[youtube]http://youtu.be/wwjInQOlmUQ[/youtube]
Presenting our full review of MotoGP 14 for the Playstation 4 and PC. If you want a little more detail then we provide in the 40 minute show above, here’s all of our notes and opinions in writing.
Specs for review: On the PC will only run single screen and you can’t seem to use a wheel and pedal set if you wanted to try it.
Used an xbox 360 controller.
For the PS4, this was the first title we’ve tried on it. Using the PS4 dual shock 4 controller and I like it better than the controller on the PS3.. It has longer triggers, the touch pad and its larger than the PS3 controller
Release Date:
June 2014 in Europe – The U.S will finally get Moto GP in September and will be published my Namco / Bandai games. If you cant wait and have a gaming PC, you can get it on Steam right now in the US or worldwide.
Available Platforms:
PlayStation®4, PlayStation®3, PlayStation®Vita, Xbox 360®, PC, Steam
Players:
Offline up to 2 players, PS Vita up to 1 player, Online up to 12 players, PS Vita up to 6 players
Game Modes
GRAND PRIX
It offers you the chance to choose the race options and get to the track. Available options allow to customize the race experience from a simple quick race to a full race week-end with all the real sessions.
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP MotoGP™
The game mode has teams and riders from the 2014 MotoGP™, Moto2™ and Moto3™ categories. In World Championship mode you ride a season in the shoes of a real MotoGP™ rider.
TIME ATTACK
This is a game mode that allows you to tests your performance on a race track without opponents, in order to achieve the best possible bike setup or an unbeatable time for the online leaderboards.
REAL EVENTS
Relive the best moments of the MotoGP™ with real events game mode! Including the Challenge the Champions where you go against Historic riders as well as Real Events 2013 where you relive (17 of those also moments from the 2013 MotoGP Season. For example: do you want to get in the shoes of Marc Marquez and battle side-by-side with Jorge Lorenzo on the last, thrilling lap
RIDER EXPERIENCE (Career mode)
This is the road to become a MotoGP™ rider, beginning from the lower class, Moto3™ and going ahead through the Moto2™, winning races, changing teams and sponsors to try to get to Moto GP.
In the Career Mode you can CREATE YOUR RIDER starting by editing your virtual rider. The rider is fully customizable: from Name, Surname, Riding Styles, Face, Nickname to helmets and suits.
UPGRADE YOUR BIKE
During the season, in some special test sessions, you have to test new bike components that the team makes available in order to improve the team bike performance.
Multiplayer modes include
ONLINE GRAND PRIX
It has the same rules as an offline Grand Prix: you start together and battle it out for the podium. Online, you can use your custom rider or the official ones.
ONLINE CHAMPIONSHIP
Challenge through a series of races to complete an entire Championship. The Host can customize the online lobby to make its own game experience.
MOTOGP SPRINT SEASON
This is organized in 3 divisions, corresponding to the 3 classes. Your aim? Reach the MotoGP™ division and “win the championship”. In order to do it, you need to collect a required number of points in a specific number of races in each division.
SPLIT BATTLE
In this game mode you compete in a race with special rules: In a constrained time you have to perform the maximum number of possible laps. The race aim is having the best time in each split time section, stimulating a close battle within the riders in which they keep steeling each other time sector.
SPLIT SCREEN – In this mode, you can race against a friend with up to 4 other AI riders on track.
Sim, Simcade or Arcade ?
There’s some arcade aspects like leveling up but the rest of this game is pure sim. Full race weekend, ability to setup your bike, real tracks, real bikes, riders. So it’s Simcade leaning more towards sim.
PS3 2013 vs PS4 2014 Comparison
Graphics – Comparing it to the PS3 version – Less jaggies, better saturation, shading, lighting etc. Some people mentioned that it didn’t look like a next gen game but if you compare the the PS3 version to it.. It looks much better. Comparing it to Forza 5, Drive Club or Project Cars. It’s definitely lacking a bit. It matches up pretty good to their PC version. PC lacked triple screen compatibility which is a bummer
Frame rates are good but I believe they are only running 30 FPS.. Noticed some major FPS issues in replays.
Physics – PS3 – Rear tire lock up – PS4.. Not enough
PS3 – More forgiving – PS4 – Doesn’t brake as hard into corners and the bike will fall if you’re on the front brake entering the corners.
You can run, Pro, Semi Pro or Standard and add assists to each one.. Pro actually turns off auto brake, Brake link and Steering help. Easier to control the bike and stay up on Standard compared to Pro.
This physics engine is one of the toughest in all of sim racing to master. The physics are definitely more on the sim side. It take a while to get comfortable running with a gamepad first of all. Then getting the most out of the bikes especially the Moto GP 250 HP bikes is a challenge. Takes a lot of time to get consistent. Then takes even more time to get fast
A cool feature is that you can ask the engineer in the garage to make adjustments based on what the bike is doing or not doing.
