PSA: Don’t buy Ride 4

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Iconiqk

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As the title states. Unfortunately I bought into the hype that was their video series on YouTube that made it seem as though Ride 4 had had made leaps and bounds over its predecessor and subsequently bought the $80 special edition. I’m about 10 hours in right now and can honestly say ride 3 is a better and more complete game for these reasons:

Bike selection: The amount of bikes they’ve omitted that were in previous versions is ridiculous. 125cc class is completely gone. Of the 180 (I think?) bikes are in the game, almost half are just Racing or Endurance Modified versions of their standard counterparts. Don’t worry though, Milestone will sell you back the bikes you’ve already paid for in their previous versions again in the form of paid dlc...

License Tests: These have got to be the single most frustrating events I’ve ever come across in a game. To lock the majority of the career behind these is utterly foolish. The time attack events will immediately boot you and force a restart if you so much as put a single pixel of a single wheel into the grass and in some cases even a curb, regardless of whether or not it could be classified as an advantage, and it’s most often not. Also, there’s no rewind feature during these, so if you’re struggling and decide to let up the pace a bit for a cleaner time, we’ll congratulations you’re time is now too slow.

AI: Milestone have been patting themselves on the back for this one, claiming the AI has improved immensely. I’m here to tell you that they haven’t at all. They race as though you’re not even there. They will dive bomb you into corners or run into the back of you and punt you off the track. It would seem as though Milestone has jacked the aggression slider up to 1000% with no way of adjusting it.

The prices of bikes have also increased ten fold while the amount of credits you’re given for winning has been decreased. The progression in Ride 3 felt good, I could complete a series with one bike and have earned enough credits to purchase and upgrade another bike to compete in a different series if needed. If you win every event in that series you were gifted a bike which could save you some money if it was one you planned on competing with. Now there’s only a handful of series that’ll award bikes for 100% completion and once again they’re gated behind the ones with these ridiculous Time Attack and Track day events.

To sum it up: Less bikes, ridiculous events that gate most of the content, progression is now a grind, AI are awful. Sure the game looks pretty, and the physics have improved although every bike still insists on under steering, but I think the overall experience has taken a step back from Ride 3. I would hold off on buying this for quite some time and just pick up the Gold Edition if Ride 3 which is like $15 right now until they can rework and revise some of these systems.
 
Just to add on a few things
  • Bikes: This is common Milestone policy. They remove content from previous versions to sell it back as DLC. Any previous Ride game dlc should be standard in the current, Milestone doesn't believe in this so they'll keep selling the same DLC over and over. While removing standard bikes to sale them back
  • Bikes PT2: To each his own but yes the omissions have always been interesting. For example the choice of the Yamaha R1s included. I know it had more power buy why would the 07/08 R1 be included over the 04-06 R1? The 04-06 was more grounding braking in that it was a lot of firsts for Yamaha (undertail pipes, true FI, ram air, return to SBK, etc....).
  • Gear: A few upgrades but still basically a rehash of gearset from previous games. Not sure if its a contractual thing. but you'd think if it were you'd think the vendors would want the focus on the newer lineup vs older stuff they don't sell anymore
  • AI: stated its bad with the only saving grace is that at least most of the time this go round they crash with you when they take you out. Quite simply there is no AI awareness of the player. You watch the AI react to each other but not to you. So there is no racing. You either have to check out at the start or be frustrated with being taken out all of the time. If you are in a pack the AI will just force you off the line. Pretty much any contact sends you flying.
  • Career: Is just bad. They advertised play how you want but that's not true at all. pretty much everything is locked and priced insanely high. Single races regardless of setting don't really pay out, so you'd have to spend HOURS to get enough to buy a standard bike let alone a modified bike. The other option is an insane limited career mode. In previous Ride games you had WAY more flexibility with the career so if it wasn't really what you were into you could make it less painful. Because you could at the least choice course that suited your tastes and the objectives were reasonable. Ride 4 it's only one way or you're stuck
  • Braking: Braking is still bad as it ever was. Far to weak. For some reason Milestone thinks engine braking is better at slowing the bike down than actually using the brakes. I guess I'm riding my bike wrong, cause when I'm riding at the track I get all my shifting down before I turn in. And my gear is more about setting up how I drive out of the corner
  • Physics: misses the mark (again) Standard setting is WAY too forgiving (for me at least) while advanced and realistic are anything but and are pretty stupid if actually know how to ride.
  • DLC: It's really kind of a joke. As stated it's basically a lot of rehashed content that was removed to be appear to be "new content" added. Looks like 4 new tracks are coming but honestly they should already be in the game right now. I doubt they are still working on them. but at least they are free. To me at least "events" as DLC are a joke especially if you are expected to pay for them. But apparently I'm in the minority because people seemingly would rather pay for "Events" instead of the simple of option of being able to create your own which use to be standard before companies learned people would pay for it
  • No Season mode. Isn't an option to create a custom season or series of races. Which what I'd rather have than a career mode that makes me race bikes/tracks/tasks I have no desire to do. If not required I'd personally never bother with anything under 600cc, naked bikes, touring bikes, etc..... but that's just my tastes. If they are trying to appeal to a larger consumer base why not allow people to play the game as they please?
Could go on but you get the point. Can't comment regarding online because haven't even bothered at this point because don't have the bikes I'd want to race available. overall not worth the money
 
