I’ll be the first to admit, I know nothing about MotoGP. I’ve seen the sport sporadically over the years, I was always fascinated over how they could turn and lean so low near the ground and never completely fall. After doing a little reading I found out that MotoGP is a very popular, worldwide, sport. Much like Formula 1 and it’s lesser cousin NASCAR. There’s a points system, teams and racers, competing to be the best, and with MotoGP 14, you get to experience that on a lesser level than that of the real competitors. But the game isn’t without it’s own high levels of difficulty, and it’s own drama.

MotoGP 14 lets you get as close to the realism of the sport as you can get. The downside of this is that it’s a little TOO real. While I understand that this might be a huge selling point for the die hard followers of the sport, and/or the game, a casual fan or someone picking up a MotoGP game for the first time may want to be cautious and possibly rent the game first. I’ll start with this point, before I talk about anything else from the game. This game is a straight up MotoGP Simulation game. There’s nothing arcade like about this game, it’s a straight simulation, and what this means is…you get very little help from the game when you play. You need to know your gears, you need to learn how to approach and get through turns without completely spinning out, and you need to understand brake control. I spent at least 3 hours alone on trying to understand the controls, and the best I can do is keep up with the pack for about 5 minutes. This game is difficult for the controls alone, and that’s with all the assists on! Turning the assists off will very quickly teach you that you don’t know what you’re doing. This is all coming from a novice, so if you’ve had previous experience with MotoGP games, I’m sure you know what to expect and you’ll have a better time than I did.

With that out of the way, lets talk about MotoGP 14’s presentation. The music is very dramatic, from the menu to loading screens, the music tries to set you up to expect some serious business. The music is probably the best part of the menu because when you get into it, it feels very old gen. I would say last gen, but since PS3 is technically last gen, and the look of the menu doesn’t look on par with most PS3 games, I’ll say old gen. It’s a very basic graphical interface. With that said, it’s clear that menu presentation took a backseat to the gameplay and that should be applauded. From the menu you get several different game mode options for single play and multi-play.

Among the various gameplay modes are Instant Race, Grand Prix, Championship, MotoGP Career, Real Events 2013, Challenge the Champions, Time Attack, and Safety Car Mode. Truthfully, I didn’t get very far in most of these modes as I suck at playing this game. The major modes to checkout are Career, Real Events, and Challenge the Champions.

MotoGP Career lets you create your own driver, and take him (sorry ladies, but I didn’t see any options for women drivers, and I’m not even sure if there are women drivers in real life, either) through a career in MotoGP, including working on your bike, getting on or switching teams. and trying to gain points to help your team out. It’s pretty interesting, and probably a lot more fun when you know what you’re doing in a race.

Real Events 2013 is one of the better modes, because it lets you relive key moments from the 2013 season of races by using certain real world racers in the events they participated in. The twist is that to win these races you have win requirements. These requirements reflect what happened in real life i.e. a racer got 3rd in a certain race, so you have to get 3rd or better to win this race. Or a racer wrecked so you start from the point after the wreck and try to win, or do whatever else the challenge asks you to do. This adds a new twist to the racing and is a great mode for more advanced players.

Challenge of the Champions lets you race against past champions with win conditions sometimes applied to the race also. This mode is more for the MotoGP followers, as it features past champions from from the 90s and early 2000s.

I already explained that the gameplay of this game is straight up simulation. It’s hard to get used to. This is not a pick up and play game. Graphically, for a PS3 game the graphics aren’t too high end. It’s better than PS2, but it’s not as detailed as you’d expect a PS3 game to be. Maybe it’s the lighting they used, I can’t really say. It doesn’t look horrible, I guess I was just expecting something more.

The sound in this game is pretty top notch, I must say. The bike sounds don’t seem to be typical recycled bike motor sounds. You know the kind, where every bike, every rev up, sounds the same. Doesn’t seem that way to me with this game. Plus, the voice overs for modes and certain instructions sound crisp and clear. My only gripe is the music. While the serious, dramatic music that accompanies the menus and loading screens is cool at the beginning, I wish there were a little variety. I understand trying to set a mood, but you don’t need the same piece of music every time.

Overall, MotoGP is a great game for people who love, or have an interest, in MotoGP. If you’re a casual fan, or someone who doesn’t know the sport, or the games, I suggest you move along, because you completely hate the sport after trying to play this game. Does that make it a bad game? No, it’s just a difficult game. Someone who’s interested, whether knowledgeable of the sport, or a novice to it, and wants to learn the game, will learn it and get good at it. I was happy enough to just keep up with the pack. The create your own driver thing could use a little help. Maybe even allow for taking your picture with an Eye Toy or webcam, because those default driver pics aren’t too great or varied. If you pick this game up, just know it’ll be hard at first, but it’s pretty cool.

Gameplay

Graphics

Sound

Overall