 |
Playstation > Whats New > PlayStation Reviews > Staff Review | |
 |
 |
 |
 |
||||||||
 |
|
 |
||||||||
 |
 |
 |
||||||||
| Setting
the Scene: Motorbike fans around the world can rejoice in the first true PC-style simulation of this motorsport on our console. The game has been officially licensed and developed with assistance from the Castrol Honda team, so the game should hopefully feel very close to the real thing - minus the wind in your hair and bugs on your visor. Sound and Vision: The visuals are similar in style to the Jet Moto series of racers in that they both look like the TV contrast has been turned right up to maximum. The amount of detail in the background is stunning and easily matches that present in Gran Turismo. However this is where the G.T similarities end as there are virtually no trackside objects to speak of, while the small amount that does bother to show up 'pops up' from nowhere and then 'breaks up' at will. The feeling of speed that the graphics engine generates is only acceptable because of the limitations within the game, but its nothing like the bullet-like pace of games such as Moto Racer.  The
racing views offered are: On the bike (looking at the instruments), on
the riders shoulder, just behind the bike (at low level), behind the
bike (at a raised level). I found the last option offered the best
vision for cornering. Everything about the in-game graphics is functional rather than smooth. The bikes themselves look fine, but glitch and twitch as they are animated. The 'fall-off' the bike animations took me back to those days of Road Rash on the old 16 bit systems of the early nineties - delayed, rigid and a real disappointment for a 32 bit system. The sounds are basically limited to the engine noises of the bikes. These are great until hitting maximum revs where they begin to whine in a short sample loop that becomes annoying after a while. Playability: Immediately noticeable is that Castrol Honda Superbike World Champions has been ported from the PC version. The game has all of those extra little details that are usually glossed over in PlayStation simulations.  There's
as a pre-game set-up screen that allows the race difficulty to be
tailored to suit your ability. Forget EASY, MEDIUM or HARD - opponents
ability can be manually selected (5 steps) as can the length of race
(3,5, 10 or Full Race Laps). There are on/off switches for computer assistance on braking and steering. Damage can also be toggled on/off or be limited to a minor amount. This includes problems such as prevention of performing wheelies under hard acceleration, stopping the back wheel from stepping out and kicking the rider off the bike like an angry mule, and preventing the engine from overheating when left at high revs for too long. You can even choose to have arrows showing which direction the next corner turns (which is a great help when learning new tracks), and prevent all timed stop/go penalties for illegal driving being requested.  As
the opponents' difficulty levels are changed from Rookie through to Pro,
the computer will automatically adjust all of the above settings. The
idea is that more control of the bike is gradually given as competence
is gained, with the lower settings providing an almost arcade feel to
the game. A word of warning… if you regard yourself as even a moderately good racer, then make sure the manually override for the BRAKE and STEERING assistance is switched OFF immediately. These do little more than completely ruin the 'simulation' aspect of the game, which may be fine for younger gamers and blind players, but it almost turned me off this game for good..!  When
finished playing around with all of these options it's time to move on
to selecting a game mode. New gamers should go straight to the TRAINER
option, pick a track and then follow an instructor around the track a
few times to learn the racing line and braking zones. I haven't seen
anything like this on the PlayStation before and would recommend that
other game developers take note of this highly useful feature. The PRACTICE option caters for racing around an empty track, but as it doesn't feature the standard ghost racer (best lap copied and ridden by an opaque drive-thru' image) it's a pretty pointless option to have included.  SINGLE
RACE and CHAMPIONSHIP are of course the main options. They offer the
chance to race against a friend (split screen mode), or seven computer
controlled racers around each of the 13 different tracks from across the
world. Selecting one of these areas moves forward to yet another options
screen to PRACTICE, QUALIFY or RACE. More essentially it allows time to
adjust the specific set-up of the bike for each track. Modifications range from an AUTO or MANUAL gearbox, 10 different tire compounds and 21 slightly altered gear ratios. Your favourite setting for each track may be saved onto memory card so as to minimise track-testing time in the future.  The
2 PLAYER mode is a one-on-one split screen affair. As with most racers
that offer this mode, lack of any computer riders mean that unless both
players are of a similar ability, they may never see each other on the
track once the race has started. As we have come to expect from a racing game, the Analog controller works much better that the standard digital pad (and eases the thumb strain). Damage and tire wear indicators will offer a basic idea of the bikes current condition. Minor scrapes usually mean that it starts constantly leaning over to one side making cornering more difficult. Another smash will see the actual power output of the bike begin to reduce, with further damage resulting in slower gear changes and occasional power cut-outs. Track design is great, offering a nice mixture between all-out top speed raceways (there's even an oval) and tight twisting tracks, which demand breaking points to be memorised at each corner or suffer the consequences. Game Options: This is a single disk game for 1or 2 Players. It is compatable with the standard (digital) joypad and the dual shock (analog) joypad. Games can be saved via memory card (1 block per save). |
|
|
|
|||||||||
|
|
|
|||||||||
|
|
|
|||||||||
|
|
|
|||||||||
|
|
|
|||||||||
|
|
|
|||||||||