SBK09 demo now on Xbox Live

Wooo! It seems the original was popular enough to warrant a sequel.

Any team, three laps of Kyalami.

First impressions are they've toned the harsh physics down from SBK08 - even 'arcade' handling was rather tricky before, but now it's entirely managable and only a lot of heavy throttles on the bends will result in you losing it.

The tracks themselves are much more detailed - before it was a very dry, austere Forza-esque 'just the track and little else' but now there's lots of neat things to see as you race. Kyalami has lots of helicopters, it seems.

There's also a terrible rawk soundtrack that I switched off, as it seems it's trying a bit too hard to get the whole 'party' atmosphere going as seen in the MotoGP games.

Overall, it seems more playable and smoother, with higher production values and lots of lovingly recreated Dukes, Gixxers and Blades to crash into things. The riders and umbrella girls are still a bit zombielike but apart from that the whole thing is a lot more lively.

Anyone else tempted?