SBK- Superbike World Championship returns for another season, and it is back with improvements. Every aspect of the game has been improved and new features added. In fact you can see and hear the improvements as soon as you start playing.
There are five Single player modes, Quick Race, Training, Race weekend, Championship and Challenges. Quick Race, Training, Race Weekend and Championship allowing you to choose a team and a rider, the weather and the A.I difficulty.

There are thirteen tracks this season opposed to twelve with SBK 08. Losail, Valencia, Assen, Monza, Kyalmi, Salt Lake City, Misano Adriatico, Donington, Brno, Imola, Magny-Cours, Portimao and Philip Island. Each track has been enhanced with new 3D environments and a complete track overhaul and it shows.
The bikes now feel heavier, more on the track and there's a better sense of speed, although there is still no rumble on the track. They also sound better and now have a deeper roar. Bike damage has gone up a notch too and you can now visibly see the bike gradually getting damaged both with the icons and also on the actual bike and the rider's leathers, but if you damage the bike too much your race is over. I did manage to lock up the front wheel a few times, making it almost impossible to turn. The bikes and riders look great and little details such as sparks out of the exhaust and the way the rider leans on the bike are well done.

There are more realism settings to tweak from the options, you can rack up the settings to improve the realism, each gives a description of what these do, but you need to back right out to change these. The amount of settings are enough to please even the most hardcore of simulation players, or you can use Basic, Arcade or Advanced settings if you are just starting out or prefer a more arcadey feel or like me like to get round the track without falling all the time.
At the end of the race, provided you come in podium position you are treated to a podium with the rider's country's national anthem, which adds a sense of you have achieved something rather than being thrown straight back into the pits. The pits have also been revamped, the engineer now goes into more detail about the set ups and tracks and you can now ask them questions through a multiple choice, although trying to get back to them suggesting a set up for you is a pain as it will just keep revolving around the questions. Telemetry has been added to the engineer as well keeping it all in one place, you can again save, view and compare your telemetry.

The controller setups are fully mappable, allowing you to use whatever control setup you feel comfortable with.
Training mode, which was called Time Attack in SBK 08 has now seen the back of those annoying invalid laps when you hit the grass. The ghosts can be turned on or off.
The challenges are now more forgiving, gradually working you up in difficulty and unlocking cards which you choose which then unlock extras, you can view the pace car, race pictures, umbrella girls, race videos and your cups you have unlocked.
Xbox Live modes now add Team Championship to Quick Race and Championship, playable from two to eight players and it's from here you can also see the leaderboards, these have been given a facelift too and are split between, Team Championship, Quick Race and Championship, you can filter each one with track, realism, standings (Worldwide, friends). The lobbies are very similar to SBK 08 and you still cannot change your bike set ups from the lobby, they've still gone down the route of loading up your set ups which you have saved from the single player game, however I had a good race without any lag.

There are more achievements this time round and Milestone have had more thought with them this time round. For Example, a few are based on you using the correct rider on the correct track.
Although greatly improved in most areas, Milestone have again omitted on some of the other areas, the option to set up your bike from the lobbies would be nice, rumble on the tracks to give you more of a feel, the option to view the leaderboards from anywhere in the game, to set times from across the game and shorter loading and saving times (the game is forever loading and saving whenever you move anywhere) and again we see our American cousins having to wait and then not being able to play with the Europeans. Apart from that there are so many options to change the game to any difficulty level it's enough to keep anyone from novice to hardcore happy. If you loved SBK 08 you will more than love SBK 09.
8.0

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