Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

MotoGP 15 is a motorbike simulation racing game available from retail stores and for download from the PlayStation Store for the PS4. Milestone has a great pedigree of not only developing great racing games, but priding themselves on the authenticity of the racing experience which is what has forged their history of exceptional sports games, although they have been especially prolific with multiple iterations throughout various forms of motorbike racing from SBK to MotoGP to Motocross, but how does Milestone’s latest offering in their MotoGP series stack up in comparison to what has went before?

The game begins with some rider customisation which allows players to customise their rider licence from the rider’s personal data including a portrait from a choice of 18 pre-set faces, first name, surname, abbreviation, age, nationality, racing number, 8 font styles and 30 font colours as well as selecting from a choice of rider gear including a selection of 28 helmet designs, 20 boot designs, 20 glove designs, nickname, 8 nickname font styles and 30 nickname colours.

The largest area of the Rider Customisation feature has to be choosing a riding style which consists of five available pre-sets including balanced, elbows to the ground, shoulders out, body out and old school which is a great feature that even educates the player on the difference of rider positioning for each style and which riders prefer which style resulting in players being able to ride their motorbike in the manner of their favourite MotoGP rider, although it would have been even better if the player was able to meticulously create their own unique riding style as was the case in Ride.

The optional tutorial mode allows the player to learn the basics of the game before heading into a race with important guidance such as acceleration; applying the brakes after a high-speed straight; how to follow the best line throughout each straight and corner of the track in order to gain the highest grip levels; how to adjust the Traction Control System (TCS) and even how to tuck-in for a more aerodynamic approach to a straight, alongside an ever-changing set of physics levels to help the player adjust accordingly to the appropriate difficulty.

The Instant Race mode allows for the player to jump straight into a race with a randomly selected track, team, bike and rider in a race against 24 opponents which can be quite challenging as it will not necessarily be equipped with the best bike and players will have to make their way through the field from the back of the grid. The Instant Race mode is an excellent mode to have particularly for people who only have a short period of time to still be able to play and enjoy the game in quick and short bursts by skipping the rest of the weekend sessions and jumping straight into the race.

The Grand Prix mode provides the opportunity of racing on a single track with the ability to have a full weekend of qualifying and race or a straight race against 24 opponents. When players select the Grand Prix mode; they can choose from the MotoGP category of their preference between 2015’s or 2014’s MotoGP, Moto2 and Moto3 classes as well as 2-Stroke Champions in which the choice from any of the official riders, bikes and teams or alternatively selecting the custom rider, alongside any of the 18 tracks and retaining the freedom to adjust the race length from 15%, 25%, 35%, 50% to a full length race distance for each circuit, A.I. difficulty and full customisation of riding aids to your ideal preferences can all be made. There are also various areas of customisation to complement everything else such as variable weather conditions; light, heavy or no bike damage; tyre wear; technical problems for the A.I. or A.I. and the character; penalty timer; and disciplinary flags.

The Championship mode allows players to create their own championship season comprising of races against 24 opponents which is customisable to their preferences as the championship will be the 18 race calendar of the MotoGP season, although this can customised for the race calendar to have a minimum of 3 races and a maximum of 20 races comprising of repeating the favourite tracks anywhere amongst the calendar as many times as wished within a championship season with the same riders, bikes, teams, race options and riding aids as the Grand Prix mode.

MotoGP Career mode starts with a video of riders who have won any of the three classes in previous years that are on 2015’s grid to not only show the competition but also to make the bold statement that 2015 is the strongest ever grid in the history of MotoGP. Career mode features all three classes and sees players attempting to progress through the ranks as a rookie at the back of the Moto3 grid to the front running rider competing to be champion of MotoGP with ever increasing expectations for the race objectives as players gain more experience which leads to contract offers from a variety of teams in multiple classes and even sponsors offering sponsorship money in order to race in a private team.

The Time Attack mode provides players with the opportunity to set the best lap time around any of the 18 tracks in an attempt to climb the leaderboards of the fastest times as the player competes against others from across the world to see who performs the best lap time in a one lap scenario, although as many laps can be completed as wished with a full selection of riders, bikes and teams from all 7 classes or the custom rider, while players can also make the weather conditions as unpredictable as prefered and full customisation of riding aids to the ideal preferences.

