MXGP 26 hands-on preview: Where it should have been two years ago

For this season’s version, MXGP 24 has been unceremoniously left in the workshop. This time, development has been handled entirely by Artefacts, and it uses the Unreal Engine 5 graphics toolkit.

New year, new tech

The net result is the dramatic increase in visual fidelity compared to its direct predecessor. But that’s like comparing the Sistine Chapel with a five-year-old’s school painting project. MXGP 24 really did look that amateurish.

On track, and we tested a work-in-progress build, you start to notice some rough edges.

The environments are more detailed, with larger crowds, several flags and the occasional flare, which add to the atmosphere. Muddy tracks are said to dynamically evolve based on your and the AI-controlled rivals’ lines. When it rains, your rider plus bike quickly become caked in the brown stuff.

At this stage, however, we noticed some graphical pop-in, a typical Unreal trait, and more critically, a strange Vaseline-style smearing of detail when the game was paused or in the photo mode.

It’s a transformative step forward visually, but some inherent UE5 quirks haven’t been customised or weeded out just yet.

Neat features

There’s more than the new visuals. It really does feel like a holistically all-new project.

I enjoy the race start procedure that differentiates itself from other similar titles, with an on-screen ‘green’ zone for you to hit the correct engine revs. Once you’ve nailed that hole shot, one of the replay camera angles is a drone-style shot. Cutting a corner results in a slow-down-style penalty system, which works well.

The list of rider assists, or options, is extensive and considered, such as the sensitivity of the pitch control, different air control modes and rider weight distribution with one stick or two.

Customisation is a significant emphasis for this new release. Crash helmets, boots, pants, jerseys, gloves and goggles can be purchased. You’ll see recognisable real-world brands, such as Oakley or Alpinestars.

You can then alter their colour. Bright pink? Sure, there are several shades. The range looks to be extensive, too. We counted 39 different styles of crash helmets, for example.

Your bike has a suite of similar colour-changing options across 450cc and 250cc models (MXGP and MX2), with eight manufacturers represented.

Most of the customisable clothing items are locked, with you earning tickets through game progression to purchase more. Effectively, these coupons act as currency and are earned through completing certain event types or tasks.

This is combined with a badge system, split across three areas in a ‘Journey’ tab: Championship, Time Attack and Lifestyle.

As you progress through the main game modes (more on that later), winning races or beating times on specific tracks unlocks these badges, with a main menu counter marking your precise progress, for example, 2.49 per cent.

Finishing events, completing badge requirements and then spending tickets on customisation options is the main progression mechanic, and it’s welcome compared to the team’s efforts in 2024.

In this preview version, we weren’t able to test the main single-player championship mode, but we do know that a traditional career or ‘My Team’ style progression is absent. We’ll await the full game when it releases in October to judge how engaging its setup is, but for now, this appears to be an obvious omission.

There is a modest playground area outside of the 19 official circuits, and while handy for practising, there doesn’t appear to be any set challenges or training routines presently. Online multiplayer returns, this time with a much more straightforward lobby system for up to 10 riders.

On track

Still, you could possibly forgive a game light on modes, to an extent, considering that this is a fresh start (again). 

What would be unforgivable would be a lack of physics changes. Happily, the riding is a lot less rigid than before, and the in-air control is much more authentic and free.

Still, it has to be said, Milestone’s MXGP 2021 was more accessible, your bike flowing from one corner to another in a smoother fashion than the current MXGP 26 build. The upcoming game still lacks a fluency to cornering, sometimes defaulting to the front pushing wider than you may anticipate. It misses that extra mid-corner rider flexibility of Supercross 25, for instance.

The punishing nature of some of the trackside furniture and berms reminded us initially of 2018’s MXGP Pro, although not quite as challenging once accilmatised. In fact, we’re looking forward to giving the game more time to attune to its dynamics.

We weren’t able to fully experiment with the computer-controlled rivals; the preview build had four venues for Time Attack mode, but only Argentina’s Bariloche for the (grand prix) single race events.

In a race scenario, presently, they seemed to be too easy to beat away from the start, and then a little timid in the races. Sometimes they lean into corners in a naturalistic sense, but on several turns, they stayed resolutely upright while your rider is more animated.

The main challenge is collisions, sometimes wildly overeating to what should be a light rub, or occasionally, the game decides to throw you off as if you’ve both hit a concrete block. On more than one occasion, near the big Monster Energy banner, we were reset into the air after a crash.

It’s likely a bug that can be fixed before launch, but if not, we’ll judge it then. There are also several small elements we hope are remedied before launch. Such as a pre-race scene of our engineer in Ducati attire when we were riding a Husqvarna, or an animation during a cut scene that all 20 riders do in unison, somewhat breaking the immersion.

On the flip side, there’s a neat podium animation scene, jerseys flap in the wind and performance (in terms of frames per second) looks to be smooth, looking like at least a straightforward 60 fps on a modest PC. This is indeed the target for both PC and consoles.

Ah, yes, we mentioned 20 riders there. That is the current maximum, although in the real world, entries can and do exceed that number. The FIM Women’s Motocross World Championship is also absent, which seems to be a regular omission from the official games.

In all, this is a significant step forward, but it also feels like it could be a foundation-building transitional year, before 2027 brings with it more game modes, refinement and polish. 

We’ll find out later this year when MXGP 26 launches on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.