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SBK 09
Superbike World Championship
Since
late last year, Moto GP 08 has undoubtedly held the crown for bike
racing games on both PC and Console. The announcement of SBK 09 made for
salivating mouths and questions of whether it could topple Moto GP's
mountain, and it may just do that.
SBK 08
was, to be kind, a flop, it just didn't have the edge that racing fans
crave, but in SBK 09 all the wrongs from the previous title have be made
right. Still based on the Superbike World Championship (Obviously) it
gives you the full rider roster and a great selection of the tracks
presented in the 2009 season. Also giving you basic racing modes of
Training, Quick Race, and Championship, it's stripped back to its core
value, the racing. The racing in this game is absolutely phenomenal. The
engine that Black Bean have produced to recreate a Racing Bikes physics
are brilliant and fail to miss a single detail, down and unshifting mid
corner will whip the front and tail and make you lose corner traction
while still showing the riders hand movements to represent a clutch in.
It a mile ahead of what could be expected. The damage systems have been
upgraded and show some great detailing of panel damage and even
performance deterioration depending on the accident that occurs.
The
attention to detail is glowing with minute changes making all the
difference, from watching the tires change from white to black as they
run off the gravel onto the sticky tarmac, to the reproduction of the
teams racing livery and some beautiful track landscaping and event
weathering, its graphically complete. The audio is just as impressive,
when using a surround speaker arrangement it is a beautiful roar that
bellows out and can also be utilised as a warning of approaching riders
when heard over a roaring crowd. Although the soundtrack is also
impressive, the games default settings will loop a track constantly
while in a race which can easily become frustrating and cause more than
one spin-out.
The
hardest part of Motorbike simulators is getting the 4 wheeled fan
interested, the dynamics of the two sports are completely different. SBK
09 has used a simple engine and it has a very lenient learning curve and
is blissfully easy to pickup. After a few laps and once the
braking-accelerating system is mastered you can move onto the bike
tuning options which have a great effect on the performance of your
machine. Again though, for those who aren't really across the running of
a bike but still would like to tinker, you can refer to a Team engineer
who will make recommended changes based on some selections you make.
All in
all, SBK 09 is the total package for Motorbike and racing fans alike. It
has left its previous incarnation for dead and has also overtaken MotoGP
as the dominating Moto Title. A very worthy purchase. |