Special Events comprise of new modes including Beat the Time which takes Time Attack a step further by providing a specific bike and time for each circuit with only the first 6 tracks available initially as the remaining 12 must be unlocked by successful performances, while Real Events 2014 provides a real-life scenario with video of the race to tell the story from the 2014 MotoGP season in which players must replicate or change what happened, alongside 2-Stroke Events which explore historic moments from the era.

MotoGP 15 features all of the official licenses for the 2015 season which comprises of 18 tracks situated in various locations around the world including: Losail, Qatar; Austin, U.S.A.; Termas de Rio Hondo, Argentina; Jerez, Spain; Le Mans, France and Silverstone in Great Britain. There are a combined total of 89 professional riders spread across the MotoGP, Moto2 and Moto3 classes throughout the 2015 and 2014 seasons with a further 20 riders in the 2-Stroke Champions class, while every bike and team is also officially licensed, such as Aprilia, Ducati, Honda, KTM, Suzuki and Yamaha alongside their specifications and level of team performance.

The XP system allows players to earn points towards levelling up such as awarding them for finishing any session of the race weekend as high up the grid as possible for a better position bonus; a damage bonus for incurring little to no damage; racing against a higher A.I. difficulty level earns more points and a game mode bonus dependant upon which game mode raced in. Earning enough XP will result in levelling up with each new level mostly unlocking a variety of new content including pictures, videos, helmets, teams, bikes and riders.

The abundant weather conditions include clear blue skies with no risk of rain, cloudy with a possibility of rain, a wet track from rain that has fallen prior to the race and even random weather conditions that are capable of presenting any form of weather in the build-up to and during the race. All weather conditions are modelled accurately to present a unique challenge as each type of weather will make the bike behave differently; particularly in regards to how difficult it handles during high speed acceleration and upon the entrance and exit of corners during braking zones.

The bike setup can be changed in the pits which can potentially provide a significant performance advantage if players experiment enough in an attempt to absolutely perfect their bike setup for each track. The bike setup is spread across five categories including: suspension, handlebars, gears, brakes and tyres with each category having various settings such as the ability to change the suspension by adjusting the preload, spring stiffness, compression damping and rebound damping for the front and rear of the bike. Players can also change the handlebars by adjusting the rake and trail, changing the gears by selecting a low, medium or high gear ratio for all six gears and the final gear ratio, changing brake discs by adjusting the front and rear brake discs and changing the tyres by adjusting to a soft or hard compound tyre for the front and rear tyres, while there are options to save, load or delete the preferred bike setups and to return the bike setup to the default factory settings.

However, as well as customising the bike’s setup, there is also the ability to communicate with the race engineer in order to discuss what feels wrong on the bike and to fix it accordingly such as mentioning that the responsiveness of the bike seems strange result in an option of it leaning too quickly or slowly, if it leans too slowly, then a suggestion of softer spring settings to set the compression and rebound damping setting to a lower level will be offered by the race engineer which players can decide to accept or change their mind on with these realistic touches in communication between the rider and race engineer certainly adding to the gameplay and creating an appropriate level of realism which provides a real element of strategy to various modes such as Time Attack mode and increases the competitiveness.

There are 5 excellently positioned camera angles; (3 first-person and 2 third-person camera angles), with a realistic and accurate representation of the cockpit including an LCD dashboard and speedometer to display the current speed, alongside the handle bars and crash visor, while there is another accurate portrayal of the cockpit, but this time from the actual rider’s eye view looking out through the crash helmet which authentically limits the peripheral vision of the rider at the top and bottom of the camera angle and the final first-person camera is positioned on the front of the bike. The first of the 2 third-person perspectives is positioned directly behind the rider, while the second is positioned further back and while that caters for the appropriate distances of third-person perspectives; there is no optional re-positioning of the camera angle to bring it closer to or further away from the bike as has been expertly utilised in WRC 4 on Vita and MXGP on PS3; allowing the player to move a slide bar 20 clicks further forwards or backwards from the rider to customise a third-person perspective that is suited to preferences, although the focus of all 5 camera angles can be adjusted in order to look to the left, right, above, below or behind the rider.

