Just got the game today, and thought I'd chip in with my own experience.
I'll start off with the general physics. In comparison to Reflex, the way the bike will take corners is an improvement in some areas. I felt like there was a sense of understeer which I liked, and the bike felt more planted to the ground. Reflex feels like you have way too much grip at times. The negative part though is that once you try to turn too tightly by using the right stick, there's a lot of lateral drift to the bike, which is more like the characterists of a car. In Reflex, the back end would snap out on you which I think I prefer. Obviously though this is MVA, so something has to be put in, instead of a crash.
Something that's quite a big negative for me is that the bike has very little lean angle. Leaning is probably the most defining characteristic of a bike, and unfortunately that's lacking here. As well as being visual, I feel it also has a big impact on the whips and scrubs. The only time the bike will lean anywhere more than 10 degrees is once you're airborne.
In terms of graphics. Everything felt really bright and vibrant, which I'm undecided as to whether or not I like. It felt nice, but it does create a lot of flat looking surfaces on the objects. The bales in particular suffered the most. I think ultimately the whole series for this generation of hardware has been limited by the lighting system. I think that technical artists probably weren't a priority for this game, as it's now old hardware, so there was little point investing in that area.
The dirt is looking really nice in this game. The bump map decals that have been added look very nice indeed. It has that appearance of a track that's been freshly groomed and packed down by the front bucket of a machine, whilst also having that smooth surface broken to reveal a rougher grainy dirt underneath. The technique of highlighting the tops of the jumps using the Chrome Lum though has made the dirt look very grey in places. It didn't look very natural to me, and I noticed this quite a lot. Not sure what went on there.
In terms of overall gameplay...
The throttle now seems like it's a very weak element to the way the tracks are ridden - partly because the tracks are so big, but also because the clutch and pre-load are now the key gameplay mechanics. The way you use those 2 elements decide how you make it through a rythm section. In all honesty, I'm not a fan of that at all. I still haven't felt that natural "Rythm Racing" feeling yet. I'm constantly having to preload to a certain amount, and blip the clutch to achieve a rythm that I'd expect to achieve from the natural speed of the bike, and the way that I just downsided the previous jump.
I'll be interested to see how custom tracks will work with these physics, and whether or not it'll bring the gameplay closer to what I think a Supercross track should feel like. My first impressions of these stock tracks are that they're very wide open, and don't really look or ride like a real supercross track would. The designs are definitely creative in places, but at certain times they feel like they're being catered to a specific rythm the designer wants you to hit, which creates some very inconsistent shaped sections, rather than a more uniform design like you would see in real life.
