I write a review on SBK-08. I am also uploading this game to GameFAQs if you notice the format.
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Introduction
For just about the last decade Motorcycle games have been dominated by the arcade racer called Moto GP. Now a new title for motorcycle fans, SBK-08. SBK-08 is based on the World Superbike Championship which is a series that puts riders on bikes available for the road tuned for racing rather the purposely built bikes in the Moto GP Series. Unlike the Moto GP series SBK-08 is a sim and arcade in the one. The game features all the riders, bikes and tracks from the 2008 season. The game has many great features including the engineer who gives you tips on how to tunes your bike or gives you a set up to what he thinks is the best for the track and the conditions. Depending on the team you race for you will be given better or worse tips and set ups. If your racing for Yamaha Italia team you will be given the best but if your racing with the Yamaha Grillini team you will be given ordinary tips and set ups.
Gameplay-9/10
You have options to whether you want to play in basic, arcade, simulation or extreme modes. Extreme being all aids off and bike damage etc. You can customize this to what you like. Controls are ultra realistic. If you push the throttle to hard your bike will get sideways, in arcade mode doing this will loose valuable seconds on your lap time or if you have traction control off you will get high sided and possibly damage your bike or injure your rider which will result in an end off session or a retirement from the race.
Initially the handling of the bike will take a bit to master. After a few races you will begin to master it and start to turn some aids off such as traction control to medium instead of full. You are offered tutorials, but they are way too hard to do. You are best off starting in a race to practice.
There are four types of weather conditions including Sunny, Cloudy, Wet and Rain. Your bike will handle differently depending on the condition. In a sunny session your bike will have more grip to the road thus creating faster lap times, a cloudy condition will have a lower track temperature meaning you will have less grip due to the tires not being able to get enough heat; a wet track will have puddles positioned around the track. Hitting these will decrease your grip to just about zero, there is a nice feature with this condition though, dry lines. Sticking to them will give you grip. Wet conditions are the hardest condition to master. You will have very little grip all the time. Too much throttle will cause you to go flying through the air; too much brake will cause the bike slip from underneath.
There are four different game modes.
Instant action puts you right in the riders seat giving you a random rider, bike, track and condition.
Quick race gives a an option of simply choosing a track, team, rider, starting position and what condition
you want to race in and begin to race. You do get to tune your bike and get engineers advice. You
then go straight to the race.
Race Weekend gives you the full race experience. You can have a practice session where you can test set
ups and practice the track. You then do the first qualifying session which is the main session. Then you do
another qualifying session then the . If you are in the top then you do
the Superpole session where you are get one lap to put in your best time to determine where you will be
starting in the races.
Championship is the same as race weekend but you will be competing to be number one in the
championship by winning races and getting points. The highest number of points at the end of the season
wins.
Time Attack mode requires you to break the current records for the circuits.
Another game mode is challenge which gives you different scenarios to do. These put you in situations where you may have to have a last lap battle with another rider and win or you have to complete that lap with damage to your bike.
SBK-08 has great physics. Unlike other games your bike will wheel stand slightly coming out of corners if you are accelerating hard. Suspensions movements are spot on. When coming into braking the bike will start to drift and if you are not careful will throw you off the racing line and you will be off the track.
Graphics-8/10
The graphics in SBK-08 are sharp and smooth. Bikes a detailed very well, you can see every part of the bike and most of it looks like it is real. Unfortunately some parts are bumpy like the chain. Overall the bike while racing looks like a photo or video of the real thing. The bikes are very well painted and logos are in the exact same position as their real life counter parts.
The tracks also a very well modeled and look the same and feel the same as their real life counter parts. The differences in surfaces between the different tracks look great. Detail on everything else on the track like curbs, rubber marks, painted lines etc is superb and is just as good if not better then any other racer on the market today whether it be bikes or cars.
Weather Conditions are also superb. When it is cloudy everything is dark and reflection off your bike will be less. In the rain water drops will hit the screen and the faster you get the more they spread out. You could almost think that your TV is wet. Replays of wet weather racing shows the brilliant reflections in the water puddles on the track, this is definitely a high point of the game.
Although this game has great bike and track graphics there are a couple of downsides. The detail outside of the concrete walls is terrible. There is no detail on anything. The grandstands are all that is there. There are no billboards or flags etc waving around. People are also very poorly done. They are 2D cutouts with a bit of colour on the front that barely resembles are person. Flames that come out the exhaust pipe are lacking a lot of detail. They look like a paint brush stroke of orange.
Sound-10/10
Sounds of the bikes in SBK-08 are brilliant. Each type of bike has its own sound that is just like the real thing. Ducatis have a deeper sound due to the type of engine while a Honda or Suzuki has a higher pitched sound. Tire screeching and other sounds are all very accurate.
Environmental sounds are also very good. You get hear helicopters that just make you want to look up. Cheers from the crowd also sound great just making you want to continue on. Rain sounds and storms are also very realistically recorded.
Play Time/Replayability- 7/10
As this game has nothing to unlock except photos and videos you will become bored with it if you are not a motorcycle rider or fan. If you are a fan and know about motorcycles you will thoroughly enjoy playing this game. There is hours of gameplay just in tuning your bike for each track to get the perfect time.
Overall-8/10
SBK-08 is a great game for any motorcycle rider of fan. If you are neither of these you will get frustrated with the game. For years we have had to play Moto GP which is very unrealistic arcade racer. The sim mode is brilliant and is probably the best sim on the market at the moment for console. There are a couple of downsides but the good sides outweigh the bad.