Tourist Trophy

[MartyG]

Oh dear, my initial impressions of the Asian version of the game are not good.

First the positives: there are lots of bikes and lots of tracks.

Now the negatives: Pretty much everything else, including the tracks and bikes.

The games feels incredibly slow, and although there are lots of bikes from 250cc scooters to 1000cc+ superbikes, they just don't handle right. What the makers of this game have totally failed to convey, and why I ride bikes, is it's exhilarating and fun. This game fails in both camps.

The sense of speed, or rather lack of it, is one of its biggest downfalls. Barrelling along at 150 mph feels like a walk in the park pushing a pram. Then you have to brake for corners, and the bikes don't pull up anywhere near fast enough, nor do they turn in with any accuracy or finesse. And why isn't the rider hanging off properly? The lack of speed emphasises this too.

The next issue is the tracks themselves. Most of them simply aren't suited to bikes, the majority have been lifted straight out of Gran Turismo. Wtf would you want to ride a bike around an oval? There are a couple of tracks that are nice and twisty, perfect for bikes, but then the handling issues raise their head again.

It's nice to see so many bikes in the game, and clearly there's been an attention to detail with modelling them. You can get a cockpit view, which is the better view for playing the game in, and see all the controls and dash, and they look nice.

I haven't dipped into the career mode very much yet, but I fear that the licencing mode will be exactly the same as GT, ie, very annoying.

So, once again, and in a similar vain to Riding Spirits, the developers fail to nail a GT type bike game, which is a shame.

Buy it here at play-asia

[Ian(not Ian)]

Oh dear. I ordered the japanese version which is winging it's way to me now. I must admit I did express reservations when this game was announced (digital acceleration!).
Are the controls customisable Marty. In particular can you use the analogue sticks for throttle and turning? better still in 'reverse' pull back the stick to accelerate, like winding in the throttle.

You mention the rider hanging off the bike too much. I'm sure I read the rider's style is an option, from little to a lot of leaning so you may be able to adjust that

Braking....hmmm. that's not good since I also read that the Triumph Speed Triple is included and it's brakes are truly awesome.

Cockpit view is a big issue for me and bike games. Only TT Superbikes and the excellent Milestone Superbikes 2001 has come close so far by refraining from tilting the whole screen when turning, which of course does not exist on real bikes as a rider tilts the bike one way and his head back to other way to retain a horizontal viewpoint. How does GT TT handle this?

Speed issues must surely improve in cockpit view?

[MartyG]

Yeah, you can change the controls, works the same way as in GT. I was using the analogue stick for throttle and brake, I don't think that reversing it would really help very much tbh, I think I'd find it very unintuitive.

The rider wasn't hanging off enough - dunno about options to change this, my Japanese isn't very great (too impatient to wait for the US/UK release as I wanted to play it). He was just sticking his knee out in the wind - like a track day novice. No way was he going to get his knee down until he fell off. The bikes tip over sidewise very unconvincingly, the rider is too stupid to stick his leg out to stop it from happening - there's no way they'd pass their test, when it arrives, try doing a u-turn even on the widest of tracks. Fortunately "crashes", although you have to watch them, only last a second, so it doesn't become too annoying.

The speed doesn't really improve in the cockpit view, though it does help a bit with cornering. It's quite similar to MotoGP on the Xbox, in that it tilts slightly. But as you say, it's not something you'd do IRL. No bike game I've ever played has managed to get this right.

I'm not completely giving up on the game just yet - maybe the handling will 'click' with a bit more time. My next hope for a game with real road bikes that handle lies with Test Drive Unlimited on the Xbox 360.

[Dazzyman]

Mines turned up today and so far for me its just GT4 with bikes shoved in for a bonus. It doesnt seem to work very well compared to the cars and I arent hugely impressed with the physics engine. Theres no massive wheelspins or cog feedback between gearing (theres hardly any forcefeedback effects at all), it just feels very arcadey compared to the PC Superbike series I played to death (I adored how they would go out of control at very low speed and the camera angle of headcam), its also very arcadey compared to the Motogp series on xbox as theres no front and back independant braking, you either have full braking with the right analog or partial only back braking with the R2. Theres also no weight transfer independant for up and down (ie brake u sit up), there is the L2 what lets you tuck in but the rider does that automatically anyway.

Ive tried using all the views (of course I chose cockpit camera first) and the sense of speed even on a 1200 wasnt that stunning, I want to be pertrified at them speeds to when to brake for the corner and I wasnt like I would have been on rival bike sims.

The test system so far is the same as GT4 go and brake after x amount of metres and then steadily getting harder and by the looks of it the system of money for bikes etc.. is gone and replaced by something else.

It just all seems a bit meh so far, been there and seen it done better and something I thought could have been done better by Polyphony, hopefully I will enjoy it a bit more today but so far it seems like GT4 as a cashin (it even has the same options menu and it does have 480p and 1080i incase anyone was wondering and widscreen support).

[MartyG]

It's not getting any better.

I tried the ZX-10R this evening as I know this bike will have your arm off if you so much as look at it - it'll do 0-100-0 in around 10 seconds IRL. In the game it hasn't even reached 100 by then.

And why oh why oh why don't these bikes wheelie very well? If you snap the throttle open it should be flinging you off the back (actually, the ZX-10R does wheelie a bit easier than the other bikes). It's all so pedestrian.

