MotoGP '06 Review

Torque to the hand!

Version tested: Xbox 360

My understanding of the noble motorbike lurks somewhere between my understanding of owls (ast-hoot-ly observant) and my understanding of gravel (WHERE DID IT COME FROM HOW WHY ETC): I've never owned it, I don't know who makes it or how or why, but I'm capable of distinguishing it from its friends. Yes readers - I know - it's got all the makings of the Surely I'm Not The Best Person To Review This intro. But wait! I'm really quite good at MotoGP '06! And I love it to bits! So either this is a complete failure, or it's that rarest of things: a niche game with genuinely broad appeal. Stop paging down to the score.

No, really, stop paging down to the score. You're going to have to be patient. Otherwise you might struggle with the game proper. And that would be a real shame. So slow down. Pace a bit. Stroll around the drive-way. WAIT! What's that noise? AAARHH GRAVEL RUN.

This here MotoGP's handling model comes across as a further refinement of the excellent mechanics that made up the three Xbox games. You can brake at the front and back of the bike independently, make your choice of analogue or digital acceleration, and move around in the saddle to make that critical difference to top-speed, deceleration and cornering. GP '06 also retains the slightly odd power-slide move, accessed by nudging the back brake or double-tapping accelerate, allowing you to say pooh to the tightening of a corner by trying to zoom out of it instead of braking.

And, as I say, bike virgins will take a while to adjust to all of this. Approaching a corner requires more planning than that wise decision you made to tarmac over the scary stones outside. Not only do you need to brake heavily and then power out of the turns, but you've nowhere near as much time to find the right line as you would in a car, and if you mess it up then you're either going to collide violently with the barrier and fly off, losing several seconds, or you're going to snake around like an oil tanker. Full of gravel.

'MotoGP '06' Screenshot 1

You can customise helmet designs and put them all over the place.

It's worth putting the time in though. Because, as the MotoGP fans yawning their way through the basics will happily tell you once they're done throwing weird, scary, unnatural congregations of domestic stone at my face, there's really very little else that comes this close to simulating a motorbike.

So to paragraph six and a more pointed thought: MotoGP '06 is a bit harsher than it used to be. I didn't spend as long with GP3 as I did with its predecessors, admittedly, but even so it feels like there's a bit more frailty to the rider this time. That'll upset a few people, I expect, but someone with an eye for the smaller details of control should have no trouble picking it up. The tutorial only covers the very basics, but Rookie difficulty allows plenty of room to foul up without costing you races, and an associated mode instils the subtler disciplines under the successful guise of a PGR-style ladder of challenges. Yes you'll spend a lot of time in the gravel (noo!), but after a couple of hours in the saddle, whether you're learning the ropes or returning to them after a break, you're more than capable of stepping up to Pro championships.

What's more, should you need time to get used to any of the MotoGP season tracks, there's plenty of room to do that across practice and qualifying sessions prior to the race proper. That said, this reviewer hasn't touched a bike game in months and didn't have much need for either until the Champion difficulty - at which point a solid pole and a steady line through corners proved an absolute must. With so many points of entry though, it's hard to imagine MotoGP '06 frustrating you for too long. And if you're still glowering, mumbling things about how only a numpty would need time to learn such brilliant and widely known circuits, you're the sort of person who'll appreciate that GP '06 includes full 2005 and 2006 season data too.

'MotoGP '06' Screenshot 2

The GP tracks are quite tricky, but Extreme is the ideal way to warm up.

It's not just about racing around Laguna Seca and Donnington either. As with MotoGP 3, there's a street-biking mode called Extreme, with a bespoke track to complement each of the licensed game's 17. The idea here was to highlight the excitement that swells around each GP, where bikers often group together and put on displays, by offering a range of street races loosely drawing upon features of each track's surrounding area. The result is probably the best bit of the game, with street bike riders in jeans zooming around wider tracks in several engine categories. Extreme's undoubtedly an easier ride to start with too, notably in that you can power-slide much further without falling off, and asks less technical questions of your biking skill. You might call it MotoGP's arcade mode.

Then there are the Challenges - also welcome. A bit like PGR3's non-race offerings, they're about hammering away at a task until you've drawn the most speed from a particular sequence of corners, outpaced a rival over a lap's distance and danced through chicanes like a metallic ballerina. As well as building up your technical skills and being a genuinely useful diversion from the slog of championships, they also add a few more experience points to the total you build up elsewhere.

