Xbox Moto GP - Impossible to Find? (1 Viewer)

[Scott Bourden]

Hey,

I've been scrounging the stores lately, looking for a copy of Moto GP for Xbox, hoperfully having it for the Live launch... But it can't be found! None of the local EB have a copy, new or used. Toys R Us, same deal. Wal-Mart is a no-go, Futureshop is the same. Even Futureshop and Ebgames online do not have copies to be found.

Is this oop or just becoming very rare? Thanks for any insight into the matter.

(I am in Canada for the record, so American retailers usually kill me on duties and taxes)

 

[Paul_Fisher]

Ebay!!!!!

 

[BrianB]

I've been scrounging the stores lately, looking for a copy of Moto GP for Xbox, hoperfully having it for the Live launch...

You know, from what I'm hearing, you don't actually need the full MotoGP to play it fully online - the Live! version just looks for a savegame on the HD to "unlock" the full tracks. Is that right?

 

[Scott "E"]

Is that right?

Correct, Brian. Almost the whole game is on the beta disk, it just looks for the HD save to determine what is available. The one thing not on the beta that you gain with the retail version is the chance to race in the GP Championship and build up a custom bike.

 

[BrianB]

So it's not really a "patch" as some people are claiming. Hrmm.

 

[Scott Bourden]

Ebay!!!!!

Already checked, I use ebay.ca, since I am in Canada, and only 1-2 copies show up, most of the time being PAL versions... (and horribly expensive, even before shipping)

Thanks for the suggestion none the less, though.

 

[Scott Bourden]

You know, from what I'm hearing, you don't actually need the full MotoGP to play it fully online - the Live! version just looks for a savegame on the HD to "unlock" the full tracks. Is that right?

So, if I were to rent it, build up the bike I want, and then save it... Then I could have all my tracks just using the demo of it later on?
Now, if only Blockbuster down the street actually HAD a copy of MotoGP, I'd be set :frowning:

 

[Scott "E"]

So, if I were to rent it, build up the bike I want, and then save it... Then I could have all my tracks just using the demo of it later on?

Correct, no reason to buy the retail version if that's what you're after. Although, if you can find it, I highly recommend it.

 

[BrianB]

Definitely not, the retail version will not work with Xbox Live, if you want to play online you have to use the demo disk. There's an article with one of the developers that I'm trying to track down that goes into great detail about what they did.

That's what I thought. Certain fanboy sites claimed, at the time of the announcement, that this was proof of the "superiority" of the Xbox - that the MotoGP guys were patching the full game to 'unlock' XBoxLive support & that more games would do the same thing.

Effectively they're just giving away MotoGP Online Edition instead. Interesting.

I did read an article with the devs about how they'd been working on Live support before completion of the game etc, but it was nowhere near suitable for inclusion etc.

 

[Romier S]

That's what I thought. Certain fanboy sites claimed, at the time of the announcement, that this was proof of the "superiority" of the Xbox - that the MotoGP guys were patching the full game to 'unlock' XBoxLive support & that more games would do the same thing.

Yep, Hogwash. Like Scott E said it all works off of the save file. I loaded up the demo game and there was my fully customized bike with its superior Cuban rider strangely named Romier along with a good load of the tracks that I unlocked.

No full game required. Theoretically if you have a friend that has gone through and fully unlocked everything in the game and they were to save that file onto a memory card, transfer it to your Xbox for you, you should be able to go right on in with all of the tracks.

Either way though, MotoGP online is one of the smoothest and funnest games to play online. Since I got my beta kit its the game Ive played the most and the people are suprisingly talkative and even more important...nice!

 

[Scott "E"]

Theoretically if you have a friend that has gone through and fully unlocked everything in the game and they were to save that file onto a memory card, transfer it to your Xbox for you, you should be able to go right on in with all of the tracks.

I thought so too, but the only thing you seem to get is the custom rider. I've got two Xbox's, one downstairs and one in my room, I mostly play downstairs, so a majority of my saves are on that Xbox. I usually backup my saves about once a week to a memory card and to the second Xbox, so I had Moto GP data on the HD, but when I played online the only thing I had was the rider.

If you go to the memory settings in the dashboard you'll see two files for Moto GP, the one on the left doesn't give you the option to copy, only delete, and that's were a majority of the data is saved. So, unless there is a way to copy that file you'll still need the retail version at some point if you don't want to be a ghost in 8 of the 11 races.

 

[Andrew s wells]

we still have some at the best buy where i work... if you want me to get you one, just send me the money... (romier could back me up that i am trustworthy..) e-mail me if interested.

