Ride 3 was announced back in May, and it was scheduled to release on November 8. Since then, we’ve been able to see quite a bit of what the game will look like. Now, a brand new trailer has been released for the game, which showcases the different  motorcycle types that will be available in the game, including off-road bikes, sport bikes, vintage bikes, and more.

Additionally, we’ve also learnt that the game’s release has been delayed to November 30. If you’re wondering why the game’s release has been delayed, it’s the usual reason: to polish the game up some more. Milestone stated that the extra time will allot them to “put the final touches to the game, helping deliver an excellent game experience from day one.” Of course, the release has only been delayed by a couple of weeks, so the wait will probably be worth if it means the game will be better off overall.

You can check out the entire new trailer below. Ride 3 is now set to release for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One on November 30.

To learn more about the game’s development, Gamingbolt reached out to the developers with some questions and they provided the following answers.

"Too many games mix old and new, vehicles made with different philosophies, with no difference, no highlight. Instead, every bike in Ride3 has been chosen with a purpose, and we’d like to make it evident."

We’ve learnt that the game’s career mode will deliver stories about bike categories, manufacturers, and more. Can you elaborate on how exactly this works?

The idea is that the career mode will revolve around different “volumes”. These volumes mimic actual books, or maybe magazines, like those that bike petrolheads crave. You’ll unlock them, throughout game progression, and you’ll open it, finding challenges and races bound by common themes, but also a proper setting for them in the form of a brief but informative description. This, without being a boring school lesson, goes way beyond the usual “take a bike/car and win”. It could be “the best sports bike of the ‘80s” or “the history of Ducati”, but there’s a lot to learn and play with.

What made you go with such a unique approach to a career mode in a racing game?

It’s the natural evolution of the previous Ride, just pushed a step or two further. It’s a game for motorbike fans, so we decided to add context, perspective, and allow them to play with these ideas. Too many games mix old and new, vehicles made with different philosophies, with no difference, no highlight. Instead, every bike in Ride3 has been chosen with a purpose, and we’d like to make it evident.

What are some of the customization possibilities we can expect to see in the game?

Ride2 was a record-setting title for customization, but Ride3 goes well beyond it –  and then some more. We have performance-only customizations, that affect the engine, or the transmission. Than we have others that affect both performance and visuals, like changing the exhaust, disc brakes and calipers, rims, tires. There are thousands of parts, and all of them are real and licensed from actual manufacturers. Then there’s another plethora of things that have pure cosmetic impact, like changing levers’ or other parts’ color. This sounds like a lot of options, but Ride3 adds some more extreme customizations on selected models, developed with real life custom builders: here the transformation can be complete, including gas tank shape, seat, tail. A recurring favorite is the option to covert some of the most performing sports bikes to racing models: it’s a non-reversible process that turns a street-legal machine into a track day beast. And finally, we’re going to offer a livery editor, to create custom paintings for the bikes, allowing to share them online. It’s one of the big requests from the fans, that are eager to recreate historic styles or to create completely brand new ones.

It looks like achieving a sense of realism has been one of your top priorities with RIDE 3. How exactly did you work towards achieving this goal?

Realism has many meanings in a such complex game. We aim for realistic yet manageable physics and handling: we offer a series of helps you can gradually remove while you get familiar with the game.  Realistic – or better, real-  are the many of the circuits in the game, while for those that are fictional, we started from real locations, trying to capture their feeling and to create some interesting layouts, but following the spirit of the place.

Realistic are the AI riders, and the bikes they use challenging the player: we wanted to create believable shoulder to shoulder battles, and give context and background whenever possible.  It’s a big mechanism where all the cogs and gears have to smoothly work together, to keep the game thrilling and fun, while firmly anchored to reality.

What are some of the improvements that have been made to the AI?

We have worked to enhance the performance of the AI on each single track of the game, improving racing trajectory and brake/acceleration behaviors. At the same time we are giving the player the possibility to select the AI level thanks to a percentage bar so to make easier for the player to find a level that suit their skills. Last but not least, we have worked a lot on the “detection” skills of the opponents (i.e. the perception they have of the player and of the other riders), so to make races more realistic and fun to play.

