MotoGP 10/11

“This game is real. The only thing with realism is that, well, bikes are actually quite difficult to ride around tracks at 200mph. We have that covered by giving you aids.”

Umm, OK, Capcom…

“… because we have introduced a metric tonne of real and getting used to that will take longer than four seconds.”

OH! You mean “assists”, hee hee, I see what you did there, kind of.

This is from the covering letter that came with my copy of MotoGP 10/11. I believe there is some humour in there but I have to admit it was lost on me when I followed the advice and turned on ALL of the rider assists as was recommended “even if you’ve played a MotoGP game before”.

This is me during that first session:

“What are you doing?”

“Why are you braking there?”

“Sit up dammit!”

So I dived into the rider assist options page and immediately set about customising them to suit MY style of riding. See, that’s the first of the new features I want to tell you about. As well as a set of ‘sets’ of assist options it’s now possible to set up pretty much all of the assists to suit what you want to do. Auto-tuck off but auto brake on? Not a problem now!

But I’m getting a little ahead of myself here. Let’s start from the beginning, the title. As with last years offering, this one covers the 2010 and 2011 seasons of the MotoGP calendar with the 2011 specific content being available as DLC shortly after the real season starts. This includes who’s moved to what team, what leathers and helmet they’re wearing and what livery the bikes are sporting. As I’ve said previously, I like this idea, it makes sense and it means that we don’t have to wait until the back end of the season to get to play this years riders and bikes as was once the case.

The 2010 season saw the Moto2 class of 600cc four-strokes introduced and MotoGP 10/11 does them proud! Of all of the classes the Moto2 is, for me, the most fun. I may be a little biased here as I used to race 600cc bikes (although these are a world away) but it really genuinely felt good to be racing that class and that has to show some testament to the improved handling and physics in this years release. And it is better, it’s not perfect though and here’s my first gripe.

I may not have been in the best frame of mind, maybe I was a little tired, maybe I just wasn’t in the mood to play a racing game but my second session of play with MotoGP 10/11 ended with me actually getting bored. I’d had enough of the bikes handling sort of like they are supposed to but not quite. This was the scenario which swung it for me, I was leant over, tipped into a right-hander and had pulled it a little too tight meaning that instead of clipping the apex I was actually going to run over the grass. Now I’ve done this for real and the answer it that you lift the bike a little and it moves to a wider line,  you actually pull on the inside bar and push on the outside – it’s called counter-steering and it makes you brain melt if you try to understand it! The same move in the game caused the wheels to magically swing under the bike and run onto the grass. This, my dear friends, is rubbish, it was as if the bike was rotating around some magical pivot point under my seat: wrong, wrong, wrong!

If I’d written this review at that point it’d have been a lot less flattering than it is actually going to be. I decided to give MotoGP another go and to use a different perspective towards it. This is a representation of 125, Moto2 and MotoGP racing – it’s not the real thing.

So here I am having changed my thought patterns to work within the game dynamic instead of railing against it and you know what? I really enjoyed my last session! So much so in fact that I’ve had to break away somewhat unwillingly in order to get this all down in time for publishing!

The Game: Championship mode

Choose your favourite rider from the real championships, either 125, Moto2 or MotoGP and race through the season as them. Simple, straightforward instant action. This is also where the single race options sit so if you’ve just watched the Catalunya GP you can jump in and give it a blast.

The Game: Career mode

For me THIS is where the meat of the game is. Starting as a rookie in the 125 class you get the use of a ‘customer’ grade bike and a cheap sponsor to get you going. Expectations are low right now and you have no reputation to speak of, but let’s talk a little about reputation. The model has been changed a little since 09/10 but I’m still not sure about it. Throughout your practice, qualifying and race sessions you have, for the want of a better term, an XP gauge at the top of the screen which counts up as you do good things starting at ‘E’ and climbing to ‘A’. You gain reputation as a result of the score you get for each session and that reputation lets you ‘level up’. At each level you have access to higher grade staff and engineering research projects for your bike. That all sounds good, but I’m not sure that it’s actually required. See, there’s already a mechanism for scoring within the game, it’s your earning level. The better your results, the more you earn, the more you earn the higher wages you can pay, and the more experienced staff you can employ. It’s then the staff which can define the sponsors you attract and the research you can complete.

Having a ‘level’ associated with your rider doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. Real life isn’t like that and it’s not needed in the game. Anyway…

After you’ve completed your 125 season you’ll be able to move up to Moto2 where you basically repeat the process, investing in technology and staff, earning money and reputation and hopefully then being offered a MotoGP ride. The premier class.

The Game: Challenge mode

This is a bit of a departure. Usually, and this is what I was expecting, challenges are something like “Complete a lap in less then…” or “Overtake 8 other riders in on lap” or somesuch. In the MotoGP 10/11 challenge mode you are racing, as you do in the other modes, against a full grid of other riders. The difference is that you start with an amount of time on the clock which counts down. As you progress you are rewarded with time bonuses in the same ways as you are rewarded with reputation in the other modes – stick to the perfect line through a corner, get a time bonus, finish a lap, get a time bonus – and the goal is to finish the race with as much time on the clock as possible. But here’s the thing, the times you record are entered into the global database and in the other modes they pop up in the top right hand corner of the screen for everyone. Now then, if you are the sort of racing gamer who will circulate around a track for hours eeking out a tenth of a second here and there, this is like the proverbial red rag to the bull. If you’re like me and are happy to blast around and win, then this actually means very little. But I actually like it as a concept, it seems to have more meaning than other types of challenge.

There’s one last element of the game I want to cover and for a couple of reasons. It’s now possible to play in split screen mode with a team-mate or ‘co-rider’ which is a nice new touch, right up until you understand the co-riders job and that is to help you win… nothing more. They aren’t eligible for a lot of the achievements and they, by definition, aren’t going to win races, not unless you screw things up badly. I actually don’t know anyone who’d happily sit in that position, even if there was an agreement to ‘take turns’ that doesn’t work either, you may as well spend the time on your own career. If this is more of that ‘metric tonne of real’ then I think there’s more bulk than substance here.