My Moto GP 360, retail game review:

[RobertR1]

Changes from the demo:
Better framerates but still not perfect. If you're on track the framerates are generally fine but running off the road can cause choppiness on some tracks. It's very random and hard to pinpoint what causes it.

Controls:
I want the full Sim that MotoGP and MotoGP 2 (never played 3) had where you could hold nice long slides and so forth. Now it's a bit too snappy and they over did how much you tighten up your line from oversteer. The rear brake application is done wrong. You can't tap the rear mid corner to break a bike loose into oversteer, you'll crash from lock up or fold the front from a weight shift onto the front tire. You can how ever slightly tighten up your line by a feather touch in long corners. I have no idea what idiot thought of that. The rear brake also slows down the bike too much, even when you're hard on the front. The rear tire is barely floating on/off the ground when you brake hard with front on sport/race bikes so the rear brake is horribly done. In moto GP 2, you could see your front tire folding from too much brake + cornering. Now you simply stay on the brakes as hard and as long as you want into the corner with such an issue.

Graphics:
They're good but AF seems to be lacking sorely in some areas. The pop in's aren't that bad.

Sounds:
Bikes sounds are not as dramatically different as from car to car so I guess they're ok.

Final:
6/10. If you've ridden or raced sportbikes competitively, you'll be disappointed with the controls. If you're not aware of such dynamics, you'll have a bit for fun so it could very well to be a 7.5/10 for you. Certainly not a "must have" for the 360.

 

[darkblu]

not into bikes myself, but thanks for the short review. can we expect a similar one on forza2 once it comes out? ; )

 

[BenSkywalker]

No mention of the tearing? I have found that to be far more bothersome then the slowdown(which is pretty bad on some tracks- mainly the extreme series though IME). It almost looks like there is no VSync enabled at some points, it gets to the point where I have to stop playing after a while.

Also- the extreme series, which they should have had as the series you start with(it doesn't open until after you beat a GP series- which is extremely easily done on the default Rookie starting point) is far more arcade then the GP. Handling dynamics are FAR more forgiving and you can easily put your bike into a nice oversteer drift on a relatively high speed sweeper and control it just fine.

HDR implementation also irritates me. I wish devs would step away from LCDs and try to play the game on displays that are not insanely overbright when they are testing it- or at the very least don't pull out the brightness controls that were there in the demo. The GP on Rookie difficulty is very, very easy. I would normally lap a few bikes my first time running a track(no practice, no qualifying) and that is only three laps- second place would be close to half a lap behind me. That is, except the tracks where the HDR implementation made it so you can not see certain corners. The handling characteristics aren't the most forgiving, so by the time you get close enough to see where you are going you are done. In the races that had multiple corners like that, I would end up crashing for every one my first lap, be way behind 19th place, and not manage to come back into the top five(only a few tracks like that in GP, there are a lot more racing through the cities in extreme mode but the handling is far more forgiving so it isn't nearly as irritating).

The extreme mode also allows you to modify your bike in the generic GranTurisimo style way- although not even as in depth as that(ie- braking, better braking, better better braking type of stuff, no option to buy a certain type of package from a particular vendor like in Forza).

Overall I think it is a decently amusing title, and due to there being nigh nothing to play on the 360 it may be a 'must buy' for those of you who have been waiting for anything worth while.

 

[RobertR1]

No mention of the tearing? I have found that to be far more bothersome then the slowdown(which is pretty bad on some tracks- mainly the extreme series though IME). It almost looks like there is no VSync enabled at some points, it gets to the point where I have to stop playing after a while.

The tearing really improved for me when using 720P instead of 1080i, not sure why???
I agree, the HDR is overdone and makes the reflect sooo much that you can't even see the corner, especially interesting since you'd be wearing a tinted Visor anyhow when racing in the dry.

 

[kyleb]

The tearing really improved for me when using 720P instead of 1080i, not sure why???

I noticed that when goofing around with the demo as well. I'm not sure why though, the game is rendering at 1280x1024 either way.

 

[expletive]

I noticed that when goofing around with the demo as well. I'm not sure why though, the game is rendering at 1280x1024 either way.

Do you mean 1280x720?

Maybe the 1080i vs 720p thing is display related, i.e. deinterlacing... Though ive never heard of bad HD deinterlacing cause something that resembles tearing.

 

[kyleb]

Do you mean 1280x720?

Nah, 1280x1024, at least with the preview build that guy was playing with anyway and I doubt that changed for the retail version.

