When considering the different video game genres, it’s obvious that most are saturated to the point where the individual gamer has a wide array of games to choose from to satisfy their lusts for gaming. In the auto-racing genre specifically, there are many options and not all of them suck piles. You’ve got your Forzas and your Gran Turismos in the simulation side of the house. Games like Project Gotham Racing, Need for Speed and Juiced are options for those more interested in arcade style racing. But suffice to say the genre is packed with alternatives. When it comes to motorcycle racing though, there aren’t nearly the options available in the more popular auto-racing genre. There are really only two games out there that even qualify as motorcycle racing games. The difference between the two games is stunningly obvious leaving only one true option. THQ’s MotoGP series has consistently stomped Namco’s similarly named series into the ground.

The original MotoGP was one of the first games available for XBox live and frankly an awesome game. THQ has not strayed from their original formula and as a result have developed a similarly awesome game for the third time in a row. This of course creates some level of difficulty in reviewing it because when the prior games are so brilliantly executed it’s hard not to treat it like a Madden update with essentially just a roster change. There are improvements, but no radical game play design changes. So if you aren’t a genre fan or if you’re a gamer on a budget and you have one of the prior games you may decide to pass this one by. If either of the prior cases is untrue, your game collection deserves the addition of MotoGP 3: Ultimate Racing Technology.

Simply put this game has everything: stunning visuals (though don’t expect the photo-realism of Gran Turismo 4), game play that ranges in difficulty from amateur to pro, customization of bike and rider (both appearance and performance) and well implemented live support. These elements come together to make MotoGP3 the best motorcycle racing game around.

The graphics and animation are top-notch. They didn’t aim for photo-realism, but they do provide a sense of speed that has to be experienced to be believed. The polygons whiz by at terrible speeds with no pop-in or frame loss. At high speeds the objects in your peripheral vision move so fast they blur together in an effect that makes you say, “damn, that’s fast.” The animation is brilliantly implemented. Instead of the riders being statues while riding their bikes, they fully articulate. There’s no texture warping or distortion of geometry. Switching to rear view even causes the rider’s head to turn like he’s looking over his shoulder. But the best place the animation is noticeable is in the crashes. You dump the bike and it slides out and away. The rider bounces and rolls behind the bike as gravel and dust fly up all around him.

Where this game really owns up on its competition is in the game play department. This game has depth a true Gran Turismo fan can appreciate yet it provides simplifications that make it easy enough for a newb. In the simplest case, you have an automatic transmission and acceleration and a single brake button that provides a combination of front and rear braking. You don’t really need to worry about racing lines or anything simulation related. The game feels so right that without any tutorials you can figure out how to get around the track. By your third or fourth race, you should be able to place in the top five.

Until you do take the tutorials though, you’ll never be more than an amateur and you won’t place very high in the Ladder system. In order to do this, you need to learn specifically how to find the racing line. You need to be able to use the front and rear brakes independently (you get bonus point for not using the auto brake) and it’s a good idea to use the manual transmission for the extra horsepower. You’ll also want to learn how to shift the rider’s weight and profile to achieve better acceleration and braking performance. Leaning forward reduces the aerodynamic drag of the rider and improves acceleration. Leaning back increases that drag and will greatly improve braking. After mastering the racing line and front/rear braking, you can work on power sliding. This is where you lock up the rear brake and slide around the turn making it that much tighter and allowing yourself to start accelerating into the straight away that much earlier.

It goes even further in depth than that though. One of the issues that Gran Turismo 4 has is the lack of realism when it comes to collisions and the other cars on the track. MotoGP 3 has realistic collisions so you really have to be careful about how and when you choose to overtake someone. The riders leave gaps on earlier difficulty tracks and later on to increase the difficulty, close in tighter. The collisions aren’t as touchy as some games (I’m thinking MX vs. ATV Unleashed here) so you can rub other racers and you won’t fly off the handle. Anything more than that though and you’ll wind up dumping your bike and getting majorly set back. So forget about trying to ride someone through the inside corner. Most likely you’ll be on your back and most times the person you tried to screw over will survive the contact.

In many of the arcade style games you drift around corners slipping off the track or you’re allowed to cut whole corners by going off-road. Well that’s been nipped in the bud in this game. Every second you leave the track actually gets added onto your track time. This further tightens the game down and forces competitive players to stick to the racing lines and use the techniques that the pros use.

MotoGP 3 allows for pretty broad customization of both bike and rider as well. These customizations affect both the performance of the bike and rider as well as the appearance. The bike customization is pretty robust. The wheelbase can be made shorter or longer and the tires can be made softer or harder affecting the stability of the bike at different speeds or while in turns. Gear ratios can be modified to give better acceleration or top-speed depending on the nature of the track. Horsepower can be upgraded, weight can be reduced, traction and stability can be modified all to affect the performance of your bike. Some of these options are unfortunately only available in Extreme mode (city street tracks) so as not to change the realism of the real racing circuits.

You can increase your rider’s attributes as well. Points can be pumped into Cornering, Braking, Top Speed or Acceleration. It’s hard to know how much these “unitless” attributes affect your actual driving ability but they are there nonetheless. 

Aside from these performance attributes, you can fully customize how you and your rider look. You can pick from several different colors as a base and then add any kind of decals you want. You can use simple shapes, clip art or text. Each decal can be rotated, scaled and positioned to create any kind of design you could think of. There is even an option to copy the color settings from the bike to your leathers and vice versa. The only thing you can’t fully customize is your helmet. Instead of modifying your helmet to the same degree, you can only pick from a collection of customized helmets. If the selection they have doesn’t quite match the bike and leathers you’ve designed you’re pretty much out of luck.

The online game play is one that is historically above par. In this revision, however, they’ve outdone themselves with the addition of online career mode play. When setting up your race, the very last thing you decide is whether or not you want to play against other human opponents. If you do, you will be matched up with Live players and you’ll have to compete against them for your career points. Since this may negatively affect your career you may want to take the ESRB notice to heart, but generally speaking the game experience in these kinds of racing games is a good one. You’ll find more often than not the tool that won’t shut up getting booted from the server so the rest can enjoy the game. Still, play career mode online at your own risk.

The only negative thing I can even think of for this game (and it is absolutely a personal preference) is the sound. I’m sure the game sounds very much like a real motorcycle engine that goes 200 miles an hour, but after a while it wore on me and I had to turn the sound effects down. Did it diminish my experience of the game? No way.

It really is hard to imagine how games this good keep getting better and better, but they apparently are finding ways. This game is a must own for motorcycle racing fans and is an excellent choice for the non-enthusiast. MotoGP 3: Ultimate Racing Technology is an all around great game.