Experience points allow you to refine your bike's stats in key areas of cornering, braking, acceleration and top speed, and they're global attributes rather than bike-specific. Not only does this help you build up, but it offers a simpler way to tweak settings if you fancy attacking some time trial circuits. MotoGP's always been happy to let you customise individual bikes - and you can still manipulate gear ratios, wheelbase, suspension and tyre compounds - but by moving your points into different areas you can make another difference. This kind of duality of approachability and biking depth is dead handy, and as far as those of you with a mission to absolutely cane the hell out of GP '06 go, it means another layer of expertise to acquire.

Meanwhile, on a technical level, GP '06 is phenomenal. The circuits are near-perfect facsimiles and the eye candy's as textured as it is tasty - from rubber laid down through sharp braking to the juddering gravel traps, and slight bumps in Extreme mode's civvy streets unseating you easily and asking a more deliberate approach. Extreme's tracks look particularly magnificent, as it goes, with a much broader range of trackside detail, while environmental effects like rain and fog are handled competently and prefaced by some of the prettiest clouds around.

Of course this is to say nothing of the bikes themselves, which are done up to a level of detail barely fathomable by old-days Xboxen. When we visited THQ a while ago we were walked through the detail to an almost nauseating degree - right down to the way the carbon fibre mesh had been modelled - and developer Climax's observation that where the game had to pretend before it can simply fill in the gaps now seems astute. There's more detail here than perhaps you'll ever appreciate, but the game engine rarely stutters under the weight of it - even with 20 riders on the track - and there are only barely noticeable level-of-detail effects between this and what you might imagine is Climax's optimal level of detail. It's one of the most detailed racing games we've ever seen.

'MotoGP '06' Screenshot 3

The wheelie. Bin there.

The same level of detail's gone into the sound too, and all the bikes are quite distinctive. You can tell whether it's an Extreme or a GP race without even glancing at the screen. It seems all those evenings spent in containers sampling engine revs were time well spent, then - indulgence is a glorious thing when it's put to such good use.

Sadly all this detail does come at a slight price and that's loading times, which are quite sizable. PGR3 was no different, it's fair to say, and GP certainly isn't any less playable on account of them, but it might have been nice to do some of this stuff in the background. Challenge mode, for example, surely could've kept its detailed instructions on how to address individual corners for the load screens rather than having you commit them to memory before you even start the process.

You also have to question the game's attitude to reward in some places. Extreme mode, for example, requires you to complete a 17-track GP season to access, and while you can understand Climax's desire to put its licensed fare front and centre, the fact that Extreme is actually a good bit friendlier on its lowest levels feels a bit contradictory. The game's also rather stingy with its achievements and gamerscore points, only really starting to cough them up at a regular rate after a solid day of play when some of the more serious difficulty levels are conquered. That's fair enough on some level, but adds to the sense that the game's aimed more at the hardcore racing fan than somebody who might have enjoyed GP3's slightly arcadier approach, when actually in all other respects it handles the broad strokes fine. That said, you can't complain too much about the seeding system, which gives you a tangible sense of gain with each victory - and helps in matching players online.

'MotoGP '06' Screenshot 4

We'll never tyre of this.

Online is something MotoGP helped kickstart for Microsoft in its original incarnation (albeit with an add-on component bundled with the original Live package - it wasn't until GP2 that the game was built to fully accommodate Live), and it's smoothly handled here with separate players-of-matched-skill and ranked matches and all the options you'd expect - including a PGR3-style spectating facility if you have to sit out a round because you got there late. Then again there's another flag to be raised for the decision to hold back the more interesting modes, like Tag, where you have to try and put the best times in on corners to claim them in your name, with the winner the person who "owns" the most corners by the end. Tag may be something that those with a solid base of skill will most enjoy, but it would've been nice to have the option to lose horribly at it from the start - if only to whet the appetite.

Still, none of this is fatal in the slightest - and once you've unlocked a few things and reached a plateau halfway up the learning curve, there's a huge amount of challenging content to pick at and a great deal of incentive to do so thanks to multiple rating systems, rewards, integrated leaderboards and a huge number of unlockables, including reversed tracks.

