Joining us this week on the Traxion Podcast is ROBO46 to talk about motorcycle sim racing. We cover all the big hitters on the market at the minute and, discuss the pros and cons and consider where we think the genre is heading.
MotoGP, RiMS Racing, TT Isle of Man: Ride on the Edge, TrackDayR and Ride 4 are all talked about – so if you aren’t into bike games, you can get up to speed and see what you are missing out on.
We feel that often sim motorbikes games get put in a corner during gaming debates, so now was the time to highlight a growing market.
Let us know in the comments below if you’ve tried a motorcycle game recently and have a favourite!
ROBO46 is a motorcycle game content creator, and you can find him on YouTube, Twitter and Instagram.
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PODCAST TRANSCRIPT
Below is the full transcript of this episode. It’s auto-generated, which is why it’s completely random…
Tom Harrison-Lord 00:05
Hello and welcome to a brand new episode of the Traxion.gg podcast. Today we’re going to be talking about motorcycle games and sim racing. I’m your host for this one, Tom. And joining us today is none other than Robo46. How you doing Robo?
Robo46 00:17
Hello. Yeah, good. Thanks. How are you?
Tom Harrison-Lord 00:19
Yeah, really good. I would like to, I’ve been, this has been on my list for quite a while because I would like to talk more about motorcycle racing games, and sims. And I often feel sometimes that when the term sim racing is bandied about or racing game that two wheeled variants are sometimes, not forgotten, but sort of put in a corner. But at Traxion, we cover all of it.
Robo46 00:41
Yeah, yeah.
Tom Harrison-Lord 00:41
And you’re, for those who don’t know, Robo46 is a leading YouTube content creator and primarily focuses on motorcycle games. Is that Is that a fair description?
Robo46 00:52
Yeah, absolutely. I do dabble in four wheel games occasionally. But my main focus is on motorcycle games.
Tom Harrison-Lord 00:59
I did one of those things that are very embarrassing for a YouTube channel which is sought video by oldest. I saw you started out your first video is some Call of Duty stuff, but fairly soon after there’s a, think it’s Moto GP 13.
Robo46 01:14
Yeah, that’s right.
Tom Harrison-Lord 01:15
Quite a few years ago now.
Robo46 01:17
That was 2014, I think, I was trying to find my audience and kind of started off, how a lot of people do with Call of Duty and then I was like, I need to game that I’m good at and not a lot of people were doing, so went with Moto GP. And that’s pretty much how I started.
Tom Harrison-Lord 01:37
Yeah, I’m gonna guess that the 46 in your username there, is to do with Valentino Rossi.
Robo46 01:44
Absolutley.
Tom Harrison-Lord 01:45
Just going out on a limb there.
Robo46 01:46
Yeah.
Tom Harrison-Lord 01:47
Wild guess.
Robo46 01:47
I mean, the background maybe a bit of a clue.
Tom Harrison-Lord 01:51
Yeah, for listening, for those listening on the audio version, Robo’s got some lovely Valentino Rossi themed artwork and Moto GP themed artwork in the background of shot. And actually, we’re recording this in the, well, just after the recent round of Moto GP at the Red Bull Ring. That was good fun.
Robo46 02:10
That was a hell of a race. Absolute chaotic at the end. And yeah, this is why I love Moto GP, it’s so unpredictable at the moment.
Tom Harrison-Lord 02:20
Yeah, so for the might be people out there who know of Moto GP, but don’t watch it on a regular basis. And what I would say, what my pitch to you is, you’ve got several manufacturer backed teams, and many, many high professional world class, the best riders in the world. And you don’t know who’s gonna win each race. But you have a rough idea, but it’s just so unpredictable. And the last round, it started raining at the end, and it was just chaotic. So definitely check out the YouTube highlights if you’ve not seen that. But.
Robo46 02:49
Yeah, definitely.
Tom Harrison-Lord 02:50
The big appeal a minute seems to be that the unpredictability, but also at the same time. It’s not like a widely spread field. Everything’s super competitive, right?
Robo46 02:58
Yeah, exactly. I mean, even the, the manufacturers, which aren’t classed as competitive are still able to get well within the points.
Tom Harrison-Lord 03:08
Yeah.
Robo46 03:08
At one point, you know, looking like they’re going to get a podium position, but not quite. But yeah, a lot of the pretty much all the manufacturers are really competitive now.
Tom Harrison-Lord 03:18
Yeah. And that brings us neatly on, I think, to the official Moto GP game. So that’s sometimes overlooked, but it’s a very, very popular game that I think sells very well each year. It’s developed by Milestone, and the current one is Moto GP 21. So if you want to check out some footage, obviously, there’s loads on the Traxion YouTube channel on Robo46, he’s got way more.
Robo46 03:42
Tonnes of it.
Tom Harrison-Lord 03:44
What are you doing at the minute, with that with the game?
Robo46 03:46
So at the moment, I I’ve recently finished a career mode on the Series X, which is basically running your own team, having your own sponsors and stuff. And I’ve just started a new career on the PS5 from using only official teams and just running through career modes because that is pretty much the bread and butter of my channel at the moment. People seem to like.
Tom Harrison-Lord 04:11
Yeah, and it’s it keeps you going and keeps keeps interest going. Because you can feel like you’re following your journey, in f1 YouTube world there’s a lot of My Team.
Robo46 04:21
Yeah.
Tom Harrison-Lord 04:22
Play throughs and now co-op career. I know you have a bit of Braking Point content on there as well.
Robo46 04:26
Yeah.
