MotoGP '07 demo on Live

By Tom Bramwell Published 26 July, 2007

Two wheels, two races.

Xbox Live users got a pleasant surprise yesterday when a demo of Climax's MotoGP '07 popped up for download.

At just over 900MB, it features two races playable in either single- or multi-player.

The full game, featuring complete 2007 rider and team MotoGP data (as well as the Misano Circuit's newly added San Marino Grand Prix), is due out later this year.

It will be the first produced by Climax since the developer was bought up by Disney Interactive Studios last September.

And, if it's anything like the others in the series, it ought to be worth a look. You can read our MotoGP '06 review elsewhere on the site.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (18) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Fab4 #1 5 years ago

    Sweet...something to look at when I get home from work tonight :)

  • menage #2 5 years ago

    Downloaded it already last night. Looks good, not for me though. Way to simmy and I don't like "real" racing games.

    What's up with the music? Punk-Rock metal, groan.
    Edited by 1 at 26/07/07 @ 09:35

  • Beano #3 5 years ago

    Does the 07 version have better framerate and less tearing than the 06 version?

  • lambtron #4 5 years ago

    One would hope since the 06 version was apparently rushed out with little access to the final xdk and hardware. We will see - downloada-nating now at 50%...

  • menage #5 5 years ago

    Framerate's still not incredible. It stutters sometimes.

  • SBfistfun #6 5 years ago

    zzzzzz

  • kiroquai #7 5 years ago

    Will still have the same annoying career mode that plenty of people have complained about for four years, too. Riding a bike with a custom paint scheme was fun for a while, but I kind of want to have my own rider zipping around on an authentic Ducati or Repsol Honda. Ho-hum.

  • Darren #8 5 years ago

    This game is a vast improvement on the previous game, which was a rushed mess and simply not up to scratch for a 360 game. The demo has a mostly silky-smooth 60 fps framerate with no noticeable slowdown on corners and absolutely no v-sync tearing that I could see. The presentation has been overhauled, meaning the game doesn't feel overfamiliar before you even get to the races, and the pre-race pan around showing you a busy track with with crews, etc., adds a lot to the atmosphere even if the modelling and textures are a bit off. The actual game itself doesn't feel massively different from last year... the graphics look a bit nicer than before and the handling is definitely different, I found it a lot easier to spin out on corners that in the previous games which sent me flying off the bike (and showed the slightly dodgy physics at work). That surprised me actually as I've been playing these games for years so it threw me off initially (no pun intended!). I soon adjusted though and was enjoying myself in no time. Great to see the series getting back on track after the lacklustre MotoGP '06.

    I'm definitely keeping my pre-order now and look forward to playing the full game next Thursday. It appears that Climax have finally made the MotoGP game that the 360 should have had in the first place had THQ not forced the developers to rush the game out before it was finished.

  • Darren #9 5 years ago

    Beano - "Does the 07 version have better framerate and less tearing than the 06 version?"

    There's absolutely no tearing at all in the two demo tracks so I presume that will be true of the full game and the framerate itself is mostly a smooth 60 fps with no slowdown on corners like last year. The only framerate drops I noticed was when I crashed and in the replays but neither have any effect on the gameplay so I'm delighted with that.

    Roll on 2nd August! :)

  • BadBoyBonner #10 5 years ago

    Slows down every time I go through the Cork-Screw at Laguna Seca for me. And the blue smoke on the first corner does as well.

    1360x768 through VGA.

    Looks better than last year. No tearing - even during slow down. Track-side detail has gone up considerably. Nice touch of simulated helicopter camera shot of the whole track while loading - although this does set up the anticipation that it is going to pan down from it - which it does not.

    Bikes seem at least 20% more responsive from full left to full right - which is still an age for anyone used to driving cars - but is obviously due to the very nature of Bikes.

