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!

Microsoft certainly seems to be pushing 4K gaming with their upcoming console, the Xbox One Scorpio which is scheduled to launch next year. However as previously reported, Microsoft are not going to set any mandate on how developers will use all that power. The Scorpio is a 4K ready machine but in the end it’s up to the developers on how they want to use it.

In a recent interview with Matteo Pezzotti, the Lead Designer of Ride 2, GamingBolt asked whether Milestone will push for 1080p/60fps or 4K/30fps on the new console. Pezzotti stated that it depends on player’s feedback and what works best in their perspective.

“I think it’s something that deserves some experiments, to understand what’s better from a player’s perspective,” he said to GamingBolt. He believes that hitting the 60fps is more difficult so it will be a better option to play with resolution instead. “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.”

Ride 2’s engine renders the game at 1080p on the PS4 and Xbox One but at a 30 frames per second cap. So in that perspective, the developers of Ride 2 may opt for better resolution over frame rate if and when they develop for the Xbox One Scorpio. Personally speaking, I would like third party developers to target 1080p and 60 fps with all visual settings maxed out on the Scorpio but at the same time I would also like first party developers to run their games at 4K and 60fps.

I mean just imagine Forza Motorsport 7 running at 4K/60fps on the Scorpio. That sounds glorious, right?

With the upcoming PS4 NEO and Xbox One Scorpio, the tables are turned- after a generation of games on PS4 looking better than their counterparts on the Xbox One, the Scorpio being far more powerful than NEO means that that is probably going to change.

When GamingBolt had a chance to talk to Matteo Pezzotti, the Lead Designer of Ride 2 at Milestone, we decided to ask him for his take on the issue- did he foresee the Xbox One Scorpio now boasting superior versions of multiplatform games over their PS4 counterparts, much like the heyday of the Xbox and Xbox 360?

“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,” he said. “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.”

Basically, Pezzotti seems to be saying that the machine that ends up with the advantage won’t necessarily be the stronger one, and that there will be more to it than just hardware specs. While I can agree with him on that, I also think that that sidesteps the fact that the Scorpio will indeed have far more grunt under the hood- which could certainly make multiplatform games run far better on it than they would on PS4.

The Xbox One Scorpio and PS4 NEO represent something altogether new for the industry- as such, we don’t actually know how they will go down, how they will be accepted by developers, or if they will just be ignored. Will they be more like the Gameboy Color, which saw developer support migrate to it en masse, or more like the New 3DS, which has been relatively less supported by third parties?

Matteo Pezzotti, the Lead Designer of Ride 2 at Milestone, has some ideas about how it might all turn out, which he shared with us in an exclusive interview. “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,” he said. “Think something like the HD ports  we’ve seen in the early next-gen times, to get an idea.”

He also noted that supporting the two systems would be something that Milestone would “evaluate”. The Xbox One Scorpio is due out next year- the PS4 Neo, meanwhile, will launch this year, presumably, after an unveil at the PlayStation Meeting next week.

Milestone Interactive will be launching Ride 2, the sequel to their first original game which launched on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC last year, in Fall this year on the same platforms. The new game is going to be a sequel to the motorcycle racer that Milestone released last year, to general appreciation from players.

However, nothing more is known of this new game- we know that it exists, we know the platforms it is targeting, and we know the date it is due to be out, but no details about the game itself are known. Over 200 new bikes, some brand new tracks, and even more in depth customization than last year’s game are promised, however.

You can check out the debut teaser for yourself below. Ride 2 will be out on Xbox One, PS4, and PC this Fall- will you be getting this game? Let us know in the comments section below.