Tom Harrison-Lord 04:27
But this is this is an equivalent. And so it’s more is called the career mode in Moto GP, but it’s very similar in some respects to how the F1 games play out in terms of career structure that there are some differences, so, I think it was like 50 odd episodes was your Xbox Series X first career playthrough right.
Robo46 04:43
Yeah, I think it was a might be more actually because I tried to use different manufacturers in the Moto GP category. So I worked my way through Moto 3 up to Moto 2, and then up to Moto GP and I’ll stay in Moto GP and swap between manufacturers just kind of keep things fresh and to see kind of how they do the differences between the motorcycles and the game as well.
Tom Harrison-Lord 05:09
Yeah, when you really get into the nuances of pretty much any decent motorcycle game, the bikes do behave differently, through the corners and the braking acceleration, maybe if you’re new to it, you might feel like Oh, they all kind of feel the same. But actually, there’s quite alot of difference. So we’ll cover in a game that we’ll discuss in a bit.
Robo46 05:27
Yeah.
Tom Harrison-Lord 05:28
What what are your overall impressions of the Moto GP 21 game?
Robo46 05:34
There mainly good. I do have some gripes with that. One of them being the curbs it’s something that a lot of people have been frustrated about and asking Milestone to fix. Because if you watch any Moto GP race to the racetrack that weekend, Red Bull Ring, for example, coming out the final corner. All of the riders on the exit use the outside curb.
Tom Harrison-Lord 05:58
Yeah
Robo46 05:58
I mean, the curb, it almost looks like it’s just painted on.
Tom Harrison-Lord 06:01
Yeah, I think it is. I feel like it is.
Robo46 06:03
But on the game it is so bumpy, that if you use that curb, you lose so much time and drive coming out the corner. And is most of the curbs on the game are like that, which are very frustrating.
Tom Harrison-Lord 06:18
There are some. Yeah, and I would agree with that. And also, I feel like if you’re, I think I might have been Moto GP 20 the first introduced it, or it could have been 19, maybe 20, I think. For those new to it or just jumping in or not really serious about it. But a lot of people find it a challenge with how to slow down the top class of bikes. Yeah, I don’t know if you’ve experienced that. But certainly sometimes it can be very hard to not stop it, which is where the rear wheel lifts in the air.
Robo46 06:44
Yeah, I do have a lot of people constantly asking me for tip some braking and.
Tom Harrison-Lord 06:50
Yeah, cuz you will seem to have it pretty much locked out in your videos, they’re nice. Is it a case of breaking quite hard early and easing off or a mixture of the two
Robo46 06:59
It’s a mixture of the two because what you’ve got to bear in mind is the weight transfer on the bike, coming from the rear from accelerating, to hard braking and all of that weight getting pushed to the front. So yeah, the rear wheel does come up in the air, it comes up more on the game than in real life, in real life. It kind of skims.
Tom Harrison-Lord 07:16
Seems to be.
Robo46 07:16
The tarmac, but it’s a case of obviously braking when you’re upright. Because if your braking and when your lean’t over, you’re more than likely going to lose the front, I tend to use a bit of rear brake as well to help.
Tom Harrison-Lord 07:22
Which you can map to a different button, right?
Robo46 07:33
Yeah, absolutely. Or you can use joint brakes, if you don’t want to do that. And also pulling back on the left analogue stick, shifts your rider weight to the back of the seat. That also helps, well, stop the rear coming up in the air. And also downshifting at the right time, if you’re using a bit of engine braking, that also helps with the bike stopping. So it takes a bit of practice. And I think that’s what frustrates a lot of people because they may jump into Moto GP and just want to do a couple of races in an evening and might not want to do all the practices. I mean, there are some rider aids you can use to help. But in terms of you know getting better at the game, it does take some practice and some getting used to.
Tom Harrison-Lord 08:17
It’s a challenge for the developers, I think because they’ll probably want something that will provide a challenge and give those like yourself who will play the game for the full 12 months. Yeah, and those who I don’t know might have picked, might have downloaded Moto GP 20 on game pass or whatever. Woah there’s this bike game. And they just crashing every 20 seconds.
Robo46 08:36
Yeah, I know there is a fine line between trying to make it, accessible for everyone. While also pleasing the people that play it quite a lot.
Tom Harrison-Lord 08:48
On in terms of longevity, though I do think personally the career is okay, there are other games that have flashier careers and, modelled team managers and stuff like this, which Moto GP doesn’t. But in terms of the breadth of the content in there, you’re progressing through three different classes of Moto GP, which is no mean feat in its own right within the area. And you can have when you’re in the top class, you can you can then manage your own team, but then also Junior teams as well.
Robo46 09:18
Yeah, so.
Tom Harrison-Lord 09:19
I love doing that.
Robo46 09:20
Yeah, is it’s a little bit weird, because if you go back, I think it was like Moto GP 16 or my been 17 or 18. Actually, when they first introduced manager or career. You could have a teammate alongside you.
Tom Harrison-Lord 09:33
Yeah.
Robo46 09:33
No matter what class you’re in, but they seem to have got rid of that but now you, so yeah if you’re in Moto GP. You can set up a junior team in Moto 2 and Moto 3, but you can’t have a teammate with you in Moto GP which is a bit weird, unless you’re with an official team.
Tom Harrison-Lord 09:47
Right.
Robo46 09:49
So yeah, then you can look after, you can even watch the races of the Moto 2, and the Moto 3 which can be very frustrating because AI do some weird things. But yeah, if you’re in Moto 2, if you have enough money, you can have a junior team in Moto 3. So whichever category you’re in, providing, it’s not Moto 3, you can have a junior team and in the categories below you.
