autograph sessions to consolidate our precious bond with fans, or workouts in the gym that reward us with bonuses in experience points.

PlayStation 4 Trophies

MotoGp 17 offers 36 trophies, of which 16 bronze, 15 silver and 4 gold in addition to the inevitable platinum. Without too many surprises, to get them all it will be necessary to excel in all modes by climbing the rankings until the conquest of the MotoGP world championship, both in a rider and managerial career, as well as to complete a good number of online races.

Ups and downs

In short, MotoGP 17 amazed us with a truly articulated and multifaceted mode that will certainly satisfy the management aims of the most passionate, offering an experience and a game structure that is certainly more satisfying than a simple racing career. The goal is not only to climb the rankings to the sound of world championships to get to dominate the premier class, the Moto GP, but also to keep our teams that play in the minor championships always active and winning by hiring riders, mechanics and staff for best results. Although the managerial mode adds a nice amount of depth compared to the usual racing career, in MotoGP 17 the detachment from last year's chapter is felt heavily in terms of content and variety of game modes. The latest Milestone title therefore lacks the overwhelming amount of content and variety that Valentino Rossi had accustomed us to: The Game which alternated two-wheeled rally and flat track training sessions, with the season culminating in the Monza rally and Endurach in teams. In addition to the career mode, which sees the addition of the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup which last year was a separate DLC, it is possible to organize entire championships or individual Grand Prix of different categories, ranging from the MotoGP classes, up to the old 125cc and two-stroke 250cc, passing through the 500- and 2-stroke 4cc and of course the Moto2 and Moto3 categories of the current championship.

Too bad that there is no historical event mode like last year which, despite being entirely focused on the champion from Tavullia, represented an excellent diversion between one race and another. As usual, thanks to the agreements between the Italian software house and Dorna everything is completely licensed and faithful to reality, from the riders to the liveries of the motorcycles, complete with trackside sponsors and official nomenclature of the grand prix to the delight of any motorcycling enthusiast. For the individual Grand Prix various options can be determined such as the number of laps, the type of session (dry race or with free practice and qualifying), the weather (clear, cloudy, rain), damage, disciplinary flags, consumption. tires and so on, to the full advantage of the personalization of the experience. Similarly, it is possible to intervene on the bike by modifying the physics to have different degrees of difficulty in controlling the vehicle. The options are similar to last year's, with Pro physics disabling brake assist, joint brakes, assisted steering and automatic shifting, drastically changing the driving experience. Riding a powerful MotoGP bike requires great precision in the interpretation of the curves and in the management of the throttle as they skid violently, wheelies and runaways if the accelerator and brakes are not carefully choked.

MotoGP eSport Championship

MotoGp 17 also marks the debut of the official eSport championship organized by Dorna with the support of Milestone. The players will be called between now and the end of the championship season to compete in five online competitions with the aim of qualifying for the final which will take place in November directly from the Valencia circuit in conjunction with the last championship race. The event will obviously be broadcast live by Dorna Sports TV partners. In particular the MotoGP eSport Championship will be exclusive to PlayStation 4 players and will be divided into 7 online events, each of which will take place on a specific track under the command of a specific rider. The 16 fastest players will then be invited to the live event in Valencia, and will have the chance to battle to take home a flamboyant BMW M240i. Waiting to see how the competition will unfold, that of a giant like Dorna remains an important signal for eSport in general which increasingly attracts the big sports brands to invest in the virtual counterparts of their competitions.

Under the helmet

New year, same refrain: the aspect that most shows the side in the entire production of Milestone remains the graphic engine that has undergone a series of improvements and refinements, but which still does not fully convince. In the year in which Milestone switched to Unreal Engine 4 with MXGP 3, MotoGP was forced to wait another season, taking with him all the pros and cons of the case. A pro for the Milanese software house is certainly that of having worked on an engine that it knows by heart, reaching this year the coveted milestone of 60 frames per second stable in all conditions, bringing a consistent gain in fluidity in setting the trajectory. The glance is also cleaner and more refined, with the motorcycle and rider models taking over thanks to meticulous textures that reproduce every detail, from the logos on the suits to the design of the helmets. The outline always suffers from it, from the bare and squared grandstands of the circuit to the few elements on the track, things that, of course, also take a back seat when you are speeding along the straight at more than 345 km / h approaching the braking of the San Donato. on the hills of Mugello.

More difficult to postpone the pre and post race, which sees each grand prix introduced by a scene that is always the same in the desolate team boxes, followed by the closed park where the awards ceremony and the podium party are still missing. The animations of the riders on the bike have been further improved to reflect the driving style of the most famous riders, recognizable by their attitude on the circuit. Likewise, a step forward was also made for the behavior of the drivers on the track, now more precise in their trajectories, especially during overtaking, but there remains a certain willingness to leave the position without hindering us with too much conviction. Let's suppose that the cause of this behavior is the absolute will of the development team to avoid any kind of contact between the player and the pilots controlled by artificial intelligence due to a rosewater collision system that manages doors and impacts in totally unsatisfactory way. Sometimes we end up on the ground for a trifle, other times we will literally make our opponents fly off the bike, easily conquering the position and making them sink to the bottom of the standings, especially in the most excited phases such as the start. In the same way, the trajectories on the track are quite free since there is no real rubberized asphalt management system with the consequence that the grip is good at any point on the road surface and is completely lost once the lateral white line is passed. . The audio test was positive, with Milestone that for MotoGP 17 decided to resample all the bikes on the track and take advantage of a digital reconstruction system that makes the cry of the engines much more alive and vibrant than in the past, especially when the curves follow one another and the gear changes are close together. The soundtrack does not hit the mark, while we find the usual Guido Meda to carry out his task with great enthusiasm in the pre-race.

Comment

Tested version PlayStation 4 Resources4Gaming.com

7.7

Readers (38)

6.9

Your vote

MotoGP 17 found itself in the unenviable position of acting as a bridge between the overflowing Valentino Rossi: The Game and the change of graphics engine that Milestone is about to undertake. However, thanks to the new managerial mode that adds an intense and multifaceted gaming experience and the meticulous reproduction of the entire MotoGP circus, it manages not to disappoint both the two-wheel enthusiast and the occasional rider. The sore point remains the graphics engine, polished with 60 frames per second but very lacking in terms of details and polygonal complexity of circuits and settings. A passing chapter therefore, which with its ups and downs still has the credentials to accompany fans towards the future of the Milestone motorcycle series.