GamesRadar+ Verdict

Pros

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Making your own team from scratch
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Feeling like you have real control over your race career
+
Satisfying "campaign" approach

Cons

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Vaseline-o-vision
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Too many driver assists
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Bikes don't feel properly weighty or fast

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Officially licensed racers are great for the chance to race around real circuits and compete using proper vehicles against the best the motorsport has to offer. MotoGP 09/10 is different, though, because it allows you to create your own rider, name your own team and see how you fare against the professionals. You’ll have to be prepared to start from scratch. This means hiring press officers, mechanics and such, securing sponsorships and starting the season on an asthmatic 125cc bike with as much power as a lawnmower.

Perform well on the track (each stage of the race weekend is given an A to C ranking) and your reputation builds. This means better sponsors, more cash and greater skilled mechanics to enhance your bike and finally make it competitive. If you’ve ever spent time with a management game, then you’ll know how much appeal there is in building a team from scratch and sticking it to the professionals. This makes MotoGP 09/10 arguably the most engrossing title in the series.

If only we could heap as much praise onto the actual racing experience. It’s not that the handling is unpleasant; if anything, the driver assists feel obtrusive early on and it’s the first time in a long while where we’ve actually wanted to play a bike game without all the driver aids. It’s more that the bikes lack weight and a real sense of speed. MotoGP 09/10 has incorporated a ‘motion blur’ effect that makes us feel like we’re racing with Vaseline on our visor.

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With the SBK games looking so ultra detailed, it’s a curious visual step backwards from the competition. Plus, despite racing a whole season we never once saw, caused or were involved in an accident. Call us peculiar, but part of the fun of MotoGP games were spectacular pile-ups featuring brightly-coloured men hurtling through the air.

Can you accept that past MotoGPs have offered a better racing experience in exchange for an excellent career mode? If so then you know where to turn…