Ride
From: Milestone
For: PS4, PS3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PC
Three stars (out of five)
Most ease you in, offering a fairly gentle learning curve until you (a) get better and (b) unlock better vehicles to tackle the tougher races.
The vast majority of racing games I have encountered over the past decade have involved me winning - or at least finishing on the podium - the first few races, making me feel like I am quite the driver.
Ride? Dead last in my first career race.
And that was AFTER playing the tutorial and trying out a few quick races.
Ride is an ambitious effort to be the Gran Turismo of motorcycling, and while it doesn't really come close to achieving that, it is a worthy attempt to give the two-wheelers some love.
It starts with the usual process: you create a rider, begin a world tour, earn credits and experience, buy new bikes and upgrade them, and take part in a massive list of events in order to get to the top of the world rankings.
In terms of longevity, it's right up there.
I feel like I've been plugging away for hours yet have barely scratched the surface of the career mode, which features events in multiple categories and disciplines as varied as ordinary racing, drag racing, time attack and overtaking challenges on all sorts of tracks.
It's really a game that rewards patience as you adjust to the physics of handling each bike and learn how to lean into corners.
Even then, there are some events that you just can't win.
As in, you have the best possible bike in the category, with all upgrades, and you ride the perfect race and still only finish fourth.
Bike tragics will probably get more excited than me over the range of bikes to be unlocked. Some of them certainly seem nice and detailed, if that's your thing, and there are plenty of things to be upgraded.
It's all a bit sterile in patches, and the graphics are nothing special. Loading times are also a right pain between events.
I'd call Ride a work in progress, and probably recommend it mainly to those who prefer their machines with only two wheels.
