Do you have any tricks or tips that you can provide people with in terms of how to setup their bikes? Do you have a favorite motorcycle in the game?
My favorite team is the official Ducati Xerox, because I’m a supporter of Michel Fabrizio, who, like me, is from Rome. There are no special tips to setup the bike, due to the fact that there are so many options to customize that anyone could really look for his own personal setup. There aren’t two equal settings in the game. Changing a parameter or two, you can try a different handling and you can check it using in-box telemetry and feel it directly while driving
The bikes have a lot of customization items in the game, how do you make that accessible to people who don't know their gearbox from their intake valves?
There are two different ways to customize your bike. With the Advanced settings you can change everything, including details. Using the Basic settings, you have just to switch between a “+” and a “-“ that let’s you change your setup without studying how a real bike works. As I said, SBK is really for everyone
Will you be supporting any SIXAXIS motion control on the PS3 version? Why did you decide to go that route?
We’re going to talk about PS3 version in a few days. Be patient :)
What kind of changes will be you be able to make during the game? Will you have to manage all of this or will the computer help out a bit?
SBK08 has been built with all the real rules included in the original championship. So you’ll have the exact number of options available for a race in-game as in the real-world. During a race, everything is up to you in regards of settings and strategies but you just have to drive and drive once you started a race. The computer will do everything to beat you. No helps at all. We included a lot of challenges to unlock, to add more fun
Can you talk about the multiplayer modes in the game? What will be the max number of players on each platform?
Multiplayer Mode will feature 8 players online on each platform and you can customize everything once you connected to the game.
There's been some talk lately that we're reaching the top end of the scale when it comes to realism in graphics, would you agree with that statement? Where do you think market is headed in the next few years?
I don't agree with this, I think there is still something to do with this hardware before reaching the top end. Photorealism is still far to be “playable” IMHO. The situation of the market is changing today, thanks to Nintendo above all. Years ago, it was not possible for a publisher like Activision or EA, thinking about a small publisher like Black Bean as a competitor. Today, development on Wii and DS is really cheap and you don't need much time to get a product ready and on the shelves and with casual gamer audience that will be the main target for everyone.
All the budgets allocated for underperforming next-gen projects will be used for low risk casual games and there is a chance for someone like us, to create a sleeper hit that will earn us a spot on the charts worldwide. On one hand this is really good because a new scenario with new competitors will be possible in the future. On the other hand, 2009 will see a super crowded market on the Wii/DS side, with a lot of low-quality games out, and a huge risk to miss something cool among tons of useless software
Is there anything important that we missed or that you think gamers should know about your game?
I think that playing is much better than listening to me talk about the game. We just released SBK demo on European market and we’re going to go forward with US too, so you'll soon get a good taste of the game. SBK is actually the best choice both for a casual gamer looking for a good arcade racing game and for the real biker looking for challenges that was waiting for the sequel of the most important bike saga ever made. This is the point
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