Tourist Trophy Speculation - Endurance Racing

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Originally posted May 6, 2010; updated June 10, 2011.

Tourist Trophy gave you the chance to unlock five motorcycles that raced in the 2005 8 Hours of Suzuka. These motorcycles are the only racing bikes that have lights on them. They also have their own racing gear exclusive to these bikes. So by the time you select those bikes, you can ONLY race with the certain riding gear specific to that motorcycle. When you select any motorcycle that isn't one of the five Suzuka bikes, you go back to your regular riding gear. The bikes in question are the following (order set by where they placed in the 2005 8 Hours of Suzuka):

* #5 Kawasaki ZX-10R (TrickStar Suzuka 8H) '05 (finished 42nd in the 2005 Eight Hours of Suzuka)
* #19 Moriwaki CBR1000RR (Motul Tiger Suzuka 8H) '05 (finished 15th in the 2005 Eight Hours of Suzuka)
* #21 Yamaha YZF-R1 (YSP & Presto Suzuka 8H) '05 (finished 15th in the 2005 Eight Hours of Suzuka)
* #12 Yoshimura GSX-R 1000 (Jomo Suzuka 8H) '05 (finished 15th in the 2005 Eight Hours of Suzuka)
* #7 Honda CBR1000RRW (7 Honda Suzuka 8H) '05 (won the 2005 Eight Hours of Suzuka)

A big part of long races are pit stops. Pit stops are usually rare in Grand Prix motorcycle racing, but there are times where you have to make pit stops. You obviously need to make pit stops in endurance races. Assuming there will be a second Tourist Trophy in the future, one thing to speculate on is pit stops. So here is a look at endurance racing for Tourist Trophy 2.

--- Tourist Trophy Speculation: Endurance Racing ---

The endurance racing being discussed pertains to sport bikes tuned for endurance racing. While the Le Mans running starts at the 24 Hours of Le Mans may have been away for a long time, they are really alive and well in endurance racing (at least in the FIM Endurance World Championship). Riders stand in these circles marked on the far outside of the front stretch. Then, when it's time to start your bike, the riders run as fast as they can to their motorcycles and get them started. The riders all leave the front straight and begin the race. Most endurance races last in length between either six or eight hours to a full 24 hours. You have rider changes and pit stops throughout the race. This is basically the motorcycle equivalent of sportscar racing.


Here are some pictures and videos to set the mood:


^ from: flickr.com - An example of an endurance racing superbike. Note the lights at the front of this Honda.


^ from: oppracing.com - Yamaha Austria Racing Team, perhaps one of the best teams in the FIM Endurance World Championship


And since I've been talking about Suzuka so much, why not I show you a video on the 8 Hours of Suzuka? Here is a YouTube video with highlights of the 2009 Coca-Cola Zero 8 Hours of Suzuka. Watch this video and get yourself some inspiration on Tourist Trophy having some endurance racing like what you see below:


^ highlights of the 2009 8 Hours of Suzuka

Look at things like the running start and the pit stops. Also note the lights on the bikes to see better through rainy and/or dark conditions. The Suzuka bikes were really meant for endurance racing, so why not feature some of these endurance races? Here is another YouTube video featuring the 24 Hours of Le Mans Moto:


^ 2009 24 Hours of Le Mans Moto, raced around the Bugatti Circuit.


Now that you have the inspiration, let's look for some things to help fuel speculation on if (hypothetical title) "Tourist Trophy 2" features endurance racing.

--- How Would You Execute Endurance Racing? ---

Here are ways I think this can be implemented. A big key to implementing this is to have pit stops as well as driver changes. Rather than staying on your bike for a very long time (like staying in your car for a very long time in the Gran Turismo games, you'll need to change riders. Let me try to set up what endurance racing should be like in the Tourist Trophy sequel:

1.) First off, there should be qualifying. There are a lot of races (especially the Single Race events) where it is near impossible to win.

2.) The Le Mans-style start is next. This can be its own mini-game. I think it would be more fun to have this as a mini-game rather than have the game automatically run to the bike and start it. I think when you get to the bike, the next thing to do is to try to press a button (perhaps the Accelerate button) to start the bike up and start riding.

3.) Pit stops are the key part. When you come in to pit, you should be able to choose different tire compounds, how much fuel to put into the bike, and do a rider change. I would love for Gran Turismo and Tourist Trophy games to be more about teamwork rather than one person doing all the work.

