Lawrence.com

It seems more and more companies are producing sequels just to have something "new" out every year. Too often these sequels are barely, if any, improvement over the previous version. Unfortunately, MotoGP 3: Ultimate Racing Technology has fallen into this trap.

MotoGP 3 starts like the previous edition by letting you choose to race in time trials, quick races, multiplayer, and a single player campaign. The first two options are fairly vanilla and a part of every racing title. MotoGP 3's biggest draw here is that it uses a very similar setup to MotoGP 2 which allows you to download ghosts from Xbox Live and learn from the masters.

The first change that you will notice is in the single player campaign. Now the player can start a career as a driver in the Grand Prix pro circuit or as a street racer in the Extreme Mode. The Grand Prix career mode has changed little since the last edition. The difference is that the challenges have been removed from the racing options leaving only practice, qualify, and race modes for each track. A nice addition is being able to play the campaign online at any time in matches selected by the computer based on rankings. The Extreme career uses entirely different bikes and courses than the Grand Prix circuit. These new bikes and tracks are much more speed and street racing oriented. This is a welcome addition to a game that at times is too serious about its subject matter. MotoGP 3 should appeal to a much larger audience because of this addition.

Multiplayer has also not changed much. You can still choose any track that has been unlocked and mess around with a plethora of options for the race. The biggest change is the addition of the Extreme bikes and tracks.

MotoGP has always been known for its extremely realistic and unforgiving physics and controls. Well, none of that has changed in the Grand Prix circuit. It will still take many trial runs before you become a master of the controls, but when you do it will be extremely rewarding. However, the Extreme races feature a much more arcade like feel. These races tend to be faster, more forgiving, and more entertaining. The tracks have longer straight sections for higher speed, wider turns to maintain that speed, and brighter colors to be interesting.

The rest of the game visuals and sound, also have not seen much of an upgrade. Supposedly MotoGP 3 has better graphics, but I don't believe it. There was little to no improvement visually from MotoGP 2 to MotoGP 3. However, MotoGP 3 still ran at a nice fame rate with no hiccups. This lack of visual flare makes it hard to appreciate all the different custom designs on the bikes. Since everyone can create custom designs (like in Forza Motorsport) it would have been nice to see them clearly. The audio has maintained its excellence. The bikes still sound great and the road sounds actually seem to have been improved. Taking a spill has never sounded this good before. Too bad you could miss all this with the horrible soundtrack blasting away. This soundtrack deserves to only be turned off and replaced with some EA Trax. Hopefully the next edition will have better taste in music.

In the world of sequels MotoGP 3 is great; but it doesn't make as big an improvement as the move from MotoGP to MotoGP 2. Unfortunately for MotoGP 3, other racing games have come out for the Xbox that are rivaling it for supremacy, like Forza Motorsport, and this title hasn't taken the needed steps to really distinguish itself from MotoGP 2 or the competition.

Graphics: B

Sound: A-

First Play: B-

Last Play: A-

Gameplay: A

Overall: 83% B-