I loved WSB. It was the first realistic bike sim on the PC, if not any platform. Sure, it had its foibles, but I put up with them 'cause the environment was immersive enough and the general feel sweet enough to make me forget about the irritations.Now there is a new standard by which all bike games will be judged; GP500. Graphically, it's waaay better, being smoother and more detailed than WSB running on the same rig (o/c Celeron 300@450MHz, 128MB RAM, Ultra-IDE, SLI'd Voodoo2) and once you get used to the very aggressive AI(Hey, this *is* GP level, right!), you can't stop.
WSB had more things to twiddle in the suspension department, etc. *and* had the data-logger function. But, if you're like me and just want to *ride* the darned thing without getting too involved in the boffin work, you can with GP500. The default setups "out of the box" are excellent for learning the strange, peaky nature of these lightweight (135kg) and powerful (~180bhp) machines.
The other thing that I really appreciated after WSB was the fact that the bikes are more planted and are more difficult to knock over. This can however work against you, also. I've had one or two very unrealistic "pinball" effects whilst "on a mission".
That said however, simulation mode in GP500 is a little like the EF2000 flight sim not having any plane to plane collision detection. It was deemed unnecessary -- hardcore flight-simmers seldom crash into other aircraft intentionally, just like real-life -- I suspect the development team at Hasbro/Microprose/Melbourne House felt that the serious GP500 player would not deliberately ram anyone. That said, the Barros and Doohan AI are total nutters!
To sum up, a truly outstanding sim with a large (and growing) fan-base providing new bike paint-jobs, etc. already. Different from and better than WSB. AMA Superbike doesn't even get a look in.
-- VFR Bloke.