4.) Another important aspect lies in how many bikes do you put on the track at once. A number between 16 to 24 would be perfect for all modes of Tourist Trophy.

5.) You'll need to turn on the lights for darkness and even for potentially rainy weather.


In addition, there needs to be either more endurance racing motorcycles or be able to tune road bikes to have lights and be used for endurance racing.





If there is a sequel for Tourist Trophy, what would YOU look for in endurance racing? Comment away!

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Tourist Trophy

Tourist Trophy- The Real Riding Simulator. Described affectionately as "Gran Turismo with bikes," Tourist Trophy gives gamers the chance to enjoy motorcycle racing in the Gran Turismo universe. Tourist Trophy utilizes the Gran Turismo 4 infrastructure. Many of the courses from Gran Turismo 4 are all back (with the exception of the off-road courses) including the debut of the Valencia road course to the GT universe. A variety of road-going and competition-spec motorcycles are available to race. This is a chance to enjoy two-wheeled racing on a variety of conditions.

Here is the box art for this game:


^ from: tinypic.com

--- "Tourist Trophy" at a Glance ---

Tourist Trophy plays significantly different from any original Gran Turismo game. You can play in Arcade or TT Mode. A variety of motorcycles are available for you to race. These include scooters, sport bikes, some motocross-style motorcycles, and more. You can set your height and customize your own riding style. You have four different options including a motard setup. You can customize the settings of any motorcycle. In addition to customizing settings for motorcycles, you can even customize riding gear featuring actually licensed motorcycle gear and some Polyphony Digital originals. Two racing suits and two streetwear suits are available for you to customize.

Unlike a GT game, however, you can't earn money towards... anything. You can earn items through racing and good progress throughout the game. These can include extra items to add to your riding gear and bonus motorcycles. The biggest way to add to your collection of motorcycles is to compete in the Challenge Mode. You can choose from bikes from many manufacturers including Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, Ducati, Aprilia, BMW Motorrad, Buell, and more. In Challenge Mode, a majority of all motorcycles in the game can be earned through this mode. You are asked to compete in challenges. These challenges range from race challenges to one-lap time trials. If you go off course for too long, hit something very hard, fall off your back, or knock off another rider (especially in a Challenge race), you will be disqualified. Some bikes require you to have a license. There are four licenses for you to acquire to compete in various races and earn various bikes.

Unlike Gran Turismo 4's execution of it, Photo Mode is actually executed much better than in GT4. You can go for a ride and take your best pictures. Or after races, you can access the "Best Photo" feature, which allows you to save the best photos to your Memory Card or USB Flash Drive. Here's a picture I took for a friend of mine named Begoña:


^ from: my Facebook profile

There's also a great collection of songs for this game including "I Against a Speed," the theme song of Tourist Trophy by SUNPAULO.

--- "Tourist Trophy" Gameplay ---

You can race in any event. There are about 22 different series to race in. All of these events feature races based on kinds of motorcycles as well as races based on displacement and engine type. The first four series all involve street bikes. The remaining all require racing-spec motorcycles. The final championship, which is equivalent to the Gran Turismo World Championship, is the Tourist Trophy World Series. The best thing about Tourist Trophy (to me) is that this game doesn't keep track of your wins and losses. I feel like I have to maintain a perfect record to feel happy, because I have a bad attitude about losing.

Each bike offers three views. The instrument panel and handle bars are designed beautifully from the bike view. You actually notice digital readouts and some analog gauges. To me, this game's features were a precursor to what future GT games could be like. We're CERTAINLY seen the lovely interiors provided in Gran Turismo games since Gran Turismo 5 Prologue.

You have three different level of handling. You have the original handling, Semi-Pro, and Pro handling. The harder settings give you better control of your bikes and requires you to do much more to handle your bike. How you ride depends on things like your riding stance among other things. So pick something that's more comfortable to you. For one thing, I set my riding stance for speed. One such way to go faster on straights is to tuck down. You go faster with lower wind resistance.

A word of warning: the TZ250 Challenge will piss you off beyond recognition. Do that challenge last.

If you want to feel like you've accomplished something in this game, try winning the Championship races that allow you to earn one of five 8 Hours of Suzuka bikes. Four can be earned through different series while one can be earned by winning the Tourist Trophy World Series. These 8H Suzuka bikes are endurance-spec bikes, meaning these have lights on them for endurance racing. As of the date of this blog entry, I think I have two out of the five (maybe three of the five) 8H Suzuka motorcycles. Each of these bikes have their own riding gear that can ONLY be worn with those bikes.

