MotoGP 08

By 2008 the official MotoGP licence had changed hands more than most riders change leathers, and this was the year it landed with Capcom as publisher and the Italian studio Milestone as developer. Milestone had come up through the Superbike World Championship games, so the pedigree was there on paper. What arrived on PS2 was a late-generation edition of a game built primarily for newer machines, and it shows in every corner of the presentation.

The racing itself is the stiff, unforgiving kind. This is the 800cc era, when the bikes had been detuned from the old 990s and the grid was still sorting out what that meant, and the handling model reflects that fussiness. Trail the brakes too deep and the front tucks. Get greedy with the throttle exiting a corner and the rear steps out before the traction aids can save you. Riding cleanly means learning where each circuit lets you be aggressive and where it does not, and the game gives you very little theatre to hide behind while you work that out.

What it lacks is polish and generosity. The AI riders hold their lines with a stubbornness that reads as scripted rather than competitive, and contact tends to end your race rather than start a scrap. Visually the PS2 build is plain even by 2008 standards, with flat trackside detail and bike models that lose their definition at speed. The sound of the four-strokes does more work than the graphics do.

Set against the Climax-developed MotoGP games that preceded it, this one feels like a licence being administered rather than a series being pushed forward. Still, there is a genuine simulation underneath, and for anyone who wants that specific season with that specific class of machinery, the PS2 shelf offers few alternatives. It rewards patience and gives almost nothing to anyone in a hurry.