MotoGP remains a bit of an acquired taste - but then that's motorbikes in general isn't it? Approached with a bit of patience it yields great results - and probably represents the pinnacle of biking games across both Xbox formats to date. Improved load times and a bit more encouragement for the newcomer would guarantee it higher marks, but don't confuse yourself with that score - if you've a passion for bikes this could be a system-seller, and if you like well designed racing games you'd be a fool to miss out too. Where PGR3 appeals to people who see "red car" just as much as them that can tell it's a '97 Audi, similarly MotoGP '06 is a game that knows its place and welcomes you to it whatever your background.

8 / 10

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Comments (49) Latest comment 6 years ago

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

  • alpha-0ne #1 6 years ago

    Sounds about right to me i would say +1 to make 9/10 if your are a motorbike fan thought
  • Rambaldi #2 6 years ago

    I know it's good
    I know it's good
    I know it's good
    ...I don't like it.

    There's no place like home
    There's no....
  • Zuiyo #3 6 years ago

    "...I don't like it."

    That's a right kerfuffle.
  • Wrestlevania #4 6 years ago

    My understanding of the noble motorbike lurks somewhere between my understanding of owls and my understanding of gravel

    Doesn't appear to prevent you from writing a very informative - and necessarily detailed - review though.

    This game sounds absolutely fantastic, from a die-hard biker's perspective at any rate. ;)
  • S.J.Rogers #5 6 years ago

    Tried the demo and thought it was dreadful.

    Just my opinion though..!
  • lambtron #6 6 years ago

    I'm not usually a graphics whore but I have to say those screenies are very impressive.
  • S.J.Rogers #7 6 years ago

    I does look Vgood.

    Im just not a motorbike fan and foud it way too hard to control.
  • Stormflood. #8 6 years ago

    'Torque to the hand' - very good.
  • mingster #9 6 years ago

    'Torque to the hand' - very good.

    I'm dumb i don't get it
  • albundy #10 6 years ago

    Basically, what they're saying is this. To most people, this is 'only' an 8, as most people aren't into bike racing, and much prefer the four-wheeled variety. However, if you DO happen to like your biking, then this is easily a 9 or maybe even a 10. For the record, I am an avid follower of MotoGP. Guess which score I've awarded this game..........
  • Darren #11 6 years ago

    I got this game yesterday and it is a good game (I agree with the review pretty much) but...

    ... it's doesn't feel as polished or technically accomplished as the Xbox games. There are bouts of slowdown (framerate drops) on some of the tracks like the penultimate corner on Muegello and the longish straight after the first corner on Donnington which affect the controls, and there's tearing/shearing/rippling when cornering something that wasn't in the previous three Xbox games. Also the wet track effects are a bit overdone and there's no water spray from any of the bikes which looks odd. Also accessing the Friends scoreboard freezes the game, an issue that was also in the demo and one that remains unfixed. Ho hum!

    Given that this game is essentially MotoGP 3 updated with 2005/06 stats, if you still have an Xbox you'd be better off picking that up (if you don't own it already) for under £20 and put the other £30 toward a different Xbox 360 game, something that's actually *new* as MotoGP '06 is not particularly ambitious or different in its game modes.

    And I hate the fact you have to complete a Grand Prix season before you can access the fun Extreme mode. Why, why, why???
    Edited by 1 at 09/06/06 @ 12:10
  • Eighthours #12 6 years ago

    Good review Tom, but I don't know whether you had the "these issues will be fixed before release" line from the devs, as there's a hell of a lot of noticeable slowdown and tearing in the retail copy. Doesn't tally up with the paragraph of the review where you mention that the game engine "rarely stutters" at all.

    That being said, I'm really enjoying this. It's a fine game with shedloads of content (though the presentation's no-thrills and the music's terrible), and on Live it should become a killer title for the committed.
  • TripSkyway #13 6 years ago

    Ordered this today, but I have to wait a week after next friday's asia release to get it.
    Can anyone comment on whether the full game improves on the demo (excluding the obvious additional content).
  • Darren #14 6 years ago

    Agreed.

