Official Xbox 360 Magazine - Play new games every month with the UK's number one Xbox 360 magazine

	Black Ops: Killstreak Ideas FEATURE: What's confirmed, expected, suggested!
	Mafia 2 ³⁶⁰ REVIEW: An offer you can't refuse?
	10 Things To Try In Crackdown 2 FEATURE: Have you done them all yet, agent?
	OXM Speaks To... Phil Spencer FEATURE: MGS boss on Kinect, Crytek and Milo!

On the site today - News: Black Ops Mulitplayer trailer hits http://bit.ly/cMRurs

BROWSE OXM

OXM CONTENT

Contact us
Feeds

Login

Not a member yet? Click here to register!

Video

Launch Player

Overlord II ³⁶⁰

Tales of Vesperia ³⁶⁰

Review

Superstars V8 Racing

7.0

Format Xbox 360

Developer Unknown

Publisher Unknown

Genre Racing / Driving

24-Jun-2009 Stars they may be, but we'll decide if they're super

Nope, we'd never heard of it either, but apparently the Superstars Championship is an actual race series based out of Italy that plants V8 powered touring cars on a series of circuits in Europe, plus one in South Africa.

But while you might not know the series itself, the selection of Audis, Beemers and Jags will be instantly recognisable as souped-up sales rep chariots.

The benefit of choosing a not particularly well known championship, of course, is that you get to scream around circuits that you wouldn't usually find in racing games.

Adria, Magione and Portimao aren't as recognisable as Silverstone or the Nurburgring, but they're great circuits that aren't available in any other Xbox 360 racer. If you're a racing game completist, the prospect of fresh ribbons of tarmac to master might be a tempting enough reason to pick up Superstars alone.

For everyone else it's a decent stab at a classic TOCA-style touring car racer - all rubbing doorhandles and late braking manoeuvres.

The game is visually rather tasty - the entire thing has a hazy warm summer afternoon filter, and while it's not as out and out pretty as GRID, it certainly looks the part, even with 19 cars mixing it up.

The handling is a decent stab at simulation-lite physics, but there is at least one area where things don't feel quite right. The back end of the cars is extremely unstable and if you get nudged or attempt to change direction while braking, the car can begin to pendulum, swinging from side to side until you're lobbed into the gravel. It can be infuriating if it leads to a race-ending accident, particularly if it wasn't your fault.

The other problem with Superstars V8 is one that irritated us about SBK 09. Each round of the championship mode is just a series of sessions culminating in the race, and while this is technically representative of race weekends, it all feels deeply sterile.

We'd have liked a more involving career mode and while the bitesized challenges are good for a quick blast, they're unlikely to last long. At least, unlike SBK 09, there wasn't an edition of the game last year with the same bare bones feature set.

Superstars V8 Racing is a decent and, at times, surprisingly pretty racer, and while it's never going to blow GRID's graphics or Race Pro's handling out of the water, it does conjure up happy memories of classic Codies TOCA games. Here's hoping by next year, Milestone has mastered the art of a more immersive career mode.

Ryan King

Overview

Verdict

Solid racing action with glossy visuals

Uppers

Looks pretty enough

Plenty of unseen tracks

Powerslide a Jaguar

Downers

Uninvolving career mode

The odd physics quirk

Screens

Interactive

No comments have been posted yet.

Screens

1 / 6 Screenshots

Reviews:

Superstars V8 Racing

News:

Watch this Superstars V8 Racing trailer

More Related

Copyright 2006 - 2009 Future Publishing Limited,
Beauford Court, 30 Monmouth Street, Bath, UK BA1 2BW
England and Wales company registration number 2008885