[Mush xx]

SBK 09: Superbike World Championship

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

[Tritan Warrior]

Thanks Mush.

Mesa buying methinks

[Haggler r1]

Getting excited again, roll on Friday

[OppaErich]

Quote

although there is still no rumble on the track.

Show stopper for me

[Haggler r1]

OppaErich, on May 25 2009, 07:55 AM, said:

Show stopper for me

This seems to be a pattern for bike games strangely , was playing TT superbikes Legends last night and even though there is supposed to be rumble none exists on track. Is it a case of developers just plain and simple not understanding bikes ?

[HeY jOe]

I am disappointed about the times only going to the boards from a "Ranked" room, it ends up with players "setting up" a room and hammering the times that way.

Doubt I'll get it as that whole scenario (along with the room shutting down), killed the last title for me. I found I was endlessly searching for a room as once they start they're gone, then they shutdown. All it ends up is a few rider "friends" doing maximum laps between themselves. I like to play anyone, anytime, anyplace . ie not just keeping to a few select "friends", there's a whole World out there I wanna race with whilst setting times to the boards.

I hear people saying yeah but 08 was great, set up a ranked room with a few mates, no trouble, times go to the boards!
I hear ya, shame the rest of the World can't join ya

[Darce Commander]

Mush xx, on May 25 2009, 03:08 AM, said:

and you still can only set times in Ranked Rooms

That is such a dissapointment that is a massive mistake.

I'll still be buying it though, hopefully they'll be a few people online to race

[OppaErich]

Darce Commander, on May 25 2009, 05:09 PM, said:

That is such a dissapointment that is a massive mistake.

I'll still be buying it though, hopefully they'll be a few people online to race

Don't feed the trolls.
That's the next show stopper, I didn't bother reading on after 'no rumble'.

[WALKEN]

Some people are disappointed with the online lobbies flowing along in 08..

Try setting while creating an online match everything to FREE to ensure you can change everything while in the lobby and the lobby will remind open forever if need be...

Also you can save all your bike setting and load them at the track your host has picked, from your menu...

The only problem I can see is no rumble which is a minor drawback for me and not being able to set times from Time Trials?

But maybe you can as there was suppose to be online TT or something??

PS- I'm not 100% sure on this but its been brought to my attention that Ps3 games are not region locked so if your from the USA, you can order it from Ebay and it will work?

This post has been edited by WALKEN: 25 May 2009 - 05:13 PM

[Mush xx]

WALKEN, on May 25 2009, 06:07 PM, said:

The only problem I can see is no rumble which is a minor drawback for me and not being able to set times from Time Trials?

Not that I can see, it was announced but I couldn't find it.

[HeY jOe]

Just a great pity they've chosen that "route" yet again, not for me and I should imagine it will isolate the game as before into private Ranked Rooms(kinda) (that's me refreshing the search for a game). Think I had maybe two times on the boards last time after waiting, session dropping and even then when I got in there some stupid options were in force, S-T-U-P-I-D

[xXBADGERXx]

Hmmmm still not sure about this one for actual online , I will probably buy it just to gas about on a bike game , it seems way better than 08 , I had that for an hour and took it out and traded it in .

[HeY jOe]

There's confusion as to where the times can be set, some say ranked, others Championship & Team Championship, can anyone give the definitive answer? as I'd buy it as soon as....... if it's the latter

[Mush xx]

HeY jOe, on May 26 2009, 02:04 PM, said:

There's confusion as to where the times can be set, some say ranked, others Championship & Team Championship, can anyone give the definitive answer? as I'd buy it as soon as....... if it's the latter

Sorry for the confusion, basically the options you get are like this;

Quick Race- Quick Match, Custom Match, Create Match
Championship- Quick Match, Custom Match, Create Match
Team Championship- Quick Match, Custom Match, Create Match
Leaderboards- Quick Race, Championship, Team Championship, then each one of those can be filtered by track, realism and standings (worldwide, friends)

So basically they are all Ranked Rooms, there are no Player Rooms.

Rooms can be set for 2-8 players.

You cannot post times to the leaderboards from any of the Single Player modes. I have no times set to the leaderboards from any of the single player modes, including Career and Training.

There is no one playing at all at the moment, will verify where you can set times from later.

[HeY jOe]

Definitely interested again, would have liked times from anywhere but as any normal game lobby seems to go to the boards (from explanation), I'll be buying.

So I could join a Championship even after the host has started, ie the room would still be selectable?

[Mush xx]

HeY jOe, on May 26 2009, 06:36 PM, said:

So I could join a Championship even after the host has started, ie the room would still be selectable?

This is the problem when obtaining games early, there just isn't many if any to try the Xbox Live modes out as I would like to. Quick Race after the race boots you back to the title screen, I'm not sure if you can join in the middle of a Championship, this will need to be checked out when more get the game.

[HeY jOe]

Mush xx, on May 26 2009, 05:42 PM, said:

This is the problem when obtaining games early, there just isn't many if any to try the Xbox Live modes out as I would like to. Quick Race after the race boots you back to the title screen, I'm not sure if you can join in the middle of a Championship, this will need to be checked out when more get the game.

I appreciate you can't test that as yet, I do hope it's possible to join, as once again if it's not then again it may end up with the scenario of waiting for a game to post times and play. ie if you go on for a race and everyone has started Championships already, you'll be left on ya tod so to speak. Ok you could start a room yourself but what if everyone is already mid-session (or first race), they're not going to close their rooms just to join yours.
Can anyone see where I'm coming from on the above? or is it just me

I do it all the time on MGP07 ie boot it up and join any game mid Championship, I can't always get on due to work/family commitments

[jimortality]

HeY jOe, on May 26 2009, 06:51 PM, said:

I appreciate you can't test that as yet, I do hope it's possible to join, as once again if it's not then again it may end up with the scenario of waiting for a game to post times and play. ie if you go on for a race and everyone has started Championships already, you'll be left on ya tod so to speak. Ok you could start a room yourself but what if everyone is already mid-session (or first race), they're not going to close their rooms just to join yours.
Can anyone see where I'm coming from on the above? or is it just me

I do it all the time on MGP07 ie boot it up and join any game mid Championship, I can't always get on due to work/family commitments

So you mean if people have just completed Lossail, and you join, you can go straight onto Jerez but obviously you'll be playing catch up re points?

[HeY jOe]

jimortality, on May 26 2009, 05:58 PM, said:

So you mean if people have just completed Lossail, and you join, you can go straight onto Jerez but obviously you'll be playing catch up re points?

exactly, I do it all the time because quite obviously most rooms will already be running a Championship on MGP07 anyhow, at least I can join in with the banter and get a race that posts to the boards, I don't mind catch-up regarding the points.

In fact I'm just about to do it now fish/cat fed/tea eaten/guttering fixed/son, daughter content/4days off work.

I suppose it means ziltch to those youngsters who may have ALL day to play ....your DAY will COME, believe me

[Darce Commander]

Good news that they're all ranked rooms, although as joe says, if you can't join mid championship then its pointless.

Really hope you can.