Tourist Trophy

"Gran Turismo 4's half-brother"

This game is quite possibly the most realistic racing game out for the PS2, and I can't imagine why not, when it's coming from the creators of the Gran Turismo series. Gran Turismo fans (specifically 4) will notice a lot of similarities between the two, and no doubt, there's a lot of good things in the game, and is lacking only very slightly.

Story (N/A):
This game, like the Gran Turismo series, has no story, and no real end. Here's a quick synopsis of the game: do licenses, go to challenges to win bikes, and then use the bikes to win races to win bikes for special races. Simple.

Gameplay (9/10):
Wow. Just wow. I couldn't believe this game would be this realistic. Simply stated, no two bikes are alike in this game. While one might handle better, another might accelerate better, and another might top off at a higher speed. The same goes for the rider form. The slightest change could mean the difference between staying on the road and riding off onto the grass (or dirt or sand or other surface). And believe me, you don't want to get off the asphalt in this game; your speed vastly diminishes while off the road, and your handling is even worse. This game has a great physics engine; you can almost feel the rider slowly coming back up from a turn, or oversteering and falling off, or understeering and most likely also falling off. The tracks are most of the paved tracks in Gran Turismo 4, so don't expect anything special here. One thing they added from Gran Turismo is penalties. For example, you get a penalty when you ram into a opponent too fast, or try to take a big shortcut through the grass, or ram into a wall too fast, all of which result in a reduction of speed to a set speed for a set amount of seconds. I found the license tests in this game easier than in Gran Turismo 4, but even so, gold was not that easy for all licenses.

Now to the slight disappointments. There is no nitrous again, nor is there any customization of bikes more than changing the number on it or the exhaust (when available). In addition, you have less to customize in the "Settings" section, but that could just be because bikes can't be customized too much. No longer do you buy and sell bikes; now you have to win all of them by doing races, harder as the bikes get better. You will only have 2 or 4 opponents in races. The amount of bikes is somewhat large, but many are just different versions or years of each other, and there are a couple types of bikes missing (such as Harley Davidson's). The AI can sometimes be unbalanced, so it is not uncommon to have opponents that will smoke you from the start or that will struggle to keep up with you, and rarely is the opposition "just right".

Graphics (9/10):
It's pretty much the same as Gran Turismo 4, but maybe just a bit smoother and/or intricate; simply stated, not much of a difference. The riders look just as real as the tracks and bikes, but lack depth a bit.

Sound (9/10):
Just like every bike handles differently, they all sound different, which means your Yamaha won't sound the same as your BMW. The music is quiet, which is good, because it's pretty much nothing but techno, and it's not too varied either.

Replay (5/10):
There's nothing you unlock for beating the game once, there's no different difficulty settings, nothing extra period. There's also nothing that you can unlock in your 2nd run that you can't in your 1st; you can always get all the bikes and colors of them, which can take a while and can sometimes be repetitive. Unless you really like motorcylces or the Gran Turismo series, there's not point in replaying it.

All in all, if you're looking for a fun, realistic game to pass the time, I'd say this would be a great choice, and you should only rent if you don't like Gran Turismo, have never played it, or if you aren't really into racing, because reactions to this game vary.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 01/02/07