Over the past week I've played a few seasons of the GP component of this game and dabbled with the more arcade style Extreme mode. Firstly the game looks, sounds and plays great, that aside a few other pleasing features have caught my eye. Most notable is the way the difficulty level is handled, there are four levels of difficulty which, in career mode can only be selected at the beginning of a season. Winning races not only unlocks bikes, riders and whatnot but theres a quasi RPG skill system which advances your riding abilities as you progress. What this means is that as you advance up the ranks of the racing field, via a 100 place seeding system the skill advancement system acts as a kind of hidden assist enabling you to take on more challenging difficulty levels. Coupled with the better bikes that come with advancement and the natural increase in skill that comes with practice the game never seems to easy or too hard.
Another point is the controls, having independant front and rear brakes is challenging enough, factor in gear changes, weight distribution and throttle control and things can become a tad difficult. Thankfully the default controls include an autobrake system which also leans the rider forward and back, you can choose to use it or not which can take a lot of the grief out of the first few hours of play, I'm gradually weaning myself off it having advanced to the point where dual braking is actually more beneficial and fun. The point is that the controls allow either arcade handling or simulation in one setup, so if you've opened up a good lead in the easier difficulty settings using the autobrake you can challenge yourself to finish the race unaided, and seriously if you make more than minor mistakes the AI riders will catch up, not like in other racing games where you end up a lap ahead with no competition in sight. Splitting the game into three distinct sections was a good idea too, for the Moto nuts you can ride as any of the current riders, create a player and race in the real world GP tour or build and race fantasy bikes on fantasy tracks. To top it off the game is just fun and if you lose a race its just because you weren't good enough, no excuses...you went highside because you F****d up.