MotoGP22 Standard Edition (PS5) Includes Special Suits

 

After finally getting my hands on a PS5 I was waiting for a good opportunity to pick this up at a reasonable price so I could escape the Woke fest that is Horizon Forbidden West that I was forced to buy to get on the next gen pony.

Aside from the fact that the first thing you have to do in this motorcycle racing sim is choose your body type (no males or females in MotoGP!) then decide if you want to be referred to as he/him or she/her (No non binaries in MotoGP) it’s (the game ‘it’, not the gender) a decent racer.

You have the usual quick mode, championship and career modes with the addition of the chance to relive the 2009 season. This makes sure they still have Valentino Rossi in the game and makes sure he’s not floating around in the midfield as this was during his golden era. It’s a nice touch to keep things interesting especially for long time fans of MotoGP who will remember this time and the participants.

My last MotoGP game was 2020 as 21 didn’t offer an upgrade to PS5 option and the controls have taken a leap. The addition of haptics in the controller means the triggers can offer very good traction feedback which means a higher level of simulation of throttle and braking is available. This kinda changes the playing field so if you are used to playing on Pro level in earlier games you might want to dial it back a bit by customising the control response options or things may become a frustrating crash fest. This will make Esport more challenging which is probably the idea and think they acknowledge the game may be harder now. If you keep crashing while trying to find your best realism settings they will present you with a condescending screen saying they have noticed you are ‘having trouble mastering the controls’ and then ‘suggest’ you change it to easy! Thanks but I’d rather persevere! Interesting they get hung up on he/her pronouns but are happy to talk about ‘mastering’ the controls. Anyway…

Once I mas…got to grips with the controls (no not on easy Milestone, not with linked brakes, not with the racing line on, not with off road help on, all of which were ‘suggested’ changes I should make) I was able to win races the first night I had the game. It feels slower than previous games so judging braking distances isn’t easy. Some corners are painfully slow but it is a lot smoother than 2020 which makes close overtakes a lot more controlled. The AI bikes’ perfomace sometimes seems to be linked to your own in the braking points on corners as I found out on the Red Bull Ring, the entire field would run off track at the first corner if I was nearby causing some massive pileups as they seem totally unable to brake near to when I do. Watching replays of this on slow mo is hilarious, bikes and riders spilling everywhere. I had noticed this behaviour on certain tracks in the 2020 version but I thought maybe it was because I had manually adjusted the difficulty slider and the AI wasn’t fine tuned to it. I haven’t changed the difficulty from the level it’s on at all in the 2022 game though. AI bikes will consistently miss corners when they are near you at certain points on certain tracks. Maybe this is to prevent you ploughing right into them if you brake later. I’m interested to see how this plays out when I turn penalties on. There are long lap penalties and also ride high devices here so it is up to date with the tech and rules.

The graphics and sound are generally very good although I was initially disappointed. Wet tarmac looks really nice as do overcast races. Sunny races though make the track look lacking in any texture so if you just do quick mode I’d play with the weather settings to get the best looking track if you tend to play on the same settings all the time. Load times are very quick once the game is loaded into the menu. There is also split screen available which I haven’t tried yet and there was a recent liveries update so hopefully it will keep track with the season as it plays out in the real world. AI rider and team performance is supposed to update based on the real life season also.

Aside from the pandering with Pro nouns and condescending “try it on follow the line, easy mode’ message it’s a very good racing experience which is very scaleable to your ability… and yes, to your gender preferences too.