 

[expletive]

Nah, 1280x1024, at least with the preview build that guy was playing with anyway and I doubt that changed for the retail version.

Seems odd that they would render 50% more pixels than required isnt it? Also, how do they get the aspect ratio to look right on 16:9 TVs (or 4:3 TVs for that matter)? Are they cropping the image vertically?

 

[Acert93]

Seems odd that they would render 50% more pixels than required isnt it? Also, how do they get the aspect ratio to look right on 16:9 TVs (or 4:3 TVs for that matter)? Are they cropping the image vertically?

There are a couple other games rendered at 1280x1024. DoA4 is one I believe and I think someone had mentioned NFS. If the current build is not GPU bound then why not?

 

[AlNom]

There are a couple other games rendered at 1280x1024. DoA4 is one I believe and I think someone had mentioned NFS. If the current build is not GPU bound then why not?

And... "coincidentally", 1280x1024 fits inside 10MB.

 

[Acert93]

And... "coincidentally", 1280x1024 fits inside 10MB.

I have not played DoA4, but I had not heard any significant aliasing complaints on that title. Is there? I know you cannot trust screenshots on the game because it has a photo mode where it adds motion blur and whatnot. Anyone who owns the game willing to comment?

 

[Hardknock]

DOA4 is rendered at 1080i

And there's texture aliasing on the hair sometimes, but that's it.

 

[kyleb]

And... "coincidentally", 1280x1024 fits inside 10MB.

Not with x2aa.

DOA4 is rendered at 1080i

How did you come up with that?

 

[AlNom]

Not with x2aa.

And not with 4xAA. I don't quite understand your point. :|

 

[hey69]

I have not played DoA4, but I had not heard any significant aliasing complaints on that title. Is there? I know you cannot trust screenshots on the game because it has a photo mode where it adds motion blur and whatnot. Anyone who owns the game willing to comment?

i had this game for a while and didnt notice any special aliasing problems. i must say i played it on a regular CRT tv , maybe LCD hdtv's show more easely jagyz? i dunno.

environments are nice, nothing super, characters are a bit above the xbox version in quality

nevermind, i hated that game

 

[LunchBox]

I just bought this game but now I'm not sure if I should open it...
But to those who had played it...
Is it fun to play???
Is it worth the 60 bucks???

 

[pipo]

I just bought this game but now I'm not sure if I should open it...
But to those who had played it...
Is it fun to play???
Is it worth the 60 bucks???

http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/xbox360/motogp06

 

[expletive]

There are a couple other games rendered at 1280x1024. DoA4 is one I believe and I think someone had mentioned NFS. If the current build is not GPU bound then why not?

Two(three) reasons:

1. 1280 x 1024 is not 4:3 or 16:9 so you have to do something with the image in order for it to fit properly in either aspect ratio, either scale it or crop it. Scaling an image is not prefereable to rendering it in its native resolution.

2. In the case of MotoGP, based on the feedback here, they do not have vsync turned on. Render the game at 720p and use whatever horsepower you get back to run the game with vsync on.

3. I dont know of a benefit to rendering at 1280x1024 when its not available as an ouput resolution, is there one?

 

[AlNom]

Two(three) reasons:
1. 1280 x 1024 is not 4:3 or 16:9 so you have to do something with the image in order for it to fit properly in either aspect ratio, either scale it or crop it. Scaling an image is not prefereable to rendering it in its native resolution.

This isn't really a problem. Take Doom 3's widescreen mode (PC) which just changes the view ala anamorphic widescreen; it stretches the rendered image, but the image is rendered such that it is meant to be stretched. It's the typical method for widescreen games (before HDTV resolutions).

2. In the case of MotoGP, based on the feedback here, they do not have vsync turned on. Render the game at 720p and use whatever horsepower you get back to run the game with vsync on.

The bottleneck may not necessarily be the GPU as Acert already speculated, so by definition, it wouldn't matter if they reduced the resolution.

3. I dont know of a benefit to rendering at 1280x1024 when its not available as an ouput resolution, is there one?

It's pretty much SSAA for most displays but otherwise a native resolution of which PC monitors can make use.

 

[kyleb]

Scaling an image is not prefereable to rendering it in its native resolution.

Not so by any means. Rendering at higher than your output resolution is preferable if you have the peformace to spare, and rendering at lower than your output resolution can also be preferable if your prerformace isn't there at native. Rendering at your output resolution can be the best choice, but often times it is just a golden chalice rather than the carpenters cup.

And not with 4xAA. I don't quite understand your point. :|

My point is, the screenshot I linked shows x2aa.