What made you decide to include a day/night system for the first time?

It’s been one of the most frequent requests from the fans, and some tracks just look gorgeous at night. Also, there’s a very different challenge in this, you have to learn again corner by corner to properly race at night, so it’s a natural addition to the series.

"The goals of the physics system are quite ambitious: we want to represent widely different bikes, from small displacement two strokes to big and powerful modern superbikes, and from different eras, when bikes performed in very different way"

With over 230 bikes, how have you worked to ensure that each of them remain unique?

It all begins with a perfect 3D model, sometimes it’s very hard to find a rare model, or a racing bike, and to be able to take all the needed pictures of it (easily hundreds) or to record its sound, but it’s absolutely needed to capture the visuals and the audio. Then we insert the real data (mass, torque, gear ratios and some other dozens of parameters) in our physics engine: quite often the results are good from the beginning, so we can reproduce the dynamic performance of the bike. A lot of work then goes into the test riding, to ensure that all works fine, that the performance customization applies correctly, and many other things. There are no shortcuts, there’s a ton of work to implement every detail: does the top speed match? Do the braking lights work? (and everything in between).

What can you tell us about the improved collision system?

We have already spoken about realism, and we think that the management of in-race collisions is essential to offer the players a good and fair race. Details like this are very important, especially during online races.

What exactly does the new physics simulation mean in terms of gameplay?

The goals of the physics system are quite ambitious: we want to represent widely different bikes, from small displacement two strokes to big and powerful modern superbikes, and from different eras, when bikes performed in very different ways. We have electric bikes, Supermoto, cafè racers, enduro bikes, so we have to be quite flexible. We can make no assumption, and keep the system generic and rooted in real physics. But then we add a layer of riding helps that are meant for newcomers, or returning players that don’t always want a brutally realistic challenge. These helps interact with the physics, trying not to add impossible forces or granting superior powers to the player, but anticipating or smoothing reactions, something that makes the difference from a fall to a save. There’s a lot going on, barely visible to the player, but the key ideas are always “realistic”, “deep”, and “fun”.

What’s next for Milestone and for the RIDE series?

We want to keep improving as a publisher and our goal is to make our key franchises better and better, year after year, and Ride is definitely among those.
Brainstorming on the next chapter of Ride have already started, but right now the whole team is focused on closing Ride 3 in the best way possible, to make it the great game we want it to be.

The game will feature Xbox One X specific enhancements. What can players expect if they are playing the game on Xbox One X? Is 4K/60fps on the cards?

We have something up our sleeves, but it’s not the time to talk about this yet.

And how will the PS4 Pro version turn out in terms of resolution and frame rate?

We have something up our sleeves for PS4 Pro too, but it’s not the time to talk about this yet.

"There’s a lot of curiosity, the mid-generation consoles have heated expectations, sure we’ll have mandatory 4K HDR, easier to achieve 60fps with more power available, but also what are Microsoft and Sony going to do about VR?"

From a development perspective, how do you find the Xbox One X to be? With so much GPU power, we are sure you must be doing some amazing things.

It’s an amazing machine, for sure. Modern titles rely on GPU power but also need a lot of CPU power, and memory bandwidth as well, as the two increase. That said, Xbox One X improves on all of these areas, and more, so we can achieve much better visuals, but we have to strike a good balance of resources use, so we can at the same time increase resolution, quality of 3D models at mid and far distances, quality of animations and visual effects (post-process ones).  The result is crisper, more vibrant, and gorgeous in HDR.

How is the game running on the original Xbox One and PS4, frame rate and resolution wise?

We’re aiming to 1080p (so full HD) at 30fps. Ride 3 has rich environments, very complex bikes in terms of rendering (even AI riders can and will customize their bikes!) and so 30fps is a good and solid point.

Do you have any plans to bring the game to Nintendo Switch? If not, why?

