I haven’t played an SBK game for a couple of years as they, like the Moto GP games seemed to be stagnating in annual cycle of slightly nicer graphics, and a couple of new tracks, whilst never confronting the major complaint always levelled at Motorcycle racing games: it doesn’t really feel like you’re riding a bike. Last year’s SBK would seem to have addressed this gripe a bit with looser handling and the ability to powerslide with a fairly realistic and predictable feeling, but has SBK 2011 improved on things at all?

Well yes and no. The SBK game engine lacks any real “wow factor” but now runs extremely smoothly and the game doesn’t exhibit any frame rate problems at all, even with a full field of 25 bikes on screen in a replay. The bikes look great (although not as insanely detailed as some of the cars in driving games of late) and your rider is extremely well animated with detailed leathers. The trackside detail and the scenery might not be anything to write home about and there’s some noticeable pop-up, but the game does look nice with varied weather, and now including both a wet race and a ‘wet track drying’ effect-like it’s just been raining, and a dry line develops as the race progresses.

Every game under the sun now seems to use RPG-style experience points and the SBK 2011 career mode features “Reputation” points, earned by doing wheelies, slides and by beating the indicated “Special Opponent” within every race. By increasing these you will attract interest from better teams for next season.

Regardless of their supposed skill level, I have the same old problems with the AI opponents; they don’t look like they’re struggling to keep the bike on the track (like I do), they don’t slither and slide under heavy braking and acceleration (like I do), and although they do go off on occasion (like I do) it’s all still a bit too “sheep-like drone” for me. While they don’t just potter around in single file like racing game opponents used to, this ‘sheepish’ behaviour is particularly apparent when watching a replay of a race, where you appear to be the only one trying. In longer races the pack of racers does split into groups, but still looks like a herd of sheep - albeit very fast 2-wheeled sheep. You’ll also notice that AI mistakes and passing attempts by anyone but you are rarer than rocking horse poop, which for me makes any racing game feel old, regardless of which year is plastered on the front of the box. The strange thing is that the AI riders only seem to fall off when the difficulty is set to “Real”, almost as though even they are struggling to keep their bike on the track, whilst doing the required (quick) lap times.

Getting a good (and by ‘good’ I mean not getting passed) start also seems to be impossible, I’ve tried every different rev range possible and keep the rider’s weight forward, but never have any success. This was an annoying feature of the last SBK game I played, and is always exasperating as you’ve probably tried hard to get pole, only to see three or more bikes spring away from you at the start. Also it’s just too damn hard to do a series of tidy laps purely because the bikes don't respond quickly enough to slight corrections, and conversely even with a significantly enhanced bike (or one of the top bikes in a single race, which presumably they’re as good as they’re going to get) they take too long to swing from one side to the other and from extreme steering lock to lock. As we’ve said before about the SBK games (and I’d include the Moto GP series in this criticism too); it doesn’t quite simulate the balancing act that bike racers perform between the various forces involved (grip, momentum, gravity, gyroscopic action) as well as it could, and the AI bikes cornering tighter than you and getting the power down earlier than you on the exit from nearly e very corner is quite simply infuriating and frustrating, especially on the harder settings. With a race often being ruined and the entire pack streaming by you with one tiny mistake, maybe Milestone should do what Turn 10 did for Forza 3, and nick Codemasters’ Flashback ‘rewind-time-if-you-screw-up’ idea from Racedriver Grid, F1 2010 and DiRT?

I also mentioned that the riders were well animated while on the bike, but with their helmets off their lifeless faces make them look like badly animated department store dummies in the half-hearted attempt at a podium sequence after a winning race performance. I’d like to be able to say the uninterested presentation girls look better but they really don’t. Successful races unlock highlight photos from 2010, some of which are great, but I’ve never really seen the point in this sort of extra.

So is SBK 2011 worth your hard-earned? Well maybe if you’re a bike nut and haven’t played a bike racing game for a couple of years. It’s definitely a step in the right direction, and although the scenery seems to have been neglected and possibly even degraded (from previous SBKs) in favour of a better frame rate and more detailed bikes, but this means the game looks fine-where it matters. It certainly moves, feels and plays better than its only real rival, this year’s Moto GP game, but it still retains a lot of the same old bike game problems, even if they do seem to be lessening as the years go by and Milestone improve.