Tom Harrison-Lord 10:14
Yeah, and another small element I liked as well. You’ve got like the choice of two calendars.
Robo46 10:18
Yeah.
Tom Harrison-Lord 10:19
Pre COVID and post COVID. Kinda of.
Robo46 10:20
Yeah, exactly.
Tom Harrison-Lord 10:21
Which some other maybe like Formula 1 seems to be struggling a little bit with that, obviously, I think they’ve had more track changes, but at least there’s something in the Moto GP game, which I thought was a good touch.
Robo46 10:31
Yeah, it is. But again, the because of the whole situation with the pandemic and everything. Things have changed again in Moto GP.
Tom Harrison-Lord 10:38
Yeah they have.
Robo46 10:40
Yeah, it’s difficult for them to keep up with stuff. But yeah, it would be nice if they did eventually update it, but we’ll wait and see.
Tom Harrison-Lord 10:48
Do you have a favourite Moto GP? Or is that like, asking if you’ve got a favourite child or pet or I don’t know.
Robo46 10:57
Favourite Moto GP. I can tell you my favourite Moto GP series, which was the ultimate racing technology on the original Xbox.
Tom Harrison-Lord 11:04
Right.
Robo46 11:05
Which was.
Tom Harrison-Lord 11:06
Who was that by?
Robo46 11:07
Climax?
Tom Harrison-Lord 11:08
Right.
Robo46 11:09
I’m not sure. I don’t think they’re going on anymore.
Tom Harrison-Lord 11:10
No I don’t think so.
Robo46 11:12
I mean, if I played it now, I’d probably say it doesn’t stand up well, or anything. But the thing I liked about that is they kind of had fun with it. You could unlock some weird audio. I’m gonna say cheats, but just some like extras. So one of them was one of the developers making the engine noise when you’re racing. Which sounded a bit like the crazy frog.
Tom Harrison-Lord 11:35
I’ve not come across that a bit, maybe i’ll have to look it up.
Robo46 11:38
Yeah, you should. There’s also, I think it was Moto GP 3. There was a little easter egg on it was either Valencia or Catalonia it’s one of the Spanish tracks where there was almost like a hut. But if you went off track, and you went inside, it had all the pictures of the developers and stuff. And also with them, they didn’t just stick with Moto GP, they also had, in the later games, they also had like street racing as well. So you could do the official Moto GP calendar. And then if you wanted a change, you’d go on to do street racing as well, which is quite a nice touch.
Tom Harrison-Lord 12:14
Not taking yourself too seriously. But still…
Robo46 12:16
Exactly
Tom Harrison-Lord 12:17
…getting the authentic bits if you want it.
Robo46 12:18
Yeah, I mean, I probably won’t get on with the controls now because I think A was accelerate and X was brake.
Tom Harrison-Lord 12:24
Oh, yeah, that was a thing back in the day wasn’t it.
Robo46 12:27
Yeah. And if you double tapped A, you would do a power slide around the corner. But I much prefer the controls now. I think back then, things were less buggy. And there were less problems with the games. But I mean, don’t get me wrong. I’m still enjoying Moto GP games.
Tom Harrison-Lord 12:44
Yeah same.
Robo46 12:44
They’re going in the right direction and everything. So I just think that they need to be a bit more polished when they come out.
Tom Harrison-Lord 12:52
Where would you like to see the current Moto GP series go for next year or the year after, for example?
Robo46 12:56
So next year, I think a big thing, again, something that’s been spoken to the developers a lot is flag to flag races.
Tom Harrison-Lord 13:05
Yep.
Robo46 13:06
So as we saw at the weekend, if it’s deemed a flag to flag race, if it rains and the riders are out there on slick tires, they can then choose to come into the pit, swap bikes onto a bike with wet tires. And then continue the race or stay out slicks if you’re Brad Binder and.
Tom Harrison-Lord 13:27
And nearly crashed but win.
Robo46 13:28
Yeah, exactly. So that is something that I think needs to be in the game I know we don’t get it very often. A few seasons ago we got quite a few flag to flag races but I think now it is quite rare but, it’s nice that they also include in Moto GP 21, if you crashed, if you had it enabled, you could get up and go and pick your bike up.
Tom Harrison-Lord 13:53
Wander around a bit.
Robo46 13:54
Yeah, I think they need to kind of work on that because the AI don’t do that which obviously is unfair for the player because you lose so much time doing it. And also the AI don’t do the long lap penalties as well.
Tom Harrison-Lord 14:09
That that’s the more slightly weird one for me, than the bike recovery because for me, I don’t know you might have a difference thing, but if I’m just wanting to get through the career a bit or you know cuz obviously play multiple different games all the time so I want to try and blast through all my I’ll try the bike recovery bit and then I’ll maybe turn it off.
Robo46 14:27
Yeah.
Tom Harrison-Lord 14:27
So it didn’t really affect me whether or not they were doing it or not, but it’s when when they’re not doing the penalties and stuff. That’s kind of a bit unauthentic. But it’s nice that the long lap penalties there and you can have autopilot now if you want.
Robo46 14:41
Exactly it’s definitely a good base for for next year. I do remember when Moto GP 21 first came out the AI we’re cutting corners like nearly every track, they were crashing it nearly every corner.
Tom Harrison-Lord 14:56
Yes.
Robo46 14:57
So for them not then get the long lap penalty, I think was a bit strange when, I’ve added track limits warning for just being on the normal curve and not going on the green.
Tom Harrison-Lord 15:08
Yep.
Robo46 15:09
Which is quite frustrating sometimes.
