The point of debuting the latest game at such an authentic environment as Infineon (better known as Sears Point before the Germans bought it), just minutes from the San Francisco coast, was to demonstrate the authenticity of the new title, of course-which, in the maker's words, "captures the fluid movement of man and machine like never before...for an authentic, true-to-life motorcycle riding simulation."
It turns out that the game is pretty damn realistic. Start with the bikes: Almost every major manufacturer has licensed trademarks for the game, so you can ride a Ducati, Buell, Kawasaki, Yamaha, Honda or whatever, in forms as varied as a vintage thumper or an elephantine scooter with a top speed of 45 mph. You can choose from up to 80 different bikes and ride them on replicas of 35 well-known international courses. Even the clothing you choose from is licensed and reproduced in super-detail. Enter the oddly named "career" mode (You can you make a career of playing video games?) and you can input your height and details about your riding position and a digital you, on your bike of choice, fills the TV screen.
You can play the game straight up in arcade format, but the real highlight is the career mode, where you build up a paddock of ever-more impressive machinery earned by beating up on electro-rivals. In a virtual version of tiered licensing, you work through four different skill levels, starting on tiddler bikes and working your way up to the six-hunnies and the big-bores. Art imitates life for the adolescent gamer set-you can earn the keys to the shiny new Gixxer from Dad, as long as you study hard and get good grades on the test.
The game was introduced to the press by lead developer Nana-san (dressed in full racing leathers, he didn't speak a lick of English), who explained, via translator, a bit about modern video game development and how they do the data capture that makes the game so realistic. Then he gave us a game demonstration, playing against none other than Doug Polen. Not even close to a fair fight. Nana-san coasts around the digital Infineon while Polen plows weeds trying to keep his pixilated prey in sight. "You get off track, and it's for real!" Polen exclaims as he gets turfed. Split screen, with Nana-san victorious. Seven years working in the bowels of Sony's design subsidiary PolyFiny trumps a lifetime of flesh-and-blood racetrack experience.
Polen got his revenge later in the day in real-time, out on the actual Infineon Raceway aboard genuine, hydrocarbon-inhaling motorbikes (though, to be fair, Nana-san was better on the bike than Polen was on the gaming console). Mr. Polen, World Superbike Champion, did acknowledge that the game was "as close as you can get without being there," but he certainly noticed the magic lacking in the game experience. "When you replicate the G forces you feel in the corners, I'm there!"
Fizzy One
Our FNG ('effin-new-guy) Zamora loses his press-launch virginity on Yamaha's all-new-for-2006 FZ-1
When I got a phone call from El Jefe asking if I wanted to travel to California's wine country to attend the press launch for Yamaha's all-new FZ-1 super-standard, what do you think I said? Sorry, I've got to stay home and feed my cats? Hell, no! I was there as fast as I could borrow an Icon jacket to look good in the photos. Me being the FNG who never attended a press launch before, I didn't even think of packing rain gear-not, at least, until I drove over the Golden Gate Bridge on a sunny Sunday afternoon and noticed the thick black clouds way off in the distance...