RIDE 4

I am 60+ and find the learning curve quite steep. I am enjoying the challenge of getting better times and finishing higher up the field.

Ride 4 is one of the best motorcycle racing games ever. Visually great and superb in terms of handling, Milestone did a great job delivering a fantastic experience on the track. The career is a little bit underwhelming in terms of design, but the game is still great to play.
9/10

First let me give you the "Bad News".
This is long, so settle in.
AI RACERS:
The AI is absolutely terrible. They are all related to Stevie Wonder. Why you may ask?
It's because they do not see you. They do not try and avoid you. They simply plow right through
you or into you in a corner. They also purposefully go out of their way to block you or stimmy your
progress up the trail of motorcycles. I have tested this numerous times. I am coming up very fast
and for what ever reason the bike on the other side of the track will veer over to either cause
me to him or hit me. This is especially apparent on the start of the race. I have tried going left,
going right, staying in the middle, and it does not matter they will always try and block you.
They will even slow down mid corner causing you to run into them. And I mean practical joke slow too.
THE BIKE & LIVERY EDITOR:
There is a game out there called Forza, you may have heard of it. They had this same editor for over
13 years. Milestone copied their homework or contracted the same company who built Forza's, and then
jacked it up.
When you place a sticker or shape it will translate to the inner surface. If you place a decal on the
front of the bike, it will project on every surface at the position you placed it. Meaning the airbox
cover, the back of the tank cover and the seat pillon where you butt settles in at high speed. You put
anything on the top it will telegraph on the underside of the subframe cover. When you place a decal on
the left/right side and try and push it forward it telegraphs onto the front rock guard.
So, it is virtually
impossible to make most liveries.You will not be able to recreate the MV Agusta 'Fecce Tricolore' at all. Not
without extreme sacrifice of detail and accuracy. They should just release skin templates or separate each panel
on the bike by:
*Front Rock/Mud Guard
*Upper Faring
*Lower Faring
*Belly Faring
*Airbox Cover
*Tank Cover
*Knee Guard
*Tail Faring
*Swing Arm
*Rear Rock/Mud Guard
*Grips (We used to have this)
*Triple Clamps (we used to have this) - and we should be able to buy aftermarket TC's and Grips
Then just let up edit in 3D instead of picking a side to work on. Also a 'Warp and a Bend feature would be welcome.
Your also not getting an opacity modifier which would have been very welcome. They can also make all the monchrome decals
color-able as well. And make them for ever single decal they have. It seems this whole feature was just thrown in haphazardly.
And editing suits is pointless. You can only add decals to the aero-hump the chest and 3/4 of the upper arm? It's nowhere
near what I'd consider ready at all. Skin templates would have been better. Each section, every panel of leather of the suit
should be paint-able. For example you can have a red aero-hump with purple flex joints (the black parts) and green thigh panels
ect. Even decals on the collar. We should be able to create any bike or any suit.
Further enhancing the editor let us be able to set the render style of each decal independantly of the entire bike. That is right
boys and girls you change one decal render to to say "Glossy Plastic" the whole bike livery changes to that. Mettalicness, Chromeness
Mattness and Glossiness should all be on sliders.
The MV Agusta F4's sound like Vespa's. Claudio would probably sue Miletsone if he was alive today, God rest his eternal Soul.
oh and you learn to LOATHE the track VIR. I wish I could just delete it from the game. No online existence, nobody races, it's dead.
And if you barely tap anything your bike goes off track and you die. The tire model appears to be 'single point' modeling. This needs to
change in the future to a five point tire model. I've done things on my bike that I do in here and I scratch my head......
- Now for the Good
This game is really fun especially in solo mode.The visuals are stunning and the bike models are vastly improved over RIDE 3. You get real world
rider gear to outfit your rider with. I wish there were DLC's for this gear and that we had Vintage gear for the Vintage bikes in here. You can share
your liveries, suit designs and sticker that you make with everyone. The learning curve is steep. I had stepped away from motorcycle games for about
two years and it's take me two weeks to get back to form. There are alot more events to cover this time. It's way easier to earn money now. DLC until
the end of 2021. I sure hope they release the MV Agusta Superveloce 'ALPINE' soon. Physics are good too however the Jury is out on the 'Real' setting.
I would say I'd like to see more regualr track in the game such as Willow Springs, Portland International Raceway, Pacific Raceways and street corses like
Nappa Valley in CA, Los Angels Canyons in CA, The Dragon in SC and any Asian of European equivalents to non-big name race tracks. Like Anglesey (Wales),
Aragon (Spain), Bedford Autodrome, Blyton Park ect. You know tracks us regualr folk can afford to race at.
The best bike in the game is the MV Agusta Brautale 1000 RR. It's Cr 420,000 but well worth it. The YZF-R6 race bike is a blast to ride around Utah Motorsports
Park too!

Milestone you need to fix the A.I Riders so they don't basically run you over while in your line. Fix it or at least have the A.I go around you and not through you.