[John Beaulieu]

try turning on professional mode

[MartyG]

Where is that option?

[Mr Ono]

FFS - don't even think I'll bother unwrapping mine now.

[MartyG]

You may well have a different take on it to me.

I've capped a video of the game this evening, showing the track and bike selection, and I've tried to convey the handling of the bikes, the last bit on a scooter trying to do a u-turn on a track as wide as the M1 (anyone who's riding these knows they turn on a sixpense). I'll try to get this uploaded to the site, tis about 12 mins long and 45 Megs Xvid (well compressed to keep the file size down, but it is watchable).

[dc-arena]

Appreciate the feedback on this so far. Mines currently flying its way over to me. I have been reading what the guys on GT Planet are saying about this, and it seems to be 50/50 at the moment. Some are saying its utterly fantastic, and others are mirroring what you have said here.

Perhaps Professional mode has different handling or something? There seems to be tonnes of options. I look forward to playing it regardless, but it definetly doesn't seem to have the same wow factor has Gran Turismo so far...

[Dazzyman]

Well Ive had another good go on this this evening (4hours worth as its nearly 4am!) and my quick take on it has changed quite abit now. Luckily I just messed about with the options until I got what looks like realistic CPU and anti cheating (if you go off track you get 10second penalty same with smacking the CPU) and figured out how to enable Pro mode. Once you put pro mode on you can finally use R2 for back braking and right analog for front so for people like me what like proper sim racing its a big plus (dont get me wrong I adore stuff like Ridge Racer as well though). It also makes it possible to get side swiped etc.. with the wheels giving away coming out of corners with power on and more instability in general (which Ive done in real life and broke 3 of my wrist bones). You also have to start using L2 for tucking in so it really makes the game feel totally different to the standard normal mode. I must admit Im enjoying it alot now especially glad its got this anti cheat in (wish they had stuff like this in GT4).
I still dont think its as good as stuff like Moto GP on xbox or still my fav Superbikes series by Milestone on PC, but its a good effort I think and not the turkey I thought it was this morning and I would say Im happy to have bought it (there looks to be stacks of races as well).
There are still some downsides I guess as the physics for example make it blumming hard to do a power wheelie even on the above 1kcc stuff (crikey I could even do em on a 125cc back when I was a chubba 16stone on one in real life) and I think the helmet camera could have been done better, but I just have the gut feeling from playing it for 4hours straight (I was only going to give it another quick go as I was seriously tempted to sell it on) that Im going to be addicted to it like I was with GT3.

[MartyG]

Share how to turn the option on any time you like

Here's the vid

[Dazzyman]

They have all the info including screen grabs for it on GT Planet. All I did before I found it was go to the helmet in options and shove everything to on and then the same in controller (not one and two just the general controller and not the one where u change buttons either). A couple where in japanese as pull down instead of off and on but if you just try those 2 pages in options you will soon get it on.

[Ian(not Ian)]

Arrived at last and I must say I quite like it so far. Still trying to work out the menus and such but I'm pleasantly suprised with the onboard view which doesn't tilt the screen at all, well ever so slighty and only when really needed. It's the view of the bike that tilts.
Try the Costa di Amalti or whatever it's call in 1st person. Lovely.
Back later with more gushing.

[MartyG]

It's plenty more than slightly.

I think I've got the game into "Pro" mode now, but tbh, I haven't found it makes that much more difference, it doesn't seem to alter the acceleration or braking to what they really should be, but at least you can control front and back independently. I'm warming a little bit to it, but there's still more frustration than enjoyment here for me.

I have done a little more in the career mode now, and have found that you can alter the riding style of your character quite significantly, which I like a lot (yay - I like something in the game). However, the tedious, (and they are tedious) licence modes raise their ugly head again. There really isn't a need to make them compulsory, make them optional.

So does the "start the game on a really crap 250cc scooter that we know you don't really want to ride because, yes, it's even slower than the 1000cc bikes feel, but we don't care because we want to artificially increase the length of game by doing this". Really, who wants to spend hours riding one in real life, let alone in a game before being able to progress to a real motorcycle? This isn't quite as bad as it sounds, as it only seems to affect the race mode in career, the challenges allow a range of motorcycles to race on. When (if) you win these, you get to use the bike won in the racing mode - so long as it fits in the series requirements.

If you fall off in the challenge mode though, you lose and have to start all over, which is somewhat annoying if it happens at the end of a 4 lap race. Actually, it's not even if you crash, it's if you go on the grass a bit. It's all very frustrating and not very much fun. Games that penalise you this much simply sap your enthusiasm for playing them away.

And still - and I can't stress this enough - why after all this time have Polyphony not put an option in to avoid having to watch replays. I don't want to watch a replay after every single race ok? Give me the option not to even have to see a few seconds of it requiring extra and un-needed button presses just to exit it.

Edit - Couple more hours on it, and I've tried to like this game, but it's just not happening. There are few nice things (riding style, bike setup, bike sounds and range of bikes) in what is otherwise a bucket of mess (questionable handling, lack of original tracks, tracks that don't work well for bikes, unbelievable AI that virtually never falls off ever, frustrating game design, lack of opponents). It's far from "The Real Riding Simulator" and there are definitely better bike games out there. At least this is a step up from Riding Spirits.