    Perhaps the reviewer wasn't playing the game in HD but 480p? Certainly of the 9 tracks I've played in the Grand Prix mode, they are quite a few instances of noticeable framerate drops at 720p and the tearing is noticeable on every single corner, particularly the tight ones as the whole screen ripples or judders. The engine is definitely not as slick as it was on the Xbox where I don't recall any slowdown or tearing. That's pretty disappointing considering that this sequel isn't even twice as good as MotoGP 3 yet it's running on a machine reputedly 11 to 13 times more powerful. Hmmmm... :?
  • #15 6 years ago

    Tom, good review, but I'm totally perplexed by both your review and that of Edge, who also gave it 8/10. One of the things you said was:

    "Meanwhile, on a technical level, GP '06 is phenomenal."

    I'm sorry, but there is horrendous tearing on my copy, with an equally horrific frame drop on the corners. Neither yourself or the Edge review mention this, so I'm totally perplexed. Folk on the NTSC-UK forums (behave) are equally puzzled that the game has been released in such a graphically shoddy state.

    You mention that Extreme mode is the easiest place to start, but in my retail copy, you must finish championship before this is available. I'm really beginning to wonder if there are two different versions of this game going out, an optimised one for reviewers, and some sort of graphical beta for retail.

    Seriously Tom, if the tearing is really not there, and the framerate drops really aren't in your copy, then something very strange is going on, so it would be nice to have your thoughts to clarify just what is going on.

    Yours totally perplexed,

    Mapster.
  • Eighthours #16 6 years ago

    Perhaps the reviewer wasn't playing the game in HD but 480p? Certainly of the 9 tracks I've played in the Grand Prix mode, they are quite a few instances of noticeable framerate drops at 720p and the tearing is noticeable on every single corner, particularly the tight ones as the whole screen ripples or judders. The engine is definitely not as slick as it was on the Xbox where I don't recall any slowdown or tearing. That's pretty disappointing considering that this sequel isn't even twice as good as MotoGP 3 yet it's running on a machine reputedly 11 to 13 times more powerful. Hmmmm... :?

    To be fair, the development cycle for the game was tiny in comparison to most. I've only noticed the tearing on certain corners, definitely not on every one.

    Kudos to the devs for getting Guest play in there for the online mode. That's fantastic, and what PGR3 really needed.
  • KD #17 6 years ago

    As a bike fan myself i got to say the minor faults with slow down or tearing is like complaining the £20,000 someone gave you has a few dirty notes in it :)

    Had mine yesterday and even 2 of my mates who couldnt/wouldnt play the old xbox one are liking it and probally gonna buy it.
  • #18 6 years ago

    Tom

    Any chance of addressing the points from my earlier comment? It's not often I'm so puzzled and disappointed :(

    I just want to figure out why so many of us are seeing such poor performance when reviewers aren't.
  • Moogrose #19 6 years ago

    You mention that Extreme mode is the easiest place to start, but in my retail copy, you must finish championship before this is available.

    Tom mentions this aswell mapster... hes just saying that it would be the easiest place to start. but you can't.
  • Dizzy #20 6 years ago

    It *is* a game for bikers :)

    Got two of my friend playing yesterday and one of them is a biker. None of them had ever played before (they don't even play video games usually) and the biker dude got much better results. So I guess that is a good point. 8/10 for us mortals, 9/10 for biker uber players :)
  • Ceatlan #21 6 years ago

    Mapster,

    I can't say I've noticed any slow down or tearing in either the demo or retail version. I'm playing in HD on a 37in HD TV, what are you playing it in ?

  • Eighthours #22 6 years ago

    I can't say I've noticed any slow down or tearing in either the demo or retail version. I'm playing in HD on a 37in HD TV, what are you playing it in ?

    You must be blind! I'm playing it on a Samsung 32 incher.
    Edited by 1 at 09/06/06 @ 14:30
  • #23 6 years ago

    I get it at all settings, though 1080i just pips it for being the worst.

    I even get it with the vga cable.
  • Stormflood. #24 6 years ago

    'Torque to the hand' - very good.

    I'm dumb i don't get it


    torque...talk...?

    Hang on, you're just pulling my leg!
  • BBIAJ #25 6 years ago

    You would have thought that with the bikes being so fastidiously detailed, that the dash and dial would be too, but noooooo...
  • #26 6 years ago

  • Darren #27 6 years ago

    I'm playing the game at 1360x768 in VGA and get the tearing on most corners, often it's minor and seen as a ripple down the screen but occasionally it gets very, very ugly indeed, especially in some of the Training sessions where you have to weave left and right between scaffolds. I nearly threw up when I saw it, thinking no way could this be a game by Climax Brighton who made the super-slick games on the Xbox!

