I raced speedway bikes in Australia, U.K. & USA in the early 1970's. Then, we would often have crowds of over 30,000 at a local meeting in Brisbane Australia and 100,000 at the World Final. The bikes were un-muffled, only had open face helmets and Track & Rider safety were not a big issue then. We lost many riders in Australia where the tracks are big & fast. I lost my friend Geoff Curtis at the Sydney Royale Speedway at the end of the 1973/74 season and subsequently lost the drive to keep racing. I have continued to follow the sport and particularly the advent of the Grand Prix Series. I have enlisted the help of Speedway Grand Prix wild card rider Mick Poole and his 10 year old son Taylor for their thoughts on Techland's SGP. Not only did Mick ride in last October's Speedway Grand Prix in Sydney, he knows many of the riders in the game personally.
Speedway is an unique discipline of motor cycle racing. To ride a speedway bike is something that you'll never forget. The bikes (then & now) are a 500 cc, 4-stroke, single cylinder engines that run on methanol, have no Brakes, no gears (just a clutch) and weigh next to nothing. It's claimed that they are the fastest accelerating racing motor cycle in the world (not including drag bikes). They are designed to go sideways at full throttle for 60 - 90 seconds. You can only go left and their geometry is designed to work at it's best when the bike is sideways. In a powerslide, you accelerate by easing OFF the throttle, therefore gaining more grip and, if you're coming into a corner too fast or approaching a slower rider, you slow down by accelerating and sliding on a tighter lock. Body english is everything. You have to move around the bike to go fast. Forward to keep the front wheel on the ground and backwards to wards the rear of the bike to get more weight over the back wheel to get more drive. All of this whilst you are sideways with at least 3 other riders close enough to you that you often touch elbows mid corner. To gain an advantage over the other riders , you lean the bike even tighter into the corner whilst gravity is trying to push you out. If you take it easy or back off too much, the bike will stand up in a slide and spit you into the fence.
Riding a Speedway Bike is the best experience in motorcycling. From 0 - 100 km/h in 2-3 seconds, you catch your breath and throw the bike into a powerslide with just throttle control and your own courage to keep you from slamming into the fence. Even after years of racing, you are never really in complete control. Through all this, you are getting a face full of shale so you have to take your left hand off the handlebar, reach up to your helmet and peel off one of the 4-5 tear-offs hoping you have enough to last the 4 laps of the race. Of course, the other riders are experiencing the same varying degrees of control over their bikes and most times a sheet would cover all 4 riders at 80- 120km/h ... SIDEWAYS!
GETTING STARTED
As an avid player of Grand Prix Legends and Dirt Track Racing Sprint Cars, I have been eagerly waiting for a Speedway based Sim Game for some time. Now Techland has brought us Speedway Grand Prix. Let's have a look at what we've got.
When Blackhole Motorsports announced that the coming Speedway GP Sim would be powered by a new, "state of the art" graphics controller called a "Chrome Engine", it sounded like we were going to be in for something special. FIM & Benfield Promotions endorsement of the game augured well for a genuine speedway racing sim. Papyrus, through GPL, has shown us that a game can give you realism and the "feel"of vehicle control back in 1998... so 5 years later, we should have a Sim that gives the Speedway experience through the PC.
From the start, SGP graphics are excellent. They have captured the riders, tracks and atmosphere of the venues brilliantly. The sounds are accurate and the actions of the starter are true to life as you come up to the tapes to start your first race. The engine sounds slowly rise as each rider readies for the start. This is an area in real life where you have an opportunity to psyche out the other riders by throwing their timing out. The engine revs rise to a steady 11,000 rpm as you get ready to drop the clutch when the tapes fly up.
