In video games, as in most industries, survival depends on diversifying the range. A concept implemented by the Italian studio Milestone which has decided to expand its offer in terms of motorcycle games with RIDE, a new license sold as the Gran Turismo of two-wheelers, and which will have to dig its hole alongside of MotoGP. To do so, the Italians took over the concept and the progression system of the game from Polyphony Digital, adapting them to RIDE. Concretely, this gives honest content with 15 levels made up of a selection of fancy circuits and real tracks like Imola, knowing that several routes are possible on each level, and that there are of course a certain number of urban circuits. In terms of frames, there are around a hundred bikes from 14 well-known manufacturers, including the Japanese quartet (Honda, Kawasaki, Yamaha and Suzuki), Italians (Ducati and Aprilia) and even Austrians (KTM). In short, a wide choice knowing that the vehicles offered are roughly divided into 6 categories with mid-size roadsters (600cc) and full-size 1000cc, while sports cars are split into 4 categories with supersports (600cc old and modern) and hypersports (old and modern 1000cc).
EASY RIDERS
As you will have understood, Ride offers a lot of content knowing that it does not stop there. You can obviously prepare your bikes, as in the Sony racing game, with many accessories: exhaust lines, air filters, oil, shifter, suspensions and even fit braided brake hoses. All to obviously grab a few points on the stats of your bike, but also for the coronation of style since many aesthetic modifications are available such as retros or paintings, and not only for the frame. Indeed, your driver can also be dressed from head to toe thanks to clothes taken from the catalogs of the biggest manufacturers. Because yes, Ride does not make fun of you and all the modifications go hand in hand with the licenses. We thus find Shoei and Arai for helmets, Alpinestars, Dainese or even Rev'it for clothing; while on the technical side, we have exhaust lines from Arrow and Akrapovic, rims from OZ or even the entire Rizoma catalog of personalized parts. Inevitably, with so much content, motorcycle fans are salivating and can already see themselves riding their superbikes tapped to death. Except that before flambé, you have to earn your crust.
Still like in Gran Turismo, bikes and mods cost an arm and a leg, so you'll have to go try your hand in the "World Tour" mode in order to earn money to be able to buy even more powerful wheels, the idea being to go racing in the higher categories. You follow ? So we start by creating our rider, choosing a face for him then dressing him according to the credits available and the choice of clothes; which will be huge if you have chosen a man, and quite limited if you want to see a girl swaying on the saddle. The events are classified by motorcycle categories, which represents a hell of a lot of events in total, with a system of reputation points earned according to your victories which allow you to unlock the following events. Classic, especially as the premiums increase over time, as well as the type of motorcycles used. Fortunately, RIDE is not a vexing game for novices since you can, after only a few hours of play, afford the most powerful bikes, which are real competition superbikes.
RIDE OR DIE ?
The events in RIDE are of several types: peloton race, time trial, overtaking, drag, which makes it possible to obtain a great variety in the races. Unfortunately, once on his bike, we can only deplore the uneven graphics. If your driver, your motorcycle and the road are nicely modeled, it's not the same story with the sets which are often very empty and which seem above all to have been created in an earlier era. Clearly, we can see how RIDE is not a next gen game, but rather a PC port of a console version built on leftovers from the previous generation. The gameplay meanwhile will appeal to fans of the MotoGP series from which it takes the physics engine, adding new options to make the handling more or less arcade depending on your experience. We can thus go from an ultra-preventive system that brakes automatically to so-called "pro" physics where you have to shift gears, know how to operate the front and rear brakes separately, and even use a button to make your driver adopt the "dab" position. "behind the bubble. As in MotoGP, your car on two roads can be fine-tuned and fine-tuned as tire pressures, suspension and gearbox can be adjusted before each race. Otherwise, for more immersion, there are also cameras from MotoGP: rear view, front view, cockpit and the famous helmet view. Physics defends itself very well when avoiding the easiest modes, and mastering a hypersport becomes a rather delicate exercise. The risks of steering and dribbling under braking are there, while errors in curves will often result in a "high side" depending on the pressure put on by your opponents. On this point, the AI is quite successful, that is to say aggressive without being excessively aggressive, and also adjustable thanks to a knob to adjust the opposition to your abilities. RIDE also offers different game modes out of the "World Tour" mode. Depending on your experience acquired in the main mode, you will have access to special challenges whose interest is to make you win motorcycles but also to unlock certain machines for purchase from dealers. A multiplayer mode is also part of it to hit the wads of several, knowing that the events are classified by category of machine. It is possible to create private games as well as play in split screen, even on PC.
LEAVING THE ROAD DESPITE EVERYTHING
But then why an average rating for a game that has a priori only a few flaws? It's simple: while most aspects of RIDE are beyond reproach, Milestone has on the other hand sabotaged its game with a catastrophic technique. Without going any further on the dated graphics, the title is clearly not well optimized. Whether it's the PS4 or PC version, the game suffers from framerate drops in tight corners, which significantly impairs driving and gameplay in general. On PC, multiplayer games were simply impossible due to chronic instability and systematic crashes. It took us many, many attempts before we succeeded in a few races. Finally to nail the coffin, note that the game suffers from a serious save problem since the files very often end up being corrupted, thus ruining all your progress in the game. The problem is also common to the console versions, but more a week after the release of the title, Milestone has still not released any corrective patch. Finally, we can also complain about the lack of variety in the DLCs already available at launch and dedicated solely to the Japanese brand Yamaha.