Unfortunately, not. We love the platform, we’ve made other titles for it, like the recent MotoGP18, but Ride3 is bigger in terms of data storage, heavier for graphics, and we didn’t want to compromise on some details to run on Switch.

Next gen is coming sooner or later. From a development perspective, what is your biggest expectation from the next PlayStation and next Xbox?

There’s a lot of curiosity, the mid-generation consoles have heated expectations, sure we’ll have mandatory 4K HDR, easier to achieve 60fps with more power available, but also what are Microsoft and Sony going to do about VR? And it’s not only about the hardware, but also cross-platform play, new ways to share content and experiences: the trends are already evident but how will they take the challenge? Even timing will be more important then ever, and first-wave exclusives too.  It’s going to be a fantastic Ride.

Ride 3 has a devoted following of motorcycle fans who have been drooling for new information since the announcement, and developer Milestone has finally chosen to appease them, showcasing a new track and bike in the release date trailer released today.

First off, the trailer confirms the next entry in the popular simulation racer will launch for PC, PS4 and Xbox One on November 8, 2018. As the first entry to be built within Unreal Engine 4, players can expect major improvements to visuals and physics. Milestone also reworked the entire career mode along with more quality of life improvements than we have time to list.

The trailer also shows off the new Italy based track, Strada della Forra. Around the scenic Garda Lake, the track is nicknamed “Biker’s Paradise”. Milestone understand the kind of track they were dealing with, as such they used drone scanning and aerial photogrammetry to obtain the needed data to recreate it accurately. Are you excited to try Ride 3? Let us know in the comments.

Milestone Interactive’s next game is the upcoming MXGP Pro, the follow up to their motocross racing game that is arriving in June. Amidst all the motocross racing action, players will also find that they can customize their bikes to their hearts’ content, play in a career mode, and race across a variety of tracks.

The new video for the game, which you can see for yourself below, showcases a lot of this gameplay as footage- albeit, Milestone, never wanting to mislead, make it clear that this is all work in progress footage, and so may not necessarily be indicative of what the final game may be like. Still, I am sure motocross enthusiasts will actually find a lot here that they like and enjoy.

Make sure to see all the gameplay footage for yourself below. MXGP Pro will be arriving on June 29, 2018- unlike last year’s Milestone games, this one is coming only for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Sorry, Switch fans.

Milestone Interactive has announced that Ride 3, the newest entry in their original IP focusing on motocross racing, will be releasing later this year, with a launch date currently scheduled for November 8 2018. They have also confirmed that the game will come out on PS4, Xbox One, and PC (no Switch version announced yet- it is unclear if there will be one at all).

The new game will feature improvements and polish (as it should), but it will also come with several new bikes and tracks added to it. The Career Mode has also been extensively reworked, and additionally, there will be a new Livery Editor, over 500 motorcycle customization parts, and better AI and physics.

It sounds like a good sequel that builds on what made the original games good, while also adding enough to the table of its own without upending the table. You can check out screenshots for the new game for yourself below.

In the spirit of capturing the attention of as many racer fans as possible, Gravel has a plethora of gameplay options for you to tweak your experience that few games can match in terms of amount. many ways to make various aspects of gameplay easier or harder are here, and if you tweak these race options enough, on top of being able to manipulate your rear and front suspension, you can truly make your Gravel experience feel very different than mine. This degree of freedom could make the game feel like it misses an opportunity to maintain an identity to others, but either way, these options are weaved into the gameplay very nicely by having the progression system tied into them. If you make the race harder by turning down the assist options, you can earn a higher score at the end of the race. So while Gravel is still plenty of fun on default or easier settings, as you progress you will be tempted to test yourself to  earn a higher score and progress faster.

"The racing feels good, the different styles of tracks and vehicles all offer a good variety of gamplay without becoming a directionless mess, and the presentation, while perhaps a little cheesy, is consistent and doesn’t take itself too seriously. This is what a good arcade racing game needs to be."

