Our first glimpse of the upcoming MotoGP 06 was at last month's Game Developers Conference in San Jose. We were surprised to see the game at the show and even more shocked to find out it was fully playable. We recently got another chance to try it out at a THQ pre-Electronic Entertainment Expo press event and had a chance to discuss the game with one of the producers on MotoGP 06 to find out just what went into creating such a detailed reproduction of two-wheel racing.

　　Before we get to the details, let's start with a blanket statement: MotoGP 06 looks flat-out gorgeous. Everything from the detailed backgrounds to the individual rivets on the bikes is presented with loving clarity thanks to a game engine that has been more or less rebuilt for the next console generation by the Climax development team. Though it was tough to take our eyes off the expertly modeled riders and exquisite-looking bikes, producers were quick to point out the detailed environments in which you race, which have received major overhauls since MotoGP 3 for the Xbox. Minutiae such as individual blades of grass or jagged ridgelines that compose the mountainous background of Mugello all serve the goal of creating more depth and vitality to the tracks. Weather effects have also been given a tune-up; the glistening water effects on soaked asphalt were certainly impressive, but we liked the rain-streaking effects on your visor in first-person camera view even more.

　　Then there's the sound. While the setting didn't let us appreciate MotoGP 06's audio delights as readily as the last time we saw the game, we do know that a lot of work has gone into the sound design in the game. Producers told us that the brand-new audio engine took roughly six months to develop and now lets perceptive listeners pick out details such as crowd noise and wind shear, as well as what bike they are riding and even what gear they are currently running in, simply by listening to the sound of the meticulously recreated engines. Furthermore, the bike engines have been designed to sound exactly like their real-world counterparts; real gearheads will be able to tell the difference between a Ducati and a Yamaha engine simply by the sound they make.

　　So, no doubt, MotoGP 06 is looking and sounding truly like an Xbox 360 game. From a gameplay standpoint, MotoGP is going to be most familiar to anyone who played MotoGP 3--the game still splits the main single-player gameplay modes between grand-prix races and extreme-mode tracks. Grand-prix races all take place on the real-life circuits that host MotoGP races; old favorites such as Sachsenring, Brno, and Assen are joined by newcomers such as Shanghai, Istanbul, and America's own Laguna Seca. Extreme mode tracks, while fictional in design, are based on the real-life settings of their grand-prix counterparts. Japan's Motegi race circuit is complemented by an extreme-mode circuit that has you racing through a stylized downtown Tokyo track. A new extreme-mode course, Monterey, corresponds to the hilly Laguna Seca. Climax has retooled the extreme-mode tracks, rebuilding the environments, widening them, and, in effect, making them a good-bit faster in the process. In all, the game will feature 17 tracks in both extreme and grand-prix modes.

　　Producers told us they initially were going to recreate the 2005 MotoGP season in MotoGP 06 and then eventually let players download an add-on that would update the game with new riders and bikes for the 2006 season. It sounded like a good idea, but the development team scrapped it...and went ahead and added both the full 2005 and 2006 seasons to the game. Now we're talking. Over in extreme mode, beyond the new tracks, there are also new bikes to ride, split among two categories: traditional street racers and the slightly more radical street-fighter bikes, which essentially are customized and highly stylized bikes that often look radically different from traditional street racers.

　　Though there's plenty of single-player racing to take up your time, online racing is the heart of the MotoGP series and that will be no less true with MotoGP 06. The game will support up to 16 racers in both grand prix and extreme mode (up from 10 in extreme mode in MotoGP 3). You can still choose to race career-mode races either offline or online, and the game will also support the same goodies such as its elegant seeding system (which ensures you'll be racing against similarly skilled opponents), as well as the spectator and commentator modes. For those who want to play split-screen races, MotoGP 06 will support up to four racers on the same screen, and those four racers can even go online, all on the same TV set.

　　This being the era of achievement points, MotoGP 06 will have plenty of ways to earn those all-important points while playing the game. Producers told us they've tried to spread out the achievements across all facets of the game so that players will be earning regular rewards as they go. One achievement is to go through an entire championship season without restarting any races (think about it, it's not as easy as it might sound), while another will award you with points for simply buying your second bike in the game.

　　With some improved artificial intelligence--riders won't be so apt to ramming into you as you reenter the track after a spill, for example--new tracks to race on, and the same brisk online features that bolstered previous games in the series, MotoGP 06 is looking to be one of the must-have racing games of the summer. The game is due for release in just a few months, and we'll have a full review as soon as it hits stores.