Tom Harrison-Lord 15:13
Yeah, that is a good basis. And I think what you mentioned there could be good go forward when you talked about flag to flag races as well. I find it slightly strange that and let’s move on to a different motorcycle game, which everyone can get into now, which is a bit more accessible in terms of the way it rides, I think anyway, and that’s Ride 4.
Robo46 15:31
Yeah.
Tom Harrison-Lord 15:31
Because there is dynamic weather in that game. And there are pitstops.
Robo46 15:38
Yeah.
Tom Harrison-Lord 15:39
And Moto GP 21 is developed by the same, well I don’t know if it’s the same team, but same company, certainly.
Robo46 15:45
Yeah.
Tom Harrison-Lord 15:46
And, some of the tracks carry across as well. They’re in both games like, Algarve International or Portimão, as you might know.
Robo46 15:52
Yeah.
Tom Harrison-Lord 15:52
So that’s the game that has, the ability to ride through the pits. You don’t change your bike, you refuel and stuff, but it feels like you’re half the halfway there.
Robo46 16:02
Yeah, yeah, exactly. Exactly. So again, with that, you just come into the pits, you choose what tires you want to go on to. So if it’s a drying track, there is a little bug that sometimes it might look like there is a nice dry line. So you go to put slicks on, but the slick option isn’t there. So then you kind of waste time doing a pit stop. But, then obviously you choose how much fuel you put back into the bike. Obviously with Moto GP, they don’t do refuelling or anything. They literally just come off one bike and jump onto the other and then get going again. But yeah, they definitely got the base there to be able to put that into a Moto GP game.
Tom Harrison-Lord 16:46
Something like that.
Robo46 16:47
Yeah.
Tom Harrison-Lord 16:48
Yeah. We mentioned Ride 4 brief, let’s just quickly explain what that game is for the uninitiated. To me, it’s analogous to Gran Turismo, but I think that’s a fairly lazy comparison, in some respect or very easy one to draw to, but basically it’s mainly focused on road motorcycles, although there are super bikes and racing ones as you progress through and you sort of earn credits and you buy them when you modify them when you progress through events. Have you had a good time with Ride 4?
Robo46 17:17
I have. I definitely enjoyed it a lot more than Ride 3. Ride 3 I found career was very grindy and you didn’t get the best bikes until right at the end. And by that point you’re just. And you had to do some events, which I’m not really that interested in just to unlock some decent bikes. But yeah, Ride 4 was definitely another step forward. I know a lot of people compare it to like the Forza series
Tom Harrison-Lord 17:48
Yeah that’s another one.
Robo46 17:50
And yeah, there’s a hell of a lot of bikes in there. I know that the season pass is coming to an end at the end of this month.
Tom Harrison-Lord 17:57
It’s got to be the world’s longest. No, because there’s also some free stuff in between there.
Robo46 18:01
Yeah, you got premium, and you got the free stuff as well.
Tom Harrison-Lord 18:04
Wow.
Robo46 18:05
So.
Tom Harrison-Lord 18:05
Fair play for the support.
Robo46 18:07
Well, yeah, exactly. And I think right at the end, I will go through and just show everyone all the bikes in the game. Because yeah, like I said, the I think there’s two more packs to come out one more free one, and one more premium one. And then that’s it for in terms of content for Ride 4, but comparing it to Moto GP, the way that I kind of explain it to people. Moto GP, it’s like the Formula 1 of motorcycle racing. It’s not bikes, you can go out and buy in a showroom or anything, whereas with Ride 4 it’s all rode bikes. Yeah, there are racing versions of them as well. But there’s so many bikes, there’s so many tracks that you’re bound to find something that you’d like in it.
Tom Harrison-Lord 18:52
Yeah, the career is massive. If you want in, if you measure value, based on price per length of career, it’s got a good ratio there because every time there’s new DLC or a free update, it adds an extra set of events for the career right.
Robo46 19:10
And then you’ve got the insurance mode as well which are very long races. I done one of the endurance modes which was the Suzuki eight hour, I spring that for charity.
Tom Harrison-Lord 19:25
Rather you than me, but I’ve got it was for charity. Well done.
Robo46 19:27
I know that there are some which are like 12 hours around the full Nürburgring, and I was like I’m not doing that just sounds like hell to me.
Tom Harrison-Lord 19:35
You see, that reminds me, oh yeah, of Forza but primarily the Gran Turismo games in the old days there were like 24 hour real time races.
Robo46 19:43
Yeah.
Tom Harrison-Lord 19:44
And so they’re not for me. These these eight hour, 12 hour ones in Ride, but because they’re there, I think that does appease certain people who go, oh your endurance races are only 40 minutes long. That’s not an endurance race.
Robo46 19:57
Yeah.
Tom Harrison-Lord 19:57
If you want it is there.
Robo46 19:59
I was one of those people that in Ride 3, I was like an endurance race of 40 minutes, that’s just a normal race length of any motorbike race.
Tom Harrison-Lord 20:06
Well you got what you wanted.
Robo46 20:08
Yeah, and now I’ve done one race in it and I’m just like no this is. It would be nice. If I’m remembering rightly in Gran Turismo, could you save during the race and come back?
Tom Harrison-Lord 20:19
I’m not sure. I’m not sure if you could I know certainly in the Formula 1 games at the minute you can do that. And actually, this is a bit off topic, but the sim racing simulator game Assetto Corsa Competizione, you can do online endurance races, where you do a stint, and then you switch it to another player online in the pits.
Robo46 20:37
Okay.
