Developer Milestone clearly made this game on a budget; it doesn’t look very good from any perspective. While it’s true that I’ve spent nearly all of 2014 gaming on a PC, a PlayStation 4, or an Xbox One, I’m still well aware of what the PlayStation 3 is capable of. Judging on those metrics, this is one of the PS3’s least attractive games. The dirt and mud covering the tracks becomes reasonably scored and gouged up over the course of each race, but nearly everything else is an exercise in texture blandness. In motion, the game is hit and miss. For starters, the framerate rarely, if ever, feels like it’s locked down. Racing games like these rely heavily on their physics engines. Just how much airtime you get until the earth pulls you back, the angle at which your tires meet the ground, and the proper distribution of weight to each component of the bike. All of it matters in a motocross game. Unfortunately, once your upward movement ceases, trouble tends to show up. More on that later.
MXGP: The Official Motocross Videogame sounds fine, when it’s actually giving you something to listen to. There’s no in-game music at all. While this baffled me at first, I’ve decided that it’s overall a good thing. It’d have been nice to have the option, however. But again, this is clearly a budget title, so I’m more inclined to forgive. Sound effects are pretty good, however; never having been in or even near a motocross race, the only thing I really have to go by is my knowledge of how the bikes sound on different consistencies of terrain. And on that front, I’m totally satisfied.