    Give it time car drivers [like I had to!] - the skill with this game is in the anticipation of corners, and placement using markers for reference [much like F1] as opposed to the thrill of over driving cars, and doing all sorts of steering wheel thrashing through a corner! lol

    All told big thumbs up for the improvements to the renderer and bike responsiveness [might actually be able to move out of the way of a crash you can see about 100m down the track! lol] - everything else is slight refinements due to the first being pretty polished in all other regards.
    Edited by 1 at 26/07/07 @ 10:48

  • Darren #11 5 years ago

    I played it at 1080p (presumably upscaled from 720p though) using component video and noticed no slowdown.... that said, the rest of the pack was ahead of me and I was the only bike going through that cork-screw!!! LOL

  • BadBoyBonner #12 5 years ago

    Nobody else was with me either - easy enough to go from first to last before the first corner by sticking to the right and out braking them. lol

    Plus I'm playing it with the rider on screen - unsure how much a difference that makes.

    Maybe it upscale’s the 1280x720p to 1080p and actually outputs at 1360x768 natively thus goes from 0.921600 mega pixel image to 1.044480 mega pixel image, thus causing the frames to be dropped? I certainly do not know - but it does slow down on the second part of the corkscrew every time, as you break right at the bottom on my 360 setup.

    And have yet to suffer the indignity of doing so with any other rider near me lol.

  • sharpfish #13 5 years ago

    let's hope it doesn't have anywhere near the amount of tearing the original had... if it's clear of that then it should be decent :)

  • renzo #14 5 years ago

    "Will still have the same annoying career mode that plenty of people have complained about for four years, too. Riding a bike with a custom paint scheme was fun for a while, but I kind of want to have my own rider zipping around on an authentic Ducati or Repsol Honda. Ho-hum."

    Why do you they force you to use a custom bike? Very annoying. People like me who suck at editing liveries end up with something fugly to ride around on, and it only looks worse when your creation is surrounded by properly licensed MotoGP bikes.

  • Nitrous #15 5 years ago

    Downloaded the demo this morning and tbh if it wasn't for the fact that the honda RCV looks different this year with the new 800cc rules ect I would have thought I was playing Moto GP 06 again!

    It looks slightly nicer and the handling is easier (won the race first time without trying) but thats about it. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of bikes and bike racing (AMA,WSBK, MOTOGP, BSB) but this game is just to similar to warrent a full price purchase.

    Now, if they removed the Extreme Mode and replaced them with the 125cc and 250cc classes and let us race on official bikes/teams during the season mode then I'd be interested. *rant over lol*

  • kiroquai #16 5 years ago

    "Why do you they force you to use a custom bike? Very annoying. People like me who suck at editing liveries end up with something fugly to ride around on, and it only looks worse when your creation is surrounded by properly licensed MotoGP bikes."

    Pretty much what I thought, and I'm not so bad at doing the custom liveries. The problem with the career structure is that it's been exactly the same since they began, and it got boring after the third one.

    I'd like them to put in some sort of system similar to Sony's F1 games, where you start at the back with the satellite Ducati or Yamaha squads and progress via Kawasaki and Suzuki to the Ducati, Yahama and Honda works teams. Kind of gives you a goal to aim for, much like the tasty prospect of driving a Ferrari or a McLaren is in the F1 games.

  • Darren #17 5 years ago

    This demo only allows you to play a Quick Race so how do people know you cannot race as a pro in the Career mode? Is that an assumption based on the previous games or have the developers actually confirmed that?

  • kiroquai #18 5 years ago

    From Gamespot:

    "MotoGP 07's single-player game modes will be familiar to anyone who's played the series in the past: There's quick race, championship mode, racing career, and time trials. Quick race lets you fire up a race on any of the game's 18 real-life MotoGP tracks (including Italy's Misano, which is new to the game and home to the San Marino Grand Prix). Championship mode lets you play as any of the game's 22 MotoGP pros, including American riders like Kenny Roberts, Colin Edwards, and 2006 MotoGP world champion Nicky Hayden. In racing career mode, you take your created rider (complete with your very own helmet, leathers, and bike design thanks to a flexible livery editor) through multiple world championships, upgrading your bike's attributes as you go. At each race event, you can choose to run practice laps, qualify for pole position, or jump straight into the race. New this year are some cool pre-race animations that show a bustling crowd of riders, mechanics, and umbrella girls, as well as post-race celebrations that show your rider on the podium, basking in the adulation of the crowd."

    Sounds like much of the same with a little added presentation.
    Edited by 1 at 26/07/07 @ 16:59