Also something else I’ve noticed is most of the “Racing Modified” bikes are actually slower with a lower rating then their upgraded standard counterparts...in Ride 3 when you bought a race modification for a bike the difference was night and day, the bike was clearly meant to go racing. Now the only real difference between them is the lack of headlight and a different livery...was really excited to try the RM version of the RG500 because I love all things two stroke and figured this would be the closest thing to a vintage Motogp bike, except it’s slower then the race 250’s were in ride 3 and is inferior to its standard counterparts within ride 4...not sure how Milestone came to the conclusion that a 500cc two stroke racing bike tops out at 155mph...
 
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It sounds you really really didn't like the game. Well it sounds a lot like the differences between Project Cars 2 and 3.
I'm playing it right now and can't say I ain't pleased.
 
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It’s just a bunch of strange decisions that kind of ruin it. For example the time tests. Why not just let the player do laps until the goal is reached or player decides to quit? If he crashes or leaves the track just invalidate the lap, there is no reason to end the session and make the player go through loading screens to try again. Stupid just stupid

also 1st person view again seems to be designed by someone who has no idea of motorcycles out side of GoPro footage. The contact pivot point is the TIRES not the riders head! So instead of leaning you have this strange swaying pendulum effect. So you have to adjust your line to account for how much the bike is going to sway off the line you want. So if I’m approaching a right hand turn, I can be at the edge left of the track because when I start to turn the bike will sway off into the grass on the left before the turn. Instead you have to move a bit to the middle so when the turn in is initiated the bike will sway over to the line you actually want. Again STUPID!
 
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I've just saw that there are 2 dlcs out with 4 bikes and a credits multiplier. None of them are included in the Season Pass. That's a bad joke.
I've already complained on their Facebook page, I hope more people do the same
 
Interesting because the season pass is supposed to include them. It did for me wonder if it. Is a regional issue or bug?
 
RZ05
Interesting because the season pass is supposed to include them. It did for me wonder if it. Is a regional issue or bug?
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Where are you from? I'm from Germany and it doesn't work here.
It specifically says "This DLC is not included in the Season Pass" on the PlayStation store
 
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Dunno why it’s so hard for them to just make Gran Turismo: Motorbikes edition/TT2. Just boot up GT4 and GT5 and take notes of how events are structured and laid out, c’mon. Can’t be that hard
 
for me the game is ****, have many fake things, you make a brake wheelie and you cant use the throttle to rev the engine, thats fake, the behaviour when you slide in the apex is so fake, sometimes it slides with both wheels and the engine doesnt rev and you cant control the bike, is so damn fake, the AI is crazy as hell and agresive, not smarter, the lack of bikes and tuning sucks.
When you tune up a engine, you go to the start and everyone goes faster than you, but later on you go too much fast during the track? what is happening? and also the the slipstream is so arcade you get a nitro in seconds, the challengues are mostly impossible, there is one that i can pass becouse the bike doesnt reach 140km per hour with the R3 and you cant pass it, and im not bad driver i have the rest on gold
I could continue this list but they are less important problems but... still moreee
 
