Interviews// Biking legend Steve Parrish

SPOnG: And how good a job do you feel Monumental's done of capturing the racing experience?

Steve Parrish: Well, on the game, very much like in real motorcycle racing, the best place to pass someone is on the inside on the brakes, that type of thing. It's about how late do you dare leave your braking, and passing people. The big upside is that there's no trips to hospital if you get it all wrong, so you can push past the limits and boundaries a lot more. The worst that can happen is that you come out with a swear word because you've ended up in the gravel trap, as opposed to seeing if you've still got your legs and arms connected.

But racecraft comes into it a great deal, and being able to slipstream people, being able to dive up the inside, being able to ride around the outside... Yeah, it's good and it works really well, and the penalty is that if you don't get around someone, you end up running into the back of them, and you have to start the game again where you crashed off.

I must admit, I'm very new to it. I'm looking forward to seeing the gaming people coming back up and how fast they are. Some of the riders here - there's Scott Redding, Bradley Smith and Danny Webb - some of them are already down to a 1:47 lap time, which I think is quite good around there. So, the challenge is on.


SPOnG: As someone who's not all that familiar with games, how accessible have you found it?

Steve Parrish: Very. I got my 18 year old son, in the first instance, to put me on the right track and make sure I was doing everything right, and now I'm going to secretly play on this for about a week solid and hopefully I'm going to be able to beat him.


SPOnG: So, if you were faced with playing MotoGP 09/10 against a rider who's never played a videogame before or a gamer who's never ridden a bike before, which would you choose?

Steve Parrish: I'm going to reserve that judgment until later on today, when the gaming people have come back and I've seen how fast they are. But I would have thought that, given the time, the racer would be faster, because he's going to have a bit more track-craft, possibly, and as I say, the correlation is quite clear between the game and the race. But I think given time, I'd put my money on one of these three youngsters here who race bikes as well.


SPOnG: Finally, based on your experience racing rather than your experience with the game, what advice would you give a gamer picking up MotoGP 09/10?

Steve Parrish: I would suggest that, as in racing, you just have to bide your time. You have to do it gently. You can very easily crash and burn very early on, which I've done on many occasions. The first corner, first lap, is the busiest of the race, and it's vital getting a good start and getting through turn one cleanly - 'to finish, first you must finish', as the old saying goes.


SPOnG: Thanks very much for your time.


You can catch SPOnG's preview of MotoGP 09/10 right here.