    As for the slowdown it's more noticeable as it affects the precision of the controls on certain sections of the track, which is very disappointing when you consider how MotoGP 3 on the "ancient" Xbox has no slowdown (or even tearing).

    Finally, why are the cusomisation tools so rubbish and why does the game freeze when I access the Friends Scoreboard? This was an issue in the demo and Climax still didn't bother to fix it. Oh horray for buggy Xbox 360 games and life-saving patches, eh? /wink/
  • Dizzy #28 6 years ago

    >I get it at all settings, though 1080i just pips it for being the worst.

    Usually tearing is a problem of the TV... on my TV I have some tearing as well but on my friends TV (same setup, same resolution, different TV) no tearing at all.
  • StreetPreacher #29 6 years ago

    "There are bouts of slowdown (framerate drops) on some of the tracks like the penultimate corner on Muegello and the longish straight after the first corner on Donnington which affect the controls, and there's tearing/shearing/rippling when cornering something that wasn't in the previous three Xbox games."

    Thanks for posting this, I was really excited to purchase this game but I was hoping that the screen tearing and framerate problems from the demo would have been fixed in the final version...

    Screen tearing gives me a headache, and racing games with inconsitent framerates just shouldn't be released at all...

    You just saved me $80.

    Here's hoping that Forza 2 lives up to their promise of consistent 60FPS racing!!

    And in response to a previous post: Screen tearing has NOTHING to do with your display. Screen tearing occurs because this game doesn't emply vertical sync, so whenever the framerate drops below 60fps you get tears in the screen. Some people just aren't as sensitive to tearing or frame drops as other people, so if you dont' notice the problems then I envy you!
    Edited by 1 at 09/06/06 @ 16:00
  • kebab #30 6 years ago

    well, i have to say i havent noticed any tearing. I'm using the component cable at 720p on a 40" lcd tv. Sounds like its a issue related to some tvs. still - it should have been picked up during testing..
  • bloodflowers #31 6 years ago

    I can only speak for demo performance - I'll not be buying it if there's slowdown. On mine (480P), there was no tearing, but definitely the odd bit of frame loss when many bikes were in view on certain sections.

    Time and time again - you hand developers more resources, and they squander it on adding more polygons and textures, instead of making games run smoothly. To be fair, it's pretty damn close, but we should be long past this shit by now.
    Edited by 1 at 09/06/06 @ 16:24
  • Darren #32 6 years ago

    @Bloodflowers - You make a good point there and I agree with you. I don't see why developers make fantastic looking games and boast about it running at 60 fps with 4X anti-aliasing (as Climax have) but then release the game with a shonky framerate and tearing! :?

    Why not remove a few polygons here and there, use 2X anti-aliasing (which is perfectly sufficient for 720p) and use the extra processing power for a more stable, smoother framerate? Or why not use motion-blurring and lock the framerate at 30 fps, like PGR 3, a game that definitely doesn't feel slow?

    It's incredible that MotoGP '06 even has slowdown and tearing anyway as the tracks are mostly pretty sparse compared with most racing games and none of the Xbox games where that bad. The Xbox games ran at 480i/480p at 60 fps, used motion-blurring and 2X Quincunx anti-aliasing! When you consider the specs of the Xbox and compare them with the 360, I have to ask why so many developers are struggling to make 720p games that run with smooth framerates... are they running before they can walk? Are they more concerned with making the games look pretty for magazine and website screenshots? :?
    Edited by 2 at 09/06/06 @ 16:54
  • bloodflowers #33 6 years ago

    @Darren: I think Nintendo have the right idea by flipping the finger at HD gaming, it's just not necessary and a giant waste of machine resources. Apparently that's all that's required for games to be "next gen" however.
  • jeff #34 6 years ago

    Ive played all the moto gp games and while i like 06 its the detail that lets it down like the slowdown,tearing and missing polys on some of the bikes on the start line[the bikes in moto gp mode seem to be missing there front forks and swingarms]
  • brutal #35 6 years ago

    OMG.

    Just why did they rush it out like this? If anything things have gotten worse since the demo. Please excuse the lack of co-herance. I'm very displeased.