Tom Harrison-Lord 20:38
And I kind of wish that might be very advanced. But if Ride 4 wants to continue with, if there’s another Ride game and it’s got better online and more endurance races, there could be something there, but I don’t know.
Robo46 20:49
Yeah, I mean, that would be good. I mean, either, you come into pit, and it might do like a quick save. So if you want to back out like Yeah, but that might be quite complicated, or because endurance racing in real life. They do switch riders after, they’ll do like a certain sim will come into the pit.
Tom Harrison-Lord 21:06
Right.
Robo46 21:06
And they’ve got a team of like three or four riders, depending on how long the race is. So even if it’s an AI that takes over for a bit, so that you just got time to relax. You can go and do something, get a drink or whatever. Providing the AI don’t crash all time. Yes, that would get very frustrating.
Tom Harrison-Lord 21:24
They certainly do that sometimes in that game, I think. Yeah. The final chicane at Suzuka last time I played it. The AI was crashing every lap I think.
Robo46 21:31
But yeah, I think because also in Ride 4 you got both those final chicanes. I think that AI get confused at which one their braking for.
Tom Harrison-Lord 21:39
Yeah, probably right.
Robo46 21:41
But yeah, very.
Tom Harrison-Lord 21:42
But I would say still, my opinion is still a fun game.
Robo46 21:47
Absolutley.
Tom Harrison-Lord 21:48
It is more accessible than Moto GP.
Robo46 21:50
Yeah.
Tom Harrison-Lord 21:50
But it’s still got like insurance traces and stuff. So if you want to dip in somewhere, I would say that’s a good starting point. Yeah. And then also, my personal opinion was the Series X or PS5 versions were good step forward over the PS4 and Xbox One versions? Yeah. The visuals are a lot nicer.
Robo46 22:12
Yeah, I didn’t actually play the base Xbox One or PS4 versions. But.
Tom Harrison-Lord 22:18
Yeah, it’s fine. But this is a it’s a nice step forward. It’s definitely worth the investment.
Robo46 22:23
Yeah, definitely.
Tom Harrison-Lord 22:24
So another game. This is released in just a few days after another game, another motorcycle game has been released, a brand new one from a new developer. So that’s actually quite a rare thing. Which partly spurred on this debate that also uses motorcycles available that you can ride on the road, and that is RiMS Racing. But unlike Ride 4, it’s more of a simulator.
Robo46 22:47
Yeah.
Tom Harrison-Lord 22:48
And it’s really different. I can’t recall a motorcycle game quite like this, I think where there’s a lot of focus in the parts of the bikes, and learning about the bikes. And there’s only eight bikes to choose from.
Robo46 23:00
Yeah, I think that they’ve gone.
Tom Harrison-Lord 23:02
What are your initial impressions.
Robo46 23:05
I mean, I know we we played the preview version a few months ago, and the physics felt a bit stiff. And things like that, but I think that they have, with the full release, addressed those issues somewhat. But in terms of yeah, the modifications you can do to your bike is just, it’s mind blowing it’s like you compare it to Ride 4 and yeah, you got a lot of customization you can do. But the fact that you can control taking the screws out, taking part of the body work off, switching things over. It’s just, it’s almost like they’ve kind of combined it with motorcycle mechanic simulator, which is coming out later this year as well, which is like along those kind of lines with customising a bike, which, in a racing game is really nice to have. And as you said, I’m pretty sure it is the first bike game to do it in this way.
Tom Harrison-Lord 24:03
Hmm. I think like, it’s very difficult to sort of, I think a lot of gamers out there might look at a bike list or a car list in a game and go, Oh, this one’s got 600. And that one’s only got 500. And this has got eight, people, I see comments online, oh only eight bikes, but the actual thing is, it’s actually got over 500 I think licenced parts.
Robo46 24:25
Yeah.
Tom Harrison-Lord 24:25
So it’s more about the individual bits of a bike.
Robo46 24:29
Yeah.
Tom Harrison-Lord 24:29
And you put on by Brembo brakes are Pirelli tires. And there are loads of brands I’ve never heard of, for like all sorts of weird parts of the bike, really detailed in there. And that’s actually where where the detail on the quantities if you’re looking for that it’s not in the number of complete bikes in a number of parts, which then also affect performance and wear down over time, which is why you need to go back in and spend your money on extra parts.
Robo46 24:55
Yeah, exactly. And I think people who are a bit put off about there only being eight bikes, you can almost personalise whatever bike you go for, you can kind of personalise it to your needs. And as you said, you can do so much to them. But, you know, if you race online, you might like say you use the Honda CBR 1000RR. You go online and you come across someone who’s using that bike as well. But they might have completely different parts on that bike.
Tom Harrison-Lord 25:23
Yep.
Robo46 25:24
So in terms of performance, and everything, it might be slightly different. And good thing is as well, you change the exhaust over, the exhaust note changes as well. And I did test just before we came on this podcast that you can use slick tires on a full wet track, which is nice.
Tom Harrison-Lord 25:46
I’ve not tested that yet. I’m not sure what to really.
Robo46 25:50
It is quite fun, literally just spinning up all down the straight and you know, little touch of a throttle coming out of a corner in your high side. So it is nice to have that little detail in there as well.
Tom Harrison-Lord 26:01
It’s very much a simulation focused title.
Robo46 26:05
Yeah.
Tom Harrison-Lord 26:06
In the way he rides, and then also with how much you need to set the bike up and change all the parts. I would say that, yeah also as well that there is a lot more, like you can choose the number of fingers you brake with, right?
Robo46 26:20
Yeah, yeah.