As of May 2021, most of the major bugs have been ironed out. Headlights work as intended and the Wet weather tyres can be selected in the pits when it rains. Time Trials are far more forgiving now, better than ever. Physics have been dumbed down a little but it is still challenging. Optimization seems to have improved, as I can run it without much trouble on my GTX960M.
Coming onto the game itself:
1.) Endurance aspect in this game is very well done, it is as real as it gets, for the time being atleast. The atmosphere around the track is really decent, and it is an experience watching the sunset/sunrise and witnessing the track lights come alive. As someone who has spent good chunks of time driving Assetto Corsa, Project Cars 2 and Automobilista 2, I am used to racing without using the REWIND feature which seems to be missing from Endurance Races. In my opinion, it is for the good because it makes you take calculated risks.
2.) The Career Mode is varied. There is lots to do, but outside of the Endurance Events, most Career events (Short Races and Time Trials and other sorts of events) lack Fuel Management. Not a big deal because you won't be in the need of managing the fuel while doing Time Trials.
3.) The Photo Mode is amazing. In terms of functionality, it is very similar to the one that you have in Project Cars 2 or AMS 2 but with far more intuitive UI and optimization. Lots of options to mess around with, and the photos are guaranteed to look amazing.
4.) Time Trials, this time around the Time Trials are far more forgiving, from what I've noticed. In the previous games, for example RIDE 2, the track limits were way too strict but seems like they fixed upon that in RIDE 4.
5.) People seem to be complaining about the difficulty, particularly that of the acquiring the licenses. In my opinion, if you have some experience with motorsports, it wouldn't take long for you to figure out the racing line and how (at what angle) you'd be attacking the corner, which will translate to faster lap times without exceeding the track limits. As of those who are new to track racing, you'd probably have to understand some of these concepts before the game seems forgiving. Personally, I enjoy the challenge that we have in here.

Starting off, I am myself a motorcycle rider that do a lot of track riding, and my hope going into this game was more looking for a Forza Horizon styled experience (without the open world) more than a NFS one.
Is the game good? Yes, if it is your particular kink. The game is unforgiving, it's got glitches/bugs and AI that can ruin your race. But when it doesn't do something stupid, it's my favourite motorcycle game experience out there. MotoGP fills the F1 2020 experience, and this is the Forza one. I do wish they would have carried over more features from MotoGP20 like 3 zone tire wear, engineers to set up the bike if you don't know how to tune and more options for riding styles. I get why they didn't do it, but it's what I really enjoyed in GP20. Tuning also really helps once you figure it out to make the bikes steer better/suit your style. Endurance races are VERY fun, if it's what you are into.
The Pros:
-It looks much better than Ride 3
-I prefer the physics over the Ride 3 one (although, I like the braking in GP20 more, it's still a little "wooden")
-Available bikes are fun and do feel like they have a little character to them when compared to each other
-Tire choices (S/M/H)
-Multiplayer is much more stable compared to previous titles, close racing is now possible
-Editor is fun (finally shared stickers are back)
-Added gamemodes + weather and day cycles
-Track list is decent, with more tracks coming (hopefully free DLC)
The Cons:
-Earning money is slow, 5 euro DLC to what should be the normal earning rate
-Bugs/glitches and an AI that can be a pain at times, the difficulty balancing with the AI slowing down on straights isn't great.
-Bike list feels lacking in many areas
-Steep learning curve will keep new players itching for the refund button
-Some bikes ride horrible for no reason (see: every MV Agusta F4, Yamaha R1/M and more)
-Sound on some bikes is underwhelming
-Rear brake is almost useless, and very difficult to get working right
-Difficulty system with AI isn't great, see leader bugger off whilst rest of pack is in slow motion
-Upgrading system was dumbed down
This game isn't for everyone, it caters to those that know how bikes work and does very little to help the new guy get into bikes, that said, it wouldn't be as good if it was styled like an NFS game. It has done some of the homework to improve on previous titles, and the final piece is a fun game, if you are into it in the first place. It is the strongest Ride game available, and easier to sit down with than GP20 (and previous titles).
For me, it is the best motorcycle experience available on a digital system (compared to titles like Ride 2/3, Isle of Man TT 2, MotoGP20).
Update:
A lot of the critique I see for this game revolves around the crude tutorial. Whilst I agree it is a very basic way of beating you with a sledgehammer until you understand the games physics and the way you play, I don't really see how it could be done better (except for the choice of bike, really should be something like an RC390 or R3, not an R6). If you look at "similar" titles like Forza Horizon, F1 2020, and other car racing games, they basically ask what difficulty settings you want (if even that) and then throw you into a race as introduction. FH4 (and other Horizon titles) straight up throw you into a Lamborghini of the faster kind and says "race to the festival, good luck!". The difference, and source of "annoyance" with Ride 4's intro, is that instead of crashing into a tree, backing up, and getting going again, Ride requires you to actually learn how to handle the game, before it throws you into the races, and the constant falling off invites a way of "the game is against me progressing" and frustration.
Apart from changing the learner bike (and maybe track, Tsukuba is kinda technical, short version of Brands Hatch would be better), this is really the only way to learn the games handling model. It even lets you have tools to make it easier (3 or 4 settings of physics to begin with, ABS, Auto gears etc.). is it crude? Yes. But do you remember when you started learning to drive a car? You can't really slow down a racing game like you can a shooter to practise targeting, standing still and turning doesn't work here. The game isn't for everyone, but just like any other game, you walk before you run in this one as well, and I do not see people criticising Forza because "I haven't tried a racing game before, it's too difficult and I keep crashing". Neither do people jump into CoD and do 360 noscopes first try (is that still cool, I don't play those games anymore?).

More 2 stroke bikes !!!!!