--- The Racing Itself ---

There are a maximum of four bikes on a race track, which is pretty good considering GT4's graphics engine. There may not be 20 bikes to a track, but TT still gets the job done. Every race is on a Rolling Start. You can only qualify in Championship races. Depending on the race, it may be very difficult to go from 4th to a race victory. You may need to adjust your bike's settings and try to find ways to go fast in such little time. There are NO pit stops at all. Then again, pit stops are pretty rare in grand prix motorbike racing. Unless to change bikes for when there's a Dry or a Wet race.

If you hit a wall head-on, you'll face a 5 or 10-second speed penalty dropping you to about 31 mph. There is no damage to your motorcyle, but of course... you don't want to fly off by not going fast enough at speed or whatever. You can always revisit a race to try to win gold.

--- Personal Commentary on Tourist Trophy ---

Overall, this is a great motorcycle racing game. A combination of street bikes and racing bikes is an exceptional one. Every bike is shown beautifully with well-done riding physics and control. This is pick-up-and-play. Too many people thought this was just a cheap way to milk Gran Turismo 4. Not as many people enjoyed this game. But if you ask me, more people should. Okay. Maybe there are four bikes to a race track compared to 20 in the MotoGP games. Maybe people complained that since the game is called "Tourist Trophy," not including the Isle of Man TT course is a fail. Guess what? The same people complained that there were "LM Race Cars" in Gran Turismo, without including the Circuit de la Sarthe for years.

But come on now... where else are you going to get this level of motorcycle goodness where you can still enjoy a street bike as much as a racing bike? It was in this game that I've become better appreciative of Suzuki. Don't even get me started on racing the Suzuki Hayabusa in this game. I even have the racing-spec Hayabusa, and I love going on high-speed runs with that bike. In addition, this game made a BIG leap featuring both Aprilia and Ducati. This was even though people complained that Polyphony Digital couldn't secure big-name manufacturers. Fact is, every Gran Turismo featured some world-class makes. People tend to forget about THESE makes while most only care about Ferrari, Porsche, and Lamborghini. These world-class makes have been featured include (but are not limited to): Alfa Romeo, Lancia, BMW, Aston Martin, Bentley, Renault, Audi, and Volvo among many others. I even thought Bentley was the biggest pickup for GT4, even if it was just the EXP GT that won Le Mans in 2003. Again, Apilia and Ducati were major finds for Tourist Trophy. The game even had a little contest where you could win your own Ducati 999R (another motorcycle I love racing in the game). It was also the game where I had respect for Triumph's beautiful middleweight bike that I used to win a championship race with





This game is great for what it is. With very few outstanding motorcycle racing games on the market, this is a great way to get your two-wheel fix. My Amazon Store (aStore) features Tourist Trophy. Please visit it to purchase Tourist Trophy from Amazon. If you loved this blog entry and want to get Tourist Trophy, please show me your support by buying this game now. Click on the image below to purchase this game or learn more about it:



If you need hints and tips, check out this, the Tourist Trophy strategy guide:



Thank you for reading!

Should Tourist Trophy Have a Sequel?

Depending upon who you ask, Tourist Trophy is either the best modern motorcycle racing game, or a glorified GT4 mod featuring motorcycles. Tourist Trophy is a game that combines racing street bikes and competition bikes in one game. Execution may vary, but this is still a very good game from the makers of the Gran Turismo series. Some people think Tourist Trophy was a failed experiment. I beg to differ, as you're about to see in this blog entry.





--- WHY Should Tourist Trophy Have a Sequel? ---
While others just don't want to try anything new and don't want to envision a better game, Tourist Trophy (to me) is a game of good execution, but can be much better. A number of things gives this game the level of challenge that it has. The least of which includes:

* rolling starts rather than standing starts
* Challenge Mode to access certain bikes
* tough races

Why should there be a sequel? The main reason why is because there isn't really any other good current motorcycle racing game with street and racing bikes. If any company is willing to enhance the experience, it's Polyphony Digital. I hate for PD to think this is a failed experiment to try to make a good motorcycle racing game in addition to the storied Gran Turismo series. It's like something I tell myself- don't always focus on the negatives people give you. Instead, try to focus on the positives. So let's look at some positives with a speculative view.


--- What Would Tourist Trophy Have for the PS3? ---
There would be a number of elements, including...

