FutureFive New Zealand - Consumer technology news & reviews from the future
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Sat, 1st Jul 2006
FYI, this story is more than a year old

Climax's Moto GP series has landed on the Xbox 360, and it's immediately one of the most solid and beautiful racers on the console. While it doesn't offer a ton of improvements over the last installment, the beautiful visuals and excellent gameplay ensure that anyone who has ever enjoyed a racing game should take a look at this title. The controls may seem basic (you'll mostly just work with the A button and the two triggers for front and back brakes during gameplay), but experienced fans of the series know how much skill is involved in any given race. When going around wide turns, it's good to use the rear brake to slide while still maintaining some speed. The front brake is better for short, tight turns that require more precision, and can also be used in conjunction with the rear brake. If it's your first time playing the series, it will definitely take a little getting used to the feel of the bikes. Upon starting a career, you can fully customize your bike and rider. A basic logo creation system is in place, so you can decorate your ride as much as you'd like. I decided to go all-out Evel Knievel, and the available customisation easily allowed me to do so. The available customisation isn't purely cosmetic, you can also fine-tune the technical aspects of your bike to your liking. Standard Grand Prix races are a fun option but they don't offer quite as much excitement as the Extreme races. These take you off the sterile, professional courses of the standard circuit and throw you into some more exotic locales. You'll be racing through cities, mountains and jungles and all of these courses are far more speed-based. Xbox Live support has all the standards (player matches, ranked matches, etc.), as well as a couple somewhat unnecessary options like Stunt Mode. MotoGP 06 offers a ton of courses, plenty of unlockable bikes and reversed tracks, excellent racing gameplay and a competent online mode. Longtime fans of the series will love the beautiful graphics and newcomers will be blown away by the excellent controls and physics.