Nyheder
Ride 6 is an encyclopedia of bike racing, from tarmac to dirt
P
Phil Iwaniuk
“We have a variety of bikes that represents the market," says game director Paolo Bertoni, before enthusing about the differences in electronic aids between the Aprilia Tuono he used to ride to work and the RS660 he subsequently returned to. It might seem obvious that the studio behind the MotoGP, MXGP, Supercross, and SBK titles would be into bikes. What’s not obvious is how deep that love goes.
Such a passion for motorcycle racing in all its forms is the fuel that powers Ride 6, whose bike categories are as diverse as the series as ever seen, incorporating motard, baggers, classics, naked, and enduros. And this time, Bertoni’s team has found a new way to express all that passion and all those different flavors of racing: Ride Fest.
“What I wanted was to immerse the player into the competition and make them the principal actor of the game,” says Bertoni. “Last time the focus was mainly on the bikes… For this game, what I wanted to give to the players was the experience of participating in an event with other riders. With champions.”
For anyone well-versed in four-wheeled racing, the festival concept might already loom large on the horizon. But Milestone has a few tricks up its sleeve to ensure this particular festival feels fresh, and it goes beyond picking EDM tunes that go especially hard. Ride 6 has the vehicular equivalent of boss battles: ten champions from different disciplines across racing, all waiting to be beaten by the player.
“So we have these ten champions that work as the objectives of the career," Bertoni says. "You have to challenge them, beat them, get the rewards and so on, so that you can become a legend of the Ride Fest.”
That’s another benefit of the festival conceit in this game, Bertoni elaborates. Not only does the player feel that they’re in a real competition against rivals, rather than simply enjoying a sandbox as in the previous titles, they also have something clear and tangible that they’re working towards: Unlocking the chance to beat each and every champion, winning their gear, and claiming the title for themselves.
The ten champions are as follows: Troy Bayliss, Casey Stoner, James Toseland, Niccolò Canepa, Peter Hickman, Ian Hutchinson, Tyler O’Hara, Guy Martin, Thomas Chareyre, and Skyler Howes. For bike enthusiasts, it’s an enticing list, featuring some bona fide celebrities like Stoner and Isle of Man TT specialist-turned-TV star Martin, and some deeper cuts that once again speak to Milestone’s true passion for their subject matter. Troy Bayliss was a dominant Superbike World Championship rider in the early ‘00s before a move to MotoGP that yielded just one win, and as a result his name’s not mentioned as often as the likes of Rossi or Marquez. He’s the perfect kind of "streets won’t forget" rider for an occasion like Ride Fest.
Selecting that ten-strong roster of champions was actually one of the most enjoyable aspects of Ride 6’s development, says Bertoni.
“We tried to spread the champions across all the categories we have. The first name we thought of was Stoner, who’s the biggest name in the game. We were like, ‘Let’s try it and see how it goes.’
Although Milestone has worked on numerous licensed titles featuring real riders for over a decade, usually those rider licenses are acquired via a motorsport governing body or owner, like MotoGP’s Dorna/Liberty Media, who hands over licenses to all competing riders in that category.
But since Ride Fest is a mere figment of Milestone’s imagination and thus lacks a governing body, the team had to track down licenses rider by rider. It's a process which worked out better than Bertoni’s team expected: “ [This time] we had to go and talk to each rider’s manager, so it's much more difficult. But most of them are really super chilled and we worked really well with them.”
It was during these talks that the team experienced an unexpected perk of the Ride Fest champions mechanic—the champions started giving their feedback on the game.
“We had a call with Casey Stoner. He gave us some info about the game, because he’d played Ride 5, and he gave us some hints on how to improve the game, the physics and so on. We were lucky that the biggest name in the game actually liked to play the game, and also be part of it.”
The two-time MotoGP champion wasn’t the only man on the list of ten who offered up his feedback, however. “Canepa also came into the office last week to talk with us. He’s a really nice guy. He tried the game and was really excited about it… It’s a big boost for the team when they see riders in the office playing the game and saying ‘Oh yeah, it’s really cool.' He learned the game fast.”
The team set former MotoGP, SBK and Endurance World Championship rider Canepa up on an offroad track, far from his familiar tarmac territory. “First lap, he made some mistakes”, says Bertoni. “Second lap, he was perfect.” It's evidence, Bertoni says, that Ride 6 has achieved its objective, and that the game can be learned quickly.
Like last year’s MotoGP 25, Ride 6 features an optional arcade physics mode in addition to the more realistic and demanding simulation handling. It featured neural AI steering and brake and throttle assists to help everyone from newcomers to younger riders and those with different accessibility needs to enjoy the 340+ bikes and 45 tracks on offer. But the most involved onboarding system is the rider school.
One of the options in Ride 6’s new 3D paddock-style menu scene is a series of tutorials designed to explain the techniques and inputs required on different track surfaces and motorcycle classes. It follows a simple formula: watch, try, then compete.
First, an instructional video explains how to perform a corner, where and when the brakes need to be applied, and how to shift the bike’s weight over correctly. Then the player’s handed the controls to try it for themselves.
“Then you have a leaderboard,” says Bertoni, "so you can compete with your friends. It’s the first time we’ve approached a riding school in this way, and I think it’ll give players a lot of knowledge about how to ride a motorcycle which could also be used in real life, if they want.” Not to be used as a replacement for a riding instructor, of course, but rather as a supplement.
There hasn’t been a game in racing history that attempted to cram this many bikes or ways of riding into one game. The Ride series has always had that same encyclopedic quality to it that Gran Turismo has for cars, but Ride 6 takes that up several notches. For anyone even remotely interested in racing on two wheels, it’s an unmissable event on the release calendar that promises many hours of experimentation, mastery, and boss battles against the sport’s finest.
Ride 6 is available Feb 12 on the Epic Games Store.