SBK08 Game Review

[The Tot]

My mind was doing hula hoops today so i decided to remedy myself with the SBK08 game on the XBOX360.

Being an impatient bastard that I am, I decided to fork out at game rather than buying it off t'internet.

First impressions

Graphics are OK. Better than MotoGP07 but not as good as grid. Cutscenes look awesome and the rider helmet/cockpit cam is stupidly detailed! Your head bobs down under braking and acceleration, it's sometimes pretty disconcerting when you brake mid corner to miss the view on your apex.
Gameplay: If any of you have played superbikes riding challenge on the PC/PS2, it's made by the same developers. So it's not all about trigger happy powerslides on the bikes. Different bikes DO feel different to ride, you get the feeling of understeer and you'll soon get to know how each bike handles. Physics is not as silly as something like Testdrive unlimited nor is it as arcadey as MotoGP. I'd say that it's more towards Tourist Trophy - or the same as superbikes riding challenge.
Team/Rider/Bike details: Each rider is accurately modeled. You can actually see their faces through the dark visors and some faces are accurately replicated, like biaggi and haga. It's probably the first game in a long time where helmets have been modeled accurately too. There's no "generic helmet design" where they just wrap the graphics around it. A suomy extreme lid IS a suomy extreme lid. An Arai Corsair IS an arai corsair with vents and sidepods in the appropriate places. you get the drift. Leathers are also accurately replicated. So you don't see dainese leathers with a ghosted out alpinestars badge, and sponsor patches on bikes and players are as they should be. The graphics look shit hot and all bikes are proportionate.
Tracks Rather Limited. You have Qatar Losail, Philip Island, Salt lake City, Magny Cours, Donnington, Valencia, Vallelunga, Monza, Misano, Brands, Brno, Nurburgring, Portimao. It replicates this year's superbikes season
It's also ashame that they haven't managed to include supersports races too as i would have felt that would have been good.

Overall, i've only played the game for an hour and i feel that you can just pick it up and play. I've already won two races and qualified well, so it's just a matter of upping the difficulty. So my suggestion is that it's worth a punt. Definitely better than MotoGP07 and does have better graphics. Overall, i'd give it a 7/10... buy it off games website for £29.99 on xbox360 or £24.99 on the PC, it's £37.99 in stores cos they're c*nts!
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The Tot 2019 Z1000SX - 2007 R1
Never argue with autism

[AppleJoe]

PGR4 is a good game for bikes, got it yesterday on the 360 for £17
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Full licence from 16/4/08
Previously: '56 YBR125 - Current: K1 SV650S

[The Tot]

PGR is too arcadey, this a bit more sim-like. The handling is jerky, just like a bike in real life, over bumps, crests and on the brakes, you have to take it like you do in real life. You cant drop it and pin it on full throttle. PGR4 is a class game, but it's gathering dust at the moment. Turns out that i have 10 games on my 360 of which 5 are racing games (PGR4, GRID, MotoGP07,Forza2,SBK08 and GTA4 if you can call it a racing game). Either way, i think black bean have taken the right steps - just maybe need somebody to work on the graphics a little. Not THAT bad but can do with improving (maybe HDR and texturing). Track and scenery graphics on par with MotoGP, but i've found that the seconds lapse longer on here. Grid is silly quick, you can do a lap of Circuit de la Sarthe in err 4 real time minutes (6-8mins game time). It's still a good game. One to get once price drops too.
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The Tot 2019 Z1000SX - 2007 R1
Never argue with autism

[TJenkos]

Im looking all over for this game. Asda 4x Sainsburys, Blockbusters, Morrisons. None of them have it! Will have to venture into town tomorrow to a game specialist!
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Passed CBT: 21/05/2006 Passed A2 Test: 17/05/2008
Previous Bike: '99 Peugeot Speedfight, '54 Jetforce TSDI, '03 Yamaha R6
Current Bike: '58 Yamaha R6 & '89 Honda VFR400R NC30 SP2

[The Tot]

It gets bloody tedious when you have to wait 20 seconds loading from race/session end to workshop! I guess there's so many animations in it.

