Was browsing D2D and discovered they had SBK 2011 which I didn't even know existed. Searched this forum for posts about SBK 2011 and only found one thread on SBK 2010. Is 2011 bad or has it just slipped under everyone's radar? I see no other DD sites selling SBK either so hope its good because I can't even find SBK 2010 anyway.

http://www.direct2drive.com/11057/product/Buy-SBK-2011-Download

This review is not favorable but I am hoping he is just a nub and knows jack about SBK.

http://www.lazygamer.net/xbox-360/sbk-2011-review-sim-ply-uninteresting

This review is better and that last review the guy is a jack-ass and no sim racer so I am going to go ahead and purchase it.

http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/driving/sbk2011/review.html

A race "sim light" review that starts by talking about GFX is not worth it. Especially if the guy lauds Dirt3 in the same article which has a ton LESS "real racing" than SBK. For me, SBK 2010 is perhabs the best racing "light" title of the four I'm currently running (F1 2010, WRC 2010, NFS Shift being the other three).

It may not have the prettiest GFX or the ultimate hardcore sim physics (though the handling is really good, don't underestimate it for what is a multi-platform title) but it is a very solid racer with tons of options, tons of statistics, tons of stuff that simple needs to be in a race title. Even F1 2010 could learn some things from it as far as statistics and choices go. The thing he slags about the engineer - it's actually brilliant, you can tell him what you want from the bike and he will set up all the details for you. Or you can set all the details yourself if you know what does what (and if not the engi will explain them). Yes, it's very text based and no recorded Audio, but it works tons better than the default setups in F1 2010 where no one tells you how to customize every setting (and F1 2010 doesn't have telemetry either, SBK does.)

It also has very nice replays with the ability to watch every driver, and automatic selected race highlights after every race like on TV.

I fired it up recently again to continue my career and Valencia is driving my nuts. But then I picked my prefered SuperSport Team and ran a hair-raising (single race weekend) qualifying session at my favorite track in Brno, and with every lap, with every little change of the line I could see how my times improved, how I was still able to stick with the "real" AI qualifing times. Challenging and rewarding to crack.

I haven't bought SBK 2011 simple because they haven't changed a whole lot and I don't really always need the latest season team/driver stats. But unless they screwed up something seriously (and I haven't heard anything to that meaning) it should be just as good if not better, I think it actually has more granular difficulty options now that make it easier to set the challenge level. The GFX also seems slightly improved.

You should enjoy this. Also for me what I really love about Milestone titles is that the disk version has no annoying DRM. You can copy the game files to DVD, with a no DVD crack, and reinstall the game later simple by dropping in the game files. So it's a title that's guaranteed to last also in a technical sense.

I actually did buy it last night and my suspicions about that reviewer being a jack-ass are confirmed. I only put in a few ghost laps and then tried a 5 lap quick race and it was all good. I am familiar with the SBK series as I still have installed SBK 2001 and also have SBK World Championship for the PS3, which I think is the 2008 version.

One tool I like in 2011 is the very handy screenshot tool but after saving four photos that I was going to post here I could not find them saved anywhere until I unchecked hidden files in explorer and found them buried in c:\users\myfolder\appdata\roaming\Blackbean\Saves\filename

And then I find out they encrypted the files so I can't view them outside the of the game anyway unless I create an account at their site and upload them from within the game. Cool tool and then they ruin it by encrypting the files instead of just making them plain .jpg or .bmp files.

DD requires an activation code but that was expected. Anyway, SBK 2011 is on my recommend list to anyone looking for a decent SBK sim.

I wouldn't be surprised if there is a tool out to get to these files. They never bothered much about security with their disk based versions.

I'm a bit confused by the second review which claims that previous titles allowed to select driving aids separatly. Mine doesn't. I actually only run medium simulation level since full simulation gives no TC and that means constant highsiders. In real life the rules allow for TC and it is used at least in SBK and WSS. So I would love to have physics and everything on full but with TC on, which is not possible. I thought they changed that in 2011.

Also as you already noticed, my other main criticism of the game is the inability to run resolutions other than 16:9. It will simple letterbox the game on anything else.

What are you using as controller?

EDIT: BTW, the one thing I still love most about Bike games is the amount of overtaking and counters happening during a race. Nothing more fun than seeing the AI sail past in a late braking manouver going for an early apex, and then leaving the turn with a late Apex and burning them off.

Hi again. Just to give some more context to the game and how it's features come togehter to give some really nice raceing:

I just finished the Brno race weekend where I had qualified the day before yesterday as written above. In Free Practice 2 I had an amazing fast lap and then somehow my times got worse on every consecutive lap, I wasn't "getting it". So I drove into the box and there I was able to use Telemetry side-by-side comparison to see what I was doing wrong and where (not strict enough braking and acceleration, too much "gliding" trough turns).

For Warm Up it started to rain heavily, the race then was still under wet conditions but okay for Intermediates. I managed to have a really good start (the AI is a bit handicapped on seriously wet track when you are running only medium simulation), took away two seconds from the leader in the first few laps, but as the race line was drying up the mob was catching up to me. I had to alternate between "safe" laps trying not to drop it with some all out laps to stay ahead. Finished with a ~1 second lead, which is less than the interval between the second and third guy. Got my victory ceremony complete with correct national anthem and that was that.

So yeah, the little features this game has really make you work hard to win, but you also anytime feel like you have the tools you need. I especially like how Practice and Qualifying is really important to get the bike set up properly.