Not only does this add much-appreciated replay value to the game but it also adds more depth, and it is part of what takes Gravel from the realm of an average game to an above-average game. One gameplay element that I had mixed feelings on however, is the rewind function that lets you retry an instance of the last few seconds. This made me feel like the skill I’ve acquired accounted for less, as I can just retry a moment every time I wreck and never really pay for my mistakes. This, on top of the near-instant resetting of your vehicle to the track once you veer too far off of it, does provide a certain degree of hand-holding that some players might not prefer.

Continuing the something-for-everybody feel; Gravel has a nice variety of tracks that look and play differently enough that nearly anybody will have a favorite, although I couldn’t help but feel like if only one or two of these types had been focused on for the entire game, maybe that would have been explored more thoroughly and given the game a little more personality. Instead though, what you have are several different types of tracks that are done well enough to feel good, although never amazing. What is here is done well enough, as wet dirt and mud certainly feels different than sand and concrete. You will notice these differences the more you play and as you develop a better feel for how the vehicles handle in the different terrains, a natural urge to explore the ways you can tweak the vehicles will emerge as you progress, and that pacing couldn’t be any more spot on.

Gravel’s graphics, like several of the elements of the game, are just fine. The vehicles look pretty good, but this is no Forza or Gran Turismo. These are certainly not the best assets in the genre by any means, and it is noticeable. Whether or not that really matters is up to you, but I personally didn’t mind the average amount of fidelity. There are some nice effects present here too, with some water that splashes on your screen, dust getting kicked back behind your vehicle depending on your environment, and some very nice looking time-of-day differences that certainly add a nice touch to tracks that are already pretty good. There are a few assets on the tracks like walls, rocks, and trees that are perhaps a little more fuzzy than gamers might expect in 2018, but you rarely notice them as you’re driving by and focusing on the racing, which is Gravel’s most finely-tuned characteristic.

"Gravel might not take first place in your racing game collection, but it certainly does use it’s strengths to go far beyond the finish line."

Some pop-in of vegetation on the horizon of the track as you barrel down the roads can be distracting, but it isn’t huge. Rarely did I encounter any bugs of that nature that misled my concentration. Sound is also quite serviceable and never missed a beat for me. The gear shifting, the dirt under your tires, and the satisfying auditory feedback of nailing a nice long drift while maintaining your place in the race is spot on. All of the sound effects felt right and I never felt like I would have preferred something else to what was there. The music selections gave me very 2004 radio rock vibes, and for some that might be fine, I recommend turning it off.

Gravel is ultimately an above average racing game. The elements that really matter are the ones that are done best. The racing feels good, the different styles of tracks and vehicles all offer a good variety of gamplay without becoming a directionless mess, and the presentation, while perhaps a little cheesy, is consistent and doesn’t take itself too seriously. This is what a good arcade racing game needs to be.  The feeling of winning a race that you lost just before is as exhilarating as any racing game could hope to give you in Gravel, and your persistence will be rewarded consistently. There aren’t many racing games that occupy this particular space in the genre these days and its nice to be reminded that the spirit of fun, challenge, and freedom to play your own way can all be married together this well.

Somewhat mediocre and generic presentation elements are more than balanced out by excellent gameplay and a near-perfect progression system that gets its hooks into you early on and doesn’t let go. It’s not a perfect game, and could very well fall under the radar of some racing fans as a result, but to completely pass this game up would be a mistake. Gravel might not take first place in your racing game collection, but it certainly does use it’s strengths to go far beyond the finish line.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 4.

Milestone Interactive has announced that it will be releasing MXGP 3 on the Nintendo Switch before this year’s end, making it the first game by them to launch on a Nintendo console in almost a decade (and further solidifying the Switch’s broader acceptance among western third parties).

The port was undoubtedly made possible in part because of the fact that the resource intensive game uses Unreal Engine 4- an engine that is entirely supported by the Nintendo Switch, which presumably made porting to it easier. Milestone said they would have more news to share on the Switch version of the game soon, before also adding that they have big plans for the Switch in the future, and that this game will not be the extent of their support for the platform.

