Last year, Climax Studios brought their highly successful superbike racing sim to the next gen with great results. For die hard fans of the sport, the game was the ultimate interpretation of the speed, skill and technique required to succeed. For those who never played the Xbox versions of Moto GP, the game provided a refreshingly challenging simulation that differed from many other racing titles available. Now it's time to don your leathers and helmet again, as Moto GP '07 wheelies its way onto 360. Updated with the new features and effects, the game has its work cut out to emulate the success of its predecessor and keep its die hard followers happy. Moto GP is a popular sport worldwide with a rapidly growing number of fans and a focus on preparation and balance. You won't be making 180 degree turns with a last minute powerslide here unless you have a particular urge to slide through gravel at ridiculous speeds without crashing.

As fans of the previous game will know, when you boot up the game and start your first race you'll wonder if you're ever going to make it around the track. After a few unsuccessful attempts, you'll manage to make it through your first corner. Slowly you'll go through a learning curve that ends in the satisfaction of making a clean lap. As a newcomer to bike racing games, it's a challenging start, but if you can learn to balance power and handling, you'll be smoothly ducking in and out of corners in no time. The game allows you to use the A button to accelerate with X as your front brake, however more preferable is to use the right analog stick. Pushing forward to accelerate allows you give more or less throttle depending on how far you push up, and slows the bike as you pull back. This technique of balancing the throttle with the right stick and the highly sensitive steering with the left really seems to add something to the game, giving you more say of how much power you apply and when. This is essential as you approach a sharp corner after a long straightaway, for example.

MotoGP 07 is a more inviting game for newcomers.

Another key factor is your racing line. Taking a corner with poor positioning can have horrific results, normally ending in a brief cutscene that shows your rider being thrown from the bike. Downed bikes can also cause other riders to collide and huge accidents may ensue as a result. Although the racing technique is the same as Moto GP 06, one addition that's been made is a fishtailing effect. Presumably to make that learning curve a little less severe, the bike starts to waver if you apply too much speed into a corner. This gives you a moment to adjust or face the consequences.

New modes have also been included in Moto GP 07, the biggest of which is the grand prix season mode. Fans will be pleased to hear that you are now able to race the full 18 tracks of the Moto GP race season as one of the real pro riders. Each rider has his own attributes, with Valentino Rossi or current champ Nicky Hayden being a good choice for the beginner. As much as this will please followers of the sport, it doesn't add much more than a few hours of gameplay and feels a little like the standard career mode with fewer options. Also new to the series is a telemetry feature that shows a split time breakdown of your lap. Only fans of the series will appreciate this feature, and the information it offers is nowhere near the depth of the recent telemetry system offered in Forza 2.

The main game mode is the racing career, which allows you to create a rider with custom leathers, helmet and bike livery. You start with 18 attribute points to distribute as you see fit in four categories. These are braking, cornering, top speed and acceleration. Each win will give you more points to level up your rider making you better at your chosen attributes. The core gameplay is entertaining, but the customization only allows eight layers of design, which is tawdry in comparison with certain other design editors, and is limited to a relatively small amount of clip art and graphics. Completing a career season unlocks extreme mode. This mode offers custom bike racing, using the same attribute format, but it also adds the opportunity to earn cash. The money earned can be used to buy modifications and upgrades for your bike. With plenty of parts available, there are over one million different combinations to try out. As for extreme mode, racing doesn't feel as simulated, allowing more freedom to powerslide your bike around sharp bends, which can give a fun break from all the precision.

Perhaps the biggest change from Moto GP 06 is the graphics. HDR lighting effects have been applied to give a more atmospheric quality to the game. In addition, there are some nice particle effects that add realism to the dirt that gets kicked up, and smoke from bike's tires. There is also a hint of motion blur, and replays look great when you can focus on the surroundings and the scenery in the distance. Racing is generally a smooth experience, although the on-bike camera angle does occasionally suffer from the odd twitch or jerk when cornering sharply. The bikes and riders look authentic and everything in race is generally very well presented. However, before and after races, there are cutscenes of the pit lane, teeming with team crews and grid girls that just let the game down. Despite suffering from some frame rate issues, these look pretty good at distance, but when you actually see their faces, it becomes evident that the developers shouldn't have zoomed in so close. Faces are pasty and expressionless, and look like they came from a last-gen game.

Accompanying the quality visuals is a fitting soundtrack. The tracks used really capture the mood and get you raring to clinch a podium spot. However, the game could use a few more tracks because you'll often be hearing songs repeat which can get monotonous. The custom soundtracks, on the other hand, are highly recommended. The effects of bike engines and tire noises are spot on, really making you feel like you're there. Unfortunately, some of the ambient sounds are let down, with crowd effects sometimes cutting in and out with no gradual rise in volume as you approach them, making it sound disjointed and unrealistic. Overall, the sound is good, but these issues definitely take away from the experience.

The multiplayer and sheer depth of the gameplay will keep you coming back for more.

The multiplayer in the last game was hugely popular, and 16 player races are featured again here. Having so many people in a race would normally ruin any car racing experience, but here it just works. All the standard player and ranked match options are available, but a few new modes have been thrown into the mix in this year's game. There are now five classes of online tournaments for those who want to prove their skills to the masses. Each class covers a different era, style or series of bikes. If you're not a bike enthusiast, you may want to read the manual, as there's little to explain what a fight club tournament is inside the game. Also making its debut in MotoGP 07 is pink slip racing. Immortalized by recent movies and the Need for Speed series, pink slip racing is head to head with another opponent with your bike on the line. The winner takes the spoils; the loser gets the bus home. There's a ton of replay value here even if the tournaments and previous modes aren't your thing. Basic player matches are so fun and addictive you'll still be playing this game months down the road.

All in all, Moto GP 07 is a great game in its own right, and is a better introduction to bike racing for newbies than the previous title. However, the similarities between this game and last year's are overwhelming. Although there are several additions aimed at fans (the grand prix season mode in particular) you can't help but feel this is merely a seasonal update. If there's going to be a Moto GP 08, Climax must find a way of giving it some diversity to stand out from its predecessors. This title can be very addictive - just don't go expecting a large amount of originality this time around.