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Game
review: Superbike World Championship
My
dear friend Gavin Davidson pleasantly surprised me with an "Asia
Pacific Edition" of Electronic Art's "Superbike World Championship".
Until now "Castrol Honda Superbike" had been my favorite bike racing
simulator, with "MotoRacer" as a close second (though that one is
an "arcade racer" instead of a simulator).
I had been reading some reviews of Superbike on various gaming websites
and they almost all came to the same conclusions; Magnificent graphics,
medium gameplay, no sense of speed whatsoever and poor sound...
Well,
as I write this after playing the game for the last few hours my
conclusion is; Most game reviewers know nothing about bikes!!!
So let's give you all a proper review written by someone who has
actually been in near proximity of a motorcycle, let alone sat on
one ;-)
Installation
After inserting the CD-ROM, the installation started and I opted
for a medium install because I have a 40 speed drive and I didn't
want to give up 440 (give or take a few) MB's on my harddisk. Upon
running the game you are presented with an "Eurosport-style" intro
movie with lots of speedy clips and a hard rock tune to get your
adrenaline flowing and your heart pumping.
Running
the game
Once
inside the game there is a small encyclopedia with details about
the bikes, riders and rules of the 1997 season (yes, it took 18
people 2 years to create the game) which is nice for the beforementioned
game-reviewers, but very summere for the real SBK enthusiast who
probably won't find anything there he didn't know.
Okay...
time to boogie, I select a "quick race", Philip Island... mmm....
nice graphics! Last on the grid by default, the startlight goes
red, then green and off we go, all trying to squeeze into turn one...
what the fuck??? the bike brakes by itself!!!!??? GRRRR!!! I was
just about to outbrake Haga when the autopilot ABS pulls the plug
in a very cruel way :-(
Well, after some switching trough the menus I was able to switch
of all the -ahum- "Accessibility options" and it's time to show
those SBK gods how fast a GSX-R can go with a proper pilot ;-) The
game has a training session in which you have to ride trough hoops,
with red hoops telling you where to break and the blue hoops showing
you the ideal line. I personally prefer just to start a race without
training and qualifying sessions and then follow the pack to learn
it from the big boys and that method works exceptionally well. After
a few laps I soon began to overtake them all and was in need of
a higher difficulty setting.
Gameplay
The handling of the bike may seem very hard to master at first,
but suddenly you realize that it handles just like in real life.
When you somewhat know where the braking points are you just break
hard, ease the bike into the corner, then feed it more throttle
after you have reached the apex and then accelerate hard out of
the corner. And the because the bike responds so realistically,
you close the throttle if you are running wide and open the throttle
when running tight, allowing for precise mid-corner adjustments.
Actually this is a game where experienced bikers have a clear advantage,
and I am sure that novice bikers can actually learn to improve their
cornering technique by playing this game! What is also very nice
is that you can really give the handlebars a tug when opening the
throttle and make the bike wheelie, and if you can find the balance
point it is even possible to pull really long wheelies! Another
fine detail is the bike shaking it's head when you are accelerating
hard and hitting a curbstone or catching some grass. The bike physics
are so realistic that you can pull numerous kinds of tricks with
the bike just like in real life... wheelies, stoppies, powerslides...
you name it!.. and when you practice hard you will able to control
them and be a virtual Kevin Schwantz! Absolutely fabulous! No sense
of speed huh? Well, everyone who has seen more than 200kph behind
the fairing of a sportsbike knows it suddenly gets very quiet, and
the only indication of your speed is the needle of the speedo trying
to do a full circle and every other vehicle on "your" road being
thrown over your shoulder as if they were oncoming traffic. Just
for the fun of it at the end of my gaming session I turned my GSX-R
around and went "wrong way" around the Nurnburgring.... Fookin'
hell! Just as I reached about 230kph, a 916 warped what seemed right
trough me, sparks flying off two knee sliders touching at a relative
500kph (or was that my imagination?). All I can say is that Superbike
simulates the speed of a bike perfectly, in a way that when you
blink you will have braked too late and you are heading for the
hospital, so full concentration and dedication is called for.
Graphics
When you consider these points, you begin to realize... the graphics
everyone is raving about turn pale in comparison with the excellence
of the game engine. You haven't got the time to enjoy the view when
you hear the roar of Foggy's 916 breathing in your neck like a Grizzly
in heat with Haga's screaming kamikaze YZF hot on it's tail...
Sound
Speaking of which... in every review I have read people are complaining
about the sound... huh?... are these people from mars?? The engine
sounds are as realistic as they can get... if they got more realistic
you'd only be hearing the noise of the wind blast at 300kph!!! You
can tell who is behind you just by the sound of the engine... the
916's, RC45's, ZX7R's, YZF's and GSX-R's all have their distinct
sounds... absolutely brilliant! I was allmost tempted to ride a
Ducati myself and go brrrrrrRRRRROOOooooommmmm... brrrrrrrrRRROOOOOoooooooommm...,
but I have a strong will so I kept the Gixxer ;-) There is no doubt
in my mind that all those reviewers have never seen a SBK race on
TV, let alone visited one.
Test
system
I ran SBK on the following system; ABIT BX6 rev2.0 with Intel Celeron
300A CPU running at 450MHz, Riva TNT AGP card, Sound Blaster Live!,
40x CD-ROM, CH Virtual Pilot (excellent for bike racing games!),
Windows 95 with DirectX 6.0 I ran the game with maximum detail and
a resolution of 800x600 and under certain circumstances the game
began to show some stuttering (lower than a guessed 20fps), but
overall the game display was very smooth.
Conclusion
I can finally kick Castrol Honda from my harddrive and ride a GSX-R
when it's -10 degrees and snowing outside! A MUST HAVE for all bike
freaks with a proper PC.
Need to know more about the game or want to see some screen shots?
Try typing "superbike world championship" in your favourite search
engine ( I recommend www.altavista.com
).
Update
I have been playing the game for a couple of hours now, concentrating
on my home circuit Assen which is a very technical circuit with
lots of hard corners, and I must say I am very disappionted at the
difficulty of the game, even when selecting "real word opposition".
I do not bother qualifying anymore but immediately go on to Race
1. When the starting light goes red you notice your bike accelerating
much harder than the "real" opponents, and on the straights you
are faster also. I never bothered to change the default bike setup,
because it is enough to annihilate everybody as it is. You can download
a replay file of me doing a 3-lap race at Assen, starting at the
back of the 30 bike grid and overtaking everybody but the race leader
on the first lap, and taking first position a few seconds later
( okay, I crash later in the race, but you get the point ;-). Just
unzip this file in your replay directory.
I hope EA will bring out a patch which will make the computer contolled
opponents more up to par or the player's bike slower, because the
main attraction of real superbike racing is the fierce battles that
take place. I don't think that I am the only one who will stumble
upon this because I don't think I am exceptionally good at the game...
please tell me if you experience the same. My lap times are usually
in the high 2.02's at Assen while the computer bikes barely manage
to get below 2.04s.
-Just
my two cents-
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