Tom Harrison-Lord 26:21
Which is really detailed. And there’s all sorts of rider customization if that’s your bag as well, in terms of like the to the helmet and the gloves. For me, there’s a few things which aren’t so great, at the minute, I’m not feeling the AI’s performance so much, might disagree with that.
Robo46 26:39
No, I would agree with that. I know that it was a big problem in the in the preview build as well. And they have said that they were working on that. But yeah, it does seem to you can pull away from them quite easily.
Tom Harrison-Lord 26:51
Yeah.
Robo46 26:52
They do tend to make mistakes quite a lot as well. So I think they do definitely need tuning a bit. I think, it’s built on the same engine as the Isle of Man TT games.
Tom Harrison-Lord 27:06
The KT engine, yeah.
Robo46 27:07
Which they had troubles with their AI with that engine as well. Again, they were very one line, they would quite happily run into the back of you. But if you got upfront, that was it, you wouldn’t see them again.
Tom Harrison-Lord 27:23
I have that with RiMS at the minute. And maybe I need to, I’m in the middle of difficulty at the minute, I maybe need to try the, well definitely will try the harder one.
Robo46 27:31
Yeah, yeah.
Tom Harrison-Lord 27:34
I’m flying away on lap one. But then I have crashed a few times. So having it, having them been quite, I don’t know, daft with their speed. It’s quite slow means I can at least catch up again. The races are quite, most of the races. So far, I’ve encountered in the career are quite long, like the minimum seems to be, other than like academy races, time trials and stuff seems to be seven laps.
Robo46 27:49
Yeah. Yeah.
Tom Harrison-Lord 27:58
I’m assuming further on the career. It’s gonna get much longer because there are pitstops involved.
Robo46 28:03
Yeah, yeah, I think they will get longer and again, with a pit stops you can control if you wish.
Tom Harrison-Lord 28:10
Yeah.
Robo46 28:10
What happens in the pits aswell?
Tom Harrison-Lord 28:13
It’s like quick time events, so you have to like spin the left sick, and that puts the wheel on and hold X, or tap it or something. No its like just holding down buttons, isn’t it to then put the fuel in which, again, is different and weird. I think there was a Formula 1, F1 Championship edition had pitstops with like, Triangle, Circle, X to cross it?
Robo46 28:33
Yeah, yeah.
Tom Harrison-Lord 28:34
Reminds me of that in a way.
Robo46 28:35
Yeah. Again, it’s a nice little detail whether that gets annoying.
Tom Harrison-Lord 28:40
Yeah, we will have to see.
Robo46 28:42
One of the little things that I’m not so sure about is the fact that like, even in time trial, you have to ride out the pits, it doesn’t seem to be a way to just start a quick lap straight away, which when you’re just trying to set some lap times can be a little bit annoying.
Tom Harrison-Lord 28:59
Yeah, it’s nice to have that authentic option.
Robo46 29:01
Yeah.
Tom Harrison-Lord 29:02
As an option, not like a mandatory thing, it can still be a sim if you want to just start a fine lap.
Robo46 29:06
Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
Tom Harrison-Lord 29:08
You know, because if the options so that I mean, that’s the sort of thing that could be maybe potentially updated over time.
Robo46 29:15
Yeah definitely.
Tom Harrison-Lord 29:17
I like a lot of the tracks in the game. But some of the accuracy and some of the renderings like Suzuka is some of the corners near the start, or how to do the elevation changes a bit wonky for me. I’d have to go back and double check. I feel like Ride 4 maps that track a bit better.
Robo46 29:34
Yeah, I would agree with that. I think Ride 4 Suzuka is. I think one dip slightly but it seems quite flat on RiMS, but all the corners are there. It’s just you know, some of the elevation changes are, do need a bit of work, but I mean, it’s the team’s first game. So.
Tom Harrison-Lord 29:54
Exactly. We should touch upon that. So it’s by RaceWard Studios, which are all new team based in Italy.
Robo46 30:00
Yeah.
Tom Harrison-Lord 30:00
Obviously there’s Mad Cow which we will cover in a second also in Italy, and then there’s Milestone, also in Italy, what, I mean, I suppose the nation loves Moto GP Valentino Rossi being a hero and stuff, but there seems to be a lot of motorcycle gaming talent in Italy.
Robo46 30:17
I think some of RaceWard as well a made up of ex Milestone employees as well.
Tom Harrison-Lord 30:22
I think so. It’s very interesting. I think it’s a, it’s refreshing in a way and it’s different. But it’s a first effort, and therefore it’s got potential. That was my diplomatic view of it.
Robo46 30:33
Exactly. And if they do a RiMS 2 going forward and then yeah, I hope they do as well, then I hope that you know that they can build on it, maybe introduce a few more bikes, obviously more tracks and stuff. And also, if it does better than expected, I would like them to see or like see them get an official licence like the World Superbike licence? Because I know that I think it’s Digital Tails have the mobile licence mobile game. But I’m not entirely sure who has the licence for consoles because we haven’t had a World Superbike game on consoles for years.
Tom Harrison-Lord 31:10
Was it Milestone who used to do one?
Robo46 31:12
Yeah.
Tom Harrison-Lord 31:12
It was well, right. Yeah, I definitely remember was SBK X?
Robo46 31:16
Yeah. Yeah, that was probably my favourite one.
Tom Harrison-Lord 31:19
Yeah, I enjoyed that game back in the day, but I haven’t played it in recent times.
Robo46 31:23
No.
Tom Harrison-Lord 31:24
We do there’s space but what we’re talking about lots of new motorcycle games World Superbike seems to be a premier series that doesn’t have a console or PC presence, which is a bit of a shame at the minute.
