For bike enthusiasts, Milestone’s games offer a sort of paradise that very few other developers do, and that is true of their latest effort, RIDE 3 as well. The developer’s love for motorcycles shines through in every aspect of the game, from the way the bikes look, feel, and sound, to the informatory text within the game about every single bike in its impressive roster. The attention to detail on display when it comes to the vehicles themselves is commendable, but what props up the game more than anything else is that unlike its predecessors, RIDE 3 has the backbone to do justice to its love of bikes.

"For bike enthusiasts, Milestone’s games offer a sort of paradise that very few other developers do, and that is true of their latest effort, RIDE 3 as well."

The switch to Unreal Engine 4 benefits RIDE 3 immensely. Though it’s not a visually stunning game by any means, it looks far better than the at best mediocre visuals that its predecessors displayed. Moving through courses at high speeds, the tracks and environments look decent enough, and though things such as foliage, textures, and the crowds (especially the crowds) fall apart under scrutiny, the truth is that you’d have to pull your vehicle to a stop for such examination, which, of course, is kind of against the point. More importantly, though, RIDE 3 always maintains a smooth and steady frame rate, which is exceedingly important in any racing title. The motorcycles themselves look absolutely top notch, exhibiting excellent attention to detail in every single one of their components.

But they don’t just look good. Controlling them is also a blast. Depending on what kind of bike you’re piloting, your style needs to keep varying, but each category of bikes controls authentically. Handling is perhaps the most important thing in any racing simulator that places its focus on bikes, and RIDE 3’s bikes handle excellently. What also helps is that there is a vast array of customization options available for each bike as well, which allow you to have a great level of control over the pros and cons of your vehicle. The customization options actually feel meaningful, in that they have an immediate and tangible impact on individual aspects of your bike’s performance. Equally impressive is the amount of motorcycles in the game. RIDE 2’s roster was already quite impressive back in 2016, but RIDE 3, with a selection of over 230 bikes (70 of which have never been in a RIDE game before) outdoes its predecessor with ease.

While the handling itself is great, RIDE 3’s physics feel a bit at odds with the realism the game strives for in other areas. The slightest of bumps can often send your bike hurtling through the air, while even the teensiest bit of contact with another racer while you’re bending around a corner can send you crashing into the side of the road. The animations themselves when you do crash look jittery and janky as well.

"Handling is perhaps the most important thing in any racing simulator that places its focus on bikes, and RIDE 3’s bikes handle excellently."

Of course, RIDE 3’s emphasis on authenticity and its pure love of bikes should tell you that this is, first and foremost, a game for enthusiasts. Getting into RIDE 3 probably won’t be easy for you – initially at least – if you haven’t played a lot of similar games or just don’t care about bikes too much, and the fact that the game is painfully lacking in tutorials in its opening moments even for the most basic things, never mind the more technical aspects of gameplay, is also a barrier to entry. That said, once you get to grips with the core fundamentals of executing perfect turns and knowing exactly when to release the brakes, the rest all comes naturally. You also always have the option to turn on multiple assists while you’re learning the ropes, while the game’s rewind mechanic is also quite forgiving- these are fairly balanced concessions that RIDE 3 makes for the sake of accessibility.

RIDE 3’s career mode makes up for the bulk of the experience, and Milestone have made very clear efforts to improve upon the offerings in previous RIDE games- and for the most part, it’s turned out quite well. Though progression in the career mode is gated by tiers, which unlock on the basis of your performance across all the races that are available to you, the game smartly makes a whole host of races accessible at any given time. Hopping in and out of different kinds of races and varied environments keeps things fresh for the first few hours, and progression never feels linear or restrictive. Additionally, RIDE 3 is also very generous with the amount of credits it rewards you with after each race, even if you’re finishing in lower positions, so you’re never too far away from being able to upgrade your bike for better performances, or from purchasing a new one to open up different kinds of race.

As such, the career mode keeps things moving steadily, and the loop of participating in new races to strive for improved or new motorcycles is quite addictive- for a while. At the end of the day, the career mode is still essentially just a vast list of races for you to tackle, with not much going in in between them to break up the monotony. After you’ve spent some time repeatedly bouncing back and forth between racing and customization, things start getting a little monotonous and repetitive, and the more you do it, the less entertaining it becomes.

