Written: 2008/02/28 : 12:09. Read 20457 times (-2/day).
Have you ever dreamed to ride 1 on 22 SBK motorcycles on 1 on 10 races tracks, when you want, where you want?
Now you can! You just need a Portable Sony Playstation, and the game SBK-07, published by Blackbean, developped by Milestone. You can alosp lay it at home on your PS2. 23 votes
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Milestone... They allready developped the wonderfull, sublime, awesome Superbike 2001 on PC (and also the previous versions: Superbike and Superbike 2000). They also developped Superbikes Riding Challenge (PC/PS2, allready reviewed here).
Now, It's time to review the PSP / PS2 version of SBK-07.
SBK 2007 licence: due to PSP limitations, we got only 14 riders simultaneously on the race track (the PS2 version off course has better graphics, 1 more track and 22 bikes racing at the same), but the bikes and the pilotes pilots are there with their stats: you start the game with Honda, Alto Evolution, Yamaha moto Italia, Ducti Xerox, Honda DFX Corse, Hannspree Ten Kate Honda, Kawasaki PSG1 Corse, Suzuki Alstare; the available race tracks are Misano, Brno, Brands Hatch, Magny Cours, Doha, Philip Island, Valencia, Assen, Monza and Silverstone. You'll have to win some races to unlock more contents and bonus (did I say umbrella girls?) You know what? It's really fun to ride as Troy Bayliss or Regis Laconi or –write you prefered pilot name here-.
Game modes: what game mode??? It's a race game, I wanna race, period. Mmmmm.
ok. Let's list the game modes: Quick race: a single race... useless as you can't tweak your bike settings. Time attack: a usefull game mode to learn the tracks: you can adjust your bike settings and ride vs your ghost. Race weekend: what the hell do you expect me to say??? it's a simpel race weekend... Challenge: you have to win some challenges to unlock bonus... Championship: the very best, and most serious, game mode: you'll have to race the full season, with the real SBK rules.
Settings: let's forget the arcade mode which is really too much easy. There is a really good simulation mode, with accurate physics and realistic riders behaviours. Remember, Milestone allready developed Superbike 2001 and Superbikes Riding Challenge ;) Of course, if the game is too hard for you (so I guess you're not a motorcylist...) you can adjust the opponents difficulty, or go back to the arcade mode (SHAME ON YOU!!!). I personnaly choosed to play in simulation mode, with custom settings: separate brakes contrôle (that mean one button for the front brake and another for the rear brake), ABS on (because the buttons are digital...) traction control off, realistic inertia on, rider help off, automatic rider position on the bike and automatic gears (I'm not exactly used to the psp and the buttons are very small). Other options I choosed: motorcycle damages enabled, rider damages enabled, tyre wear enabled, and real SBK rules. You can change all these settings to fit your own needs. And there are OTHER settings: you can also slightly adjust some bike settings.
You can choose your front and rear tyres beetween dry soft, dry medium, dry hard, rain, and intermediate; you adjust your front and rear suspensions, the handlebar, gear ratios and extra weight.
Simulation? These are a lot of setting... and each setting has an effect on the simulation. Let's go straight: this is the best motorcycle simulation game on the PSP (well, the only challenger is the arcadey motoGP 2007...), but not only: for now, it's simply the best motorycle simulation on all plateforms. For sure, the PSP CPU is less powerfull than the PS2, so the PS2 version looks more accurate, I guess this is due to the refresh rate of all the simulation parameters, the more detailled animations and the better 3D models, and especially to the fact that the PS2 has 2 big analog controllers when the PSP have only one small analog controller.
That means you can accurately adjust the throttle and front brake on the PS2, wich is impossible on the PSP because you have to use some on/off buttons. It was amazing how Superbike Riding Challenge was allready a good simulation and SBK-07 is better. Handling, especially with 2 analog controllers on the PS2 is sublime, and still very good on the PSP : the game is nothing less than very realistic: there are 4 weather condtions, the masses transferts are well rendered, the front and read brakes must be used as in the real life, and trajectories are as important as in real life: the bike goes where you look, remember ;) Every corner must be taken with precision and you have to use the throttle with caution out of a corner or you will slip away. Off course, the first 15 minutes of play are not that fun: it's the time needed to be used to the controls, but then, the fun is there :)
A-I: the A-I in SBK Riding Challenge was allready good, it's also was very good in SBK-07: your opponent don't simply follow a programmed best trajectory: they want to win! And they'll do their best to pass you inside corners or outside corners, they'll suck your rear tyre, they'll do some dumb figure in front of you beacause they don't wan't you to pass them: in professionnal difficulty setting, the challenge is very fun and the races never boring.
Graphics: well, with all that CPU power used for the simulation and the A-I, there's not a lot remaining to take care of graphics...
Anyway, actually the game is not ugly (especially on the PSP), and the frame rate is stable as rock. On the PSP the motorcycles are well rendered, so are the riders and their animations (off course, better on the PS2...), and the race tracks are accurate. When it comes to graphics, I do prefer the PSP version because it's not aliased even if there are a lot less details than on the PS2 version. The PS2 version has a better frame rate, more detailled bikes and riders 3D models, more detailled animations and the tracks seems a little more « alive », but the aliasing is really annoying (especially when you usually play on a XBOX 360 or a PS3). If Tourist Trophy from polyphony gets a 18/20 about graphics, SBK-07 only gets 12/20...
I think this is only because of the consoles CPU limitations: Milestone had too choose between realistic simulation or eye candy graphics. Whatever, graphics never prevented me from playing the game on PS2 or PSP, it was a lot of pleasure to play this game on both console, and I still carry the UMD everywhere with my PSP.
Conclusion : this gonna be a fast one: SBK-07 is simply the best motorcycle simulation game to date even if it's not that good when it comes to graphics. The SBK licnce is a good bonus, and on the PSP, you can also play with your friends wireless :)
I just can't wait for SBK-08, coming very soon on XBOX 360, PS3, PC, PS2 and PSP :)
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