    I loved this series. In the demo at one point i was up to 150th in the rankings. I've played this loads and really enjoy it. Or at least i did.

    I could have overlooked the woeful AI if i could enjoy tearing up the track on my own (as per usual, slow riders are slow because they dont go fast. Not because they make mistakes like real riders would*).

    It seems that if you take any corner properly, the performance goes completely up the wall. How am I supposed to race precisely when the framerate fluctuates so much? Not to mention the tearing ALL OVER THE PLACE. (720p, btw, thanks for asking).

    The godawful music. at least i can turn it off ;-0

    The tracks look bland and uninteresting. To play the game properly you really need to be able to concentrate on the next apex in the distance. In this edition, the apex on almost every corner is flickering white with jaggies that hurt the eyes.

    Gfx nitpicking... what are the shadows on jerez really blocky?! Why on some tracks are there textures that change colour as you approach them?! ALL THE WAY ROUND THE COURSE! Talk about offputting. Oh, and when it's raining (which looks worse than the original MotoGP) WHERE THE HELL ARE THE PARTICLE EFFECTS FROM THE RAIN?!!?!? The tarmac is a perfect reflective surface - all you can see is the bloody sky and placed objects around the track and it looks like we're racing on an ice rink.

    Logo design is just as bad as before. Blocky and extremely limited compared to what Forza was capable of.

    If I had bought this at game, it would be going back - no doubt whatsoever. Not impressed.

    Climax - you have 2 weeks to patch it up, or it's going on ebay and i'll never buy motogp again. (having bought all of them so far....)
    Cap the frames to 30, sort out the tearing. Do this and you might be forgiven.





    *i'm aware how bizarre that sounds


  • Darren #36 6 years ago

    I don't know the source but this was posted over on the OXM360 forum, supposedly from Climax, and issued in response to complaints about the game:

    "Ok. First, the scoreboard bug. MS and THQ have been tracking this for us since the demo released (we don't have internal QA here for GP). We have a fix and it will be patched, but it needs to go through a certification process first, so it's likely to take a week or two. We're keeping an eye on the problems that are occuring and will try to get online as water tight as possible. Unfortunately these bugs slipped through both THQ's and Microsoft's testing and certification.

    The tearing. This occurs when the game drops from 60fps. It's still running well above 30, but because the game drops a frame, you get the tear. It was a case of lock the game at 30 or go with the tear; we wanted the higher framerate as it's more important to GP. I don't find that the tearing puts me off in the slightest, but then I guess that's down to the individual.

    The framerate issues are worse online than offline, but I'm genuinely surprised at the level of vitriol here. It's not a constant problem, although I agree it's not ideal either. The game was optimised as far as possible in the time available, and the time available is not something we have control over. The frame rate rarely drops below 30 (and that's been verified with with our tools, in case anyone fancies arguing the point), but it appears more noticeable because of the height it drops from. Again, we could have locked at 30, but no one would have been happy with that. Some tracks are worse than others, Mugello for example is one of the worst offenders whereas Laguna Seca is much smoother.

    I'm very happy with the game and will be happier still once the online issues are sorted. I've been playing it for months and I wouldn't have done so if I thought it was s***. A LOT of hard work has gone into this, it's been a fight from the beginning. We'd all have loved to have a Gotham sized team and development period, but GP is a very low budget title and will remain so as long as remains an XBox-only product. To those who are genuinely gutted (and not just spoiling for a fanboy scrap), I can only say sorry that we couldn't bring you the game you wanted. We have a longer development window for the next one so hopefully it'll be more to your liking. To those who've posted positive comments and are enjoying the game, thanks!"

    Now unless I'm misunderstanding what the guy wrote he's basically saying that they couldn't get MotoGP '06 to run at 60 fps so they disabled V-Sync to make the framerate better and keep the game running above 60 fps. Erm, excuse me but didn't they get the three Xbox games running smoothly at 60 fps and WITHOUT tearing? Is the Xbox 360 so underpowered that it cannot do something the Xbox can do?

    As for the rest of the quote they more or less admit that the game was a rush job, particularly when you consider that they knowingly released the game with the Scoreboard bug. Ho hum, so that's why we pay £50 for half-baked Xbox 360 games!!!