Unfortunately I decided to buy this game because love the bikes, but don't do my mistake, don't buy it. It's so frustrating.
Impossible to get the licence superbike and endurance. Impossible to play 40 minutes endurance race without rewind, why they put off? I feel my money robbed. When I spend 70 Euros for a game I must be in the conditions to complete it, I must enjoy the game. It's over 2 weeks I am not playing anymore. Milestone did a stupid thing beacuse so many players did not spend one more dollar to buy DLC, and I am the first. Ride 4 was the ,last milestone game I bought.
 
Personally I just do hot laps with this game as the AI is so crap I can't be bothered racing beside them.

Graphics and physics wise it's an improvement on Ride 3 but in every other way it's a huge step backwards. I'd recommend any newcomers thinking of picking this up when it's cheap to just buy Ride 3 instead, it's cheaper and better.

The AI, it's been a problem in every Milestone bike game from the beginning. They dive bomb fast into every corner with magic brakes then are slow out of it if they don't just plow into you first as they have no awareness of you whatsoever. Here's a solution Milestone, if your AI algorithms are garbage just make it hard to be knocked off the bike so players aren't punished by your incompetence.

The career mode, oh dear. How can you go from Ride 3 and it's great career to this utter bore fest. On of the worst career modes I've ever seen in a racing game and that includes Grid which forced you to drive trucks and stock cars and Project Cars 3 which is just *****.

Then there's the DLC, how many of these bikes were in the previous games? For example the Energica Ego has been in every previous Ride game and now its paid DLC. What kind of ill **** is that?

Rant over, just buy Ride 3.
 
Iconiqk
As the title states. Unfortunately I bought into the hype that was their video series on YouTube that made it seem as though Ride 4 had had made leaps and bounds over its predecessor and subsequently bought the $80 special edition. I’m about 10 hours in right now and can honestly say ride 3 is a better and more complete game for these reasons:

Bike selection: The amount of bikes they’ve omitted that were in previous versions is ridiculous. 125cc class is completely gone. Of the 180 (I think?) bikes are in the game, almost half are just Racing or Endurance Modified versions of their standard counterparts. Don’t worry though, Milestone will sell you back the bikes you’ve already paid for in their previous versions again in the form of paid dlc...

License Tests: These have got to be the single most frustrating events I’ve ever come across in a game. To lock the majority of the career behind these is utterly foolish. The time attack events will immediately boot you and force a restart if you so much as put a single pixel of a single wheel into the grass and in some cases even a curb, regardless of whether or not it could be classified as an advantage, and it’s most often not. Also, there’s no rewind feature during these, so if you’re struggling and decide to let up the pace a bit for a cleaner time, we’ll congratulations you’re time is now too slow.

AI: Milestone have been patting themselves on the back for this one, claiming the AI has improved immensely. I’m here to tell you that they haven’t at all. They race as though you’re not even there. They will dive bomb you into corners or run into the back of you and punt you off the track. It would seem as though Milestone has jacked the aggression slider up to 1000% with no way of adjusting it.

The prices of bikes have also increased ten fold while the amount of credits you’re given for winning has been decreased. The progression in Ride 3 felt good, I could complete a series with one bike and have earned enough credits to purchase and upgrade another bike to compete in a different series if needed. If you win every event in that series you were gifted a bike which could save you some money if it was one you planned on competing with. Now there’s only a handful of series that’ll award bikes for 100% completion and once again they’re gated behind the ones with these ridiculous Time Attack and Track day events.

