MXGP 26: The Official Game is the first new entry in the series since 2024, and the first time since I played in 2020, when there were problems galore.
This entry, however, is the first to make use of Unreal Engine 5, and thrills how it features all 19 official tracks of the season in both the MXGP and MX2 categories, claiming to perfectly recreate each track.
However, while UE5 may make the graphics look better than previous installments I’ve played, the handling of the bikes is still appalling, and I came off my bike every 10 seconds and/or every other big turn in the track. It’s basically the complete opposite of Wolverine on the PS5, where you’re stuck to the bike!
For each championship in the 19 cities, it’s the same interminable track many times over. First, a 5-minute practice. Then for the qualifying race, and the two main races, for some reason, you ride round for 5 minutes or so and THEN another 3 full laps after that. Why??
Thus, by the end of that city’s ‘visit’, your deja vu is getting deja vu!
For no reason I can see, the replays start off well, but then get all jittery after a few seconds until there’s a change of viewing angle, or I happen to knock my controller… but a few seconds later, it’s back to jittery. I’m presuming this is a minor bug that will be filtered out, since at the moment, it makes it look like my graphics card has crapped out.
However, I can do Time Attack in each city, so that saves the repetitive pain of the Championship.
Collision detection is up the spout, too, since my rider frequently passes through others as if they’re ghosts. As such, overall, I managed to get through 3 of the 19 cities before throwing my gamepad at the wall in frustration.
Yes, MXGP 26: The Official Game has all the same problems as before. I cannot recommend it.
MXGP 26: The Official Game is out now on PC/Steam, plus PS5 and Xbox Series X.
Important info:
- Developer: Artefacts Studio
- Publisher: Nacon
- Players: Single-player, Online PvP
PC specs:
- CPU: AMD RYZEN 9 7950X3D
- Motherboard: MSI MPG X670E CARBON WIFI AMD X670 S AM5 DDR5 PCIe 5.0 4x M.2 2.5GbE AMD EXPO™ ATX
- RAM: 64GB (2x32GB) Corsair DDR5 Vengeance RGB PC5-44800 (5600Mhz)
- Graphics Card: Sapphire Radeon RX 7900 XTX NITRO+ 24GB GDDR6 Ray-Tracing RDNA3 6144 Streams
- 1st Storage Drive: 2TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2 (2280) PCIe 4.0 (x4) NVMe SSD TLC V-NAND 7450MB/s Read 6900MB/s
- 2nd Storage Drive: 2TB Samsung 870 QVO 2.5” SSD SATA III 6Gb/s MJX MLC V-NAND 2GB Cache Read 560MB/s Write 530MB/s 98k/88k IOPS
- 3rd Storage Drive: 2TB Samsung 870 QVO 2.5” SSD SATA III 6Gb/s MJX MLC V-NAND 2GB Cache Read 560MB/s Write 530MB/s 98k/88k IOPS
- 4th Storage Drive: Seagate IronWolf Pro 14TB NAS 3.5″ SATA HDD/Hard Drive
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.