The game has all the standard game modes; single races, multiplayer races, practice mode, and career mode. The best of the bunch is by far the career mode. You create a rookie racer and take him into the pro circuit. Starting with creating your rider, you get to choose from some basic options. You can select to change his face, as well as hairstyle and color. It's always fun to give your rider a blue Mohawk, even though 90% of the game, you're wearing a riding helmet. Then you can chose from some different colors for your riding gear and freestyle clothes. At first, the options are pretty limited, but as you progress further in the game, you are able to buy new clothes and gear, or get sponsored and get gear from them. You can work your way up to buying Fox racing gear, or a new Puma t-shirt to wear during freestyle rides.

Once you've made your rider, it's time to learn how to ride. Starting out at the home of Travis Pastrana, who is the king of the Motocross world (although I know nothing of the sport really, I have heard his name mentioned on the X Games), you learn the ins and outs of riding a dirt bike. There are tasks such as riding a wheelie around a bus as many times as you can, or practice races that help in getting a handle for the controls of the game. Speaking of controls, even using the keyboard (I have no game pad for my computer) is not as difficult as you might think. The controls are simple enough to learn, just a few basic buttons for accelerating and turning, and some added ones for pulling off mid air tricks. Once you have proven yourself to Mr. Pastrana, you can check your PDA to see if you have any upcoming races.

Events consist of either trying out the Supercross circuit, the Motocross circuit, or Freestyle events. Supercross races take place on tracks, usually in a large arena, and have a lot of large jumps and big air. Motocross is more of a cross-country style of racing, with tracks outdoors and adding in elevation changes to the mix. Freestyle events test your ability to get insane amounts of air off jumps, and pull off tricks with names like "Superman", "Lazy boy", "Nac Nac", and "Can-Can".

Once in the event, the game shows how challenging it really is. As I said before, the controls are easy to learn, but not so easy to master. Timing jumps so that you land without losing too much momentum can be tricky, and at times, frustrating when you are passed repeatedly and lose races. The biggest challenge, however, is in performing tricks in the Freestyle competitions. At times, it was near impossible to pull off a trick such as a back flip, making me want to just give up on the event all together.

Graphically, the game is good. Not exactly jaw dropping, but nothing to scoff at. The environments are lush, simple things like dirt kicking up when you corner hard, or your clothes getting dirty from a hard fall look good, and consistent with what actually happens. The bikes look realistic and the tracks are nice and pretty large. Some, if not all, are based on actual Motocross tracks.

One of my favorite elements of the games is the music. There is a great soundtrack of some of today's best metal acts. Slipknot, Ill Nino, Dope, and a few others, including Faith No More and Metallica. The music goes well with the speed and feel of the game. The actual sound however, while being very good and accurate, can get annoying pretty quickly. The constant high pitch of the bike's engine is simply grating after a while.

If you are a fan of racing games, or even someone like me who usually stays away from them, you will probably like this game. At $20 for the PC, it's worth picking it up for some fun.