Ride 6

I have always believed that sports games do not need to be released every year. Allow a year to breathe with updates for transitions and the like, and develop a much better game than the one that came before. The motorcycle series Ride is an excellent example of this. I was not particularly fond of Ride 4, which was released in 2020, and three years later, Ride 5 came out, and I gave it a solid eight out of ten for being a very enjoyable and entertaining game. It seems that Milestone is working on a three-year basis for this series, as we are now approaching 2026 and Ride 6. For some reason, they don't release the games around the same date each time; as last time it was August, the time before that was October, and now it's February. But that's just something you have to accept.

The question then is how revolutionary the game has become in about 2.5 years. I don't think it has taken as big a step forward as between parts four and five, but things have been added that definitely make the game a better experience. The biggest addition is something the developers have chosen to call Ride Fest, which is the new version of the Career Mode. I already thought that Ride 5 had a lot of content in its Career, but this year they have chosen to increase the number of options. Instead of playing a fairly linear experience, you can tailor your journey by choosing the events you want to play, and this is done through different segments dedicated to a specific motorcycle category or riding technique. If you like enduro, there is a segment just for that, as yes, for the first time, you can ride beyond paved surfaces. In this particular section, you first get to choose between three different events (two races and a duel), and once you have completed the objectives in two of them, three new ones are unlocked. If you complete one of these, you unlock a cup/championship with a few races and a points table. You then receive a prize, which could be a motorcycle, equipment, or something else, however, it should be said that you can't just ride enduro. New segments are unlocked after you have earned a certain number of stars, and you also need to compete elsewhere to unlock new things.

There are also "ten of the most important championships in history" (as Milestone calls them) in Career. These are extra difficult challenges where your knowledge is really put to the test, where for example, I raced in a championship against Tyler O'Hara, who has been successful on so-called baggers. I crushed the competition and was three seconds ahead of the nearest rider at the finish line, but I only came in second because O'Hara was five seconds ahead of me. Among the others are Casey Stoner, Guy Martin, Ian Hutchinson, and Skyler Howes. This brings me to something that is both the best and worst aspect of the Ride series: since the series is not locked via licences to a specific championship or motorcycle brand, the options are very broad and Milestone knows it. You can ride a Honda or Kawasaki from the 80s, a Vyrus-986 M2 from 2017, an Aprilia Tuareg 660 for enduro, an Italjet Dragster 300 that basically looks like a Vespa on anabolic steroids, or a brand new 2026 KTM 690 SMC R. There are over 280 different motorcycles at launch, which will grow to over 340 through updates and downloadable content, and add to that 39 different tracks, from the Red Bull Ring and Daytona International Speedway to country roads in Japan's Gunma region and the French Riviera.

So that's great, but the flip side is that you can't compete in real championships. And as mentioned, there are only ten real riders, where the rest are fictional. This means that if you are a die-hard fan of, for example, MotoGP or the World Enduro Super Series, you'll have to make do with things like the Blue Wave Stadium Cup for enduro. If you don't mind racing in fake cups, you probably won't be disappointed.

If you feel like taking your driving skills somewhere other than the excellent Career, you can create or join both open and private lobbies with up to twelve players, but there is no ranked online mode. Offline, you can drive individual races or time trials.

What else is new? Dynamic weather, something that every motorsport game must have nowadays, apparently. It tends to be a bit hit and miss, with some games just throwing in a bit of rain here and a bit of sun there, however, I like what I've experienced of this natural phenomenon in Ride 6. In some parts of the track, it can be very dark with rain pouring down, while in other parts, the clouds start to break up more with each lap till the sun comes out. Not all new features need to be blockbusters; small ones that improve the experience are enough, and this also makes it possible to run two different physics systems. Instead of going in and fiddling with all the menus, you can now choose between the "Arcade" experience, where you don't have to think as much about all the technicalities and can just sit down and drive, and likewise, if you're looking for pure simulation where it feels like you're riding a motorbike in the real world, there's a "Pro" mode. In addition to this, you can still change various parameters in the settings.

All of this also contributes to the most important aspect of the game, namely how it feels to ride a motorbike on both asphalt and gravel. Considering the wide range of riding options, I would probably rank Ride 6 as one of the best games in the genre. Milestone currently dominates motorcycle games, as they also have the official games for MotoGP and Monster Energy Supercross. Both of these series are good, but Ride does it best. The driving feel is just right, regardless of whether you want to drive in a more arcade-like or simulation-like style. The computer-controlled riders are also not as collision-happy as they can be in other games and I like the AI in this game, where they don't drive perfectly all the time and can make mistakes and end up a few metres off the track in a corner taken too fast. But what I don't understand is the logic behind certain time penalties... I can get a few tenths of a second penalty for ending up off the track and scraping a wall, which slows me down, but when I accidentally take a shortcut through another corner, nothing happens. What's more, we seem to turn a blind eye when I make a sliding tackle Roy Keane would have been proud of and send a rider flying. We don't penalise that, but shame on you if you scratch the paintwork on your fancy bike...

In addition, I've had a few minor glitches where there are sounds that don't belong, such as small bangs or scratching noises, a controller that suddenly starts vibrating non-stop (which it doesn't do in other games), and textures that load very slowly (especially text on signs).

While Ride 6 doesn't take any huge steps forward compared to what we saw in the fifth instalment, all the additions are on the positive side. The Career has more options, you can now ride on gravel, there's a plethora of motorcycles and tracks, and overall it's a great motorcycle experience. Is this a game that will last until around 2029? Since the developers have promised to keep the game updated with new content, I actually think so. Again, sports games don't need to be released every year.