Robo46 31:33
Yeah, it is. I mean, the I know that some people may say, it’s a quite a niche audience there for World Super Bikes compared to the likes of Moto GP, which I guess it is, but it’s still pretty good racing. The championship this year is closer than it’s been for a very long time.
Tom Harrison-Lord 31:51
I really struggle with that Turkish riders name.
Robo46 31:54
Toprak Razgatlıoğlu.
Tom Harrison-Lord 31:56
Yeah. I don’t know how the commentators say it.
Robo46 32:01
I know, every time I try say I just call him Toprak which is what a lot of them call him.
Tom Harrison-Lord 32:07
What an amazing first name.
Robo46 32:08
Yeah. But yeah, I would like to see a developer like RaceWard Studio get given that chance with a special licence and see what they could do with that.
Tom Harrison-Lord 32:17
Yeah. You briefly touched upon the TT games. Now there hasn’t been two of these Ride on the Edge and Ride on the Edge 2, they haven’t be around for a couple years now. I think the last one was, I don’t know if Kylotonn are working on one. Which if there were, what, would you like to play it? And what would you like to see in another TT game?
Robo46 32:42
I mean, the first one, I had major issues with the second one.
Tom Harrison-Lord 32:46
It seems to be a very Marmite game on on all sides.
Robo46 32:50
The problems I had with the first one was you would randomly crash for no reason and I used to really frustrate me. The second game, which was much better you still got occasional random crashes where you’re just like, why did I just crash like.
Tom Harrison-Lord 33:06
I think it’s like sometimes you have to almost learn, not just the track and the line and the curbs and the pavements but the bumps.
Robo46 33:13
Yes.
Tom Harrison-Lord 33:13
Yeah, that can be very difficult to learn. Oh, well. Alright, so that bump if I take over this thing Oh, yeah, fly off. Well, I suppose Is that how it is in real life? I’m not sure.
Robo46 33:24
You do see them going over the bumps Yeah, the front wheel up in the air and then obviously slams back down but it seems to be on that game. If your front wheel goes up near it kind of goes off at the angle.
Tom Harrison-Lord 33:34
Yeah it’s weird.
Robo46 33:34
Then obviously when it comes back down, you just veer off or crash or whatever but yeah, the second game definitely an improvement so if they do a third one it would be good to see them improve again, in terms of physics again that AI, as we’ve already touched upon. But it’s quite a unique career mode that one because you’re building up to race the full TT course, you do like a little irish championship beforehand and then you do your Super Sport race around the the TT course and then go on to Super bikes for like the next season. Again, they introduce something which hasn’t been a motorcycle game since, I think the World Superbike games with rider injury.
Tom Harrison-Lord 34:23
Oh yeah, right.
Robo46 34:24
Which I just turned off because the amount of weird crashes are resolved and I was like, I’m not gonna be able to do a race.
Tom Harrison-Lord 34:31
If you try to do the full lap, I crashed so many times actually there’s a quick video on attraction YouTube channels of John trying it and enjoying it but crashing a lot.
Robo46 34:40
Yeah, it’s sometimes you get right towards the end and there’s like, I think three corners from the end is a really tight right hand hairpin.
Tom Harrison-Lord 34:47
I feel like the handling model can’t handle that hairpin. Oh, it’s terrible.
Robo46 34:51
It’s really bizarre. Like you come up to it and you either go too slow, or you just go straight to it. Yes. Not a nice corner.
Tom Harrison-Lord 34:59
No But I really like the detailed representation of the circuit, which is quite cool.
Robo46 35:06
I think they’ve properly laser scan that and yeah, it’s got all the details. And there it is, really well done circuit itself.
Tom Harrison-Lord 35:13
Yeah. But it has all these other tracks, which are sort of mainly fictional. Yeah. And they’re not quite as, even though they’re made up. They just don’t feel as much character, or as detailed really for me. But anyway.
Robo46 35:24
Yeah. I think there’s a track on there called the triangle, which I think is roughly based on the North West 200 circuit.
Tom Harrison-Lord 35:31
But it’s not the same. No, no. I wonder if Ride has got exclusive licence. Anyway, I digress. So I think the final one that’s current to mention at the minute, I think very quickly, we talked about Italian developers, I mentioned Mad Cow. They’re making an early access game only on PC for the minute. And it’s early access, which means it’s not far from finished. There is a roadmap and that’s called TrackDayR. So Robo, could you just describe to our listeners and watchers, what’s TrackDayR. So why is it worth you know, paying attention too.
Robo46 36:01
So TrackDayR is, they’ve gone, again, for a more simulation base for motorcycle racing games and trying to simulate going on a track day. So there’s a few bikes in the game, there’s a few tracks, they’re adding to them with each update. And you can go and practice if you want, it’s got tyre wear, it’s got fuel usage, they’re working on damage as well, I know that the developers released a screenshot of a bike on fire a few days ago. And it’s recently got online support as well. So you can go and mess around with your mates and do some races. They’re still working on their AI races to come out, which I believe they released a video for that on YouTube a little while ago. Still working progress. But in terms of physics and everything, they’ve gone for more the hardcore simulation.
Tom Harrison-Lord 37:01
it’s really difficult is what I would say.
Robo46 37:04
Yeah, if you’re looking to get into a motorcycle game, maybe, it’s not the best game to start with, because you will crash a lot. But again, with a lot of motorcycle games, it’s just about being patient, practising. Again, if you come off the bike, you stand up, you can run around, you can do a full lap of the circuit just on your feet, if you want, you can then pick your bike up with, I think it’s the Y button on the Xbox controller, and then you get back on the bike. If the engine is turned off, because it’s been on its side. You then have to bump start the bike as well. So
Tom Harrison-Lord 37:41
That’s really cool, I think.