 

[Romier S]

If you go to the memory settings in the dashboard you'll see two files for Moto GP, the one on the left doesn't give you the option to copy, only delete, and that's were a majority of the data is saved. So, unless there is a way to copy that file you'll still need the retail version at some point if you don't want to be a ghost in 8 of the 11 races.

yeah, that would make sense. Hence the theory part of it. I'm sure MS wanted to put in some kind of safeguard to make sure people do go out and buy the game (The single player is worth it anyway).

 

[hwshi]

hey scott,motogp can be found in toronto(as of last week), at least it's the same country with the same chain stores,maybe they can ship one from a store here to store in st.johns.they are all in the 74$ range.
all i did though was rent the game for $5 and get all the tracks(except sheridan) and 2 customised bikes in 2 afternoons.
if you really need the game drop me a line and i can pick it up for you if it's still available.

 

[Scott "E"]

I'd like to add the most important reason in owning the retail version...... the ability to change your custom bike/rider in anyway you want and at anytime. You can change everything, the model, the manufacture, the color and style of the paint job on the bike, and the ability to change the color and style of the leathers. You also have the ability to change the three initials on the back of your leathers, HTF anyone .

 

[Scott "E"]

Here is the article I was talking about. I was unable to find the link to the site, but I had it saved on my HD, so without further ado....

How it works; a rant by Peter Pimley


I've seen more than one comment on various forums asking
how the MotoGP online demo "unlocks" live play in the
original. Did we have live support in the original all the
time? Did we use a clever hook technique (a la DOA3)? Did
we fool the game into thinking it's still a system link
game? Did we just put WORK_FOR_LIVE GOTO 10 in the code?

Answer: No, and it took a hell of an effort to pull it off
in time.

Section 1: How stuff is unlocked

The entire original game is on the demo disc; all the
riders, all the tracks, all the code. (That's actually a
slight lie, as game modes such as training and GP series
are not included). It's all there, but for most people,
it's locked. The demo is programmed not to let you race on
the "locked" tracks and riders.

However; when the demo starts up, it takes a peek at the
XBox harddrive, and searches for saved games from the
orignal MotoGP. If there is one, then it reads it in and
checks what tracks and riders you had unlocked, in the
original game. Then it simply matches up the two.


Section 2: Networking

So, that's how tracks and riders are unlocked. What about
the networking code itself?

Well, let me say this on behalf of Shawn and George;
Anybody that says that games with system link can be
changed to live easily simply does not know what they are
talking about.

The network conditions for system link are pretty much
opposite to live play. On syslink, you can assume
practically infinite bandwidth (well, 100Mbit/s is beyond
any current game's requirements, even 10Mbit/s is enough
for most games) and negligible latency and loss. Live is
absolutely opposite; you have to handle 64Kbit/s
connections (that's 1600 times less bandwidth!), and ping
times of around 200 milliseconds or more, and loss of
anything up to 5%. 5% loss might not sound a lot, but
let's put it into perspective; it means that in MotoGP, if
we sent a packet for each bike, the chances are that one
of them will be lost.


Section 3: Game Logic

Racing online is nothing if you have nothing to show for
it. Features such as the scoreboards, voice communication,
in-game-messaging might sound simple, but they all take
time to implement.

The process of signing in and out, managing friend lists,
invitations and feedback all need to be implemented. Extra
in-game overlays need to be added, to give real-time
information on other players and network conditions. None
of this is of cutting edge difficulty, but it has to be
done.

MotoGP online was done in about 2 months. For that time,
five programmers and a designer worked their guts out. We
slept and worked; nothing else. I've not checked our
timesheets, but I reckon we were averaging 12, 13 or even
14 hour days. If we say that a normal working day is 8
hours, then that works out as about one and a half man-
years to convert a good syslink game to live. And those
are not normal man-hours. Some of those coders are
absolutely world-class games developers (probably not
including myself, but definitely some of the others) Plenty
of games just couldn't be converted to live at all.

 

[Brian E]

But it can't be found!

I was at Best Buy today and they had three copies.

 

[Scott Bourden]

Thanks to everybody who offered to buy it and send me a copy, it is much appriciated.

Turns out that, as usual, living on a rock in the middle of the Atlantic does not help your chances of finding all the games you'd like :b

None the less, a guy I work with has a copy, and he said he'll loan it to me so I can unlock all the tracks / riders, etc, so I will be able to play online with a decent selection of tracks.

Thanks again.