fitbabits
01-23-2006, 07:40 AM
For your reading pleasure, Eurogamer (http://www.eurogamer.net) has posted their first impressions (http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=62577) of MotoGP 2006.
Motorbike games don't always get a fair hearing in the games press. There are people around here (me included) who'd jump up and down or at the very least offer counterarguments if somebody claimed Pro Evolution Soccer was just the same game every year, but MotoGP? Now, I'd imagine the standard of games journalists' health and habits has improved substantially over the past few years, but there aren't many obvious bike nuts, despite the potential for sitting down in a hunched position straining to see things zooming past us very quickly.
..........
Publisher THQ estimates that GP '06 has about five times the detail of URT 3, but that's a meaningless stat - the real proof is in looking at the bikes. We already know that the braking systems are independent, for example, so the game knows what's meant to happen to the bike in the world when you press the rear brake button, but when you brake in the 360 version the bits of the bike that would normally act, act. The detail's so fine that you can make out the weld marks, and if you stripped things down you could even see where the artists put the serial numbers on the parts. To the right extent, this detail extends to the rider too - I doubt Climax got Valentino Rossi to pose naked for them, but when he twists one of the handlebars, it's not just an awkward, disjointed wrist movement; you can see the right muscles flexing.
.........
Even in this state, the attention to detail is striking. What's particularly admirable though is that MotoGP 2006, to a greater extent than its predecessors, seems to understand how what they're emulating can be structured to fit the requisite arcs and thrills of a game. That probably sounds like fluff, so think of it this way: relatively few people in this country play ice hockey or golf, but we've got ice hockey and golf games that map the actions of those sports to fit a rewarding structure, distilling key disciplines like a chip shot swing into a passable analogue reproduction. MotoGP looks to be doing that, and it doesn't need any flaming balls or arcade aftertouch to do so.
Release - March 1, 2006 [Xbox 360]
I've been a fan of the series for a long time and I can't wait for this one. It looks to be shaping up very well indeed.
Update: PlanetXBox 360 (http://www.planetxbox360.com/?view=video_gallery&game=84) has a 3D Screenshot of the game.
Motorbike games don't always get a fair hearing in the games press. There are people around here (me included) who'd jump up and down or at the very least offer counterarguments if somebody claimed Pro Evolution Soccer was just the same game every year, but MotoGP? Now, I'd imagine the standard of games journalists' health and habits has improved substantially over the past few years, but there aren't many obvious bike nuts, despite the potential for sitting down in a hunched position straining to see things zooming past us very quickly.
..........
Publisher THQ estimates that GP '06 has about five times the detail of URT 3, but that's a meaningless stat - the real proof is in looking at the bikes. We already know that the braking systems are independent, for example, so the game knows what's meant to happen to the bike in the world when you press the rear brake button, but when you brake in the 360 version the bits of the bike that would normally act, act. The detail's so fine that you can make out the weld marks, and if you stripped things down you could even see where the artists put the serial numbers on the parts. To the right extent, this detail extends to the rider too - I doubt Climax got Valentino Rossi to pose naked for them, but when he twists one of the handlebars, it's not just an awkward, disjointed wrist movement; you can see the right muscles flexing.
.........
Even in this state, the attention to detail is striking. What's particularly admirable though is that MotoGP 2006, to a greater extent than its predecessors, seems to understand how what they're emulating can be structured to fit the requisite arcs and thrills of a game. That probably sounds like fluff, so think of it this way: relatively few people in this country play ice hockey or golf, but we've got ice hockey and golf games that map the actions of those sports to fit a rewarding structure, distilling key disciplines like a chip shot swing into a passable analogue reproduction. MotoGP looks to be doing that, and it doesn't need any flaming balls or arcade aftertouch to do so.
Release - March 1, 2006 [Xbox 360]
I've been a fan of the series for a long time and I can't wait for this one. It looks to be shaping up very well indeed.
Update: PlanetXBox 360 (http://www.planetxbox360.com/?view=video_gallery&game=84) has a 3D Screenshot of the game.