Wheels may lose grip and fuel consumption will be high. Throughout the weekend, bikes will take damage. There are qualifying laps to see where you start, followed by a warm-up lap a few hours before the official race. Heading out to each location will provide a few test laps for players to study the tracks. Ready for the weekendĬareers can follow the official MotoGP 21 calendar, or one that’s slightly different. When it comes to the racing events, Milestone has made these long weekends as realistic as possible. As the season progresses, every area of the backroom team can be changed, new expansions can be researched, and more contracts become available. There’s a lot to manage, and for fans who want to get stuck into this side of the Career, it’s a dream come true. This team will help to research new expansions for improving the bike, as well as making sure bikes are finely tuned before each race. There’s also a requirement to manage the technical staff. Depending on what’s important, each team has specific expectations, offering rewards for particular racing, qualifying, and championship goals. They have different skills in salary negotiations and acquiring interested teams, as well as monthly and annual salaries. Different PMs have varying degrees of success, having positives, negatives, and different goals. Hiring a Personal Manager gets good offers from interested teams, in turn bringing bonuses tied to each performance. After deciding whether to race in Moto3, Moto2, or MotoGP, the brunt of the decision making begins. The level of detail in race weekends is incredible, but so too is the time spent between events. The Career mode is MotoGP 21 at its finest. However, the addition only builds on the authenticity found in the real-life sport. To the average player, this’ll only add to the accidental mistakes likely to be made. MotoGP 21 is aimed at hardcore fans of the sport. The inclusion of the Long Lap Penalty adds to the frustration, forcing the bike to follow a designated route that’ll chip several seconds of the lap time. This can result in time deductions and lap invalidations, as well as unnecessary crashes. The slightest miscalculation will send the bike of the track. Making mistakes is unfortunately something that becomes all too familiar. This becomes a key component to coping with the pressures of every race and helps to stay grounded to the tarmac. Learning when to break away after a tight bend is accentuated by the varying degrees of resistance in the controller. Playing on PS5, the DualSense vibrations help to keep the bike on both wheels. It will take time to become familiar with the handling, but when it clicks, there’s nothing like overtaking an opponent on a bend. There’s no denying the learning curve is steep. There is guidance every step of the way to know when to brake going into a corner, or when to accelerate coming out. I previewed MotoGP 21 late last month, and the handling was instantly noticeable as being one of its better features. For saying Milestone are more or less the sole developer behind at least 90% of them, it seems odd other games don’t have the same opportunity for new players. It features one of the better tutorials seen in modern motor racing titles. To say it’s tricky to master is an understatement, but Milestone offer a lifeline from the get go.

What’s more, if newbies have got limited knowledge of the official MotoGP or bike maintenance, there’s a high chance of getting left in the dust. Coming into it as a new player will be baffling.

Thankfully, MotoGP 21 knows exactly what it is, and exactly who it is aimed at. Having so many racers on the go, it might feel like they all start to blend into one.

The kings of the moto racer are back with the next iteration of the MotoGP series.

Motogp 21 schedule