"Once you get to grips with the core fundamentals of executing perfect turns and knowing exactly when to release the brakes, the rest all comes naturally."

It wouldn’t be fair to compare RIDE 3 with the likes of Gran Turismo and Forza Motorsport. While those two franchises are backed by financial powerhouses who have nearly infinite resources at their disposal, RIDE is, in spite of its abundantly apparent love for bikes, much more constrained in that regard. Viewed on its own merits, this is a solid game, one that is not without its flaws, but is undoubtedly one of the better titles we’ve seen in this niche for several years. It may not have the panache and the multiple coatings of polish of some of the other racing sims out there, but thanks to its attention to detail in terms of the bikes themselves, and how well those bikes control, it’s a ride worth taking regardless.

This game was reviewed on the Xbox One.

Déraciné

FromSoftware has been working like crazy to diversify its portfolio and Déraciné is perhaps its most off-beat title. As a faerie of sorts, the player moves around a boarding school, influencing the lives of its students. Freezing time and building personal bonds with the students are the core tenets of the game. However, it’s perhaps most intriguing because it’s a PlayStation VR title. What does the story hold and will it contain the same deep world-building that’s defined so many FromSoftware games? Déraciné arrives on November 6^th so it won’t be long before we find out.

Overkill’s The Walking Dead (PC Version)

Though the Xbox One and PS4 versions were delayed into 2019, Overkill’s The Walking Dead is still coming to PC next month. Focusing on four survivors, each with their own unique skills and backstories, the first person shooter lets you play either super-stealthy or guns blazing in scenarios teeming with zombies. Players will need to loot supplies and defend their home camp, ensuring it survives against the onslaught of the undead. Overkill’s The Walking Dead arrives for PC on November 6^th.

Spyro Reignited Trilogy

After a sudden delay, Spyro Reignited Trilogy is set to release on November 13^th for Xbox One and PS4 (no Switch or PC confirmation yet). Featuring remasters for Insomniac’s original games, namely Spyro the Dragon, Spyro 2: Ripto’s Rage! and Spyro: Year of the Dragon, the trilogy promises gorgeous graphics paired with the same awesome platforming. If that weren’t enough, a remastered version of the soundtrack also accompanies the original with the ability to choose between the two.

Fallout 76

When Bethesda first announced Fallout 76, we were expecting any number of things. An online FPS/RPG with social elements and games-as-a-service content was not one of them. Impressions from the beta have ranged from enthusiastic to somewhat worried but we honestly won’t know how good Fallout 76 is until it releases. Will it bomb? Or should we learn to stop worrying and just love the always-online gameplay? We’ll find out on November 14^th for Xbox One, PS4 and PC.

Hitman 2

Those craving a solid stealth experience needn’t worry as Agent 47 is back in town. Hitman 2 promises a full game with six locations, different story missions, Contracts and different targets to hunt post-launch. Of course, the same challenges and variety of gameplay remain but IO Interactive is adding some intriguing new content. Ghost Mode lets you compete against another player, fighting to assassinate targets faster than them while the original Hitman’s locations and missions will be available and updated in the sequel. Releasing on November 14^th for Xbox One, PS4 and PC, Hitman 2 should be yet another excellent outing with our favourite assassin.

Pokémon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Let’s Go, Eevee!

It’s Pokemon! Well, it’s sort of Pokemon. The original 151 creatures are here, battles with trainers and Gym Leaders still apply and Pokemon can be captured and trained. However, Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Let’s Go, Eevee! take several cues from the mobile Pokemon GO series, incorporating Joy-Con controls for capturing Pokemon. You can forego motion controls altogether and sure it’s weird, but this is still a proper Pokemon game. We’ll find out how fun it is when it launches on November 16^th for Nintendo Switch.

