RIDE 4 - Special Edition

I'll be straight with you: I loaded Ride 4 expecting something I could hand to a mate, point at the screen and say "just ride, it's fine." That's not what this game is. From the very first licence test it makes you earn every meter of tarmac, and if you're not prepared to sit with that, you'll bounce off it hard and fast. What Ride 4 does better than any other two-wheel sim on PC is the sheer physicality of piloting a motorcycle. Weight transfers under braking, suspension compresses through dips, and rear grip disappears in a split second if you ask too much of the throttle mid-corner. The controls can be dialled from full manual - independent front and rear braking, clutch, manual gears, realistic physics - all the way down to assisted steering and automatic gearing, but even on the softer settings this is not an arcade game. That honesty is actually the point. Veterans who've worked through the Ride series or MotoGP titles will recognise exactly what Milestone is going for, and they'll respect it. Over 250 licensed bikes from Yamaha, Honda, Ducati, Suzuki and beyond are modelled with genuine care, and the differences in handling character between a 600cc middleweight and a litre-class superbike are real and meaningful. The career mode has you pick a regional league - European, Asian, or American - pass a Gran Turismo-style licence test for that league, then grind upward through cups and championships earning cash, affinity points, and experience along the way. There's a rewind feature for when it all goes wrong, which it will, regularly. Endurance mode is the headline new addition: long-format races with animated pit stops, tyre wear, fuel management, and dynamic day-night and weather cycles that can flip your strategy mid-race. That's genuinely exciting territory for a motorcycle sim. The quick race mode also feeds XP and cash back into your career progress, which means free-riding never feels like wasted time. The multiplayer side is where I have to pump the brakes a little. Online lobbies support up to 16 players on dedicated servers and the netcode is stable, but the feature set is thin. Creating or joining a lobby is about the extent of it. There's no split-screen, full stop - so if your Saturday night plan involves four friends on the couch, Ride 4 is the wrong invite. The bike performance index (PP) system used in online races also has known balance quirks that the community has flagged since launch. Presentation across menus is flat and utilitarian, and the career progression can lock up into a frustrating grind if you're not comfortable with the licence challenges. The AI, powered by Milestone's A.N.N.A. neural network system, is improved over Ride 3 but still capable of some baffling contact decisions at close quarters. For the right player - someone who sat through Gran Turismo licences without throwing a controller, who wants to obsess over suspension geometry, and who'll spend an evening chasing a two-second lap improvement at Brands Hatch or the Nurburgring - this is as good as motorcycle sims get on PC. For anyone looking for a fun multiplayer pass-around or a welcoming first sim, look elsewhere and come back to Ride 4 when you're ready for the commitment it demands.

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