Italian game development studio, Milestone, announced that MotoGP 18 is currently available for the Xbox One, PS4 and PC for $49.99. The game will also be available at the end of the month on June 28th for the Nintendo Switch for $49.99 as well.
The game features a full-on career mode with 19 official tracks including the new Buriram International Circuit located in Thailand. Each and every track has been faithfully represented in the game via 1:1 scale thanks to the new drone laser scanning technique that Milestone employed in order to capture the topography and layout of each and every track exactly how it appears in real-life.
The great part about it is that 3D laser scanning offers developers a cheaper and more reliable way to capture data from real-life locations, as opposed to relying on sending photographers out to a location, capturing thousands of reference photos, and then having a team of artists meticulously try to recreate those locations in-engine.
Milestone has also applied the 3D scanning to the riders and bikes as well, even capturing the riders’ faces for the very first time in the series. You can see how it all came together with the launch trailer for MotoGP 18 below.
One thing you may have noticed in the trailer is that the motorcycles appear to move, sway, lean, and accelerate in all new ways. It’s because Milestone gutted and reworked the physics engine from the ground up that better reflects and captures the real-life aerodynamics and handling of the bikes.
The game actually looks pretty solid. I’m most curious how well the game well run on the Nintendo Switch because it’s a huge change going from playing on the TV at 900p or 1080p and scaling it down to 720p on the little portable screen and trying to maintain the 60fps that gamers are used to. I imagine they’ll cull the shadows and scale back on the resolution and shaders maybe? I suppose we’ll find out when Digital Foundry gets their hands on it.
Anyway, the game features a new scalable damage system, along with the new MotoGP eSport Championship that contains more challenges and opportunities to win across the PS4, Xbox One or PC.
The eSport Championship will take place on July 18th, and will feature eight online challenges and two semi final live events leading up to the grand finales in November.
You can grab a copy of the game right now or pay a visit to the official website to learn more.
