Overall - I love the new the new game. I have seen a lot of mixed comments, with the negative ones predominantly pointing out the "lack" of front end in corners, so I thought I'd share my experience after about 8 hours of gameplay. I hope this somehow reaches the Devs too as just some feedback from a casual player. The Pro's - The new handling model is FANTASTIC. It feels a lot closer to how one would ride a bike (IRL motorcycle racer). How the bike behaves, and how one must apply the brakes. If you squeeze the break hard while leaning more and more, you will crash, as is in real life. But if you keep are able to keep the bike as upright as possible and actually "trail brake" you can brake so HARD in this game and it feels SO rewarding when you get it right. The front end behaviour and braking behaviour is SPOT ON in this game, and while it might be hard for the casual player to fully get right, it is exactly how we do it IRL and even there its a fine line between trailing perfectly off the brakes and finding yourself tucking the front. -In addition to the above, you can finally reliably and controllably come into a corner sideways like a Brad Binder and it makes for epic replays when overtaking like that. - I personally love that we are able to play a career with an existing rider. - The new production bikes are a nice addtition (a lot easier to controll the front), albeit a very minor addition. - Tyre behaviour relating to temperatures are a lot better this year and it is truly punishing to overheat or let the tyres cool too much. Previously it felt more like a overheating tyre simply ate the life up quicker, however in this year's game tyre grip outside that temp window is really really BAD so you want to pay attention to how you ride and what compounds you select. - The AI seems to be overall a bit more enjoyable and I have observed pretty good battles during races. They are also pretty aggressive (sometimes stupidly so XD) but they seem overall to be pretty fun apart from a few points I'll mention below. Cons From my testing I have encountered the following issues - Race starts, Pitlane exits, Flashbacks each have the same issue where the moment you take "controll" of the bike it does not register any of your inputs you already had applied and you have to release said imputs and reapply. Hence race starts are terrible and I can easily lose 10 positions by the first corner due to having to release and reapply the gas the second the ligths go out. Especially for race starts this issue is REALLY, REALLY annoying, and for those using a flashback and finding themselves not accelerating or braking this is the issue. - The AI are "fun" in certain ways, but I have experienced a lot of divebombing from the AI to the point of them coming from 5-10 bikelengths back into a corner and then going deep and totally T-boning me in the process. (COTA and Mugello especially). This happens lap after lap, and mostly in corners where a heavy braking zone follows a straight. While I would love for some divebombs to happen and don't mind the occasional crash due to this as it keeps things spicy, these divebombs are not realistic overtaking attempts a lot of the time and seems that the AI misses their braking markers by 5-10-15 meters a lot and end up running myself and each other wide very often. - The AI difficulty seems to be a bit too easy in this year's game. Playing on max difficulty, the AI seems to be pretty good in terms of minimum speed through the corner and corner exit, but if you have mastered the new braking technique you absolutely KILL the AI in the braking zones. Thus with braking alone I can recover my race start position drops by a lap or two at most. (As a casual player I don't think playing on 120 should be this easy, as I have in none of the previous games played max difficulty before). -Lastly relating to the AI, and I believe this might be linked to them missing braking markers quite often, they would run pretty good pace but then make a lot of mistakes running wide through a corner or going messing up corners that require a quick left right etc. It makes the "chase" feel so empty and so many times I have been chasing a few bikes ahead of me only to pass like 3 of them in one race due to them messing up a corner. I absolutely love that its not just me running wide in corners and that maybe if you do put a bit of pressure on a bike in front that they run wide but this happens too often and does take a bit away from that "satisfactory" feeling when finally getting your man after chasing them down for half a race. - In terms of what the game offers compared to last year, the handling is different which I really love, but the game does feel very familiar. The production bikes really feel as the only real "new" feature and they really are just an extention of the flat track, mini bikes etc. Career mode does feel largely exactly like last year. -While fun for 1 or 2 rounds, the production bikes really is not anything to write home about. I do think they are on the right track with the other riding "options" such as this and flattrack etc, but it is very, very basic right now, and would love to in future maybe rock up at the track with your production bike, or be able to go train at any track of your choosing during some off weeks in the calender, or go to the VR46 ranch and race there and build some rep with the team or something that adds a bit more context to why we are riding other bikes rather than it feeling like a just another race in between real races. - Flag to flag races seems to be easier than ever, and on a tech3 KTM with no upgrades yet I have won 4/4 F2F or wet races. It seems as if there is some sort of stability control the game applies in the rain and its you can apply more brake at more lean angle than in the dry? Don't think this was meant to be? To Conclude If you are expecting a "better" game overall compared to last year with new features etc, then the game has failed in that regard. However racing in MotoGP26 is totally different and just the new handling system in my opinion warrants a try. I love to play the RIDE and MotoGP games as a casual player and this years game is by far the best in terms of how the bikes handle and there is none that I have played that feel even close to this good. If the Devs can sort out the small quirks and then add some new spicy to the game and the career mode, I think this year's game could be viewed as a turning point in the future.