The way the bike has power over-steer is fun to try and control. The bike also wheelies out of corners when you put too much power down. Traction control is allowed on Moto Gp bikes and is pretty much a must. Although the rear tire will still lose traction and the bike can get throttle over-steer in corners.
In real life as far as I know, Moto2 and Moto3 don’t allow traction control but you can use it in the game.
Last years version of the game didn’t have traction control options. In Moto GP 14 you can turn it off, put it low, medium, high or full and do it on the fly. I’ve read that there’s tons of settings on a moto gp bike to try and get the power down.. Engine management, traction control, etc. In game you only have traction control.
Another aspect of the physics are tire management. Towards the end of the race you really need to be careful not to put the power down too much or you will spin and high side it. You also need to pick the right tires. Hard or soft and you can pick hard rear, soft front or whatever combo you want. It can make a big difference at the end of a race.
Leaning the bike to turn is quick like it’s supposed to be, working the rear end around the corners can be very controlled, power slides look proper.
Big difference between the three categories and then the classic bikes as well. Very easy to ride Moto3, gets tougher in Moto2 and then Moto Gp bikes are beasts. As you move up the ladder, you almost have to re-learn each one.. Where they brake, turn in, when you can go full throttle etc.
Physics of wrecks:
Highsides
Washouts
Wall collisions
Supermans
Stoppies gone wrong
Slaming into riders or getting taken out in various ways
No actual visual bike damage but you can damage your bike to the point that it no longer functions. During practice and qual you lose time. If you come into the pits so they can repair. Full bike repair is only 8 minutes. Less damage usually takes two minutes.
While we’re on the subject of damage and falling off bikes.. This is an area I think is too much on the arcade side for a title that can be as tough as a sim. You don’t have to run back to the bike, pick it up, etc.. In real life if you go down, the odds of you getting back to your bike, picking it up and being able to actually ride it and on top of that without losing many positions, is near impossible. I think your rider should be hurt and bike should be too damaged to continue anytime you drop that bike. Maybe have a “bike reset” option that can be turned off to make wrecks more catastrophic.
You can hurt the bike, have technical problems and blow engines. In Qualifying I’ve dropped the bike went to the pits and needed 2 minutes of repairs which I could ignore if I wanted.
Force Feedback:
There isn’t any using a gamepad. It has rumble but it’s very weak though on both systems. Would like the ability to turn it up somehow and would like more sensations to help distinguish what the bike is doing under different circumstances.
Sounds:
Not very impressed with the sounds, but we think they actually sound a bit more realistic running inside the helmet sounds less digitized and more like what we hear in real life. We’re really wondering what those gunshot noises are, at first we thought it was backfires, but then notice it with gear changes up or down and really doesn’t when it happens
Would like it to have more pop or umph overall.
Tracks / Modeling:
All the tracks in the series are represented and done well. Not laser scanned, but all offer realistic elevation changes and a variety of weather effects. Rain doesn’t seem to effect the handling the way I expected though. Not much harder to ride in the rain versus the dry.
Tracks start to build a rubber line throughout the race. Also dry if the rain stops
AI:
The artificial intelligence is quite challenging, took Jason a while on easy with pro physics to be competitive jumping right in and running the top bikes but I’d say should be a challenge for anyone. He then worked up to Medium and his eyes are on fire after a run because my concentration level is so high I’m not blinking enough or at all.
Darin was able to start on Medium and run races in Pro due to his previous experience with MotoGP 13. He also thinks the medium AI is too easy once you get the hang of the bikes and learn the tracks. Pro is always a challenge !
The AI gets into it with each other, or tries to out brake the other or you to a corner fails miserably shoots way wide into a wall.
Multiplayer –
Played a little online so far and you can use AI to help fill the field – PS4 required playstation plus to play. On the PS4 seems to be able to populate races.. But not thousands playing. Pretty fun to play online and there’s lots of options.
UI / Presentation – Relatively easy to scan through and get set up, similar to 13
Cost- $50-60
Pros:
Very Challenging AI, they will push hard enough to make mistakes themselves against you or other AI
Tons of different challenges offline besides career to keep you busy
Lots of options in multiplayer
Good tire wear properties and physics in general.
You can adjust all the way to full length races
Cons:
PC version locks up occasionally
Wouldn’t save my controller settings (Jason) when trying to run a wheel and pedal set
Maybe too much like the 2013 version.. Does add some new modes though to make it different enough.
Graphics are a tad dated
Final Thoughts:
Jason: I enjoy the game it’s very challenging and quite consuming in the offline modes, I’m sure the online community will grow in time as well.
Darin: Very steep learning curve. Probably toughest of all driving titles out. If you know a track in a car it becomes a different monster on the bike.
If you’re a fan of the MotoGp series, or want the first serious racing title on the PS4, it’s a must have. If you have the 2013 version on the PC.. You may think it’s too much of a rehash but the improvements in physics and graphics IMO would make it a worthy buy. I personally liked it and think it’s a big step up from the 2013 PS3 version.