Customer Reviews

MotoGP 08

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

see my MotoGP07 review. Basically all the same things apply except that in MotoGP08 the 125/250 support classes are back. Thank you CAPCOM! This is a fantastic addition, and career mode, where you start as a 125 rider on a midpack team and work your way up through better teams and eventually into the MotoGP class is challenging and rewarding.

However, the game still suffers from poor physics modeling and there is an extremely serious flaw that makes a competitive game almost impossible. The flaw is that if you are running the bike with manual transmission you can slow the bike down from 180mph to 20mph with no ill effect simply by throwing it into 1st gear. No instability, no possibility of sliding like there would be with the application of brakes. So as much as I normally enjoy manual transmission, to have a "realistic" race I am forced to use the automatic mode which, especially in the smaller capacity classes, means you're always finding yourself in the wrong gear.

Once again the computer controlled riders are annoyingly robotic and tend to form either packs that could never exist in a real race, or a perfect train of bikes that rarely make mistakes.

As I said in my MotoGP07 review, they could make this game worse and I'd probably still end up buying it so the motivation to make a better game is simply not there. What we need is real competition in motorcycle simulations. So far that hasn't happened so we continue to get mediocre titles.

Bummer.

I've played both the Capcom (Moto GP 2,3) and Climax Moto GP (Moto GP 06) games and I prefer the Capcom games. The configurable controls, simulation level and difficulty make the easy for the casual gamer to pick up and enjoy while providing enough depth and realism to satisfy sim-heads.

Graphically, the game won't knock you out. The tracks aren't overflowing with detail but the bike models look pretty good and it maintains a high frame rate, so the sense of speed is there.

The game shines in the playability category. It's got the usual career mode, time trials and Championships but I really like the Challenges. There are 50 and they range from you'll complete it on the first try to throw the controller out the window difficult.

Online works well enough, but the modes are sparse offering only ranked and unranked races. It would have nice have a tournament mode.

Overall, it's a good game and my favorite bike race game to date (I own Moto GP 2, 3, 06, 08, Tourist Trophy and TT Superbikes)

B+

The graphics for this game are terrible. MotoGP4 is a better version of the same game. Same tracks, same bikes.

If mere adequacy is what you seek, MotoGP '08's got you covered. Its much-hyped emphasis on rookie orientation is generally successful, its selection of modes, bikes, and other assorted options helps sustain your interest, and its depiction of life on the seat of a wobbly two-wheeled death machine is challenging enough to occasionally make you sweat. However, it should be a better game.

The development history of the MotoGP series is more than a bit confusing, but suffice to say that MotoGP '07 designer Climax is gone. This year's PS2 game is instead a product of Italy's Milestone, the team behind the Superbike series. And the changeover produces some positive results.

If you really want to try your patience play this game in hard mode. I've mastered every motorcyle racing game that I've purchased, but I got to say this one is flawed. For example playing in easy or medium modes are fairly easy to win, even in hard mode in the 125cc class is still faily easy to win. But once you make it to the 250cc class that's when this game is serioulsy flawed. No matter what you do you will find yourself in last place by the 1st or 2nd turn, I've qualifed in pole many times, but keep finding myself dead last by the 1st or 2nd turn, every rider, rides as if they are all on crack, they will fly past you into the 1st turn as if their bike morphed into a 125cc then everyone will accelerate as if their bike morphed into a 1000cc Motogp bike. Many times I was lucky enough to get thru the 1st turn in 1st place, only to see the entire field go past me in a short straight away, leaving me to wonder how is this possible? They will fly past you like your riding a scooter, down to the last guy on the grid will leave you in the dust!!! Your bike will turn into a Harley Davidson Road King in the turns then a scooter down the straight aways. Your bike will not turn, causing you slow down way too much, which in return just about half the riders will pass you, just in case, you are not in last place yet, someone will bump you causing your bike run wide, then of course the rest of the riders will pass you. The slightest touch from another rider will have your bike shoot straight out of the racetrack, but if you bump them they continue on their way unaffected. Racing in the rain has to be the most frustrating, your bike will slide sideways as if you are on ice, but somehow the rest of the riders can turn and accelerate out of the turns with no problem, while the whole time you have to slow down to a crawl to get the bike to turn then you have to play with the throttle on and off and while trying to get the bike to turn to get the bike to slowly move forward, too much gas and the bike will snap sideways causing a crash. But the other rider will continue on their way as if the track is 100% dry. You will find yourself again in last place watching the slowest guy in the grid dissapear in the distance while you slip and slide your way thru the coners hoping you don't crash from pole to last place. It's been mentioned before how unrealistic the riders ride in a massive packs, the same complain written up by a major motorcycle magazine. They all ride perfect in a single line hardly ever making mistakes. In qualifying I'll be running dead last, but somehow I'm passing everyone on the track but mysteriously I'm still way off the pace. This game was designed to be unrealistically hard I don't know what the Capcom game designers thought when programing this game!!! How can this be fun? The Arcade mode is not bad and if want to race and just have fun don't race the career mode in the hard mode, well at least not in the 250cc class. I like a difficult challenge but this game is ridiculous!!!