MotoGP 2 Review

There’s nothing quite like racing along at over 200 km/hr on your Honda NSR 500. Unfortunately most of us neither have a superbike nor access to good enough roads to reach 200 km/hr. Thank God for video games!

Moto GP 2 is the sequel to MotoGP, the smash hit that redefined the moto-racing sim. MotoGP 2 stunningly recreates the passion of motorcycle racing. Unfortunately for beginners, this game is slightly hard to master as the bikes have realistic physics and handling. Expect to spend a few hours flying off your bike at regular intervals, thankfully with no damage to either bike or rider. If you still can’t handle your bike perfectly, you can change the sim level. This can be anyway between 0-100. At 0 you can take turns at 80 Km/hr and brake on a coin. At 100 your bike will handle so realistically, you’ll be lucky to finish a single lap. Either way, you’re in for a LOT of fun.

As in the first game, you have full control over the appearance of your bike and your costume. The game supplies you with the default racing options. Quick Race, Time Trials, Split Screen-Multiplayer… There’s even a Stunt mode where you lose points rapidly if you crash or even drive off the track! You can accumulate points by performing stunts like wheelies, burnouts and powerslides, or by coming in first. These points can be used to unlock new riders. You can also complete training challenges which help improve the handling, top speed, etc. of your bike. Most of your time will be spent in Career mode, racing against the most seasoned players in the world on the full 16 tracks that make up a GP season. Once you’ve completed all the single-player modes, you can play online versus the best over LAN or the Internet.

This game can be difficult to beat at times. Thankfully, it looks so good that you’ll keep coming back for more. The game has full support for hardware Texture & Lighting (T&L) and uses the latest shader technology. This makes the graphics realistic throughout, with the tracks, bikes, riders and backgrounds brilliantly animated. The dazzling visuals are coupled with atmospheric sounds that really help to immerse you in the game. It also has one of the best replay options I’ve ever seen. The only real problem is that you have to exit the game to configure the graphics options. Since you’ll want to keep fine-tuning the settings to get maximum performance, this is frustrating initially. However, once you are satisfied with your settings, the fun just never stops. If you can get past the slight difficulty of this title, you’ll realise that the best motorbike simulation ever, just got better! Add to that the great price of the title and you have a deal that just can’t be beat. And that’s the bottom line!

HIGHS: Dazzling Graphics & Sound, Intense Gameplay.
LOWS: Limited Appeal
NUTSHELL: Love Racing? Get This Game!
Rating: 92%