Robo46 37:42
Yeah, there are a lot of nice little details in the game. And it’s got a lot of potential for the future. So yeah, I would definitely recommend to. If there’s any hardcore simulation simulators out there that people want to try something. I guess it’s almost in line with GP bikes. But I would say it’s definitely a lot more accessible than GP bikes. GP bikes just seems to be a real crazy, almost a beyond a simulator. But yeah, it’s definitely a lot of fun. Again, there’s some rider aids you can use on there as well if you’re struggling, but yeah, it’s definitely good time. And the team behind the game Mad Cow is only comprised of what, three people.
Tom Harrison-Lord 38:29
Oh, is it really that small? I didn’t know.
Robo46 38:31
Yeah, there’s three people working on that game and the rate they putting the updates out.
Tom Harrison-Lord 38:36
Yeah you can’t tell it’s just three.
Robo46 38:38
I know. It’s crazy. And the good thing about them is they like to have fun as well, they’re more than happy to answer questions and their Discord. No matter what the question is, they’re always happy to help they always listen to feedback as well. So constantly trying to improve the physics and everything. So yeah, I will definitely recommend it and checking it out. And obviously, we got the mod community as well, bringing out new circuits and games and stuff. So.
Tom Harrison-Lord 39:05
Yeah, to try that even if it’s relatively bare bones now, it’s certainly evolving and getting now I really hope I wish it well for the future. And I hope enough people support it so that it can, sort of the dream can be realised.
Robo46 39:18
Yeah, absolutely.
Tom Harrison-Lord 39:19
Two things of note for me is one you can ride this crazy little scooter around some tiny little tracks, which is quite challenging, but it’s it’s funny.
Robo46 39:27
It’s a handful that scooter.
Tom Harrison-Lord 39:31
And the other thing is is a button to flip the bird.
Robo46 39:34
Which is my personal favourite thing about that game. I’ve already said.
Tom Harrison-Lord 39:40
I’ve not seen that in any other racing game.
Robo46 39:42
Exactly. I’ve already said to the developers, if they take that out, I’m not playing the game.
Tom Harrison-Lord 39:48
Maybe they’ll add other gestures in there. Maybe that’s a bit dangerous. I don’t know. But it’s certainly a serious game, but there is a certain charm to it.
Robo46 39:58
Yeah, exactly.
Tom Harrison-Lord 39:59
Exactly. It’s from a place of passion, I suppose. Yeah. So let’s keep our eyes peeled on that one. Absolutley. Where do you see? Well, we’re coming towards the end of our time now. So we’ll wrap it up, I suppose. But where do you see the overall motorcycle gaming market at the minute? Would you say it’s relatively healthy?
Robo46 40:18
I think it is. I mean, as we’ve already discussed throughout this podcast that we getting different developers now making their own motorcycle game and their own version of what they consider a simulation, and stuff like that. So I think the more and more motorcycle games that come out, the more it’s gonna push, like the leaders Milestone to innovate and improve. And obviously, competition is always a good thing for us as a consumer. Because at the end of the day, we’re going to end up with a better product to play year on year, so I think it’s definitely going in a really good place. And yeah, I just like that, the new games that are coming out. I wish them all the success and yeah, I hope it definitely moves everything forward.
Tom Harrison-Lord 41:08
Yeah, same for the, you know, for a long, long time Milestones had a grip on this market. Okay, there’s been other other games out there and other developers, but they seem to be the the leader of the pack, which is fine. But they’re obviously making like four at least, no at least three yearly motorcycle games because obviously we’ve not really touched upon it in this in this podcast. But there’s the Supercross on MX GP, the Motocross and Supercross off road dirt bike racing games that Milestone makes, every year alongside Moto GP and then Ride 2’s been, but we’ll see in the future but every other year.
Robo46 41:43
Yeah.
Tom Harrison-Lord 41:43
So that’s that’s a lot of.
Robo46 41:45
And they got Hot Wheels coming out as well.
Tom Harrison-Lord 41:46
They’ve got Hot Wheels coming out as well.
Robo46 41:48
So it’s a lot.
Tom Harrison-Lord 41:49
A huge workload. And so it’s good, I think to have other developers like RaceWard, Mad Cow and Kylotonn pushing them and releasing more games and I think that only broadens the environment for everybody.
Robo46 41:59
Absolutely.
Tom Harrison-Lord 42:00
As you said there, so. Well, thank you very much for your time, Robo46, where can people find you if they want to watch content and follow you.
Robo46 42:07
So you can follow me on Twitter at Robo46YouTube? Also the same on Instagram and of course on YouTube. I am, just search for Robo46 and you’ll find me.
Tom Harrison-Lord 42:19
Yeah, so Robo’s has got a huge amount of back catalogue to go through but he’s constantly playing and uploading new bike game content. So if you want to keep up with the world, do check him out. Thank you very much for your time Robo.
Robo46 42:32
Yeah, thank you for having me.
Tom Harrison-Lord 42:33
It’s been very enjoyable. If you’ve if you’re new to bike games, or motorcycle games and you’ve got any questions please on YouTube, pop them in the comments. And also if you’re listening on the audio platforms, please do follow and subscribe. You can follow Traxion at TraxionGG on social media and for all the latest motorcycle game news views, opinions and reviews. Obviously the Traxion.gg website which is updated on a daily basis. But that’s it for now. Thank you very much.
Robo46 42:59
Thank you.
