A good substitute on those days when you don't feel like riding.
While building my personal asset to fulfill a childhood dream of competitive racing, I had to seek other sources that will increase my fundamental knowledge of racing properly. Games like MotoGP4 does fill in the need about observing racing lines, braking markers, and body lean.
Tourist Trophy does some of this and better in some aspects. The realism in this game is true enough to some aspect without sacrificing player frustration associated when falling off the bike too often when learning the game. For example, tapping the rear brake during corners lightly does give control during corners, while slamming both the front and rear brakes too violently in corners makes your bike skid just as how American pro-MotoGP rider Nicky Hayden would do to his bike. The lap times around real world circuits are comparable and most notably slower than the times acquired in the MotoGP4 game.
Since I ride with a scientific approach in real life, learning this game was easy. I do have a friend that does not ride and so had a bigger learning curve, so perhaps if the readers do not game as much or ride a real sportsbike then the game's learning curve will be higher.
The good points about this game is that each bike does give a different feel and characteristic. The engine noise and exhaust also amplifies the differences. For example, the sound of the R1 Yamaha and CBR Honda is very distinct. As with watching motogp races, bikes sounds from onboard cameras will allow the player identify who is behind you without needing to look back. Tire wear is prominant in this game too. Setting the racing compound to hard front, medium rear or any other combination will affect your lap times. Another great advantage of this game that is not available in other bike games is that I can change my riding form. I can do full body lean, adjust my head and arm position, and even stick my knees out, during cornering. This gives me a great sense of customization that I feel will give my rider the best opportunity to be competitive. Another good thing about this game is that I can see the wrist action and gear shifting leg action during the race, which elevates the sense of realism.
The sour points of this game is that sometimes I notice that in city races, I would hit the side rails and while sometimes the speed of such impact does give a probability that the bike will not tumble over, there were some instances I noticed that some impact on rails and curves gave an unrealistic impression of how the bike manages to stay up. For example, in Stage Route 5, I can bang the bike against the wall and my bike would just bounce off the wall and be right back on the road. Another bad point is that while my rider crounches low behind the windshield during the straight, my rider doesn't sit up just before the corners to allow the body to break the force of the wind and thus slowing the bike considerably. Next, I didn't notice any footwork of the rider when making the corners as real pro racers do in real life. Additionally, I can't make the rider's head look up ahead during corners as some European pro-racers would. The head work on this game looks more of that from Japanese pro-racers.
All in all, this game was just a good substitute for fun before the next generation of sim bike games that would hit the market, although the market for bike games will never be as popular as car games. I already finished the game there aren't anything interesting left to do because the AI bikes in this game just don't give me any challenge, but may prove quite challenging to those who just enjoy the lifestyle of riding fast sportsbikes. It also gives would be racers a huge learning leason in riding while not injurying oneself. So pick up the game and enjoy for as long as you can.