Well, when you first start up MotoGP 06, things do not seem a whole lot different from what we saw in the previous Moto GP games. We still get the same sort of modes to choose from, whether it be a single race, career mode, or online multiplayer. Career mode is, of course, the main meat of the game as you win races to build up your bike and rider statistics for both offline and online use. Bike editing and creation plays a bigger part than ever with all kinds of colours, shapes and textures at your disposal for designing your bike and rider however you want them to be. While the likes of Forza Motorsport on the Xbox offer more, there’s enough depth within the options to create some really good looking designs if you’re prepared to put in the time to do it.
The controls remain much the same as before with smooth analog control giving you full control over your bike and your rider. Using the rider’s bodyweight is more important then ever before, so leaning back before corners will stabilize breaking whilst leaning forward on straights will reduce wind resistance and improve your top speed as a result. Powersliding seems a less effective tactic this time around, so Moto GP veterans will need some time to adjust. It’s this tremendous degree of control that you have over the bike that has made Climax’s Moto GP games the benchmark for other racing games to follow.
It's hard to fault the superb bike models.
Each race weekend is put together much the same as before with qualifying sessions as much a part of the enjoyment as the races. Taking part in the ten minute qualifying session is an ideal opportunity to study the tracks and learn the racing line, while putting together a perfect lap for a front row grid position is as satisfying as a good race performance. Races are again made up with a total of 20 competitors comprising of the usual suspects Max Biaggi, Marco Melandri and, of course, Valentino Rossi - each with better AI than before. They still have a tendency to brake too early on the easier settings and can occasionally ride into you out of pure stupidity. But, they do pose a stiff challenge later on and they’re not exempt from making errors which is nice as seeing other riders ride onto the grass adds a somewhat human touch to the game.
New in MotoGP 3 was the Extreme mode, and this returns here. As an alternative to the standard Moto GP track events we’ve been so far in the series, these races take place on road based environments and generally offer tracks with longer straights and tighter bends than you would find on the real courses. It makes a nice change, not only visually as the environments are far more varied here with lush meadows, dusty deserts and cobbled city streets replacing the dull greyness of race circuits, but the actual style of these tracks gives the game a different feel too. The mode itself is disappointingly similar to the MotoGP championship though, with the same bike upgrading system complete with practice and qualifying rounds. Given the fact that the Extreme mode doesn’t have to stick to the format of the actual Moto GP season, it seems a shame that they didn’t try something a bit different with it.
It’s MotoGP 06’s over familiarity and lack of ambition that is its biggest downfall. Barring the odd new track and slightly improved controls, the game is pretty much identical to the previous iterations. Of course, the past games, especially Moto GP 2, were of such quality that it’s hard to think of ways to drastically move the game forward, but that of course begs the question of if Moto GP 2 was so good, how necessary was this game in the first place? If there is one thing that it does achieve is that it gives online racing fans something to sink their teeth into. The Xbox 360 is hardly short of online racing games, but Project Gotham Racing 3 is the only one out there at the moment to offer anything resembling realism.
They really should be looking where they're going.
And MotoGP 06 offers exactly that. While a lot of car based games can turn into bumper cars at times when playing online, the fear of falling off your bike means people for the most part are much more careful when racing in MotoGP 06. With its super slick presentation, setting up games is simple. Options are plentiful with a wide array of tracks to choose from and all sorts of settings and configurations to mess around with, it has pretty much all you could want from an online racing game. The netcode probably isn’t quite as stable as in the Xbox games, but races are usually smooth. A new ranking system also means you can keep people of superior ability and bike stats out of your rooms, so matching up with people of similar skill is more common than in most other games. Unfortunately, Climax have for some reason removed the simulation sliders for this version of the game. I, for one, had a lot of enjoyment doing full lap racing with 100% sim settings in MotoGP 2, so it’s a shame to see it not included this time around after they were originally ditched in MotoGP 3. On the plus side, all lap records are recorded online and can be compared with the world or even just your friends list.
For those who have already had a glimpse at the overall score you’re probably wondering why a game from a series of constant 8/10 performers hasn't quite made the grade this time around. Well, it’s because it’s full of technical problems from start to finish. The MotoGP games have always boasted solid 60 frames per second gameplay, yet this struggles to make 30FPS at times. The latter stages of Mugello for example turns into a slide show for the final few corners, something the old games never suffered from. It’s a step back that’s for sure. There are problems in the online setup too. The sound glitches in lobbies, you can’t see who’s talking in a race and the whole game crashes if you dare even try and look at your friends times. This is really basic stuff that should be tested for. Graphically the game is all over the place too with some hideous screen tearing that frequently cuts across the centre of the screen whenever the framerate takes a hit. Playing in non-HD resolutions fixes up the framerate but tearing is still very much a problem and besides, you shouldn’t have change your resolution.
It wouldn’t be so bad if the game didn’t look a great deal better in HD. Of all the games I’ve played on the Xbox 360, this shows the difference between 480p and 720p the most. Colours look far brighter, textures far sharper and everything else far crisper. It would be quite easy to say that this looks only marginally better than MotoGP 3 unless you’re playing this in HD. Although it looks far better in 720p, that’s not to say the game really impresses. The framerate and screen tearing already spoil any visual beauty the game might have had but there’s a fair few graphical niggles that only amplify its problems. The complete lack of filtering leaves the track ahead a blurry mess, the bike/rider shadows are unexplainably fuzzy while the ‘cockpit’ view is hilariously poor. A low-res image of a speedometer just doesn’t cut it anymore. Motion blurring effects at high speeds are non-existent too and don’t even get me started on the so called ‘rain’ effects.
Get ready for dominoes!
On the audio side of things, the bike engines do sound noticeably better than in the past games, all in accurate 5.1 surround sound of course, but it’s not long before you’ll be turning down that whining engine noise in the options menu a notch or two. Once again, however, you’ll probably turn to the custom soundtrack to save you from yet another migraine inducing in game soundtrack.
While it’s hard not to be disappointed with the so very few improvements/additions to the main game and the long list of technical problems, MotoGP 06 is still a very good bike racing game. You only have to play recent releases like Tourist Trophy to see why Climax’s games are still head and shoulders above everything thing else on two wheels. Owners of the previous games without a HDTV should think twice before splashing out at full price on this given the strong similarities between it and MotoGP 3 in terms of both content and visuals. In fact, it’s a shame this wasn’t released at a slightly cheaper price point given its strong similarity to 2005’s game. To quote a statement from a Climax developer on another popular gaming forum; ‘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 it remains an Xbox-only product.’ If it’s a low budget title then maybe it should have been a lower priced game. The added expense of Xbox 360 games are supposedly down to the increased development costs, but for a game like this it’s hard to see where the expense went given that what we have here is little more than a prettier MotoGP 3. Fingers cross that MotoGP 07 turns out to be the real next-gen addition to the series we were expecting this time around.
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