    Personally I think they should have spent another six months on it to refine the engine to Xbox standards (sounds wrong but you know what I mean) and released a more polished product nearer Christmas. With MotoGP 3 out less than a year ago, I don't think anyone was screaming out for an Xbox 360 sequel anyway especially when 95% of the game is identical in content to the last Xbox game. With six to twelve months extra development they could have created brand new Extreme mode tracks, tweaked the A.I., improved the textures and grass, put a few 3D animated people instead of cardboard cutouts, improved the game structure, enhanced the cumbersome editing tools... just generally made it a more worthwhile next-gen product worth paying £50 for.
    Edited by 1 at 09/06/06 @ 23:51
  • brutal #37 6 years ago

    "The frame rate rarely drops below 30 (and that's been verified with with our tools, in case anyone fancies arguing the point), "

    Yes, i'm pretty sure that it does draw 30fps. 25fps in a third of a second, then 5 fps across the other two thirds. The tools probably smooth it out. I also suspect it's worse when running in the real world on a real disc in a real xbox when your tools are not around Mr. Programmer.

    I've played about 4 hours offline today, and it was completly inconsistent across almost all tracks. Went online, found about 3 rooms (rather than the 10-20+ in the demo) and generally didnt have much fun there either.

    They also still have not sorted out the god damn voice comms. As a client there are many occasions there i simply can;t hear anyone apart from the host, and the same applies to everyone else in the room. Another bug from the demo.

    I dont think this should have passed functionality at MS. I think THQ submitted before it was ready, thinking it would fail and were surprised when it didnt fail.


    Oh, and a quick note to any artists and/or level designers. If you're going to populate a level with grass, for teh love of god dont use teh same identical piece a thousand times that rotates towards the camera. It's soooo 1990's it's painful. Thanks.
  • Sorb #38 6 years ago

    "but GP is a very low budget title"

    Oh boy they really know how to sell the game. I do hope it really wasn´t the developer that said all that stuff after all though... :(
  • beep #39 6 years ago

    I've been playing MotoGP URT 3 on the ol' Xbox recently and the only thing I can criticize it for is the framerate hiccups during replays (specifically the replays using the 'action' & 'tv' modes). Other than that it's smooth as and fairly fun.

    Very disappointed to hear the 360 MotoGP game having slowdown in it at all. Might I suggest to developers to settle on a consistent framerate and scale back all art assets until they perform properply. Chances are the game will still look great and actually play great too.

    There's nothing "next gen" about slowdown. For every step forward in graphics, the grandeur of it all is nullified if framerates are shoddy. But that's just me.
  • brutal #40 6 years ago

    I've gone back to the demo now.

    It's more fun. Go figure.
  • #41 6 years ago

    Despite the graphical problems, it's still a great game.

    Been playing it all afternoon, so it's a keeper for me.
  • Darren #42 6 years ago

    I can't help comparing this 360 game with the first MotoGP on the Xbox seeing as both were *new* games on new hardware. Now the first MotoGP had some slowdown but it did run at 60 fps with no tearing and still looked great, nice blur effect when speeding along too. So why couldn't the developers achieve that kind of technical competence on the Xbox 360? That really puzzles me. It doesn't say much for the Xbox 360 when the old Xbox can run a game smoother and faster than a next-gen machine does it? If high-definition gaming means slowdown and tearing in every other game then I'm giving up on new technology and going 100% retro!!!
  • Metalfish #43 6 years ago

    @Yellowtruck, do I detect carbon-copy comments from you, good sir?
  • Rambaldi #44 6 years ago

    Why oh why are the devs determined to go for 60fps at the price of framerate drops and tearing? FFS films are only 24fps, Gotham 3 was 30fps: get off yer anal high horse and give us butter!!!!
  • Calgon #45 6 years ago

    For those people compairing this to the Moto-GP Xbox games... why? Next-Gen games cost more, take longer and work on far more complex hardware than in the past, the smaller devs will struggle at first(no matter how good the dev tools provided are, Sony are going to see much more of this kind of thing you can count on that) but they will get to grips with the hardware soon enough. This is a case of just not having enough time to optimise, it's obvious that all of these problems could have been ironed out with more time, framerate and tearing seem to be the only things wrong with it. Also the game being rushed to the stores is down to THQ, they publish it, they pay for the developement costs, they decide when it ships(so maybe next time, they will learn, if the sales tank).
  • qwerty123 #46 6 years ago