Battlefield 5

The next iteration of Battlefield saw its own delay by roughly a month for additional polish. We’ve gotten a better look at the various War Stories contained within, the schedule for Tides of War and even how the game’s economy will work. While Firestorm won’t be available till March 2019, Battlefield 5 should still have a host of interesting mechanics to exploit like fortifications and Companies on top of the new maps and modes. It’s out on November 20^th for Xbox One, PS4 and PC.

Darksiders 3

The much-awaited sequel in the cult classic franchise is nearly upon us. Gunfire Games’ Darksiders 3 takes place in a seamlessly linked open world while returning to the hack and slash action that defined the first game. Playing as Fury, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, there will be whips, acrobatics, magic and different forms to take advantage of. How the quest to defeat the Seven Deadly Sins plays out remains to be seen but it should be a marked improvement over Darksiders 2. Darksiders 3 releases on November 27^th for Xbox One, PS4 and PC.

Tetris Effect

You’ve played Tetris, sure, but have you played Rez creator Tetsuya Mizuguchi’s version of Tetris? Tetris Effect arrives for PS4 and PlayStation VR on November 9^th, bringing a more musical-based rhythm to the puzzle experience. While we doubt players will still be seeing Tetris blocks falling after the game is over, Tetris Effect should provide a surreal yet visually resplendent experience for fans of the series.

Spider-Man DLC 2: Turf Wars

Turf Wars is the second chapter for The City That Never Sleeps, the DLC saga for Insomniac’s Spider-Man. While there isn’t a whole lot known at this point, it will bring new story missions, new suits (hopefully with suit powers this time) and some new enemies. Will famed villain Hammerhead make an appearance? Time will tell but for now, stay tuned for the DLC’s launch in November if you want even more Spider-Man.

Honourable mentions

Here are a few honourable mentions outside of our top ten that may be of interest.

• Underworld Ascendant
• Kursk
• Ride 3
• Artifact
• Farming Simulator 19
• The Quiet Man
• Football Manager 2019

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.

While AAA releases are more or less expected to have enhanced visual features on the Xbox One X and the PS4 Pro, smaller titles are also taking up the practice more frequently each day. One such game is the upcoming racing title Ride 3, developed by Milestone.

We recently had a chat with the development team about their game, and asked them about whether or not the game would have any enhancements on the Xbox One X and the PS4 Pro, and whether something like 4K resolutions or 60 FPS frame rates was on the card, and while they said that “it’s not the time to talk about it yet”, they did, interestingly enough, tell us that they “have something up our sleeves” for both systems.

Our conversation then turned to the Xbox One X, and what they make of the system and its added capabilities from a development perspective, and they gave the hardware glowing praise indeed. “It’s an amazing machine, for sure,” the said. “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.”

Ride 3 launches on PS4, Xbox One, and PC on November 8.

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.

Five years into the eighth generation of consoles, we’re still going strong, with immense games releasing left, right, and centre, but it’s still an appropriate times to begin thinking about what the future holds. The PS5 and the next Xbox may not be imminent arrivals, but they’re on the horizon, and questions about what they might bring with them become more pertinent with every passing day.

We recently conducted an interview with the development team of the upcoming bike racing sim RIDE 3, and asked them about what their expectations from the next generation of consoles are. 4K resolutions and higher frame rates, they feel, have become more or less standard expectations by this point, thanks to the PS4 Pro and the Xbox One X, which is a view they seem to share with other developers, while they also had questions about VR integration’s future, something else that’s been brought up by other developers in the industry.

“There’s a lot of curiosity,” they told GamingBolt. “The mid-generation consoles have heated expectations, sure we’ll have mandatory 4K HDR, easier to achieve 60 FPS 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.”

The question about releasing timing is one that’s been brought up a lot in recent months as well. Some believe that the PS5 will launch in 2019, while others think 2020 seems like a likelier option. Meanwhile, industry analyst Michael Pachter believe that Microsoft will want to launch before Sony regardless. On the issue of exclusives, Pachter also believes Microsoft’s recent acquisition of five new first party studios will help them build a solid launch lineup for the next Xbox.

What’s your take on this? Tell us in your comments and stay tuned for our fill interview on Ride 3 in the coming days.

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 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.