So, for motocross racing fans, or just fans of racing games beyond Mario Kart, this is a pretty good get for Nintendo and the Switch. Hopefully the port ends up being good, too.

#MXGP3 is bigger than ever! We are proud to announce that by the end of the year the game will be on Nintendo Switch™!
Expect news soon! pic.twitter.com/No7LYa0uQS

— Milestone (@MilestoneItaly) August 24, 2017

We have of course big plans for Switch in the next future, since it's an amazing platform. But we cannot disclose anything for now.

— Milestone (@MilestoneItaly) August 24, 2017

surely it won't 😉

— Milestone (@MilestoneItaly) August 24, 2017

Off road racing game Gravel by Milestone Interactive will now be releasing in Early 2018, rather than its earlier, previously announced release window of Summer 2017. While that is sure to be a bummer to those who were looking forward to Milestone’s take on off road racing, we did get a pretty nifty and cool new trailer for the game to compensate.

Said trailer focuses on the four “main disciplines” in the game that are pervasive across its varying game modes, which are Cross Country, Wild Rush, Stadium and Speed Cross- respectively, letting players explore an open map, letting players participate in more aggressive races, letting players race in traditional stadium races, and letting players race in traditional off-road races.

You can check out the trailer for yourself below- the game will also be playable at Gamescom until August 24. Gravel will be launching in Early 2018; it will be available on PS4, Xbox One, and PC.

https://youtu.be/5wF8kwuhqcU

MotoGP 17, the brand new installment in the moto racing series by Milestone Interactive, is coming soon, and ahead of the release, the publisher has released a brand new trailer showcasing the game’s Managerial Career Mode. Yes, that is in fact what it is called.

As a manager, you are responsible for any and everything pertaining to your team, including getting the right bikes, getting the right sponsors, scouting out the right talent, research and development, and overseeing the various departments of your team. All of that sounds like it will be a lot to keep track of- so you best bring your A game.

You can check out this career mode in the trailer that we have posted for you below. The same trailer also shows off some more gameplay footage for the game. MotoGP 17 is due out on June 15 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Stay tuned to GamingBolt for more coverage and information.

Please note that this interview was conducted before the launch of Ride 2.

Ride 2 will be expanding on its predecessor with an even larger array of bikes this time around. How important is the variety of bikes to the franchise?

I think that bikes are the core of the game, Ride was already a huge game in terms of assets, but we still had a lot of areas to explore in the world of bikes. We hope that Ride 2 could give the player the chance to taste a lot of new ways to live the world of motorcycles.

Which bikes can players expect from the 200 spread over 15 categories? How has the development team handled such a huge selection of vehicles compared to last year?

We have listened to the request of our fans, you can expect the bikes they were asking the most: Supermoto, Two stroke bikes (Both 125cc & 250cc), Café Racer…just to give you some examples. It’s not been easy, because we had a lot of different bikes to manage, and each of them could have different behaviors to handle. I think that the most difficult goal was to make the handling of every bike different and accurate, but we are very proud of the results about physics.

"We have twice the tracks of the first chapter. 30 different locations, for a grand total of 58 different race layouts."

What benefits to the gameplay, content and overall structure of the game could be seen by sticking to Xbox One, PS4 and PC for Ride 2 as opposed to current and previous gen with Ride?

First of all Ride 2 is a game only developed for last generation consoles, so it doesn’t have a lot of the limitations we had on the first chapter because of the old generation. I think we made big improvements on the graphics of the tracks and of the vehicles, on the physics of the bike, and also on the audio, particularly on the engines. We also worked a lot on the loading times, that now are a lot shorter that the ones of RIDE.

What can players expect in terms of game modes this year?

We focused our efforts on the main campaign of the game, the World Tour. We worked a lot to improve the sense of progression of the game, and we also added some new type of challenges, like a training mode in which you have to ride inside a path made by cones…a sort of riding license.

Has the main campaign been expanded for Ride 2? Will there be more Elite trophies and challenges to complete?