The free camera from the pause menu allows players to observe the closer details of the racing and the finer background details in more thoroughly, although it unfortunately does not contain a photo mode which is surprising as the photo mode contained within the free camera feature in MXGP on PS3 allowed players to catch some great shots of some of the amazing scenery and racing action, although the free camera works rather well with the PS4’s share feature.

Players can watch a full race replay with the ability to watch in slow motion, pause, fast forward, rewind, change the camera angles for a different view of the action and to see the action from the previous or next rider, restart the replay as well as the ability to enter the free camera feature. Replay from five camera angles is also possible with the third-person camera positioned behind the rider to provide a view of the bike and the track surface up ahead amongst the surrounding environments, while the first-person camera is mounted to the front of the bike; there are two wheel mounted camera angles with the first showing the rear wheel camera mounted just offset from the rear of the bike and showing the rotation of the rear wheel with the riders that have been overtaken being left in the wake amongst the backdrop of the surrounding environments, while the front wheel rotates to the right of the camera angle. The common thread between both wheel mounted cameras is that they both show the amount of load going through the bike particularly when the rider brakes; and a dynamic camera angle positioned away from the bike with the T.V. camera angle changing from camera to camera in the style of Gran Turismo.

It would be great to see some of these camera angles, such as the front wheel mounted camera that could automatically switch from one side of the wheel to the other depending upon the direction of the upcoming corner or the Gran Turismo style dynamic T.V. coverage; make the transition to being playable as players are riding as they are that good and would further complement the immersion within the authenticity of the racing experience, while the same can be said for some of the gameplay camera angles being brought over to the replay coverage such as the two first-person camera angles and the additional third-person camera angle.

There are multiple downloadable content packs available including the Moto2 and Moto3 pack which provides the full roster of riders, bikes and teams for both categories as a free download; there is also a 4-Stroke Champions and Events pack which allows players to recreate history through the eyes of MotoGP’s greatest riders such as Rossi, Capirossi, Biaggi, Stoner, Xaus, Hopkins and Gibernau across 18 special events costing £9.99*, while also being available as part of a season pass to effectively pre-order each of the 3 content packs at a cheaper bundled price of £11.99* which also includes the Red Bull Rookies Cup and GP de Portugal Circuito Estoril.

It is disappointing not to see a Vita release of MotoGP 15 after the excellent MotoGP 13 and 14 retail releases on the platform, although the consolation is remote play. The performance during remote play is excellent as the graphics, audio and general performance are the same quality as the PS4 version, while the control scheme has been optimised resulting in the accelerator being moved from R2 to the bottom right of the touch screen and braking has moved from L2 to the bottom left of the touch screen, although they would have perhaps been better suited to the R and L buttons respectively, especially as players may have to lift their thumb from steering with the left analogue stick to brake or learn to manage the steering and braking simultaneously which can be awkward without when manually braking, but is fine when utilising the brake assist.

The controls are well mapped to the DualShock 4 controller and are fully customisable. The default control scheme consists of pressing R2 to accelerate; pressing L2 to use the front brake or reverse; pressing L1 to rewind following a crash or loss of direction; pressing X to use the rear brake; pressing O to manually shift up a gear; pressing square to manually shift down a gear; pressing triangle to tuck-in for the best aerodynamic positioning of the rider; moving the direction of the left analogue stick to the left or right to steer the bike in that direction; moving the direction of the left analogue stick forwards or backwards to appropriately distribute the rider’s weight; moving the direction of the right analogue stick to the left, right, upwards or downwards to focus the camera in that direction; pressing R3 to view behind the rider; pressing up or down on the d-pad to increase or decrease TCS; pressing R1 to chat in online multiplayer; pressing L3 to view chat status in online multiplayer; pressing the share button takes players to the share feature menu; and pressing the options button to display the pause menu.