Here we have the first major let down... As the AI riders sit at the tapes revving for the start, you sit there motionless. Using the clutch button still doesn't give a realistic feel for the clutch (it's either off or on). It would have been more realistic if the player revved too hard he/she could loop it at the start or too little revs saw the player stall.GETTING IT SIDEWAYS
OK, you're now racing. In real life on the tighter tracks, you get the back end to break away early while still in the straight to enter the corner back wheel first so you can achieve more drive getting out of the turn. This also allows you to sling shot past the other riders who have entered the corner by just turning in and letting the back wheel break away.
In SGP, you turn left... and left... and left. The sliding image you see is the back wheel stepping out by itself, not you controlling the slide by turning the handlebars left/right /left etc.
In the straight, the game allows the rider and bike to lean right at an unrealistic angle. In real life, you would be straight into the fence. A true Speedway Bike has a rigid right footrest so you can lean the bike over when stationary so the back wheel is off the ground. Speedway bikes have no gears or neutral so by lifting the back wheel off the ground this allows the rider to release the clutch and spin the rear wheel freely, thus keeping the clutch cool.
In real life, if you cause a race to be stopped (like falling off) you are excluded from the re-run. In SGP it seems that this is a hit and miss affair. Sometimes you are, sometimes you're not.
In the game when you pop a wheelie (by using a clutch), backing off the throttle doesn't bring the front wheel down that quickly; guess what does bring the front wheel down? The brake control!!! Speedway bikes don't have brakes. If we could have had a more responsive and realistic throttle action the player could raise the front wheel at will by throttling harder; like the way you control the spin in GPL with the accelerator. This would have been so much better. Riding elbow to elbow is what real speedway racing is all about. In most cases, the AI riders in SGP take wider and unrealistic lines around you if you are running close. This point was emphasized by Mick Poole. It's still exciting and keeps you on your toes but it could have been so much more so. Sorry to keep going on about the "feel"of GPL in this SGP review but if Papyrus could do this in 1998, why hasn't Techland in 2003.
We were promised realism of track textures and changeable track conditions. As far as I can tell, we don't get it. A Speedway track changes every lap in real life so a line that worked perfectly the lap before doesn't work as well next lap. In SGP it seems that the inside line is the only one to use if you want to win. Backing off in the straight gives you tighter entry to the corner therefore using the inside or "pole line" is the only way to win. This lack of diversity is a major flaw. Also, the dust flying up at you from the riders ahead sees your rider just shake his head rather than have a function that could see you having to use the tear offs. Today's Speedway bikes have dirt deflectors that really help cut down the amount of moist shale flying into your goggles (in my day, No deflectors and Open face helmets meant a lot of guess work and lots of falls).
The different Stadium tracks are just graphically different, not physically different to ride.
The garage screen gives you different parts of the bike to view but I can't see any major adjustments available. Maybe I'm wrong on this as the review is based on the Polish Game version and I only speak English. This lack of variation, I think, will see even younger players get bored with the game quickly.
The most difficult setting (you only have 3) seems to give more realism in the sliding control and it could be worth going straight to difficult and keep getting beaten until you get better That is if you want any noticable degree of realism in the physics.
Choosing the "Grand Prix" selection gives you an accurate and entertaining career mode where you earn prize money to repair and/or (presumably) upgrade your bike's equipment. This is no GPL tuning page. It is limited to Frame, Tyres, Engine, Chain etc and seems to only give you a few options at each selection.
CONCLUSION
If you love GPL or enjoy the car control you need in Dirt Track Racing Sprint Cars, you won't enjoy Techland's SGP. It does however bring this fabulous sport to wider audience and will probably do better on PS2 or XBox than the SIM seeking PC user. Taylor (Mick Poole's son) loved the game but Mick's thoughts were similar to mine on how the bike and riders react. While I was at Mick Poole's house, Jason Crump (one of the riders featured in the game) rang and was very excited about the thought of a real Speedway game. I hope Jason's not too disappointed when it is released in English.
My quest for a realistic Speedway Game continues...
Graphics: 4.5 / 5
Career Mode: 3 / 5
Realism: 1 / 5
