The fact is that Formula One has lost it, and Moto GP is now not only the most exciting and skilful form of motorsport that you’re likely to come across on your TV, it also helped make Xbox Live the success it is, as the original Moto GP Ultimate Racing Technology by Climax did more than any other game to make new Xbox owners take the online service to their hearts. That was 4 years ago now and things have moved on, unfortunately little in the Moto GP game world seems to have…
From your first look you’ll see that the latest update of the game (this is the fourth in the series) has an all-new game engine, amazingly detailed bikes and riders, new 'Extreme' road tracks (but not that new, they were in Moto GP3 on Xbox) but sadly that’s about all the good news. As soon as you get going you’ll be impressed with the sensation of speed (without the need for any silly blur effects) but come to your first corner and things start to go wrong - very quickly. As you turn most sharp corners (and some shallow curves) the screen tears in two and you’ll also likely get a control-affecting drop in frame rate, this happens almost consistently throughout the game regardless of track or conditions and truly ruins the look of the game. It effects the steering so often that it just isn’t enjoyable - learning the quirks of a racing game's handling can be fun, learning to allow for graphical hiccups when cornering isn't.
Despite beautifully modelled bikes and riders, details like the fact that the bike’s chains aren’t animated, the riders never really move around enough or hang off of the bikes like the real nutters do, and the bike’s dash instruments don’t work will poke you in the eye particularly when you watch replays. Shadows also look odd and sometimes disappear (leaving the bikes looking detached from the ground), and in wet races the spray effect is downright poor (and missing altogether on some tracks for no apparent reason). This all might sound fussy but the original game had working rev counters and LCD speedos, and each and every bike made its own spray/wake in the rain - so why do we have less detail on a new console? But it's not all bad and looking around the game you'll see some pleasing things, and there’s a nice cloud shadow effect on sunny days, but if you’re being generous ‘unfinished’ is the word that constantly comes to mind.
Scenery-wise the game is a real mix. Remodelled tracks now have immense draw distances and you really can see from one side of a circuit to the other, but this comes at a cost as ‘06 scenery looks decidedly basic and bland at times - shamefully tatty and low-detail at others (the high TV replay camera from turn one at Laguna Seca could honestly be showing you a PlayStation game!). Amazingly, the replays still exhibit frame rate problems from any long camera with lots of bikes in view, so you’re best off admiring the beautiful bikes up close and personal.
But graphical gripes aside, the handling and physics are the biggest disappointment. Play the career modes (Moto GP or fictitious Extreme tracks set around the world) and it’s a well-practiced cycle of upgrading your bike with points gained by winning races and passing challenges, and even from the start this latest version feels more responsive than before, but the bikes still don’t feel right, or act like the real thing. It’s all down to how developers Climax perceive the grip levels being on a Moto GP bike, and in my opinion they’re plain WRONG. The game even tells you that “Moto GP bikes are unstable during power slides” and this is where the problem lies – they’re not, or Valentino Rossi would be dead as a doornail. Unlike real Moto GP, where these days slithering round corners and backing the ‘ass end’ of a bike in to a corner is seen as legitimate technique and the fastest way around a circuit, the game’s handling model would have you believe that the front wheel has either total or no grip, so you can’t two-wheel drift like you see Rossi, Hayden, Pedrosa et al doing every week, and that is disappointing. You can induce a “power slide” by double-tapping the ‘A’ button but it doesn’t really feel right (and tends to induce frame rate problems too), there’s no opposite-locking or slithering in to corners with the rear end hung out and wheels locked up, and this is what makes real Moto GP such an eye-catching sport to watch. On the good side, the series has always had an elegant default control system (the triggers are front/rear brakes and the throttle is either on ‘A’ or the right analog stick) and it genuinely feels like you’re shifting the rider’s weight around.
Online the game plays well...let's just say "it plays", but still suffers from horrendous lag problems, with bikes skipping here and there (even AI ones). so due to the ease with which you can get knocked off this means that most lobbies have collisions turned ‘off’, which will be disappointing to many hoping for racing as close as Project Gotham Racing 2 or Forza Motorsport allowed. A seeding system means you should be pitted against riders of similar ability, but even the best seem to have problems just getting round a 3-lap race without going off track at least once – again an indication of the game’s intrinsic control issues. A nice feature is that you can take a split screen game online, but find three friends to play it with you and they won’t be by the time you finished as this truly makes the 06 graphics engine grind, judder and stutter. The game is also still way too hard to play from any other view than a chase cam, and surveys of several online lobbies (those who could hear me because the voice coms don’t work properly) shows that few Moto GP-ers even try it when competing.
A fan of Moto GP and the game series itself, I wanted this game to be good so much that it hurts to give a damning report – but I must. Every single race you run will be affected by frame rate problems and control issues (the drops in frame rate often mean you’ll go wide on a corner), and despite looking stunning from certain close-up angles, graphical glitches spoil the look at every turn. Moto GP ‘06 is a rough, unfinished-looking game that has evolved a new Extreme Mode for padding, but has in fact regressed since the original. I’ve seen many wildly over-the -top review scores of 9 out of 10 which truly make me wonder what they’ll do when a good racing game comes along – extend their scoring system to 15 presumably. To give you some idea of how half-finished Moto GP 06 really is, it has a 100% fatal bug in it! (it happens every single time) that crashes your 360 and locks it up solid! (you can’t even turn the thing off via the joypad) – this happens when you do a time trial and try to see how your friends times compare. Missing a bug like this suggests two things; the game was rushed out (let's face it, it's not exactly the first 360 game to get such treatment) or the testers never played it online (or just don’t have any friends). Rough and half-finished with aging handling model and out of date net code – unless you’re a bike addict like me then 5/10 might even be generous. Not good, not good at all from a developer and a series that promised so much.
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