EA's Superbikes - SIT UP and take notice (A1-Ring win)

Attached in a post under the same name in the binaries group is a replay of a win at the A1-Ring. This is at full realism settings and skill level, the only exception being that Manual Sit Up is turned off (i.e., so the rider sits up automatically when braking). You should take notice of the sit up feature. As soon as I turned it on my best A1-Ring time went from 1'31'01 to 1'28'66. And I was able to easily win a race, even though I didn't cut my best laps. I'm going to turn the auto-sit-up back off and learn how to do it manually. Frankly I'm somewhat concerned about this feature. I'm happy to be going faster of course, but my concern is that it makes the game too easy. The skill of braking is gone, other than just picking the right braking point (which isn't really a skill, it just means doing each track enough times to find the optimum points). You CAN'T throw the bike by braking too hard when you are sitting up. OTOH, not using situp isn't really an option because the computer riders use it (I was wondering how they could brake so much faster than me). So you really have to sit up to be competitive at the top realism setting. If it does become too easy, then the game's only hope for replay value is multiplay racing. But early reports are that the multiplay doesn't work that well (haven't tried it yet myself). And of course you can't run a full race with qualifying and so on in multiplay, so it loses some of it's sim aspect. Sorry if I just ruined the sim for you. Any thoughts on these issues? Joe

> Frankly I'm somewhat concerned about this feature. I'm happy to be > going faster of course, but my concern is that it makes the game too > easy. The skill of braking is gone, other than just picking the right > braking point (which isn't really a skill, it just means doing each > track enough times to find the optimum points). You CAN'T throw the > bike by braking too hard when you are sitting up. I totally disagree. It's very possible to upset the bike while sitting up, under braking. Just not going straight, ie. at the end of a long straightaway. But try going through S-turns, and after exiting the first part, if you sit up braking into the second part, the rider's balance still isn't perpendicular to the road and often times the bike will slide out, or tip over the front wheel. I've had the game for several months, and I can ride a 1:26:07 at A-1, so hopefully I've spent enough time with this sim to judge it fairly. I can't say how much I enjoy it!

>I've had the game for several months, and I can ride a 1:26:07 at A-1, so >hopefully I've spent enough time with this sim to judge it fairly. >I can't say how much I enjoy it! Thanks for the feedback, glad to hear you've gotten some replay value out of it. Joe

I find some of the tracks fairly easy to win, such as Monza and A1 ring. Anything with very tight corners, such a Leguna, are almost impossible to be competitive on.

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> Attached in a post under the same name in the binaries group is a > replay of a win at the A1-Ring. This is at full realism settings and > skill level, the only exception being that Manual Sit Up is turned off > (i.e., so the rider sits up automatically when braking). > You should take notice of the sit up feature. As soon as I turned it > on my best A1-Ring time went from 1'31'01 to 1'28'66. And I was able > to easily win a race, even though I didn't cut my best laps. I'm going > to turn the auto-sit-up back off and learn how to do it manually. > Frankly I'm somewhat concerned about this feature. I'm happy to be > going faster of course, but my concern is that it makes the game too > easy. The skill of braking is gone, other than just picking the right > braking point (which isn't really a skill, it just means doing each > track enough times to find the optimum points). You CAN'T throw the > bike by braking too hard when you are sitting up. > OTOH, not using situp isn't really an option because the computer > riders use it (I was wondering how they could brake so much faster > than me). So you really have to sit up to be competitive at the top > realism setting. > If it does become too easy, then the game's only hope for replay value > is multiplay racing. But early reports are that the multiplay doesn't > work that well (haven't tried it yet myself). And of course you can't > run a full race with qualifying and so on in multiplay, so it loses > some of it's sim aspect. > Sorry if I just ruined the sim for you. Any thoughts on these issues? > Joe

Are they charging full price for this game in the US and Canada? It's an absolute bargain here in Australia. The average price of a game here is between $69.95 and $89.95 and Superbikes is selling for $49.95 (about $31.68US). Keep up the great pricing EA :) Love the game too. Tony

I have all realism opts turned on except for manual sit up and can lap donington in 1:34 in the wet in qualifying. The computer does about 1:42. Does manual sit up make this much difference or is this a bug? (Or am i doing something wrong?).

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>>I totally disagree. It's very possible to upset the bike while sitting up, >>under braking. Just not going straight, ie. at the end of a long >>straightaway. But try going through S-turns, and after exiting the first >>part, if you sit up braking into the second part, the rider's balance >>still isn't perpendicular to the road and often times the bike will slide >>out, or tip over the front wheel. >>I've had the game for several months, and I can ride a 1:26:07 at A-1, so >>hopefully I've spent enough time with this sim to judge it fairly. >>I can't say how much I enjoy it! >Are they charging full price for this game in the US and Canada? >It's an absolute bargain here in Australia. The average price of a >game here is between $69.95 and $89.95 and Superbikes is selling for >$49.95 (about $31.68US). >Keep up the great pricing EA :) >Love the game too. >Tony

>Are they charging full price for this game in the US and Canada? >It's an absolute bargain here in Australia. The average price of a >game here is between $69.95 and $89.95 and Superbikes is selling for >$49.95 (about $31.68US). >Keep up the great pricing EA :) >Love the game too. Yup, it's full price here in Canada. $70 at Compucentre, it'll be five dollars cheaper than that at other stores, bit that's still on the high side (games range from $50 to $80). Joe

>The computer does about 1:42. Does manual sit up make this much difference >or is this a bug? (Or am i doing something wrong?). It makes a hude difference - you can brake much later and harder when automatic situp is enabled (or by sitting up manually too of course). I knocked three seconds off my best A1-Ring time as soon as I found out about sitting up. Joe

Anybody who has sat up on a bike at over 200KPH knows what breaking effect it has. it pretty hard not to get ripped of the back of the thing. Sitting up effectively raised the centre of gravity and this is simulated well in the game by a front end slide in most cases. I agree with you that this game is terrific!

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> > Frankly I'm somewhat concerned about this feature. I'm happy to be > > going faster of course, but my concern is that it makes the game too > > easy. The skill of braking is gone, other than just picking the right > > braking point (which isn't really a skill, it just means doing each > > track enough times to find the optimum points). You CAN'T throw the > > bike by braking too hard when you are sitting up. > I totally disagree. It's very possible to upset the bike while sitting up, > under braking. Just not going straight, ie. at the end of a long > straightaway. But try going through S-turns, and after exiting the first > part, if you sit up braking into the second part, the rider's balance > still isn't perpendicular to the road and often times the bike will slide > out, or tip over the front wheel. > I've had the game for several months, and I can ride a 1:26:07 at A-1, so > hopefully I've spent enough time with this sim to judge it fairly. > I can't say how much I enjoy it!