To sum it up: Less bikes, ridiculous events that gate most of the content, progression is now a grind, AI are awful. Sure the game looks pretty, and the physics have improved although every bike still insists on under steering, but I think the overall experience has taken a step back from Ride 3. I would hold off on buying this for quite some time and just pick up the Gold Edition if Ride 3 which is like $15 right now until they can rework and revise some of these systems.
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I totally agree with your comment, also I think ( and not only me ) the game is really hard. Usually the old Ride version were never easy, but Ride 4 has some evmts impossible to complete. AI sucks, if you setup 0 or 120 nothin change, they always crash in your back. It's not a funny game, just a frustration. Endurance race, 40 minutes with rewind off, impossible to drive 40 minutes without crash, so never win the race. DO NOT BUY THIS GAME.
 
Hi, everyone is there a list bike list that of the season pass? If I If I had known sooner I wouldn't have bought the game. there are not many motorcycles available...
 
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Not sure what you are asking but if you want to see what the DLC bikes are you have to click each release on the DLC page. to see the bikes included. There use to be a complete bike and track list but it may have been removed.

So it's been a bit since this game was released. While it has issues I wouldn't say it's not worth buying. That really would be the case if you have purchased previous versions of the game and like that handling or game setup better. Ride 4's issue are no different than all of Milestones games
  1. Terrible braking and non-realistic bike physics
  2. Terrible AI
  3. Overpriced and stupidly priced internal content
  4. Under developed and tested game design
  5. Rehashed content and features

Someone else said it and basically its how I've been playing all of Milestones bike games for years. I just do hot laps with my bike of choice. What is the point of a career moe if the AI is so bad there is no point in "racing" it? Ride 4 is actually the first of their games that I actually used the livery editor and was able to design my bike to take to a painter.

Without competition Milestone will just do what they do cause they are the only choice. RIMs Racing was terrible. The sad thing is Ride 4 is control wise a step forward. but they need to fix the braking. When I say realistic I'm not talking about an insanely hard unplayable sim. Anyone claiming that is real hasn't ridden a bike. If they fixed the braking it would do wonders for the game. And instead of coming up with all these stupid "new best ever revolutionary" career modes blah blah if they would put time into making the AI better and aware. the game would be awesome. It's just a bunch of little stuff and tweaks

Funny thing is they do all this stuff for no reason. I hate season passes that is all the rage these days, but games like Ride, MotoGP, F1, etc........ Those are actually games that could benefit from that and work for both sides. For licensed games like MotoGP & F1 I'm guessing companies won't do it because they need to sell full priced games to recoup the cost of the license. but for a game like Ride if Milestone were smart Ride 4 would be the last full release and everything else be a season pass. Honestly all I want is more tracks and bikes and gear. Ride 5 comes out and I basically have to run through the same stupid career tasks just to get back the stuff I already had in the previous game plus whatever few new bikes that actually add....... I don't know that I will.

Honestly think Milestone should stop at Ride 4. Patch it to fix the AI and the braking and then just add a season pass DLC that adds new bikes, tracks and gears. The same people buy the game over and over and it's going to be hard to convince people to basically keep buying the same game. I'm a diehard bike game nut and I'm pretty close to being done. No new bikes out now would make me buy a game just to have it. and if they don't add more real world tracks again there is no point for me
 
RZ05
Funny thing is they do all this stuff for no reason. I hate season passes that is all the rage these days, but games like Ride, MotoGP, F1, etc........ Those are actually games that could benefit from that and work for both sides. For licensed games like MotoGP & F1 I'm guessing companies won't do it because they need to sell full priced games to recoup the cost of the license. but for a game like Ride if Milestone were smart Ride 4 would be the last full release and everything else be a season pass. Honestly all I want is more tracks and bikes and gear. Ride 5 comes out and I basically have to run through the same stupid career tasks just to get back the stuff I already had in the previous game plus whatever few new bikes that actually add....... I don't know that I will.

