Moto GP 2007 demo is up (360)

 

I love the Moto GP series.  The first two games on the big black box were wonderful, the third perhaps less so but still a great effort.  I didn't think Moto GP '06 on 360 was any great improvement upon what was already there - longer braking distances, prettier graphics and not all that much else - but that it even had the longer braking distances made it more like the sport it was claiming to be an authentic representation of, and I loved it for that.

 

On 100% sim settings, Moto GP '07 is playing more like one of Namco's Moto GP games than a THQ release.  The bikes corner at absurd lean angles, I can't seem to provoke a single fall under braking, it's taking a special effort to make a mistake on the throttle, and the entire thing feels dumbed down to the point that I'm being babied around the racetrack.  I already had the Extreme mode if I wanted a quick arcade-style blast, and I see no reason to turn the Moto GP events into the same kind of race, so it annoys me intensely that they've chosen to do so.

 

On top of that, the demo is in widescreen.  My TV isn't.  There isn't an option to change it in the demo, and my eyes aren't the greatest in the world, so there are items on the HUD that I cannot read.  I remember Ridge Racer 6 having the black borders too, but at least Namco had the decency to make everything legible.  If the full release doesn't contain some way of customising that, I won't be able to play it even if I want to.

 

The thing is, though, that unless someone comes out in effusive, glowing praise of the finished product, I'll have absolutely no interest in picking it up.  I'm not quite sure that's the objective of the Marketplace demo, but there it is.