I do have a soft spot for niche driving games. Also, the Manx Tourist Trophy competition at the Isle of Man is my "Superbowl" sports event. So an official video game simulating this most prestigious race was right up my alley! (It's out now for Xbox and PS4 - soon for PC)

The TT is the oldest motorbike competition, starting in 1917. It takes place on the Isle of Man, a small island between Wales and Ireland. and The Snaefell course over the island covers laps of 37 miles - you could easily fit over 2 Nordschleifes in there! The lap record of 17 odd minutes was done with an average speed of over 133 mph - all on country roads, through villages, over mountains, past houses, over drain covers and kerbs. There are high accident and fatality rates for this event and the riders who dare to take part are modern day heroes - they do it for the reputation - and for chuff all prize money.

The sense of speed from this game is insane. There are plenty of long sections of straight where the vision is funnelled through overhanging trees. It gets hypnotic to be in the speed zone, with the sound of wind being all you can hear. The game is quite hard and unforgiving too. slight taps against the scenery are rewarded with harsh angular ricochets, then there's no time to correct.

It's tough to learn such a long circuit, along with the bike handling mechanics. I don't think the assists do too much either. Bike sims have always been less successful than car sims because of the physicality and balance involved in riding a bike - and ideas like counter-steering not really having any direct facsimile on the joystick.

This game does have some other tracks too - 6 or 7 imaginary tracks aimed at road racing bikes. They are fun, much easier to learn and fresh. But some of them are a bit dark in the afternoon time setting. The game is really all about the TT track for me. It's hard enough to drive round the full circuit without falling off (there is an unclaimed achievement waiting for it). I just looked a the ghost of the fastest xbox rider's time (16:02 - way faster than any real lap) and he fell off 3 times!

The choice for bikes is either "supersport" or "superbike". The supersport category contains the usual 600s with the Triumph 675 3 cylinder as well. The Superbike category has the 1000cc R1's BMW's and Fireblades, but also has the 1200cc EBM V twin, a mental Norton V4 and a 2 stroke 500cc, so there is some variety and the bikes do sound and feel quite different to each other. There are sidecars coming with a free update in a couple of months. I can't wait to try that out.

The career mode has an "email" based storyboard and lets you decide on which races to participate in. It seems like the TT event is always a long way off and you're limited to the supersport bike until you start winning, so I haven't given the career mode too much of a look. There are time trials where you can break the track into sections and specify start and end points for your trial.

Although initially very frustrating with all the falling off, the game now gives me glimpses of what it would be like to tear it up in the best race there is. My hopes of any Giantbomb coverage is minimal, given the fit of this game to their oeuvre, so this thread is my own personal thumbs up to the game instead.

(I'm UsernamePending on XBL and I just did 21:16, while staying on until Ramsey - race me!)

This looks cool, cheers. I've friends who will love this and play incessantly and I could do with a good bike game myself.

Sidecars are coming? I can't wait bump my passenger into a garden wall.

@shindig: There is a sidecar category on the leaderboards - currently greyed out. I heard some talk of it before I noticed that too. It couldn't be complete without the sidecars - the category that many 2 wheeled riders of the track would dismiss as utter madness.

I'm down to 20:17, but am waiting/hoping for the stabilizers update. It would be nice if there was a TT Zero update too to showcase the electric bike event.

Michael Rutter's bike looks like a pack of cigarettes. Also, superbikes really show how useless the driving line is for braking. And terrifying. I'm thinking about just fast tracking to the TT for the trophies now. I'll need to skip my current event (Hampshire TT) because it crashes the game on completion. I was winning it by a minute, too.

Is there any finesse to the start or are you always just going to be swamped by AI?

To be frank. I've blown the career out - it seems that you have to beat each event, else lose your money. That means you have to learn all the tracks to win, which means you can't play the whole TT course. The additional wrinkle for me is that you can't see what track you'll be racing next in the emails, so you can't really learn them before-hand. So I've only been time trialling and racing over 1 lap of Snaefell (down to 19:43:9 now) exclusively. I keep coming back to the EBM because of it's smooth torque, good brakes and less frenetic engine sound, as if smooth is better than fast for the best lap times.

I'm waiting for them to change the handling models and career options before I dive in to that side of it. This VVV review discussion video is spot-on for anyone wanting to know more...

I've completed the TT Training which makes me think the TT's coming up. Given the trophies for fans and money, the career looks needlessly long and a bit of a grind.

EDIT: Won my first online race. 4 laps of the TT circuit. No clean laps but I learned a lot. Specifically how the racing line is crap and how pit stops work.

I had a peak at the career after learning Hertfordshire (where I live - looks nothing like it!) and Triangle. My assumption is that you have to win all the races, else you'll have no money to buy better bikes. I then got to a race at an unknown track - since sometimes it tells you the track and sometimes not in those emails... I got into the race, then thought I'd back out and time trial against my ghosts, rather than rub along with the opposition. Of course, when I got back in, the race was lost and time had moved on. Looks like another re-start is on the cards - I wouldn't mind so much, but it takes ages to change all the rider colours to black! I really hope they do change the career progression - it seems completely half-baked.

EDIT - turns out you can see the career mode upcoming tracks in the calendar screen of the campaign.

4 laps is pretty gruelling - it takes me over 1hr 20 for that. I did my first 4 lap supersports race last night also, but against the CPU. Hand cramps aside, I managed to come in miles ahead of easy competition. I'm sub 20 minute per lap high scores on superbike and supersports now - but I don't think I can improve much more - I'm too scared to turn off the racing line.

I can forgive the shoddy career and the odd bike categories because riding around the TT circuit, for 20 minutes of concentration at a time, is breath-taking and jaw-dropping.

Yes, the option to back out of events is on X rather than B. I'd like to think you get prize money for landing on the podium events but only the first prize is listed. I'm looking to get enough for a new Superbike because Ryan Kneen's bike seems to step out of line too much for me. Getting nowhere with it on the career events.

TT times - 20.49 (Supersport), 20:20 (Superbike). I'll smash 20 minutes with a clean lap easily. Whenever that happens.

And now I'm done with career mode. The difficulty level means nothing compared to the actual event rating (A, B, C, etc.) so I'm at a point where I'm outclassed in every event. Glad I didn't pay money for this.