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Moto GP 3 Review
Mark Simons
02/06/2003
Is it third time lucky for Namco's good lookin' bike series?
The Moto GP series has always frustrated this particular reviewer. Namco makes a gorgeous looking game, really good bikes, great replay mode, amazing rain effects good sense of speed, weight and it seems great. But playing the last two games was always frustrating, you wanted to enjoy the games as much as you could, but it was just a little bit too hard, unforgiving, or just, just not rightā¦
This time around though three is the magic number for Namco, as they really hit the spot with this latest offering in this fast moving series.
Not too much has changed since the last game. You get a few options; arcade, season, challenges, legends, multi-player ā“ up to four player split screen - and time trailing. Nothing amazingly clever, but there 100 challenges that unlock bonuses, bikes, courses, riders and lots of other cool little extras. Four player split screen is an added bonus, but online would be the real icing on the cake. The legends mode is pretty sweet as you get to take on some of the best racers of the past and see how you do.
As you would expect there are also various different things to tweak with regards to your bikeās handling, transmission, handling, acceleration, brakes and tyres. This is not that deep, but enough to satisfy most people we are sure. With the arcade and simulation modes however it would perhaps be nice to have a simple set-up mode and a more involved one for the simulation side. But then this isnāt Gran Turismo and for what Moto GP wants to do these handling options suffice.
So far so much like most other racing games. What has really changed since the last game is the fine details of the handling. The main change is that the rear brake is mapped to L2 with the front brake mapped to square. Coupled with the left analogue stick allowing you to shift the weight of the rider back and forth as you turn, you have a far more involved control scheme. Now you can really control the bike much more realistically. To be honest it is a bit confusing why the brakes were not separated before and playing this game it is immediately obvious how much this helps the game as it is just like riding a bikeā¦
There are two ways to play the game, arcade and simulation. Does what they say on the tin. Arcade is the best way to get into the game, you can run off the track and not fall off your bike, that sort of thing that forgives the more aggressive gamer used to thrashing cars around. Again somehow this mode feels better than last time around, its probably down to the controls and little refinements in the A.I. handling and physics generally.
If you try simulation mode first off without having too much experience of racing bikes then you will do near enough exactly what would happen if you went on a real bike. You crash. Spectacularly. After easing yourself into the techniques of bike racing in the arcade mode, getting to grips with shifting forward into a corner, easing back on the way out, and riding the brakes and throttle the whole time, you will eventually find the simulation better, as it allows for even finer control of your bike. It is also very unforgiving, lean too far in a corner and you fall off. Let the rear wheel touch the grass and try and accelerate or turn, you fall off. Itās a nice increase in challenge and once you get to grips with controlling the bikes you can then set about enjoying the courses and the races.
With all of the courses from the Moto GP series there is a wide selection of good racing circuits from around the world. After playing realistic driving games for a number of years itās getting quite odd to actually know some of these real life circuits rather well. It is nice to transfer skills from one game another. The courses look exceedingly realistic when racing, no pop-up, perfect sixty frames a second, widescreen and packed full of detail. On closer inspection, mainly in the replays, you find that some of the textures could be somewhat better ā“ mainly the grass texture. Just has to be said that when you are bombing down a straight pulling a wheelie at over 240km/h you really donāt tend to notice the crispness of the grassā¦
The bikes are the real star. With the cockpit view you are in for a treat. There are reflections in the windscreen which look very tasty, the front bit of the bikes, as with the rest, are modelled in exquisite detail. They look like solid objects due to the great use of polygons rather than textures for the inside of the bike. This just makes it look real essentially. Okay so it could be better, but it more than does for suspension of belief to have a nicely camera that realistically bobs around with your movements, fully three dimensional dash and a bike that looks solid. The camera and movement of the bike in your view allows you to really get a feel for what it is doing and because of this, the sense of satisfaction when you corner so well you canāt wait for the replay, well, we guess itās what Namco wanted.
We should just mention that like most good looking models, the bikes in Moto GP 3 look excellent when wet. The rain effect from the cockpit view is just brilliant. Reflections on the course letting you see where the water is, a crazy blurring effect that refracts light pretty much as you would expect when in on a wet race course full of exceedingly powerful motorbikes. Racing in the wet in this game looks like youāre racing for real basically. It also does a good job of scaring you, especially when youāre in the simulation mode, makes you realise why the pros get paid so muchā¦
The replays in wet and dry to a great job of continuing the television feel, perhaps the best āshakyā cam in any game gets thrown in alongside great focusing effects. Thereās just something cool about rain drops reflecting things then coming in and out of focus as the camera zooms in and out. If there are things that could be better, well the crowds as ever are rubbish, well, I say rubbish, itās just that they are flat 2D textures. One and the same you might sayā¦ When racing though, the roar of the crowd and the sight of hundreds of people flying past you is immersive enough at the time and the fact that they are 2D textures can slide for a while.
