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Best viewed in 800x600 with Internet Explorer 4.x or 5.x
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Castrol Honda
Superbike World Champions
Page 2
10 different Tracks
Superbike has around 10 different tracks. Two tracks each country. For example: in England you can race on the Allerton G.P. and the North Allerton Village or you could also race in Indonesia on the Sukuh Island track or the Padang Raceway track. They are all gorgeous!
If you worry with what motorcycle you will race, don't, because you can't choose any other bikes.
Why? Because this game is entirely based on just 1 (ONE) motorcycle of the Honda family. The RC45. One of Honda's most succesfull and most gorgous motorcycle they have.
What about the graphics? To tell you the truth, Superbike needs a fast machine if and I say IF you want everything modeled and rendered on high detail and in a very high resolution. To give you an
idea, I would be speaking off a Pentium II 266 with Voodoo II and a minimum of 64 MB of Ram. Then you can do 800x600 flawlessy or you might go even higher. Depends what other hardware you have.
With my system (P166mmx, Monster 3D and with 64 MB Sgram), I did 640x480 with high detail enabled and 12 bikers rendered. It all played very smoothly. Also, be sure that you have the latest drivers installed of your 3D card because that could increase the speed of the game.
Of course the scenery wasn't very detailed but hey, look at the screenshots and keep in mind that it is just '640x480' :). If the game goes to slow on your system, you can still disable some functions in the realism menu and you can try a lower resolution like 512x384 setting.
The game uses Direct 3D and Glide so if you have a 3DFX Voodoo card, just enable the glide setting. Always great performance. Everthing, from the road to the sky, from the bikers to your own bike
they are all modeled extremely beautifully. It couldn't have been better!
  
Before I write something down on the sound/music bit I would like to give you some little usefull info first about the On-Screen options that you have while you race because they are very interesting.
When you race you may need some help. Because racing in a simulation game is not quite the same as in an arcade game like Redline Racer.
When you press the fuction key 'F1' you can enable or disable the 'Online Help'. This fuction displays the arrows on your screen that tells you how the next corner turns.
Another neat thing is the brake assist and the steer assist. They are all on other function keys. Quite usefull if you want some help while you race. There is also a 'Workshop' available where you can tune and especially fine-tune your bike before you burn that rubber down. Like your gear ratio and your tyres all according on the track and the conditions that you will be racing on.
There are also simulation options that can be turned on or off. Wheelies, engine overheat, radiator damage, tyre wear, ... you name it, Superbike has it all!
Engine sounds, Crowd Noises, ...
The sounds that are used in this motorcycle simulation game are incredibly realistic.
They are probably straight taken from a race instead of recording them in a studio. Every sound, from the crowd to the other scenery noises are all very clear. I just liked the noise when my bike was shifting gears up or when I was shifting one down. Excellent!The music isn't amusing to listen too. The music is only used in the interface menu and is not of very high quality. There isn't even a good tune in it but thats the only negative item I found. Oh, there isn't any music during the race. Thats excellent because who wants music when you need to concentrate yourself on the track. The road is not always straight.
Handling the RC45
Gameplay in Superbike is quite good considering that this is a sim game. On most simulation games it is a bitch to handle it or manoeuvring the vehicle. Not here. It's easy and after a while you will get the hang of it. But between playing it easily and mastering it, there is a big difference. Much practice I would suggest.
The last item is about controlling/handling your bike. The RC45 does its job quite good considering that they (Intense Games) have used data from Honda. Everything is calculated on the real physics of the bike. And you do feel it! The best way is using a 4 button gamepad. A 4-button one? Can't I use my Sidewinder Gamepad with 8 buttons for example? Sure, it will work but you can only address 4
buttons to your joystick. :( Any other functions needs to be addressed by the keyboard which is pretty iritating. Of course Intense Games knew this, lets call it a bug and they have already released a patch that can be downloaded from their website. This patch eliminate that little bug. Also Win98, Voodoo2 and SLI mode bugs have been eliminated.
Thank Intense! :)
Conclusion
Castrol Honda Superbike World Champions from Intense Games is not just 'another' motorcycle game on the PC platform.
No sir, it is a higly developed simulation game that certainly deserves a place with your other game titles.
If so, then you will have the most realistic motorcycle game ever build with amazingly good sound
effects and good gameplay. You might need a fast machine if you want high resolutions with every detail options enabled.
The only thing that might be a problem for some gamers is that they will use their brain more often in this game because it ain't Arcade.
-Bjorn
Ratings
Manual:
82% |
Graphics:
85% |
Music & Sfx:
80% |
GamePlay:
88% |
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This game scores
on our 5-point Rating System
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