XBOX 360 Review: MOTO GP 10/11

Monumental Games- was a low-point for the franchise, and I thought, wrongly it transpires, that it heralded what would be a poor design relationship: game play was noticeably poorer than the previous years' offerings, handling was noticeably problematic (which for a motorbike game is catastrophic) and the visuals were uninspiring at best. But thank God for Moto GP 10/11, and second chances. It seems that I may well have been wrong about the tide of inferior motorbike games under Monumental's card, because this year's edition is something else entirely. Praise be to Valentino Rossi! There are a lot of good things to celebrate here. Handling is the major improvement across all difficulty levels - which of course it had to be after last year's problems- but it actually outstrips some of the better previous editions as well. All told this is the most realistic of all motorbike racing games, in terms of the way the bike moves at least, and the ability to change the specifications of both the bike and the riding aids to suit your style and comfort with the game is a genius option, with the changes making a very discernible difference to your ride. This is definitely the best off-road new feature, as it caters for both hardcore simulation fans and arcaders, effectively offering the ability to change the feel of the race entirely in a few small clicks. The riding aids are themselves very good- which becomes very obvious if you turn them all off, and ride natural through an early race- the realism here is on form as well, as it's almost impossible for a novice to handle- as impossible as say riding an actual motorbike round a track at close to 200mph. Most people will have to learn from the ground up- let's face it, most of us are geared towards four wheel racing, and a bike is a different beast entirely- and to that end the instructional practice laps at the outset of Career mode are pretty helpful. My only issue was I couldn't reconcile the audio track instructing me to press which button when, with the visual, as the size and placement of the instructions almost completely passed me by at first. Front and centre might have been a better option.

The braking points too are finely executed in that misjudging them (or consciously ignoring them) doesn't always result in a face full of gravel or tarmac, at least at the lowest difficulty level. This allows you, if the inclination takes, to explore your own racing lines, allowing more aggressive driving, and kamikaze late braking in order to try and steal positions, and thus enables comparatively greener riders like myself the opportunity to have a little wayward fun before the advancement in difficulty levels (and the consequential increase in realistic ride characteristics) makes it less likely you'll stay on the road. Having said that, the game actually gets better as you begin to feel confident enough to turn some of the assists off- thanks to Capcom's very good eye for realism, there is a huge amount of pleasure to be had in taming the beast between your knees. And the improved Challenge Mode allows you to hone specific skills that improve your ride overall. Judging by my early efforts, and the difficulty I had in stepping up from All Assists to only some, it may be some time before I can set sail for the distant horizon of the Insane level.

A good yardstick to measure games like this by is how willing you are to complete multiple seasons in Career mode, and it is usually the area in which other officially licensed motorsport games fail- in fact, all sport games are often scrutinised more on the potential longevity of their Season or Career Mode than any other area, given that element's track record. Moto GP 10/11 manages this heady achievement, mostly because of the game's capacity to challenge the player (the progression from 125cc all the way up to Moto GP becomes quite obsessive), but also because of the ability to almost change from arcade game-play to the super-real level of detail that will no doubt make it a must-have for fans of the sport. I have to say, I wasn't that much of a fan of the new local co-op play feature- which to me feel a little like authorised cheating- and I'd have preferred local head-to-head rather than co-op. The idea of destroying someone you know and love's chances of glory by dropping into their game is just deliciously dark to me. The XP system, based on Reputation is another feature that has the potential to grip players, since it directly offers a manipulative correlation between on-road performance, and the quality of the team, and sponsors you can pick up throughout the season. I'm competitive: I like to be the best, and to have a quantifiable scale, which I can affect to increase the prowess of my staff and team generally, I'm a happy racer. The other indicator of longevity of course are the multiplayer and online features, since it is they that offer the key to gaming well beyond the in-game features have become tiresome. The fact that Moto GP 10/11 is the only racing game to allow you to race against 20 online players is testament to how well it should do with online gamers. The few problems I found with the game are precisely that- few. But chief among them is the audio- the realistic sounds are all well and good, but the background musical accompaniment is awful. It sounds like listening to some European house music playing out of someone else's car window- and the mesh of that music and the otherwise excellent sound effects is oddly soulless. As with all Xbox 360 titles, Achievements will rank high in some gamers' value system, so it's good to note that Moto GP spreads the difficulty from the insanely easy (customising your bike and biker- which wasn't an issue for me, as my sporting allegiance forbade me from using the default red and white settings) to the middling difficulty (winning a Moto GP season) and through to the extremely dedicated/insanely taxing (Ride over 1000 miles/Do a wheelie that lasts 500 feet). Overall, Moto GP 10/11 can safely claim to be one of the greatest motorbike racing games yet released to the console gaming market, realistic and challenging, and with genuine potential for longevity. It will inevitably have difficulty finding a hugely wider audience than established fans of the Moto GP series, and fans of the sport itself, because of the nature of the beast, BUT by rights it should make a more obvious indent into the racing market, because it certainly deserves to on merit. And thanks to the game's ability to level the playing field between casual motorbike gamers and the hardcore leather and helmet faction, it may just manage a little more market presence than last year's disappointing affair. As a sort of mini-spoiler, I'll pass on a little advice that came with the PR pack for the game. The best approach to facing the braking zones is to brake furiously as soon as you see them, not when you hit them, because by then, it's already too late. Ominous sounding, maybe, but the annoying slow-down when you hit the dirt begins to grate after the third or fourth time you overcook your acceleration into a killer corner. This review is based off of an extensive playthrough of all single-player modes on Gentle and a test of each difficulty level (including Insane, which was rather colourful), as well as a brief test of online play, and multiplayer modes. A copy of the game was provided by Capcom for review and the game was released last Friday. Buy it here.