I was all excited today when I received my new PC game: Super-bikes Riding Challenge, as I'm a bike maniac and can't get enough of them. Pros: Graphics look terrific, they're better than any other bike game I've seen with the possible exception of Moto GP 06. Cons: For some strange reason it won't work on my PC, so I can't view the quality of the graphics first hand!! Here's the run down, I've installed it from scratch from the DVD, that went fine, then I ran the game, watched the intro trailer, so far so good, and... oh, it stops. Completely. What happens is the screen goes into what looks like a bit before the main menu, but there's nothing to select or anything. It simply says something like "Select English language" in the bottom right of the screen and there's a picture of the enter key next to it. That's all. Pressing enter or in fact any other buttons does absolutely nothing, the mouse doesn't do anything and is not visible. I would guess this is a language selection screen but there simply is nothing to select in the way of... well, anything! There's no music or sounds or anything going on, just this static screen. And if you think it's my PC lacking performance-wise, well have a look at the game's recommended specs: Pentium 4 2.0GHz Direct X 9.0c compatible video card with 128MB RAM Direct X 9.0c compatible sound card with 512mb RAM DVD-ROM Drive 1.2GB Free disk space And here's my computer's: Pentium 4 3.0GHz HT Gainward GeForce 7800GS+ 512mb GFX card, with Direct X 9.0c installed 5.1 AC'97 in-built sound card, other details are unknown and not stated in the mobo manual 2 DVD-RW Drives Game installed on a 250GB HDD which still has over 200GB space free Unfortunately, my sound card isn't brilliant, as I said it's in-built and the details aren't described in the manual, other than what I've given. My hunch is the problem could be linked to the poor performance of the sound card as I've also had problems with FEAR and the sound not fully working in that. I really need to get a new card although I have plans to build another PC with the latest stuff in so I'm not sure if it's worth splashing out yet on a new PCI sound card. Another thing I've noticed is that when playing around with the games settings via it's launch menu, the video settings change nothing and don't allow the game to load past the nearly empty screen, but when I disable the sound, et viola! It runs! Just... without sound... Not only this but after about a minute or so of play it crashes and I have to close it manually. Damn. The situation's a bit of a catch 22, as there's no updates or patches that are seemingly available anywhere for the game and I have had no luck finding any forums for the game or the company that made the game- Black Bean (and/or Milestone). They have a nice looking flash website, but it's designed for people who don't own the game and want info on it. It's terrible, to be honest. A demo can be downloaded and you can view what's in the game. It's almost like the company made the game and said "That's another game done and dusted. Now then, what's next?" Has this game really just been abandoned by it's creators or do others know of anything about fixing this god awful problem? I caught a glimpse elsewhere on the internet where other people had this problem but no one was helping out or coming up with a solution. I only paid £9.99 for it from Amazon.co.uk, but it's my money! I don't think it's a problem with the actual disk I have because my friend has this game and hasn't yet played it for the exact same reason I haven't been able to. I have yet to try mine on another PC, but I mean come on, why on earth shouldn't it work?! Any help is appreciated and welcomed, thanks.
Ok, well since no one has replied I'll add another reply myself. I've got it working on 2 PCs so far, but still not mine! One of the PCs that the game seems to run on fine is a P4 2.6GHz with 512mb 333mhz RAM and a GeForce FX 5500 256mb GFX card. In-build sound card, unknown details. The video is ok, I can't run it at max details and the sound is very choppy. The other PC is a 2.6GHz HT with 512mb 266Hz RAM, unknown GFX card although I have reason to believe it is the same as the other PC, nothing special. The game works fine and is very smooth. Nice GFX and crisp, sharp sound... but no rider on the bike!! The rider is totally non-existent and the bike is semi-transparent all the time. Very, very weird. This is a funny old game which it seems needs something specific in the way of the system it's running on. At first I thought it was the fact that my PC has HT enabled, but the second PC I just mentioned has HT too, yet it works fine, apart from the rider's disappearing act, and on my PC I can't even get into the game... I'm going to try running my PC with HT disabled when I get back to it tomorrow, see if that works at all. I really can't believe how crap the online resources are for this game, there's nothing except for their poor website which offers nothing in the way troubleshooting or help to people who are having trouble with the game.
