Can't wait for the real World Superbikes series to start? Get your leg over something warm and throbbing with the speed freaks from EA.
Alex Burrows

Like a pikey poor brother of car games, motorcycle road racer sims command a somewhat limited appeal. Ergo, their development hasn't exactly been a number one priority among the tech boys. Apart from the unfeasible stunts in off road motorcycle games like Edgar Torronteras' Extreme Biker, virtual motorcycling still seems to be in its infancy. Imagine TOCA 2 with cars that never leave the ground. Unrealistic with a too-easy learning curve? There's the rub with two-wheeled road race sims. When a game exists where you're able to get bikes sideways or pop up the front wheel by dumping the clutch too quickly then they'll be on the same par as motorsport odysseys like GT2.

Most of the World Superbike Championship tracks are here, from the straights of Monza in Italy to Germany's famous and deadly Nürburgring. Bikewise, take your pick from Akira Yanagawa's Kawasaki, Pier Francesco Chili's Suzuki or spice up your life with an Aprilia if you really, really want. Better still, try out British four-time World Superbike champion Carl "Foggy" Fogarty's 300mph factory Ducati 996 SPS. He's the scarily superfast Yorkshireman with the bleached blond barnet and thousand-yard stare who always turns up to the BBC Sports Personality of the year and always goes home empty handed...

Like Foggy points out himself, last year's World Superbikes British GP round at Brand's Hatch attracted more people than any one single sporting event in the UK. Like Formula 1, the majority of spectators are rubbernecks who show up just for the awesome crashes, an important part of Superbikes 2000 and an area where we excelled, natch.