Tame the Mountain: TT Isle of Man Launches March 6 on Consoles

I still get a few surprise crashes now and then, but I can't think of any places where I have to just hang on and hope. There used to be some sections like that, until I learned where the road was uneven and why I was crashing. Learned what was going on and corrected my line and it stopped happening.

It did take me a while to figure a lot of things out but the game almost makes sense to me now. I have had a couple of crashes "out-of-the-blue" but 99.99% of the time I know exactly what I did wrong. A lot of the problem seems to be that when things do go wrong they don't happen the way they really should, but when I do my job right there are generally no surprises at all. Since I'm clueless as to how a sportbike "should" feel(though I at least know a missing highside when I see one) I just focused on learning what the game needed me to do.

I'm more-or-less done with what I wanted to do with the game now, having got a few clean laps(one under 18 minutes) and can pretty consistently run with no more than 2-3 crashes per TT-lap/other-track-race and won the career supersport TT. I may have a go here and there for fun, but not sure I'll have the patience to learn it all over in sort-of-helmet-cam and redo the career to try to master superbikes. Still kind of hoping they'll come up with a way to make the sidecars a bit more manageable in the future, they're pretty wacky right now but I haven't put any real time into learning those. I only ran a test lap and was about as horrible as my first lap on a bike.

I'll probably be hopeless for a while if I ever play another bike game with better physics now.
 
Same thing really, sort find where the bumps are, too much throttle through corner. If you try ride it too hard will send you off. The bumps at St Ninian's cross road, can make have big crash.

Down to 22.00 on a Supersport, still having crashes, but coming on.
 
John Wells
Same thing really, sort find where the bumps are, too much throttle through corner. If you try ride it too hard will send you off. The bumps at St Ninian's cross road, can make have big crash.

Down to 22.00 on a Supersport, still having crashes, but coming on.
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Yes, that is a very evil corner to start a lap. There are a few places like that where you have to get as much of your turning done early as possible and go nearly straight over the bumps(much like the one before Quarterbridge). It still gets me once in a while and either I get a huge slide or the crown kicks me too far inside too soon and I can't get straightened out in time. Almost any time there is an intersection(and in some cases I think even driveways) there's a chance of the road getting uneven.

One annoying spot on the TT course that I still can't quite figure out is the fast left turn just before the heavy braking at Parliament Square. I know that I have to back off early and turn into the corner gently, but I just can't see what it is that makes it so treacherous. It's not that slow but if I wait until what seems the correct brake point it's death every time. I guess I understand roughly how to take it, but I would just like to know what it is that I am trying to avoid. All I see is shadows on what appears to be a smooth road.


I think I've enjoyed the puzzle of figuring out what I can and can't reliably get away with as much as anything else about the game. Just as I am about to give in to frustration something else seems to click and trying to make it work gets fun again. I should really watch one of the helpful videos people have posted about how to get around the real track, it would probably help me much more now than when I had no idea why I was crashing everywhere.
 
Retro_UK
Sadly I bought the digital version. I'd been watching a ton of videos by VVV on youtube and they didn't once mention the random crashes in the videos I saw, and don't think I ever saw it happen. It is odd because it is the kind of thing you'd have expected them to comment on. So yeah, stuck with it really.
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There were crashes in the development build, but that's common place, pretty much all games have these and they should be fixed in the final product. When you're previewing early code, as we do all the time, it's often unstable with bugs etc. Our focus is on the game and the expectation that these issues are fixed in the final game, which will all be taken account in the review. At launch I moved to the XBox One X version as did the team, for my streaming, and that didn't appear to feature any crash issues in my play sessions so I was under the impression it had been fixed for PC as well.
 
VVV Mars VG
There were crashes in the development build, but that's common place, pretty much all games have these and they should be fixed in the final product. When you're previewing early code, as we do all the time, it's often unstable with bugs etc. Our focus is on the game and the expectation that these issues are fixed in the final game, which will all be taken account in the review. At launch I moved to the XBox One X version as did the team, for my streaming, and that didn't appear to feature any crash issues in my play sessions so I was under the impression it had been fixed for PC as well.
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Wait, wait wait... are we talking game crashes, or bike crashes? I thought the latter?

Morgoth_666
I still get a few surprise crashes now and then, but I can't think of any places where I have to just hang on and hope. There used to be some sections like that, until I learned where the road was uneven and why I was crashing. Learned what was going on and corrected my line and it stopped happening.

It did take me a while to figure a lot of things out but the game almost makes sense to me now. I have had a couple of crashes "out-of-the-blue" but 99.99% of the time I know exactly what I did wrong. A lot of the problem seems to be that when things do go wrong they don't happen the way they really should, but when I do my job right there are generally no surprises at all. Since I'm clueless as to how a sportbike "should" feel(though I at least know a missing highside when I see one) I just focused on learning what the game needed me to do.
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Yeah, this. I rarely fall off or crash for no reason... I do fall off and crash a lot, but normally I can account for it.
 
