IT'S A BUMPY RIDE

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IT’S a shame really – how can anyone compete with the Forza series?

I know this is a bikes game, and Forza is a cars game. But in the end, once you’ve played the latest Forza Horizon there’s just no going back in the racing genre, period.

So with Ride 3 it was always going to be an uphill struggle. Developer Milestone have done a good job here. There’s 270 different real-world bikes across seven classes to earn throughout the game, 30-odd tracks from across the globe and a whole host of options to give you plenty of replay-ability when the initial sheen dies off. And yet I do keep coming back to that one thought: “Yeah, but it’s not Forza, is it?” There’s loads to like in Ride 3. The handling of each bike feels varied and different from the last.

The tracks are well defined and quite tough to master. And the varied machines on offer, coupled with a strong multiplayer suite and decent career mode, all add to the value.

The menu systems are easy to navigate and you can tweak your bikes to your heart’s content as you earn in-game money to splash out on the next souped-up race machine.

The gameplay and racing itself is decent, with plenty of on-screen speed and agile gamepad work needed to force your way through particularly wily computer-controlled opponents.

It’s smooth and addictive at first. But when it comes to comparisons, it is sadly well behind the Forza series on the starting grid.

Ride 3 is a good game. It’s just not a great game. And it’s quite forgettable.

It’ll be well worth getting when it drops in price a bit in the new year. But right now I’d recommend you spend your pre-Christmas money on something else.