Honestly think Milestone should stop at Ride 4. Patch it to fix the AI and the braking and then just add a season pass DLC that adds new bikes, tracks and gears. The same people buy the game over and over and it's going to be hard to convince people to basically keep buying the same game. I'm a diehard bike game nut and I'm pretty close to being done. No new bikes out now would make me buy a game just to have it. and if they don't add more real world tracks again there is no point for me
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Yeah, I'd be happy too if they'd just adopt a Wreckfest-like model, release some bike, gear and track packages, make some small housekeeping type tweaks here and there and run with it for a few years. As it is right now with their business model, any game they have I basically consider anything but the deluxe edition the "light" or demo version.

I still play it every weekend and will continue to do so.
 
Yes, Terrible braking ! I ride a Aprilia tuono 1000R 2007 Factory . There's alot of things that be better. I played the first Ride and Ride 2. They where great games. I was looking forward to Ride 4 . I bought it together with ps5 . But I was disappointed. Bad breaking and kamikaze ia... And I have the standard game not the deluxe version. It says that you get 65 more bike then the standard game. I just want to know . What bikes. But like you says it's not worth buying the season pass. Because the ride 4 deluxe version got the season pass included. Sorry for my bad English. Greets
 
So i bought the game since is on sell on psn and while i like the handling with the pad the first thing that jump out on me was the braking 😯 Im no expert on bikes but i don't think sport bikes or race bikes need so much distance to break and it feels like your breaking on ice with this bikes.

And then you have the track count Yikes

Overall

Pro - handling with controller is better then the last 3

Cons -

Track count
Breaking
Graphics

6/10
 
Track count? Compared to PC2 maybe, but I'd say 33 tracks with multiple layouts, many of which you won't find elsewhere, is hardly something to scoff at, doesn't GT Sport have 30 and Forza 7 have 32? So more than the two premium console franchises? Okay, they have a few more layouts within that mostly stay untouched and ignored on both, but still.

Braking, I'll hear your argument, there are some workarounds, you can get it better (it's still not great), it's been discussed to death in the main R4 thread. Graphics, no idea what it looks like on a Playstation so I'd have to take your word for it, but I know what it looks like on PC and XSX...
 
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r_outsider
Track count? Compared to PC2 maybe, but I'd say 33 tracks with multiple layouts, many of which you won't find elsewhere, is hardly something to scoff at, doesn't GT Sport have 30 and Forza 7 have 32? So more than the two premium console franchises? Okay, they have a few more layouts within that mostly stay untouched and ignored on both, but still.

Braking, I'll hear your argument, there are some workarounds, you can get it better (it's still not great), it's been discussed to death in the main R4 thread. Graphics, no idea what it looks like on a Playstation so I'd have to take your word for it, but I know what it looks like on PC and XSX...
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Well the reason i say the track list is bad is cause lets take a closer look at the track list

WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca
Oulton Park Circuit
Donington Park Circuit
Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari Imola
Brands Hatch Circuit
Cadwell Park Circuit
Autódromo Internacional do Algarve
Tsukuba
Nürburgring GP
Nurburgring Nordschleife
Mugello
Road America
Daytona International Speedway Road Course

Those are tracks you will find in pretty much any racing game you buy today.
There in so many games that when ever you see them its like yawn those tracks again.

So take those track out and yeah the list doesn't look to good.
 
Just a couple of things. Speaking for myself at this point I personally think Ride 4 is the best physics wise in the series, but and it's a big but..... it has the same problem as all the Milestone bikes. braking and AI. The game layout is going to be a personal taste thing I don't the career mode but to be honest I haven't really liked any of them because it is not why I buy racing games and locking up 80 to 90% of them behind career is annoying

