MotoGP 2006  Preview for Xbox 360

Friday, May 12, 2006

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Title: MotoGP 2006 .............................................. System: Xbox 360 .............................................. Genre: Racing .............................................. Publisher: THQ .............................................. Developer: Climax Group .............................................. Release: 6/14/2006 .............................................. Online: Yes .............................................. ESRB: Everyone (E) .............................................. For two days now I’ve been playing MotoGP ’06, and I can honestly say I both love and hate the game. MotoGP is—in its purest form—a racing simulation. The game utilizes actual riders and tracks from the 2006 GP season. For the fans out there, that’s probably good news to hear. If you’re like me, though, you probably got lost at that point. So I’ll explain. But first, a quick explanation Grand Prix motorcycle racing is the NASCAR of bike racing (except NASCAR does oval tracks much more often where bikes don’t). It’s divided into three core groups based on engine size: 125cc, 250cc and MotoGP, which is up to 990cc (until 2002, bikes were limited to a maximum 500cc). And for the mechanically challenged, “cc” is cubic centimeters for engine displacement. The MotoGP season consists of 17 races in 15 countries, which are composed of: Spain, China, Italy, France, Britain, Germany, United States, Japan, Australia, Portugal, Malaysia, Czech Republic, Netherlands, Turkey and Qatar. Each race features approximately twenty riders, and can last upwards of 45 minutes in length, with no pit stops except in the case of rain. Unlike the other classes in the Grand Prix, MotoGP bikes are not legalized for street use. Then again, with an average cost of $3,000,000 per bike, maybe that’s a good thing. And now back to the regularly scheduled programming Now that you have a brief understanding of what MotoGP is, let’s move on to the game itself. As mentioned earlier, all of the tracks and locales from the real MotoGP are present in the game; you’ll race anywhere from Laguna Seca, CA to the streets of Malaysia. The diversity of tracks not only makes it more challenging (you try remembering where the hairpin turns are on 17 tracks), but it makes for an overall better racing experience. The problem with many racing simulation games which focus on an actual event is the repetitiveness of the locales; MotoGP ’06 does away with that. In the single player mode in MotoGP, you’ll have two options. First off, you’ll need to complete the Career mode. When you start off, you find yourself ranked number 100 in MotoGP, and must work your way up to win the championship. You’ll compete against real GP riders on real GP tracks, making for an awesome simulation experience. Want an even more realistic experience? Then go back and play the 2005 GP season. Every track was realistically put together to not only include the riders in those races, but also the weather and other road hazards which took place in real life. Once you finish the Career mode (or get to first), you’ll unlock the Extreme mode. Unlike the GP mode, Extreme places you in a world of streetbike racing with big bikes and lots of attitude. While still realistic, the Extreme mode is much more forgiving than the actual GP mode when it comes to turning and crashing, so if you’re looking for more “go fast, worry less” racing, Extreme will be the mode for you. That brings me to crashing. Oh crashing, how familiar you have become… Understand this: MotoGP is not a forgiving game. If you enter a turn too quickly, brake too strongly or lean too much, you crash. If you hit sand while leaning, you crash. Basically, if you play this game in any way, shape or form like you would play other bike-racing games, you crash. That’s part of what makes the game so awesome (and quite realistic), yet so frustrating. The bad part is, the computer AI will rarely crash—compared to me, at least. With bikes going in excess of 200 mph, a single crash can result in an insurmountable lead for the computer. Now imagine that, but if you crash six times in a race. Perhaps no where will crashing be more embarrassing than on Xbox Live. Thankfully, at this point, people playing it also have no idea what they’re doing, so crashing isn’t as frustrating. But there’s nothing like playing some friends who can steer without killing their rider and having them talk trash via the headsets. The gameplay in Live makes up for my crippling mediocrity in motorcycle turning, appreciatively. The most rewarding online experience will most likely be the ranked Championship series, which consists of a full GP or Extreme season—but online against real opponents. However, this is also the most time consuming, so only real MotoGP fans (or people with a lot of friends who have the game) need apply. In addition to the Championship, you’ll also be able to compete in a Tag mode and Stunt mode. At times while playing the game both online and off, you may be perplexed at the graphics. In all of the previous previews and hands-on reports for MotoGP, the pictures to go along with it have been incredible and photorealistic-looking. So what happened? Well, that’s simple. One of this game’s biggest flaws is the disproportion between the level of graphics on an HDTV, and on a SDTV. On standard def, the game is nothing to write home about. It looks good, but not incredible. On an HD, however, the game looks awesome. Are there occasional jaggies in the distance? Yes, but it’s still early in the 360’s lifespan. But if you can ignore those slight problems, you’ll notice just how beautiful the game truly is. In the end, MotoGP will not be a game for the casual racing fan. However, if you like motorcycle racing or simulation racing, MotoGP will be the game for you to get. The realistic racing and realistic graphics make it an experience unlike any other. If you have Xbox Live, you can’t go wrong if you download the MotoGP demo to at least try it out sometime this week. Look for my gamertag—ahnonamis—online, and give me a message if you want to race. More than likely, I’ll be the guy who keeps crashing.

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