Moto GP
on the
Xbox
was always a classy affair, while the
PS2 equivalents
were programmed separately and always played like a bad ZX Spectrum conversion.
This actually turns out somewhere inbetween the two versions. It's more
playable than the PS2 versions, but if you've got any of the Xbox titles in
the series then you only need to get this PSP title if you absolutely must
play it on the move, as it's still not particularly wonderful but it'll pass
the time of day for a couple of hours.
Getting the basics out of the way, you can choose a quick arcade game, start
a full season or take a look online and see if there's any multiplayer action
out there (oo-er, missus!). Then choose the difficulty level, then the year
of 2005 or 2006 for the competitors featured, your choice of bike, track and
the number of laps.
Like any MotoGP game, it does take some time to get used to the handling of
the bikes since there's meant to be a skill in riding them, and this is where
it can fall down a bit as PSP games are meant to be very much 'pick up and
play' for those spare time moments when you're on a break at work or riding
on the train/bus to work, not 'pick up and figure out how to ride the bike
so you can get somewhere on it'.
You don't really get that feeling that you're going anywhere particularly
fast either. When you're going top speed at almost 300km/h it feels like
you're just getting going, and when you slow down for a corner - so you
don't flip over - that's apparently at a speed of around 60-70km/h, yet it
looks like about 5km/h.
The graphics are a little bit rough and not massively impressive, the sound
is your usual rasping engine with some dull rock-type music bashing away in
the background. Very annoyingly, just before the race begins, you must then
sit through a pointless list of 21 names scrolling up the screen in batches
of 3, as if it really matters who you're up against because they'll soon
dash off and leave you at the starting grid, and this bit cannot be skipped.
In fact, the starting grid is where this game should be left... oh no, now
I sound like one of those dorky reviewers on Cybernet, whether it's the
high-pitched American guy who used to present America's Top 10 after Casey
Kasem left, or the stilted-voiced Catherine Fox.
GRAPHICS SOUND EFFECTS AND MUSIC PLAYABILITY ENJOYMENT
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
Like any MotoGP game, it does take some time to get used to the handling of
the bikes since there's meant to be a skill in riding them, and this is where
it can fall down a bit as PSP games are meant to be very much 'pick up and
play' for those spare time moments when you're on a break at work or riding
on the train/bus to work, not 'pick up and figure out how to ride the bike
so you can get somewhere on it'.
The graphics are a little bit rough and not massively impressive, the sound
is your usual rasping engine with some dull rock-type music bashing away in
the background. Very annoyingly, just before the race begins, you must then
sit through a pointless list of 21 names scrolling up the screen in batches
of 3, as if it really matters who you're up against because they'll soon
dash off and leave you at the starting grid, and this bit cannot be skipped.
