Genre: Racing
Publisher: THQ
Developer: Climax
Release Date: August 30, 2005

Buy 'MOTO GP 3': Xbox

All of a sudden, the term "crotch rocket" seems downright disrespectful. Sure, a motorcycle is basically an engine inside a lightweight frame that's suspended by two fat tires, and yes, this contraption is placed between the legs and is meant to propel a single body to speeds that would rip the pants off of M.C. Hammer, but these machines and their riders demand respect. What we have here are precision instruments of velocity that require a skilled rider to unlock their full potential. Climax and THQ's Moto GP 3: Ultimate Racing Technology is the closest most people will ever get to putting a knee on the asphalt at 90 mph. While it's not vastly different from MGP2, and it doesn't offer many modes outside of straightforward road and track racing, MGP3 wins race fans over with an excellent balance of real-life physics and video game forgiveness, along with nearly seamless Xbox Live play.

Control is the key to any racing game, and MGP3 pretty much nails the balance between complete realism and accessible playability. For starters, if you've been playing auto racing games, you best forget all you know. As you'd expect in real life, racing on two wheels has a much different feel than racing on four. The need to adjust your body weight according to racing conditions is a mechanic that is of the utmost importance on a motorcycle but almost completely moot in auto racing. For instance, by leaning forward on straightaways, you become more aerodynamic, making you considerably faster. On the contrary, leaning back makes braking more effective.

Once again, you have individual control over the front and rear brakes, allowing you to finesse the physics that are trying to send you into the wall. The front brakes have better stopping power than the rear, and engaging the rear break is useful when initiating a powerslide. Usually when you think "powerslide," the first thing that comes to mind is some kind of rally racer-style, sideways drift. That's not the case here. The powerslide technique in MGP3 is more subtle, allowing you to tighten your turn radius ever so slightly so you can exit a turn at maximum speed. Once you get a grasp of the braking system and how to manipulate it to full effect, you'll find your lap times will decrease substantially. You can also use the X button for a more simplified, automatic braking system if you don't want to mess with front and rear brakes.

Because of all of this side-to-side, front-to-back weight shifting, you can imagine that getting down the "rhythm" of a track is crucial. You have to be thinking a couple turns ahead so you can anticipate your lean. If all of this is sounding too hardcore for your taste, don't write off MGP3 just yet. With practice and the help of several included tutorials, you'll find that everything eventually clicks. Once you get it down, you'll find this quest for rhythm wholly addictive.

The one bad thing about the control only a nitpick. The default controller setup assigns the poorly placed white and black buttons as the shift buttons, which is awkward. However, you can adjust the controller setup in the settings menu, making that drawback nonexistent.

There are only a few modes available, all of which are fairly standard: quick race, time trial, tutorial and career. Quick race is your average pick-up-and-play mode, time trial pits you against the clock alongside your best performing ghost or a ghost downloaded from Xbox Live, and the tutorial option teaches you how to effectively brake, turn and accelerate, among other riding basics.

The bread and butter of MGP3 is the career mode. Here, you can choose to enter Grand Prix races using licensed bikes from manufacturers such as Yamaha and Ducati. The career GP mode a points race that spans over 16 rounds on actual race tracks, and puts you alongside real world riders. As you win races, attribute points are rewarded depending on your performance. You can distribute these points to four different rider skills: cornering, braking, acceleration and top speed. You cannot upgrade bike components in GP career, but you can adjust your suspension, brakes, wheelbase, tire compound and wheel ratios. Making adjustments that suit your style and taste can yield a considerable difference in your lap times.

Customization options aren't limited to rider attributes. You can also choose from a wide variety of designs and color schemes for not only the bike, but also your rider's leather and helmet. For the more ambitious, there is also the option to create a specialized logo.

Winning races in GP mode unlocks increasingly faster bikes, selectable riders, and some amazing Moto GP footage. For many games, unlockable videos are just fluff, but watching the several clips of real races only makes you want to continue on with your season, as you witness some astonishing feats of athleticism and speed.

One of the notable additions to this year's game is the ladder system, which is simply a seed system that calculates your level of ability in relation to other riders. When you win against higher ranked riders, your rating improves dramatically; this system is also used to put you up against similarly skilled players on Xbox Live.

A much more notable addition is the brand new extreme career mode, a simulation of an underground street racing organization in which you use fictional yet mean-looking machines. There are three levels of difficulty that are separated by engine classes: 600cc, 1000cc and 1200cc. Like any underground racing syndicate that's worth its salt, you race for cash which can be spent on upgrades to your bike. Engine tuning, weight reduction, brake improvements, horsepower gains, and increased stability can all be acquired with a bit of cash money. Adjustment options and upgrades aren't on the same level as Gran Turismo 4, but they are still well-implemented and serve their purpose adequately. Unlike the more realistic GP mode, you buy new bikes with your earnings as opposed to automatically unlocking them by winning races.

Extreme mode also serves as a nice break from the typical GP track, as extreme mode takes place on very attractive streets of real world locales (although the settings are real, the tracks are fictional). Even though extreme mode is fundamentally the same as the well-tested GP career mode, its inclusion will be much appreciated by those who are tired of relatively bland real-life courses.

You can also advance in career mode by jumping onto Xbox Live. The Xbox's Moto GP series has always been a Live mainstay, and the latest iteration carries on the superb online tradition. The game is pretty much always online aware, with scoreboards readily viewable at any time, downloadable ghosts from the best racers, and the ability to earn championship points by racing against 15 other human players. Jumping online is incredibly easy, and the promptness of getting an online race going is only limited to how quickly a host can assemble the desired amount of racers. There is also a four-player split screen that works reasonably well, although the small screens aren't exactly conducive to the speed of the game. System link play is available as well.

As far as the graphics are concerned, there isn't too much here to make you jump up and take notice. Some of the visuals are very nice, especially when riding through the road courses in extreme mode, or on a bright, sunny day on a GP track. Other times, environments and bikes just look dull. There are weather effects as well, which not only spray rainwater onto your visor, but also make the track quite slick.

Rider animations are fairly repetitive, but still get the job done. Bumping other racers will prompt them to shake a fist in anger, and wiping out will send you and your bike sliding to wherever physics demand you go. There are also a several different in-race camera angles to choose from, with a few first- and third-person options. During replays and crashes, fuzz and horizontal lines give the impression of a race voyeur with a video camera. Despite some of the minor visual drawbacks, speed is conveyed extremely well, making every straightaway a complete white-knuckle experience.

Sound effects for the bikes and their engines are well done, although more wind effects would've helped the sense of speed even more, especially since this is a motorcycle racing game. Music is made up of appropriate techno-ish and rock ditties, but you can also jam out to the soundtrack from "The Big Chill" using your hard drive and the customizable soundtrack option.

Perhaps the main question here is whether or not MGP3's upgrades and additions are enough to warrant a purchase since MGP2 is an excellent game in its own right. The answer lies in what you feel is important in a racing game such as this. If you're hoping for a game with more modes, drastically different gameplay mechanics, or a fundamental change in the core gameplay of MGP2, then you'll be disappointed. However, if you want updated Moto GP rosters and tracks, more variety via the new, visually attractive extreme mode, even better Xbox Live play, and the same superb feel of previous editions, then MGP3 is for you.

Score: 8.9/10