Moto GP 07

The Good bits
All the riders
All the tracks
Achievements up the wazoo
Nice handling mechanics

The Bad stuff
Graphics that make an English winter seem bright and interesting
Pointless arcade mode
A wind-blasted skeleton of a championship mode
Very little appeal outside of existing fans


The first big surprise of picking up the MotoGP box is the publisher's logo in the corner. Wait, Capcom? Isn’t it EA’s job to flog franchises into horse flavoured burger? ...Oh wait.

Moving on. The '07 season of MotoGP is now over and Capcom is probably hoping that a few more Australians are looking at picking up some sweet gaming merch. After all, 22 year old Kurri Kurri boy Casey Stoner secured this year's winning trophy with three whole races to spare.

The problem is, racing bike simulations don't exactly have a history of being pick up and play titles. Cars are easy, they only have the steering, brake and throttle to worry about. But on a motorbike it's not so simple. You also have to worry about weight distribution. See, you can throw your body around like a straight edger on red cordial when you're strapped behind the wheel of a souped up WRX and the worst thing you'll do is bump a piercing. But try the same thing on an 800cc Ducati and you'll quickly find yourself injected into a tyre wall on a cartwheeling slab of hot steel.

Out of kindness to the first time racers, MotoGP offers a tutorial race upon start up. After "monitoring" your racing style for a lap or two, the game will suggest a handling mode that suits your skill level. In short, if your rider spends most of his time nipple grinding in the gravel pits, the game will helpfully suggest "arcade mode". If you manage to find the brakes at some point, it will suggest "Advanced". Differentiate between the front and rear brakes (oddly defaulted to square and R2 respectively) and the game will suggest "Simulation mode".

The biggest difference in Arcade mode is in the weight distribution. The bike feels heavy and sticky, with very little variation when you lean your rider back and forward. A little like a two wheeled car, strangely enough. This is in stark contrast to the other two modes, where accelerating without leaning forward can quickly turn a wheelie into a back flip, counter pointing on your head. Or in reverse, braking hard without leaning back can result in an uncontrollable "endo" or nose stand, which inevitably throws your rider face first into the tarmac.

But all this simplicity means that Arcade mode comes across as exceedingly dull. The very word "Arcade" should conjure images of powersliding around hairpins in an impossible drift, or snaking dangerously over boost markers. Instead, Capcom has taken the more traditional meaning of "Arcade," which is to say, "two buttons, one joystick, the nagging feeling you're wasting your money, crap graphics."

Did I mention that before? The whole ugly thing? MotoGP 07 features some of the most uninteresting patches of green and tan ever before seen in a racing game, a fact compounded by the fact most of us have driven the Laguna Seca in Gran Turismo 4, yet have no recollection of it being covered in beige crepe paper.

None of this makes the gameplay bad, of course. In spite of the steep learning curve, once you get the hang of the mechanics there is some fun to be had. It's just that the visual blandness of MotoGP seems to highlight all the other parts of the game where there's an absence of fun.

For starters, the sensation of speed is not great. As usual, a low framerate is the culprit. This can be excusable when there's lots of detail, but there isn't. What's more, the championship mode simply consists of a points table and 18 races, with cheesy tourist videos as your only segue. That's right, no podium videos, no money earned, no damage and no upgrades.

I even found myself wishing there was some commentary. After all, it's one of the best way to make a dull sport seem more interesting: "holds it...holds it...HOLDS IT!"

Unfortunately, there's none to be found.

Luckily, for the diehards who already have this game on pre order, things get a little better. Every single track and rider from the '07 season is present, and they perform similarly to their real life counterparts. In addition to the arcade mode, there's also an Xbox-style 100 point achievement list, which extends the longevity of the no frills championship mode considerably.

But for the rest of us, it's not going to be enough. Perhaps the best way to sum up this game is the sole portrait of '06 champion Valentino Rossi that appears constantly while the game loads. Frozen into an unrecognisable grin, he seems to say, "Yeah, I'm here. But I'm not sure if I want to be."