Yes, definitely the very poor handling of tyre grip: once traction is lost, it doesn't come back unless it's pointing the same way it's moving. Not at all like the real thing, it breaks feedback and is not communicated very well, so it feels "random".
 
VVV Mars VG
I thought it was about game crashes, as for bike crashes and invisible bumps, covered that in various videos.
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Yeah I was referring to the bike crashes - sorry about the confusion. Apologies for not seeing the videos you mentioned them in. I did mention it was odd I hadn't seen you commenting on them :) I wasn't having a dig, I just thought they hadn't happened while you were playing the preview code :)
 
Yep I get 60 on PC. It used to drop a bit in places, but I've done some upgrades and it stays right about at 60 now. It often looked extremely choppy when it would drop below 50 before, but I think that was more because of the exact way it was struggling than because of the actual framerate. I have no problem with other games at 40 or 30fps looking like that and I'd certainly hope the console versions weren't that jerky.

I've started driving from sort-of-helmet cam now, which took some getting used to. I'm still not fully comfortable yet and not at all with superbikes, but it's coming around pretty well on the supersports. I'm finding that that view makes it a lot easier to see the complex bumps and undulations in the road, which makes certain crashes much less likely. Even if I can't see it before I hit it there's no doubt when I'm driving over a rough patch now! The problems are that my marks look a little different and I have trouble predicting how fast the bike will lean over/stand up. That and I can't see where my wheels are.

I haven't noticed any changes in the latest patch, I think it was all bug fixes(or fix attempts :) ). Haven't driven the sidecars yet, so I'll just assume they're still bonkers.
 
So I haven't played this game in a few months - and hence hadn't downloaded the Sidecars DLC - but finally got round to popping the game back in and trying the sidecars today.

........except I haven't, because it turns out they decided to put a price on the sidecars last week, and it's now £9.49!

Would've been nice if Big Ben could have said that the DLC wouldn't remain free forever............. :ouch:
 
"Please note that this DLC will be available for free until 22 June. Afterwards it will be available as a paid-for DLC pack, so don't wait for too long!"

Actually, they did(at least on steam where I took that quote from). I'm sorry that wherever you had seen it mentioned didn't have that part listed. But unless you reeeeallly love sidecar racing, don't pay for it unless they make some major improvements down the road. I think this game was worth my money, warts and all... but I wouldn't pay a dollar for 3 sidecars that drive that unpleasantly. Let alone 7 bucks(that's what it says it would cost me in US moneys).
 
Morgoth_666
"Please note that this DLC will be available for free until 22 June. Afterwards it will be available as a paid-for DLC pack, so don't wait for too long!"

Actually, they did(at least on steam where I took that quote from). I'm sorry that wherever you had seen it mentioned didn't have that part listed. But unless you reeeeallly love sidecar racing, don't pay for it unless they make some major improvements down the road. I think this game was worth my money, warts and all... but I wouldn't pay a dollar for 3 sidecars that drive that unpleasantly. Let alone 7 bucks(that's what it says it would cost me in US moneys).
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Yep, just found that message on their FB page........dammit, don't know how I missed that. Yeah I think I'll pass - even if the impressions here were better I don't think I could stomach paying for something I could have had for free :lol: :dunce:
 
I’m not much a fan of bikes. (That could soon change) I know nothing about them. I’m more of a Rally kinda guy.

But I’m having a lot of fun with this game so far! Just riding/racing down the country roads is amazing, it actually mentally relaxes me. (Until I fall off the bike 7 times in 2 minutes :lol:) Really glad I bought it. Like I say I’m not much of a fan of bikes, but this game might just change my mind. It’s also kind of teaching me how to ride the bikes without falling off them as much because I’m getting a feel for the bikes and the roads. A connection I’ve not really had with the MotoGP games.

Definitely recommend giving this a try if any of you haven’t already. And this is coming from a Rally obsessed guy. :D I think people should properly give it a try.

About to do a Time trial on Hertfordshire circuit to get use to the track. Should be fun!
 
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I gave in and purchased this and I'm absolutely loving it. I'm a car guy who has never been on a bike but this game just feels great; the handling and the sense of speed are really, really satisfying and I'm determined to learn the TT course in full. The only complaint I have is that there are some areas (mainly the first built up area on Snaefell) where the game slows down and stutters on a regular PS4 which is a bit off putting when you're blasting along at crazy speeds.