Last year players complained a bit about the main campaign, they said it was a bit too short. This year we have 400 different race events in the World Tour, plus extra events like championships, team vs team and special Invitational Events that have to be unlocked during the progression of the game.

How many tracks spread out over different locations can we look forward to?

We have twice the tracks of the first chapter. 30 different locations, for a grand total of 58 different race layouts. We have new specific tracks for the Supermoto, and we are particularly proud of the new Road race circuits, like Nordschleife, Nortwest 200 and UlsterGP.

Can players customize their bikes on a deeper level than last year? What challenges will be in place to ensure competition for the hardcore racers?

We have implemented new custom parts, (example, brake discs) and obviously also the new Supermoto will be fully customizable. I think that the bigger update about customization is the racing modify: this new feature allows the player to change some of the modern sport bikes in real racing monster with advance modifies, like fiberglass fairing with exclusive liveries.

"First of all the game now includes entry level bikes, like 125cc and 250cc, easier to control but still fun to ride. We have also worked on the riding helps, to make the game more accessible for new players."

What can we expect in terms of online play this year?

We mainly worked on the stability of the online experience. We will also have weekly challenges: basically every week we will select a bike and a track, and the players will have one week to perform the best time they can reach. Just one player at the top of the leaderboard!

Given that the original Ride was praised for its accessibility, how will Ride 2 welcome new racers to the fold?

First of all the game now includes entry level bikes, like 125cc and 250cc, easier to control but still fun to ride. We have also worked on the riding helps, to make the game more accessible for new players. For example, this year we have a new help related to the grip outside the track that is something our players asked for. So if you are a hardcore player you can decide to have real grips and the grass and the sand will be very slippery, while if you are a newbie player you don’t have to worry if you make a mistake and go out of track.

When will Ride 2 be releasing? Is development currently on track, given that the original saw several delays?

The release is scheduled for October 7^th and we are currently on track. The game is complete and stable; we are working on the polishing of the build.

Will Ride 2 run at 1080p and 60fps on both the PS4 and Xbox One?

The game will run at 1080p and 30fps on both PS4 and Xbox One.

I am sure you must have heard about the upcoming PS4 NEO and Xbox One SCORPIO. From a development perspective what kind of advantages will these new and upgraded consoles bring to games development due to their additional power?

From one side, for what we can expect there will be plenty of more power to use, but on the other side, the very same game must run also on the standard consoles, so you can improve on some areas like resolution, or frame rate, but you can’t make something structurally different. Think something like the HD ports  we’ve seen in the early next-gen times, to get an idea.

"Ride 2 is a game crafted with infinite love for motorbikes. We’ve build on a solid first iteration, to make a more ambitious, rich and fun game to play."

Microsoft certainly seems to be pushing 4K gaming with their upcoming Scorpio launch next year. As someone who is been developing games for a long time, will you push for 1080p/60fps or 4K/30fps on the new Scorpio?

I think it’s something that deserves some experiments, to understand what’s better from a player’s perspective.  Hitting the 60fps mark flawlessly is probably more challenging, and there might be the option for resolutions in between of HD/4K. Lots of new options to explore.

On the other hand we have Sony, whose NEO reportedly has a weaker hardware compared to Scorpio. Given the current trend of better performing games on PS4, do you think Microsoft will finally have a one up on Sony in the performance/resolution department when the NEO and Scorpio launch?

There will probably be two machines nominally capable of 4K graphics, but as you were saying, none of them will be easily doing this at 60fps, not in AAA quality titles. The bar is raised, and the challenge will be yet again on exclusives, and personal taste of players. I can’t see a clear winner only based on hardware specs, so.

Will you support the platforms (with games) when they launch?                              

It’s something we will for sure evaluate

Is there anything else you want to tell us before we let you go?

Ride 2 is a game crafted with infinite love for motorbikes. We’ve build on a solid first iteration, to make a more ambitious, rich and fun game to play. We’ve listened to the fans’ requests, and we’ve added tons of bikes, tracks, game modes. We’re setting the new benchmark in two-wheels racing games, so enjoy!