* Possibly well over 4 bikes to a track. I am not sure what is considered a decent number of bikes to a track, but anywhere in the range of 16 to 24 is acceptable.

* Standing starts. Imagine being lined up on the grid and getting up to speed while making a mad wheelie preparing for the madness a superbike race can provide. Imagine trying to take on other riders in an epic clash. Will we ever see those three-wide and four-wide starts?

* Online possibilities. Imagine going up against a virtual pack that can be its own MotoGP or World Superbike grand prix race. There isn't a great motorcycle racing game right now, so why not PD take the motorcycle gaming realm, twist the throttle, and run at hi revs to provide an online gaming experience?

Those are just possibilities. Now let's talk about continuing what the first game started.



--- Expansion and Enhancement ---

Tourist Trophy left lots to wonder about if there's ever a Tourist Trophy 2. I will look at a few key areas for you. Feel free to add your own input.

More Manufacturers?
These are the companies that comprised Tourist Trophy:
* Honda
* Kawasaki
* Suzuki
* Yamaha
* BMW Motorrad
* MV Agusta
* Aprilia
* Triumph
* Ducati
* Buell
* Yoshimura
* Moriwaki

There are a bunch of other motorcycle makers out there. Here are many as I use this link:
http://www.sportbikez.net/models

Would you like to see bikes in a Tourist Trophy sequel from companies like these:
* Benelli
* Bimota
* KTM
* Hyosung
* Caviga
* Gilera
* Derbi
* Vespa
* Moto Guzzi
* Peugeot
* Proton (only made the Proton KR)

And how about these to add some diversity:
* Piaggio
* Monotracer
* Arctic Cat
* Can-Am
* Harley-Davidson <<< once had an entry in AMA Superbike * Victory * Campagna ...and more of these kinds of bikes: * motards * touring bikes * cruisers (to an extent) * streetfighters * cafe racers * sidecar race bikes (would be cool, also different!) Let's not forget a few teams, also, like Harris WCM. Let's also not forget some special racing bikes. The only one I can name without delay is the Castrol Honda RVF-RC45.  



--- More Kinds of Racing? ---
Doing circuit racing can be fun. But among other kinds of motorcyclists, there are a variety of other ways to enjoy two-wheeled fun. Here are a few examples:

* Flat Track Racing. The most famous flat track race in America is the Springfield Mile. Think of taking some dirt bikes or some cruisers, and make the most of going sideways.

* Drag Racing. The basics would be seeing street bikes blast down the 1/4 mile or in 1/8 mile drag racing. The extremes would include NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycles or even some of the FIA Drag Racing Bikes.

* Motocross and Supermoto. Motocross is about the most exciting form of motorcycle racing. Imagine taking the green flag against a field of about 16 or so riders. Imagine taking on the whoops of most traditional motocross courses. Imagine flying higher and further than you ever could dream. Imagine doing being your own James "Bubba" Stewart, Chad Reed, Tony Dungey, Jeremy McGrath, Ricky Carmichael, or whatever. Motocross is great fun! Supermoto is a combination of tarmac racing and motocross all as part as one event. Those motard bikes would be best left to take on races other than circuit racing. Come on! Let's make the most of that motard deal including the motard riding position!

* "Real" Road Racing. I'm talking about racing on country roads. Think of Irish Road Racing taking place on public country roads while riding some sportbikes or superbikes. The creme de la creme would be featuring all of the Isle of Man TT.





--- Customization of Motorcycles? ---
Tourist Trophy gave you barely anything to customize motorcycles. I can think of maybe purchasing parts like sprockets, brakes, custom bike stands, swingarms, tires, exterior modifications, and more. Even think of simply taking off or taping up lights to go racing. Either that, or even giving you the power to customize your motorcycle to be the best speed demon or the coolest-looking bike there is.





--- Will a Sequel EVER Happen for Tourist Trophy? ---
Maybe or maybe not. I don't think there will ever be another Tourist Trophy for the same reason there may not be another Enthusia- not as well-liked of a game to even warrant a sequel. I have to believe that by harnessing the power of the PlayStation 3 and the ingenuity of Polyphony Digital, that if they were to make another Tourist Trophy, they could make the sequel even better than the first. My opinions won't force anything, but I think a sequel to this game can give motorcycle lovers the chance to digitally enjoy motorcycle racing all the further.

If you want a video answer to how I feel about this, check out my video here:


Link: Should Tourist Trophy Have a Sequel?





Comment away! =)