There is no gyroscopic motion sensing functionality which is surprising as it could have provided an alternative steering method to the left analogue stick, while the touch pad implementation is under utilised as it only changes the camera angle, whereas an optional control scheme of MotoGP 13 on Vita included tapping the appropriate side of the rear touch pad to shift up or down a gear. The light bar produces pulsating tones of white for a neutral gear on the starting grid, while green ensures a low gear ratio as the rider is safely within the gear, yellow represents a medium gear ratio to show the rider should start preparing to shift up a gear shortly and red signifies that it is time to shift up a gear at the end of the gear ratio. There is a lot of vibration from the DualShock 4 controller which certainly adds to the immersion of heavy braking loads when braking from high acceleration, track undulation, making contact with other bikes, running off wide into a gravel trap and crashes resulting in the rider struggling to hold onto or falling off the bike.

The graphics are excellent with realistic recreations of all 18 tracks with subtle trackside details including such as the lighting, shadows, track surface and positioning of the moon in the night race in Qatar, alongside motion-captured animations such as riders struggling to maintain their grip of the bike when on the limits of crashing. The frame rate is pretty good at a locked 30FPS especially in 1080p with 25 riders simultaneously on circuit and represents a realistic simulation of the speed, handling and danger that is authentic to each class of bikes within MotoGP in which braking marginally too late can result in a heavy crash and the end of the player’s race.

The presentation of the game is solid with a great user interface across various menus such as the main, Instant Race, Grand Prix, Championship, Career, Time Attack, Special Events, multiplayer, online leaderboards, My GP menu, options and various gameplay menus with support for navigation via the left analogue stick, directional pad and face buttons, although it does not include support for navigation via the right analogue stick or touch pad.

The background of the main menu consists of a number of panning camera angles which focus on the last bike being ridden sitting in the pit-lane. The loading screens are just as good in their presentation as the menus as they contain quotes from various riders with their respective pictures, gameplay hints and analysis of the track about to be ridden on with a track map and facts to keep players occupied during any loading times. Everything has an air of T.V. style presentation with pre-race videos that provide a build-up to the race by showing the culture of the host city which carries through to the gameplay with data overlays of the gaps between two riders who are duelling for position, fastest lap, air and track temperature, grid line-up or warm-up lap presented exactly as would be expected to see it when watching professional television coverage.

The sound effects play an essential part of the experience as players hear revving of the bike engines and crashes with ambience resonating from the crowd. Gavin Emmett who is widely known as B.T. Sport’s MotoGP commentator and journalist provides the voice-overs for the pre-session introductions and post-session analysis which adds a great level of realism and immersion to the proceedings, but unfortunately there is no race commentary, although this is certainly a positive step towards. An additional voice-over provides instructions during menu screens and gameplay menus regarding how to gain interest and approach contrast offers from teams, various gameplay elements alongside a heavily rock influenced soundtrack. There is surprisingly no DualShock 4 speaker implementation, although it could have produced any layer of audio such as bike engines, collisions, pre-session and post-session commentary, ambient sounds or even music.

The trophy list includes 47 trophies with 35 bronze, 8 silver, 3 gold and 1 platinum trophy. The majority of the trophies are based upon skill as players are required to win races across various scenarios such as 18 bronze trophies for winning at all 18 tracks in Career mode, 4 bronze trophies for winning a race with an official rider in each of the 3 classes and the 2-Stroke Champions class and 5 bronze trophies for winning a race with a certain team in Career mode. There are 5 online multiplayer trophies which do not require any grinding as the Connected bronze trophy is for simply completing the first online race, the They Know You Around the World bronze trophy for completing an online championship which can be as short as two races consisting of 3 laps each, the You’ve Earned It bronze trophy for progressing from Moto3 to Moto2 in an Online Sprint Season, the One Piece At A Time bronze trophy for winning a Split Times race and the Social Rider silver trophy for completing 25 online races. The hardest trophies include the It Seemed Real silver trophy for winning a race with pro physics, tyre wear and bike damage activated in any mode and the World Champion gold trophy for becoming MotoGP world champion in Career mode. It is estimated that depending upon skill and a good trophy guide to provide some helpful tips that it would take around 15 hours to platinum the trophy list.

