SBK Generations - http://ebay.to/1M0IhRH Available for PS3, XBox360 and PC. Developer - Milestone.
A career mode race in the Superstock 1000 class. After a couple of abysmal performances in the two previous races of my very first career mode attempt, I finally managed to get in the points at Monza in the rain. This was recorded at medium physics simulation level - the middle difficulty setting of three, with the AI difficulty set to Pro (one click down from the hardest setting) Bike damage and rider health are turned on - so injuries and damage can end your race weekend quite abruptly if you are too reckless. I am racing in third person view as I freely admit I have not yet mastered first person at all. The various first person views give a great sense of speed but I find them all pretty tough to actually race with.
My initial thoughts on this game:- It's pretty challenging in career mode so far, even playing on medium simulation. Bike set up is vital but it's also quite time consuming, each change you make in the garage will cost you time out on track, reducing the amount of testing you can do in the two free practice sessions over a race weekend.
As you progress through a season you will be able to earn upgrades for the bike if you pass certain tests which are integrated into the practice and qualifying sessions. It remains to be seen how much benefit these will offer. It seems that in the early stages, with a small team, you are going to have to struggle to be competitive, even in the lower classes.
As far as gameplay goes, I've found it enjoyable so far. The graphics are pretty so-so but no better or worse than many other motorcycle titles of recent years. There are a few niggles - the replay feature seems to be pretty buggy - often freezing the game and my PS3, forcing a reboot. The game does crash outside of replay mode too, also requiring a hard restart of the console - not good. Replays also glitch out sometimes if you crash, and you are left watching your rider aimlessly riding all over the place and crashing into things.
There are no controller sensitivity options, meaning lots of practice with the left thumbstick which on my controller is extremely sensitive and requires a really delicate touch. You can see from the video how many corrections I am constantly having to make to my steering input.
If you are not a bike fan, this game probably won't interest you anyway, but if you love motorcycles and motorcycle racing it's worth a look. The difficulty level means you will need to give the game time and patience, but as a result it is very rewarding when you get things just right and string together a half decent ride. The AI riders are erratic and will happily rear end you if you brake check them going into a corner - the usual result of which is a trip down the road on your backside. Collisions are almost unavoidable in the heat of racing so there is plenty of fairing bashing even if you try to race cleanly. How much contact you can get away with varies.
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Please watch: "MotoGP 13 Gameplay PS3 | Moto3 Season | Sachsenring 27 Laps | Helmet Cam"
➨ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9xMQSlX9z8
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