I'm an old fan of Superbike 2001 and I've been out of the PC gaming hobby for awhile.

What's happening in the world of motorcycle racing sims these days?

Did anyone ever build a title better than SBK2001?

What's the current reigning champion in motorcycle racing sims?

Cheers!

Rick...

Hi Rick

My recent computer racing hobby started with a motorbike sim, it's still some of the most fun racing on PC I find (much more overtaking, much more crashing...)

Ain't much available on PC currently, sadly. The MotoGP license is with Capcom which are only doing it for PS3 and Xbox. The last MotoGP title for the PC is MotoGP08 programmed by Milestone.

Personally I really like SBK-X, last years Superbike World Championship game with the official license (also done by Milestone). SBK-2011 is out now (at least in EU, not sure about US), but I haven't played it, and as far as I can tell it does not offer a lot over SBK-X other than the current season.

SBK-X is nice in that you have three classes - Superstock 1000, Supersport and Suberbike - where you can run single race, race weekend, championship in either of them, but you also get a very good career mode that has you signing contracts with smaller Superstock 1000 teams and working up to eventually land a Suberbike season contract.

Only downside of the SBK-X game and also SBK-2011 is that it only runs in 16:9 aspect ratio. You get black bars on any other screen ratio, especially bad on 4:3 and 5:4 obviously. If you have older hardware and are running an older screen, you should look at MotoGP08 which does multiple aspect ratios.

Ideally you'll want to get a gamepad for those titles. SBK has you controlling two brakes separatly, and also leaning the rider forward/backward. Coupled with manual shifting, that's a lot more buttons than you can fit on a joystick. But you can auomate rider balance and shifting, obviously.

There's also GPBikes, a Pre-Beta Software that currently has no AI, no official licensed bikes, not much else, but it is a very good simulation. Just not developed into anything yet.

Wow! Great info! Thanks Colonel!

Cheers!

Rick...

One motorcycle racer that I had a lot of fun with was Tourist Trophy on the ps2. It was by Polyphony Digital, and was essentially Gran Turismo for bikes. It looked pretty good for a ps2 game, and the physics were pretty robust too. It had a whole range of classes, and also had a few classics in it too. If I remember correctly, the only drawback was that the bikes available were predominantly Japanese.

But if you have a ps2 lying around, it might be worth hunting down a copy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourist_Trophy_(video_game)