There are five difficulty levels including: very easy, easy, medium, hard and simulation with the major differences between difficulty levels being the A.I. will become gradually more clinical with each step up in difficulty as they will wait for an appropriate overtaking opportunity and capitalise on any mistakes made. There are further factors involved in the difficulty level besides the A.I. as there are three physics settings including: standard, semi-pro and pro which increases the corresponding difficulty curve of the game as they each provide totally different handling. The standard physics feel more arcade oriented with a much lower chance of crashing when players have become accustomed to the handling, while the semi-pro physics strikes a balance between standard and pro physics as the pro physics are far more realistic and fully depend upon perfecting the weight distribution of the rider throughout every corner of the track, although the rewind mechanic can reduce the difficulty by having six opportunities to rewind before a crash has occurred. Between the five difficulty levels, three physics settings and plenty of riding assists which can be turned on or off; players have full customisation over the degree of challenge they wish to encounter in any single player mode as well as how the difficulty of the A.I., physics, gear shifts and riding assists in split-screen and online multiplayer.

The split-screen multiplayer for 2 players performs well as it retains the speed and graphical fidelity of the single player and is a great addition with all of the tracks, riders, bikes and teams available for selection from all 7 classes, although it does not come without limitations such as the field is cut from 25 riders to just 6, no custom riders, no customisable bike setup, no choice of sessions beyond the race resulting in no qualifying session, no customisable championship, the removal of 2 first-person camera angles, no rewind mechanic and no replays.

The performance during online multiplayer is just as good as single player with the same sense of speed, graphics, up to 12 players and the capability of A.I. fleshing out the field, while the premise is a play on the Career mode as the Sprint Season sees players start in Moto3, gaining points for a strong finishing position to progress towards Moto2 and eventually MotoGP, although a poor result will see players lose some of their points which provides an excellent risk and reward factor to the online multiplayer gameplay. The newly introduced Split Times mode sees players riding freely in an attempt to set the fastest time in as many sectors as possible before the timer expires with every track split into 8 sectors.

The online multiplayer includes create match mode which provides the ability to create a customised lobby with a choice of a single race, championship or split times with additional options including any of the 7 bike classes, the physics from a free choice for each player to a set standard, semi-pro or pro physics, semi-automatic, manual or a free choice of transmission, the number of races for a championship from 2 to 18, the race length from 3, 5, 10 or 15 laps. There is also the option of a qualifying session, track and weather selection policies for random selection or voting, A.I. difficulty between very easy, easy, medium, hard, simulation or no A.I. opponents; collisions, damage, tyre wear, inclusion of downloadable content and privacy settings for a public or private lobby. The custom match mode provides all of the features from the create match mode as search filters in order to help players find a race which fits their preferences with the addition of the player’s abandon percentage to ensure that no opponents quit because they are being soundly beaten by a superior rider, alongside the quick match mode which will pre-select all settings and place the player into their own lobby.

The online leaderboards focuses on the fastest times from each player with rankings covering all 18 tracks across all 7 classes with each leaderboard containing the overall amount of players within that particular leaderboard; each player’s rank, name (PSN ID), the bike used during the player’s fastest time, the physics setting used during the player’s fastest time and the best time set by each player, whilst being able to compare their position on the leaderboards with players that occupy the top spaces, players from a friends list, globally with players from around the world and to immediately find and display the players position within any given leaderboard.

The replayability of MotoGP 15 is quite significant due to the quantity of content on offer across Instant Race, Grand Prix, Championship, Career, Time Attack and Special Events modes in single player, alongside split-screen and online multiplayer and competitive online leaderboards are all sources of lengthy replayability which will bring back the player over and over again for an extensive period of time.

Overall, MotoGP 15 is an authentic simulation of the sport which is highly recommended for fans of MotoGP or motorsports for quite some time, but is accessible for those who are new to MotoGP as it provides the best experience yet which truly captures the heart of MotoGP.

Jason Bonnar

Analysis

• Title: MotoGP 15
• Developer: Milestone
• Publisher: PQube
• System: PS4
• Format: PS4 Blu-Ray Disc/PSN Download
• Cross-Buy: No
• Cross-Play: No
• Players: 2 (Split-Screen Multiplayer)/2-12 (Online Multiplayer)/Online Leaderboards
• Hard Drive Space Required: 21.40GB (Version 1.01 – PS4 Blu-Ray Disc/PSN Download)
• *Correct at time of publishing