Maroc - 3RD-STRIKE.COM - A La Une - Aujourd'hui 02:49

MXGP 24: The Official Game – Review

After a short break, MXGP seems to be back, and it promises to be better than ever. While we’re not the franchise’s diehard fans, we enjoy a good motocross game. Previous titles always felt a bit rough around the edges, but they provided good old-fashioned racing fun, with a nice balance between realistic and arcade gameplay. Even though we were fairly excited at first, that excitement quickly faded away when we actually got our hands on MXGP 24: The Official Game. Story You’ll be sorely disappointed if you’re looking for a story in MXGP 24. The game is all about track racing, and that’s just fine. The career mode is shaped like a social media platform, where you can view your achievements and get messages from other rivals. The idea behind this isn’t too bad, but as the career is basically a glorified season mode, it does fall a bit flat. You are able to create your own rider(s) but everything does feel a bit basic when it comes to actually designing your own character(s). Graphics Graphically MXGP 24 is nothing to write home about. The game feels as if it was a last-gen release, and we’re being quite generous even then. The riders and motorcycles don’t look too bad, but they still look a bit rough around the edges. The rider animations are stiff, and even the leaning animation barely does anything. To make matters worse, AI riders don’t even lean, and look like static objects. We noticed at times that AI rider bikes didn’t even connect to the track, making it seem as if they were hovering above certain sections of some of the tracks. The tracks look fine, but there is no track evolution throughout the races. Grooves that are there at the start will look identical at the end of a long race, which is a shame. Sound The sound design isn’t too bad. The soundtrack is serviceable, albeit a bit bland. The SFX sound a bit off, but they never become too annoying. We did feel as if every bike sounded exactly the same, and there was only a clear difference between engine noises when you were in the air or on the ground. Other than that, acceleration sounds were a bit underwhelming and everything sounded like you were racing with lawnmowers rather than motorcycles. Gameplay MXGP 24: The Official Game, as the name implies, is all about off-road racing with motorcycles. The game offers a few different modes, such as quick races, daily challenges, free-roaming, season events, and a career mode. It’s all straightforward stuff, and there’s nothing here that will truly surprise you. As stated above, the career mode is a glorified season mode, while you are also able to choose an actual season mode. While the modes themselves are standard fare for the genre, the execution of everything feels a bit disappointing. Most modes speak for themselves, and while the game does allow some customization for your career, it all boils down to finishing first in all the races. You get some additional customization options for your bike, but it’s all just the bare minimum. On the tracks, you’ll also notice that the controls feel off. You can lean, to help you take corners, but it doesn’t do that much. Luckily, the AI doesn’t pose that much of a challenge, and even we as inexperienced digital riders were able to finish first most of the time without too much hassle. As mentioned above, AI opponents feel like unmovable objects, as they never lean or do anything that would resemble realistic physics. The game also doesn’t have any online features, except for the daily challenge. As the game has been out for a while, we often didn’t even see anyone attempting the daily challenge, which was reflected in the blank leaderboards. From time to time we saw one or two players’ names on there, but that’s about it. Having an actual multiplayer mode might make things slightly better for those who decided to take the plunge and buy MXGP 24, but we assume that tiny player base would also soon completely die out. To make matters worse, you can only ‘level up’ via the daily challenges to unlock new stickers to customize your rider and bike. Conclusion MXGP 24: The Official Game should have been a triumphant return for the franchise, but sadly it’s a bland, uninspired, and underwhelming mess. For a game that is supposed to be a realistic representation of motocross, it messes up the basics and even the modes on offer are rather dull. The career mode falls flat due to the fact that you’re basically still just playing through only a season, rather than building up your own reputation. There is also a lack of online modes to keep the party going. On top of that, the graphics are extremely rough around the edges, and even the sound design failed to impress us. It feels more like trying to keep a license rather than providing a great finished product.