Not terrible... but not good either.
Great bike/player models. Player and crash animations have improved. Ability to 'rewind' is a welcome addition. Different game modes with lots of options to customize. Great looking menus and introduction references. Offers a challenge to current players, but options to help new players learn the sport. More realistic handling. Bike manufacturers/teams react and handle differently. Steals loading screen idea from SBK games. Current teams/riders. Awesome helmet view.
The Bad:
Worst SFX in a motorcycle game to date, makes you want to play the game on mute. No in-race commentary. No in-race music. Without all of the riding options on, it's hard..... VERY hard. Ability to restart the race with no penalty makes you want to reset more often than fight. Airborne motorcycle are easy to control. You always start in-helmet. No visual upgrades.
The Review:
As a motorcycle enthusiast and club racer, I've been in search for the "perfect" motorcycle racing game. SBK X is so far, my favourite. With arcade and career options, not to mention in game music, rider options, and handling options, the game was the closest to the experience I was looking for.
MotoGP had that potential. Until you turn the volume on. But I'll get back to that later. When you start the game, you have some great animated menus with real-life MotoGP videos in the background. The menus are easy to navigate, and you can choose an instant race (random rider/bike/track), play your own Grand Prix, or career.
The game took the loading screen ideas from SBK (on-track video, quick tips, "did you know" bits), which is welcome. Once the game loads you get a cool in-helmet view of the paddock. However, there's no option to turn this off. Its a superfluous addition that adds a needless 20 seconds before race.
Before the race starts, you get teased thinking you'll get a voice-over commentary of the race. Turns out they just resued a few seconds of broadcast material to introduce the track name.
Riding the bike is great. Visuals are good (not bad, not great), controls are fantastic and realistic. Great crash/highside/recover animations. Seeing your rider run on the tarmac while holding onto the handlebars is an exciting animation, and not overused. Each rider/motorcycle feels completely different. You can surely notice the difference between Yamaha Factory and a CRT team. Not only that, but you have every rider and every track (including Texas) for 2013.
The SFX and bike sounds are horrible. Terrible. Excruciating. Absolutely awful. It makes me want to play the game on mute. It destroys the experience because the motorcycle sounds to muffled and static-like. I don't know what type of microphone they used to capture these sounds, but it looks like it was electronically created rather than pre-recorded. The sounds in this game are SO bad. I turn the SFX off and cruise around in silence. If you haven't played a motorcycle racing game in the past, keep all of the driving help options on. Once you remove one, the game becomes hard enough you'll want to quit. Even though I said the visuals are good, there's no improvement that makes it stand out, just a bunch of little ones. The helmet cam is a fun addition, accurate and responsive (head tucks over the windscreen for braking, hangs over the bike when steering), but if you've never ridden or raced a motorcycle before, this can be nauseating.
It's too bad the sound is to terrible it ruins the game. This is the best MotoGP game since 2008 (which lost a lot of points because it had no Laguna and didn't give you that excitement factor). I still rate SBK X slightly over this one..... but as a GP game, which have failed a lot in the past, it's not great... but not bad either.
If you want an updated change, try it out, but don't pay full price for this one.