Castrol Honda Superbike 2000

Castrol Honda Superbike 2000 is a mix of sim and arcade, sporting authentic licensing and above average graphics. The tracks in Castrol 2000 are very well done as well, and constitute the main high point of the game. The rendering of Monaco and Lagua-Seca are some of the best ever. They are detailed, expansive and excellent in their portrayal of the real-life counterparts. The actual bike and racer models themselves are decent, with attention to making the driver seem realistically sitting on the bike, and not glued to it like in Moto Racer.

The falling model which is so vital to any bike sim aren’t as good, however. After skidding face down with their legs stuck a foot into the ground the racers will awkwardly run back to their bikes and awkwardly attempt to get back onto it. This is another perfect example of something that, though done with good intentions for simulation, only hurts the feeling of realism.

Controlling the bike is not, as motorcycle racing fans are aware, a matter of turning the bike to the desired direction but of leaning a substantial portion of the racers weight towards the inside of the turn. From that point physics takes over, momentum and velocity keep you from falling over and ba-da-bing youâ€™re running a perfect apex line. At high speeds Castrol 2000 has this whole physics bag down fine, its at slow speeds that things get a bit out of hand. It is impossible for a motorcycle to take a turn at 17MPH on a 20 degree lean. It’s just not gonna happen.

The only working form of multiplayer comes from the split-screen racing mode. The network-racing mode does not function over LAN properly, and no means of direct TCP/IP connection is provided. Whether solo and multiplayer, the game is still very much playable, though it still sits somewhere between a realistic and arcade bike racing game. Many of the simulation aspects are just half-hearted or incompetently implemented, however, and die hard fans of the genre will be left disappointed.