The MotoGP series of games have been surprisingly successful despite the brutally difficult simulation-style gameplay and the fact that the sport isn’t terribly popular in the U.S. THQ and Climax Studios handled previous games in the series on the Xbox 360, but MotoGP 08 moves on to a new publisher in Capcom who tasked developer Milestone to try to take the genre to never before seen heights. Does MotoGP 08 continue the success of its predecessors? Find out right here in our full review.
Quick Hits
- Title: MotoGP 08
- Publisher: Capcom
- Developer: Milestone
- ESRB Rating: “E” for Everyone
- Genre: Racing
- Pros: Fully licensed; solid physics; fun gameplay
- Cons: Bland presentation; shallow customization, could use more noob help
MotoGP 08 features all of the official bikes, riders, and tracks from the 2008 series as well as all three race classes, so for fans of the real world sport this is the most accurate game yet. Gameplay modes include Quick Race and Time Attack as well as a Career mode that takes you through five years of racing, switching teams, upgrading bikes, and all of the other stuff you would expect from a racing career. There are also 50 challenges which ask you to stay above a certain speed, use a minimal amount of brake, or follow the optimal racing line as closely as possible.
On paper the mode listing seems pretty impressive, but MotoGP 08’s offerings are surprisingly shallow. Bike customization is very, very basic and your tuning options are severely limited. A lot of the fun in simulation racing games is tweaking and tuning your vehicle to drive the way you like as well as to give you a sense of ownership. You never really feel that in MotoGP 08. Another disappointing aspect of the game is that your progression through the career has very little fanfare. You just move from race to race with no real feeling of reward, which makes it hard to feel motivated to keep playing.
Gameplay
CapcomFrom a gameplay perspective, MotoGP 08 is a solid simulation racer. Taking the optimal line through corners and braking and accelerating correctly are vitally important because in this sport you’ll not only be going slower than your competitors but you’ll likely be crashing a lot. There are three handling styles in the game – Arcade, Advanced, and Simulation – and each one offers a very different feel and level of difficulty. In Arcade mode you can brake hard late into corners and basically throw your bike around at will with no real threat of it spinning out. Advanced mode has your rear wheel trying to kick out more often if you don’t race correctly. And Simulation mode beats you down and makes you eat dirt because you have to be nearly perfect to even get around the track. The three handling levels provide a fairly nice balance of difficulty and a logical progression that will help newcomers to the genre learn how to play better. One thing that would have made the game even more accessible is an on-track racing line graphic similar to what is in Forza 2, which would have gone a long way towards helping people race better. As it stands now, it takes a lot of trial and error and frustration for newcomers to learn how to play, which is a bad thing.
When you really get into the swing of things and learn how to race, it is pretty darn satisfying. The rhythm of brake, turn, accelerate, brake, turn, accelerate, etc. has a completely different feel on two wheels than it does on four wheels, and taking a turn perfectly in MotoGP 08 is amazingly thrilling.
Graphics and Sound
Graphically, MotoGP 08 is a mixed bag. The riders and bikes look great and the animations of the rider moving around on the bike are very good, but the tracks are completely bland and barren and boring. One thing that I do have to mention about the graphics is that the rainy events where the track is wet and the bikes are kicking up water are pretty darn great looking. I was rather unimpressed with the graphics for the first few races and then a wet race popped up and I was pleasantly surprised.
The sound doesn’t have the same wide range of quality and is instead mostly bad. Forgettable music, no announcer, and tinny sounding bikes all make for a pretty poor aural experience. Also, the overly loud sound effects on the (bland) menus are some of the most obnoxious I have heard in a long time. It isn’t often when you dread playing a game because the menu grates on you so much, but that was my experience with MotoGP 08.
Bottom Line
CapcomMotoGP 08 is a mix of highs and lows that all come together to produce a pretty mediocre game overall. The gameplay is solid and I like the different handling styles, but it can be very frustrating for newcomers due to the difficulty of the sport and the simulation focus of the game. There is no doubt that it is fun, but you have to really work at it. The game benefits from being fully licensed to cover the 2008 season, but the actual modes are pretty shallow. The presentation is also inconsistent with so-so to good level graphics and mostly bad sound and poor menus. Inconsistency is really the name of the game here because when one aspect shines another part of the game drags it down. Overall, MotoGP 08 just isn’t all that good and I can’t recommend it. Give it a rental if you are a fan of the genre, but you’ll likely find that it doesn’t compare to favorably to 07’s game.
