While breaking usually isn't needed to stay on the track, you'll find that rivals will slip by unless you hit the breaks slightly before each bend. Success in Moto GP 08 comes from holding tight to the corners and using the game's boost – which starts full, and then builds back up gradually when depleted – when on clear straights. It's not to the detriment of the overall experience, however – quite the opposite. Where that sense of realism falls apart, however, is in the races themselves, where both boosting and flying around corners without touching your breaks are commonplace. The courses themselves are pulled off with panache, serving up varied experiences despite the fact that graphically their differences are few. That said, anyone who does spend their weekends following the Moto GP season will appreciate the fact that I-play's ode to biking comes with both circuits and riders fans will recognise. This is a game designed to celebrate the sport and embrace new fans, rather than a secular title created to service a closed-off fanatical community. It's the kind of system that enrages purists, but I-play's take on Moto GP 08 is an unashamedly arcade one. It also means that a disastrous first lap can be saved if you manage to keep it together on the second circuit. Even if you pull off a faultless race at the front of the grid, it's fairly likely that your competitors won't be too far behind. Moto GP 08 seems to employ a certain amount of elasticity in these contests, in that the pack stays quite tightly together throughout each track's two laps. Likewise, if you manage to put together a chain of smooth, tight corners, then you'll find yourself slicing and dicing your way back up to the front of the field. With 18 bikes on the track – made up of names that litter Moto GP circuits every season – it's very hard to have an uneventful race rivals will whizz past you if you make the smallest mistake. The races themselves manage to convey a real sense of speed. This is an instant racer, which is just as instantly gratifying. No slowdown, no awkward camera angles, no delayed reactions. Sacrificing a place atop the graphical league has resulted in a game that runs like a dream. Many amongst you might have a hankering for 3D visuals and top-notch graphics, but five minutes playing Moto GP 08 proves that, compromise or not, this is a game that feels all the smoother for turning its graphical equaliser down a notch or two.
Here's a game that finds itself entering a market currently obsessed with hurtling towards high-definition 3D racing – with all the choppiness that such a tactic currently involves – yet, I-play has decided to strip Moto GP 08 back to basics and come up with what many will see as an 'old school' racer.
Moto GP 08 is the result of a number of difficult decisions and compromises, too. If you eat things that want to eat, you're going to get fat. Well I'm here to give you a painful nugget of truth: no you can't. Despite that, there are whole industries built on the idea that these compromises somehow don't exist - yes, you can lose weight and eat tasty food say the adverts. The Portuguese rider was spared his blushes in Q1 by Enea Bastianini seeing his top time cancelled, but Alex Rins had no such luck and will start the race from 13th on the grid, sharing fifth row with some fairly familiar faces in Dani Pedrosa and Pol Espargaro.The cynic in me is resigned to one inescapable fact: everyone has to make difficult decisions almost every day of their lives.
#MOTO GP 08 YOUTUBE FULL#
Row four is LCR territory, with Takaaki Nakagami ahead of Q1 leader Alex Marquez, while KTM’s sole representative in Q2 in their home GP was Miguel Oliveira in 12th position, almost a full second off the leader. Both will have something to prove after the Honda man tumbled out at turn three on his final flying lap and the still-Yamaha rider had an underwhelming qualifying despite a solid performance in practice. Aleix Espargaro opens the way on row three, closely followed by compatriots Marc Marquez and Maverick Viñales. Having two more of them right behind won’t help much either, with Jack Miller and Johann Zarco bookending the second row of the grid and sandwiching the lone Suzuki of Joan Mir. Pecco Bagnaia added another red machine to the front row, while Quartararo tried to fight back but a cancelled lap due to track limits left him third and with quite a bit of work finding a way past two rapid Ducatis tomorrow. The rookie also picked up the all time lap record with the first 1:22 time around the Ring, on his first proper outing on Ducati’s favourite playground. With so many competitive machines around the Red Bull Ring and a sketchy forecast for Sunday, pole position was going to be a valuable feather in one’s cap, but while all eyes were on Fabio Quartararo, Jorge Martin stole that fancy cap and was back to pole winning ways.