    I have a Sony widescreen CRT connected via a scart cable. I also experienced the shearing effect while leaning into corners on MotoGP. Switched the 360 from 60Hz to 50Hz output and not had the problem since. I’ve also seen this shearing/tearing with DVD’s, Ghost Recon and Table tennis all in 60Hz. I'm thinking of getting the Samsung LE26R74 HDTV, is it possible to still set the 360 to 50Hz output while connecting in HD?
  • qwerty123 #47 6 years ago

    Also the shadow created by the bike often pixelates into a blurry mess. I’m a bit disappointed with it. It will happen at the same points on the course every lap!!!! its as if it cant keep up with everything, and also i thought the days of pop up were gone!
  • BigHairyBear #48 6 years ago

    God, this is depressing reading....I was going to buy this on Thursday(Payday..), but you buggers have put me off..dunno whether to hug you lot or give you all a dry slap....

    confused Bear....
  • sierra_whisky #49 6 years ago

    Hello all, i´m from spain,In addition to all the defects of which already they have been spoken other exist that do not allow to catalogue this title of "next gen", for example:

    Cockpit view: Simply it is an insult to the intelligence of the buyers.
    There are no commissioners in track.
    The public in 3D is little, and badly distributed.
    The TV cameras do not have operator.
    The Wall (pit lane) is absolutely empty.
    The old trick to put a noise in the middle of pit lane, for example in Losail, is stupid.
    The wheel chain of the bikes does not have movement.
    The particle effects are seen only in certain circuits and certain types of grass.
    The slicks are not stained.
    In rain you have only tyre slicks.

    Surely that you still find more things...

    Of course which they are not things that perhaps matter for a race game, but had created an immersion sensation which now the game lacks.

    Ok at agreement that the game needed more development, but its sale to 70 Euros, here in Spain does dont make it cheap.... and surely no a "very low budget game".

    I hope that Climax / THQ rectified and develop a patch, at least for some issues.

    Regards and sorry for my english.
  • Rambaldi #50 6 years ago

    @qwerty123

    Yes and No. If you're using the Component HD cables you can output in 60Hz and upto 1080i. If you're using the VGA HD cables you can only output in 50Hz and, if I'm correct, not to quite as high a resolution. However, with the VGA cables you're more likely to find a resolution that perfectly matches the native resolution of your screen. I've noticed that the VGA signal is a bit 'washed' too and usually requires you to bump up the colour on your TV to get the same saturation as you would with the Component. My advice: buy a TV with both inputs, buy both cables and have a play. I've settled with the Component as I am one of those sad gits who shelled out for a 1080 set ;)
  • jlaakso #51 6 years ago

    sierra_whisky: The "low-budget" presumably means that Climax didn't have much money to develop the game, not its retail price.
  • corposant #52 6 years ago

    sierra_whisky: The "low-budget" presumably means that Climax didn't have much money to develop the game, not its retail price.
    And it shows! MotoGP 06 is largely good, but there's no excuse for releasing a broken game just because you can maybe sort things out later with a downloadable patch. Is this a sign of things to come?

    And quite frankly, shame on Eurogamer and Edge etc for not picking up these bugs!

    Just as a matter of interest, what are all those folks without a Live account going to do about fixing their broken game? Xbox Live apparently has something like a 50-60% penetration rate (According to the latest edition of Edge anyway), which means that 40% of the folks that buy this game won't be able to fix it with a downloadable patch.
  • #53 6 years ago

    This review picks up on the problems:

    Linky

    But then it's my review, so what do you expect ;)
  • Pachinko #54 6 years ago

    I must say that the game is pure racing enjoyment. Yes, it shudders and frame rate drops occur from time to time (playing on 720p over a VGA cable), yet it's not a major problem - I have never screwed up because of that. Technically it could (and should) be more polished, but it's very fast, very playable and very beautiful. A spot on score.
  • qwerty123 #55 6 years ago

    If there's any difference between the handling in the wet I can’t spot it, you can ride as erratic as you do in the dry. Also surprisingly no slipstream! I can’t believe they forgot.

    Faults aside, top racing game.
    Went straight for the hardest setting and it seems easier to ride along side the other bikes without being knocked off every corner as it seemed with motogp 2