Turn off ALL the gamer aids and up the difficulty and it DOES become really interesting. The challenges require precision to master and it's definitely more challenging than the MotoGP07 piss. I've come to appreciate the in game graphics more and fiddled about with the bike settings. It's bloody good and does make a difference. Err, the Engineers "technical meeting" is useful, BUT the developers made a fundamental error referring to the bikes as "GP BIKES!" in one of the tips referring to braking.
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The Tot 2019 Z1000SX - 2007 R1
Never argue with autism

[Makaveli_Rydah]

Down the bike shop yesterday and their giving away copies of it to anyone who buys a pair of Corsa II's

( or is it III's ? - can't remember )

Shame considering i bought Metzelers before they told me about the offer
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Bike History:- Vision / Phantom 100 / Aerox 100 / Runner VX125 / Honda VFR400 NC24 / Kwak ZX9R B3 / Honda CBR600 F / ZZR400 & K2 GSXR 750 / Suzuki VZ800

[Fnatic]

The games good but I cant keep it on the track for more than 10 seconds. I mean you come out of Autodrive, knee down lean and still roll off of the track.

Independent is a good idea but confuses the hell outta me.

[craigs23]

Cool, might look into downloading a demo - it's also available for PCs right?

[SpeedfightBoi]

[The Tot]

It got REALLY stupid when i put it on real opponents with real phsyics! Front wheel kept popping up and almost definitely kept losing traction in the wet, particularly on the bus stop/car park section at donny.
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The Tot 2019 Z1000SX - 2007 R1
Never argue with autism

[The Tot]

It got REALLY stupid when i put it on real opponents with real phsyics! Front wheel kept popping up and almost definitely kept losing traction in the wet, particularly on the bus stop/car park section at donny.
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The Tot 2019 Z1000SX - 2007 R1
Never argue with autism

[thegubner]

I just bought this game (sbk08) and turned it on and 5 minutes in I turned it straight off!

The graphics are crap TT2 whoops it.

The game play is crap TT2 whoops it.

The crashes are crap TT2 beats it (just).

The corners are faaaaaaar to easy to go round.

The thing about the crashes....... The geezer just jumps off the bike about 20 foot in the air and then goes somewhere else.

WHACK the brakes on mid corner at well over a ton and you just get a black mark off the tyre and it goes straight round the bend.

Not a happy bunny at all.


Unless all of this is just in "quick race" mode and the rest of the game is brilliant but I just turned it off and it is going back tomorrow.

Worst twenty quid I have ever spent!

[The Tot]

Mate, try it on extreme mode and it becomes too frustrating.. but rewarding if you can ride through it, but yeah, for the xbox, there's NO game like TT, which i miss Online play on live LAGS big time.
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The Tot 2019 Z1000SX - 2007 R1
Never argue with autism

[ttr]

Aye, very dreary on the standard realism settings.

On extreme it gets really fun! Very tricky, as said.

Graphics leave me a little disappointed, but otherwise good fun! Enjoying tweaking the xerox to my liking, nifty feature that.
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GS125-> NT400->VFR400->CRM250->Z750 + GS125->NTV650 rat + VMX1200->GSF600 + GPz550

[thegubner]

Does the machine affect game play?

I am playing it on a PS2, the loading takes forever!

[mistergixer]

I find the game rather shite too. What i find most annoying is the throttle - it seems to be either 100% on or 100% off, regardless of what i assign it to (playing on a pc, with either a joystick, gamepad or kbd). Consequently, i have to drag the brakes in order to control the acceleration.
I think it's a fairly poor game, but then i've never yet played a bike game which has been 'realistic'.

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Space Monkey #7
Don Eladio is dead. His capos are dead. You have no one left to fight for. Fill your pockets and leave in peace. Or fight me and die!
Mistergixer's videos on YouTube

[The Tot]

Even on the Xbox, the loading is SILLy - i have having to go to the race screens between sessions on a race weekend.. can't you just skip!

The xbox controller makes it so much more ergonomic because it's spring loaded. You can feather the throttle or partially load it fine. Brakes are too twitchy, especially the rear.

Turn off power brakes and traction control and put on manual games and you'd be surprised how much more tricky it becomes. I like it personally, but the graphics could have been better - GRID for me defines what racing graphics should be.
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The Tot 2019 Z1000SX - 2007 R1
Never argue with autism

[thegubner]

I only bought it today and I am back playing tourist trophy 2, I have no idea how old it is but I bought it last year second hand for a tenner.

It is the dogs, the only thing that lets it down is the fact when you race its only against 3 "people".

The rest of it is fantastic.

I want a game as good (or damn near) as TT2 for the ps2 which is better for racing than tourist trophy 2.

Any suggestions?

What are the isle of man ones like?

[Smiffy1203]

arrghhh i want this game so bad but stupid ps3's have to wait till end of September!
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Yamaha YZF-R6
Knee down vid..... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2yOFSDYUN4
Clicky..... https://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i320/smiffy1203/a009_1.jpg