> trust us. its realistic. my friend owns a few bikes, sport bikes has
> tested throwing around his weight. at a good speed, you can do a full
> lean and it will turn very little. Bike will only slip if your on the gas
> or break in a turn. Trust me the physics is very well done in gp500.
It's not bad, but it does lack the kind of "feel" for grip we've come to
know and love with GPL(and even Viper). In fact, the handling model reminds
me a bit of GP2 in a way. There are canned-feeling aspects, but they feel
pretty nicely canned. :-) It seems to run right up to a threshold and then
hit various routines, but the threshold for both acceleration and braking
grip under heavy lean are on the high side. The step-outs, headshakes and
tankslappers are a touch cheesy, but they do happen more or less when you
expect them to. At least they're not as scary as real ones! A BIT more
gradual breakaway of the tires would help, as might some skid sounds when
approaching the limit, since you have no tactile sensations like you would
in real life. You don't slide GP bikes around much of course, or get a LOT
of notice when they let go, but as it is now there's no feel at all for
what's happening at the tires, IMHO. Since the primary challenge (and
reward) of going fast is the fight for grip, that's a significant miss.
That said, the visuals are lovely (C450/V3 - w/settings maxed)and do
convey the feeling of*** it out on a (very)fast motorbike. It's bound
to be tough to model the experience since the control routine is so
different, but I did notice a few old bike-racing sensations perk up their
long-dormant heads while playing the game. Can't say the sound has much to
recommend it, though. First, the engine sound volume is way too low
relative to the others. And real 500 GP bikes are *** beasts; the wind
noise they make is enormous. These things sound like a bunch of 50cc
peewees buzzing around. While you can hear other bikes around you
generally, when one slides up and bumps against you, there's no louder
engine noise, or thud, or.....anything. That should really be a "moment",
but it's not. Perhaps that's an A3D or EAX-only thing?
Still good fun though, and it's certainly a "sim". I never got around
to trying SBK but this things blows every other bike game I've tried into
oblivion. A welcome addition to the market. Now if they'll just tweak it
around the edges a bit between now and October.:-)
Cheers,
Steve B.