EDIT: Actually I have another issue albeit a very minor one - The volume of the sound effect when you accept a career event is deafening :lol:
 
I don't suppose the devs ever finally fixed those random crashes then? I haven't noticed an update for ages. I bought V Rally 4 not knowing it was by these guys, and they have gone from bad to worse. I enjoyed WRC 7 but since then I don't rate their output at all.
 
Retro_UK
I don't suppose the devs ever finally fixed those random crashes then? I haven't noticed an update for ages. I bought V Rally 4 not knowing it was by these guys, and they have gone from bad to worse. I enjoyed WRC 7 but since then I don't rate their output at all.
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If you mean the game crashes then I haven't experienced any myself, if you mean bike crashes then I've had a few weird situations where grip just seemed to disappear but for the most part they have occurred due to errors I've made.
 
There are some strange things that happen sometimes, you'll be cruising along perfectly calmly and then either with no change of your input or with even a really slight lift you instantly end up completely out of control. Sometimes it's due to a spot on the track(I like to think they are "potholes") that you just don't see and you can take a slightly different line there to avoid it. A LOT of the time it's because of a visible bump or the crest of a hill or the crowns along the lines in the road. Sometimes it just defies description. But that doesn't happen too often.

It might seem strange and some of it is surely not right but with time it can be learned and usually there is something you do that makes it happen. Over a few hundred hours in the game I managed to learn how to avoid the vast majority of "random" problems... but still very rarely run a whole race without a crash(that may or may not be obviously my fault). The way you slide around is just silly but I try to avoid doing that and when I do get a goofy slide I figure I would have crashed anyway, it just probably should have looked different.


I can't agree strongly enough with the comment about that AWFUL sound when you accept a career event. I always turn the volume way down in between races just because of that.
 
Morgoth_666
... when I do get a goofy slide I figure I would have crashed anyway, it just probably should have looked different.

...
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I see where you're coming from in terms of rider discipline, but in terms of the physics this simply isn't true. Slides happen all the time, and modern bikes, with their inertial measurement units, even have slide control enabled traction control systems.

Look at the way racers "back it in" on the brakes, and then power out, leaning on the traction control. The same approach is taken to extremes in dirt and supermoto.

Even before the era of electronic aids, riders were effectively drifting into and out of corners (no downforce, see):




And it's not just smooth tracks:




This game simply gets its tyre model very wrong, in terms of re-gripping after a loss of grip, and it's so unintuitive that it is very difficult to recover from.

Losing the front can be catastrophic and sudden, to the point that it's terminal every time (unless you're Marc Marquez), but if you "lose" the rear the bike will generally fix it by itself (a "high side" is just a very violent "fix" that ejects the rider, which isn't helpful - I've not seen a high-side in this game ever, because the tyres don't re-grip in the proper way!)

But, if you ride around the inability to slide (a.k.a. the fun zone), it's mostly fine. But that's very hard to do given how much real bikes do slide.
 
So, I picked this up again last week. I'm guessing they've been tweaking things a bit with some of the updates because I find myself more aware of how the bike is moving underneath me. That, combined with 'softening' some of the control settings a bit has meant that riding has been a bit more enjoyable.

I'm still only time trialling Snaefell, having never broken the 20 min mark with an S1000RR. I moved to Hickmans bike instead of the Tyco sponsored one, and I think it suits my style/ability a little better... so after a few laps frustratingly close (i.e. 19:50 secs coming out of governers bridge, then falls off the back twice... and ending up at about 20:30... :mad:

Stuck with it, finally managed to stick in a 19:23... felt like a massive achievement... then when you look at the leaderboards, everyones riding the Suter 500, you try and it is SO much more responsive than the S1000... :ouch:

.. still I'm stickin' with the Double RR as my benchmark. Next target will be a 19:00 minute lap, which for me I think will equate to a lap not falling off once.

I have to say, for it's faults, I find this game massively satisfying in a way I don't get from games that often.

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It's probably been posted before, but I found this video useful...



.. mostly because if you listen to how much time he spends off throttle in places, and how early he lifts before braking zones... it really demonstrates (to me at least) how delicate you can be in places, and still put in a fast lap.
 
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The trouble with that video above is, you can hear how he keeps the throttle on through corners to keep the bike stable - but if you try that in the game, it still has that tendency to suddenly flick the bike in a different direction. Something that thankfully doesn't happen in the real TT. The death toll would be exponentially higher is the bikes handled like they do in this game :(
 
Retro_UK
The trouble with that video above is, you can hear how he keeps the throttle on through corners to keep the bike stable - but if you try that in the game, it still has that tendency to suddenly flick the bike in a different direction. Something that thankfully doesn't happen in the real TT. The death toll would be exponentially higher is the bikes handled like they do in this game :(
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Yeah, but the lap record would be about 4 minutes lower!
 

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