MotoGP Ultimate Racing Technology 3 review

I find these days, the most reliable way to mark the passage of time is by the release of sports titles. The end of summer is now marked for me by the release of a new MotoGP game from Climax.The trouble is, the first game can wow the audience, the second allows the developers to really make their mark on the genre and after that, where is there to go?

EA has fallen into a habit with its sports titles of improving the graphics year-on-year and tweaking the gameplay based on feedback from the previous release. Climax has hit that tricky third release with its Xbox bike racer so is it a case of getting its tires stuck in a gravel trap or is the company still innovating?

Familiar Faces

Anyone who's played the first games will feel comfortable with this new release. Sure enough the graphics are an improvement and the bike sounds are even better than before. The controls fall straight into your hand, it's like riding a bike really. As you start to race around the tracks you'll notice the differences to last year almost straight away.

Gone are any traces of arcade style handling. The game risks alienating newcomers as the handling verges on hardcore biking simulation, even more so than in previous years. The game has the depth to reward those who can get to grips with the gentle control required to keep your rider on the bike. For those who just want to pull a wheelie and spin around the track, be warned it's much less forgiving than in previous years.

Game On

The staple of MotoGP3 is the career mode. This is a tour of all of the courses in the MotoGP season including the practice, qualification and the race proper. On top of this is the new extreme mode. With three classes of bikes to choose from across made-up tracks from around the world these courses add a bit of arcade action to the simulation of the grand-prix mode. The courses are less windy and more closed in allowing you to run with the throttle more open. The scenery zooms past as you blur towards 200 mph and some of the night courses look really great. The handling has the same complexity and intricacies as the grand prix but the courses are less forgiving in this mode.

Now one of the nice new features in career mode is the ability to merge with the online mode. Rather than forcing you to try your hand against computer controlled opponents and just having one-off races online, you can now take your career mode races against up to 16 human controlled opponents on Live. This, naturally, has the associated problems of finding worthwhile opponents online but against some friends or serious players this is a worthwhile addition.

Matchmakers

The online matchmaking system has been slightly tweaked to use the new seeding system. Everyone starts off at 100 and winning races lowers your seeding. You can then use this seeding system to restrict the seeding of your opponents. This can make for more balanced races but also tends to result in making it more difficult to set-up larger races or to even find opponents.

The online system still supports up to 16 players simultaneously and is going to be primarily used to arrange one-off races. Climax has always tried to position MotoGP3 at the leading edge for Xbox Live support, a demo of the original MotoGP was given away with the first Live subscriptions and online multi-player support has always been at the fore-front of the MotoGP product.

Sounds like fun

The audio in MotoGP 3 is a main selling point. More than just an engine drone, the audio can be used to get more performance out of the hardware between your legs. It's not perfect of course, the tone doesn't change based on the surroundings, going through a tunnel for instance, but it's pretty close. The presentation is excellent in other areas as well. The graphics are improved over last years version but they're not the revolution that the original graphics were to the genre. The animation when you dismount the bike is pretty good as well.

The character is animated in a rag-doll fashion to really show what happens when you try to dismount at 200 mph. The camera pulls out and turns more cinematic as you watch your rider slide and roll around on the tarmac or gravel. The signature graphic in the series is the increasing blur as you accelerate and that makes a comeback here. The blurring and warping of the world adds a sense of speed and in MotoGP 3 this has been tweaked again which makes it feel faster than ever.

Taking the test

For those not familiar with the series or not familiar with riding motorbikes a series of tutorials are included. These are a bit simple but do help you to learn which button controls which aspect of the bike. The only way to really figure out the handling of the bike is to take to the races. The computer has three difficulty settings and a fourth that is locked until you complete the lower difficulties.

The easiest setting is really too easy and even a first time player should be winning races after only a few attempts. On the next setting the computer gets more aggressive, but if you can avoid getting knocked off your bike by the computer you should be easily able to finish in the top 3. It's not until the top setting when the races really start to get difficult. The Xbox AI isn't all that smart though. It knows where the racing line is and sticks to it come hell or high water.

As the computer riders get more aggressive on the higher difficulties this becomes an annoyance as they won't get out of your way and are far more likely to hold the line and end up knocking you from your bike. When you remount you don't get any grace to get moving so if you restart on the racing line there's a good chance another drone rider will crash into you knocking you both off as you restart.

Stuck in their ways

With MotoGP 3 Climax is in danger of falling into an EA style annual update strategy with little innovation in each release (Though I'd argue the latest FIFA is the most innovative footy game around - Ed). That's not necessarily a terrible thing – compare this years Fifa to last years and there's a small difference but look back over the series to see how far the series has come – it just means that it ceases to become an essential annual purchase.

The new version feels very familiar to those who've played the earlier games. The tweaks mean that you'll have to spend a bit of time getting used to it. The graphical tweaks and sound tweaks will impress in the short term and the addition of the new tracks in the official GP series gives you a reason to purchase.

Those extreme tracks add an extra layer to the game but there aren't really enough tracks to make it worth the purchase on its own. If you already own one then this is only worth checking out if you're really heavily into MotoGP. If you don't already own a title in the series and you're into biking then this is a definite purchase.