There are game developers who are good at certain genres and excel at them. For example: BioWare and CD Projekt RED in role-playing games, DICE in multiplayer FPS, Ubisoft or Rockstar in open-world action games, but the list could be long. Car racing games are a world apart in the vast canvas of video games. The type intended for a larger audience is a Gran Turismothe Help yourselfthe Need for speed or the dirt represents, but there are also licensed titles such as F1. But even more than that, motorcycle racing is a multi-layered genre, but we can also find a large number of different series that come out year after year.
The Italian Milestone team specializes in these motorcycle races and has been developing these racing programs for nearly 30 years. Milan development team is associated with series such as Superbikethat it SBKthe WRCthe Moto GPthat it MXGP or the Monster Energy Supercross. Like EA Sports games, they got a new sequel almost every year, but they have a different series Riding It appears less often in Ride – a kind of Gran Turismo only with motorcycles – it began its journey in 2015, so far it has had four parts and in eight years it has sold 3 million copies worldwide, a good result for this multi-layered genre. Published in 2020 ride 4, which wasn’t a great game, more like a mediocre racing program. It was a cross-generational release, as it appeared on both previous and new (current) consoles. Our test subject, a ride 5 However, it has become a new generation game exclusively and, in addition to PC, has been released only for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X / S consoles. During the test, we tried the first version of the PS5 and the experience briefly showed the image of a large, beautiful, well-optimized and challenging racing game .
What does the game look like on a new generation console?
Let’s start with technical innovations. Even the previous parts were made for the Unreal Engine system, however, the ride 5 It is the Italian studio’s first game based on the new Unreal Engine 5 graphics engine. That is why a lot of new technical innovations have been introduced into the game. Even the previously rendered game previews and videos were impressive, but the game looks even better live.
Thanks to Unreal 5, Milestone has developed dynamic weather that calculates and tracks the temperature in real time, triggering the weather to change. It also includes the introduction of a realistic sky system, which instead of traditional static 2D cloud images, displays procedurally generated 3D clouds that are constantly changing and moving. And so that we do not feel left out, they did not forget about the main thing, namely, they improved the physics of motorcycles. Motorcycles react more realistically to the conditions of objects and terrain, and their movements better simulate the movements of real motorcycles. The result is truly unique, it speaks for itself, and provides an almost realistic experience.
The software makes good use of the PS5’s resources and functionality. I didn’t encounter any bugs or graphical errors during the test version either. It’s well optimized, Unreal 5 looks great, the control is also good, and you can get used to it quickly. Milestone has tried to take advantage of the DualSense’s haptic feedback, as the controller resonates separately for most engine speed changes.
But how is the competition?
The game featured two main competition modes. On the one hand, Career, which is the campaign mode. Here, starting from scratch as a rookie competitor, we rise through the ranks and become a champion. We start with the smaller local leagues, followed by the world championships. We can compete on the tracks of 11 countries in total, such as France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, Portugal, the United States, Canada, Brazil, Japan and the Republic of South Africa. By the way, most of the courses are based on real sites and the developers managed to design them with skill and sincerity. The career mode is divided into two parts, once there are more basic (basic) tasks. These are divided into four verbs, which we solve one by one, this is how the story is built. Apart from them, there are the secondary side missions, which are unlocked after reaching the minimum required points in the game. And in the ranking list, we can track our position in relation to other machine-controlled competitors.
The other game mode is Race, which is a traditional custom match. In race mode, you can choose from several options. Single race is the simplest, with endurance mode you can test your bike, with time trial you can do speed up races and in Race Creator you can create your own race the way you want it. Created races will be shared with other players using the race manager. This was not yet available in beta, it was only included in the final software on the day of release. The advantage of endurance mode is that you can also save your game position, so it is possible to compete with your friends for up to 24 hours, and if you interrupt the game in the middle, you can save it and continue where you left off. on.
But speaking of our friends, the game is naturally also equipped with a multiplayer mode. Local and online multiplayer modes are available. Local mode is the traditional split-screen mode for when you’re physically in one place, and online for when your buddies are away. On the other hand, Sony has expanded its system nicely here too: on PS5 you have to subscribe to at least the PlayStation Plus Essential bundle if you want to play multiplayer, otherwise the functionality is not available.
The game also included a store that didn’t work in the beta. This will most likely be a microtransaction interface where we can buy various engines, modifiers, and skins. the ride 5In fact, we can customize our engine quite well. A garage is available inside the career mode, where you can exchange some parts of your motorcycle, upgrade and beautify it. But we can also customize our competitors to the minimum. The developers wanted to bring some cinematic experience to the campaign, so there are asynchronous internal CGI transitions, but don’t expect big things.
The competitions are quite diverse thanks to the many types of tracks. The game doesn’t really give you a learning mode, it just throws you into the deep end to learn and practice control in an intense competition. The engine responds well to the environment, changing road and weather conditions. As a very inexperienced competitor, the competitions felt particularly difficult and difficult for me. In corners, you have to focus a lot on slowing down and manually returning from gear, because it’s very easy to turn. One or two mistakes, roll over, and we will already be the last, and the competitors controlled by the machine will overtake us in such a way that it will be impossible to catch up afterwards. In such an area, the ride 5 It turns out to be a pretty realistic racing game, but it might not be ideal for beginners.
the ride 5 It turned out to be a fun and well-made motorcycle racing video game. Graphically and technically, it looks like a very modern program of the new generation. The races are exciting, the tracks are varied, the game has many possibilities to customize and simulate the race the way we want it. Motorcycle racing is designed for experienced players, not specifically for beginners. It is almost a must for motorbike racing lovers but others should only participate in it if they can learn the game without help.
