Ride 6 is the latest love letter to motorcycling from racing game veterans, Milestone.
Departing from the confines of the MotoGP championship, the Ride series promises a motorcycle racing experience more akin to that of Forza Motorsport.
For Ride 6, we are invited to take part in Ride Fest, a festival of motorcycling that takes a leaf out of Forza Horizon’s playbook, but without the open world that the Microsoft franchise is famed for. Players can race across a range of events from road racing to dirt tracks.
Rides include super bikes- faired and naked, American touring bikes and for the first time, dirt bikes. Italian rockets from Aprilia, MV Agusta, Bimota and Ducati are joined by the likes of Europe’s BMW and KTM. These are up against a huge stable of Japanese machines from Kawasaki, Suzuki, Honda and Yamaha. There are also bikes from Vyrus, Triumph and Indian. For the most part, the bikes are from the 21st Century, but there are a few modern classics tucked away to ride as well, like the ’88 Honda-VFR750R, ’89 GPZ 900R Ninja and the ’85 Yamaha-RD 500LC.
Riding a bike is a whole different beast compared to driving a car. In a car, you’ve basically got an accelerator, a brake, and maybe a clutch if you’re driving a manual. With a bike, you’re juggling front and rear brakes separately, feathering the clutch, and working the throttle all at once just to control your speed. And steering isn’t really about turning the handlebars — it’s mostly leaning and shifting your weight. Trying to cram all of that into a game controller doesn’t always translate well.
The other thing about motorcycles is that they’re seriously fast. You’ve got these insanely powerful engines sitting in lightweight frames, and the power?to?weight ratio puts most supercars to shame. Bikes are built to be ridden hard, and if you don’t have the discipline to control that speed, things can go wrong very quickly. That sense of raw pace is something players need to feel in the game, because without it, taking corners the way you would on a real bike just isn’t possible.
Thankfully, Milestone has, for the most part, got to grips with translating both the subtle nuances of motorcycle controls and the illusion of speed into Ride 6.
After a quick go on both, the game offers players the choice of playing using the arcade or pro mode. The arcade mode offers more forgiving bike handling, whilst the pro mode gives players more control. There’s also a slider to adjust the game speed to give players more time to brake and steer during events.
Ride 6 also offers a completely different experience depending on the class of bike and the type of circuit. A superbike on a fast GP circuit encourages hitting bends too fast, and it’s easy to lean too much or too late, piling into the hoardings, while a moped race around a kart track offers a more pedestrian affair. With the huge combination of bikes and circuits, this depth of gameplay challenges players to master riding them all.
The game hub is the paddock area of the Ride Fest festival. Here, you can visit the bike dealers, both new and used, a gear shop, and a training centre. I was too impatient to stick with the bike training, preferring to learn “on the job”. You can choose individual custom races and events, all of which earn money and XP, but career is where it’s at.
The career mode gives players a structured way to play, but it doesn’t quite offer the festival experience it alludes to. Races flick around the world, a mix of real-world and fictional tracks rather than one location. The players compete in a series of events where achieving set targets and completing challenges earns stars, unlocking additional competition tiers, the eventual reward being a new ride for your garage.
All the classic circuits are here — Brands Hatch, Donington Park, Fuji International Speedway, the Nürburgring, Road America, Suzuka, and plenty more. Blue Wave also makes a return, alongside a bunch of fictional tracks that, while unique to the Ride series, clearly take their cues from real?world locations. From the country roads of the Isle of Man to the dusty canyons of the Kapadokya Rally, Ride 6 has something for everyone.
I found racing with dirt bikes — competing in off-road rallies and endurance races — to be the most fun. The bikes seem more responsive, without losing control during frantic sections, and the uneven tracks were more exciting than smooth asphalt. Racing the slower maxi mopeds around kart circuits is also a lot of fun. The bulky touring bikes offer an interesting challenge with slower acceleration, but with more weight.
The single events are a good way to check out the various circuits and create unique races. There’s also a multiplayer mode allowing cross-play between Xbox, PlayStation and PC players, as well as 2-player split-screen.
Ride 6 uses Unreal Engine 5 to deliver the best-looking game that the franchise has ever seen, as well as the more realistic physics necessary for the new off-road elements. The visuals look amazing, with customisable time of day and dynamic weather adding to the realism.
Ride 6 is not the Forza Horizon festival on two wheels I was hoping for. But with over forty tracks and over 300 bikes from 21 manufacturers across seven categories, the game still has much to offer. Multiple modes will keep you busy, and the appearance of some legendary stars of motorcycle racing gives the game an extra bit of class. Ride 6 has a steep learning curve, even on arcade, but the variety of the races means you’ll find events that better suit your racing style whilst you master the rest.