  1. PS5 version isn't groundbreking visually but it is nothing to complain about.
  2. Tracks again this is personal, I'm not the biggest fan of the track selection. I could do without the road courses and a lot of the USA and Euro tracks. This is primarily because of the handling of the game especially in 1st person as the bikes aren't precise enough and sway
  3. AI no need to comment other than it makes the career and "racing" pointless. You can't race the AI
  4. Braking yes braking is bad and unrealistic. If the point was to make it more accessible then they failed and continue to do so. The easiest way to brake deeper and even get close to AI braking is to brake hard and ride the brakes long and most improtantly don't down shift. Do not shift until you have turned in . To Milestone the weakest part of braking is the actual brakes. So you have to use the motor to slow you down. It's really hard to do this if you actually ride because it's not natural. On the flip side the have the MotoGP brakes so that you endo if you even think about touching them.
  5. Turning - To get the bikes to turn better you can't trail the brakes. So it's catch 22. The bikes are slowing enough so you ride them longer and now don't make the corner because you're on the brakes. So basically you just have to brake as much as you can then get off them before you turn in. If you do you'll be amazed how fast the bikes actually turn. But Milestone has made far more difficult than it needs to be.
Witch all that said, I honestly think it's the best of the series (but I still think Tourist Trophy plays better). I don't mind doing hot laps on my own. and while yeah its lame if you reduce the AI riders to just 1 or 2 chasing them around can be fun. But you shouldn't have to do that. I've never been a big fan of their paint editors but the one in Ride 4 is the easily the best to the point that I've gone from never really using any of them in any Milestone game to spending about half my time using the one in Ride 4. No its not perfect and could use some better basic features, but with it I was able to design the custom scheme that I ended up using for my real bike.

Also the cool thing on the PS5 version is the use of the controller to simulate traction. That is pretty nice and they improved it on MXGP 2021. So honestly buying Ride 4 today especially when it's generally on sale for under $20 is kind of a no brainer. It's not perfect and I've probably bitched about it more than anyone. But since it was released I've apparently logged over 400 hrs on the PS4 version and recently crossed 100hrs on the PS5..... so much for keeping it short. lol
 
Well a solution i found for braking is to assign the rear brakes to a button in my case i assigned it to circle on my ds4 and using both front and rear brakes helps slow the bikes extremely even if i miss the braking zone.

Cause for some reason if you don't assign the rear brakes the game only uses the front brakes even if you have joint brakes on.

Its made a huge difference to the point i cant complain about the brakes no more. 😁
 
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yeah that I know but it's a stylistic thing lol. I don't like rear braking so much, but yeah I use it as a last resort. But you shouldn't have to go through so much thought just to get the bikes to stop. and to me it's only a problem if you are "racing" the AI. When dealing with another player its an even playing field so braking and cornering aren't so much an issue, because you are bound by the same physics. But yeah instead of the rear brake I prefer to load the front using the gearbox. Not realistic way of riding but it works for the game

Also I've said previously the AI was not player aware. I was absolutely wrong. The AI is very player aware, and I'm pretty Milestone purposely programed the AI to be as cheap and dirty as possible. There is good clean hard racing and then there is dirty. Milestone seems to think they are the same. I've the AI intentionally and repeatedly try it's best to take me out. This isn't defensive riding, it's just dirty. From the starts, to just racing Milestone seems to have taken an easy way out, so instead of being challenging they just made the game dirty. Depending on your start really determines how many crashes there will be going into the first corner. The AI bikes always seem to be on the wrong line and will corner from that line unless your are near them in which cause they swing over not to be defensive, but to primarily take you out.

Not sure why they would think this is fun. This very thing was one of the many reasons I hated that last Grid game. Codemasters taking pride in pointing out they intentional made the AI cheap at points. Again who enjoys that?

So when I want to "race" the AI I only have 1 or 2 opponents put it one extreme hard or whatever and then it's not so bad. They are still a bit dirty but you don't have tons of bikes trying to take you out left and right, so it's easier to deal with. Silly stuff and if they'd just change a couple of things, put a little effort instead of dumb gimmicks the games would be a lot more fun for the serious bike fans but also more accessible for the casual gamer.
 
Man i was having trouble with helmet cam just the way the bike moves as oppose to the rider just felt off.

But after riding the slower naked bikes i finally got the hang of it and now i can even drive the faster sport bikes in helmet cam no problem.
 
the sway effect :( I use the 1st -1 person view or the bike cam where all you see is the road (no sway but tilted earth)

Also since it was mentioned a couple of times, while I don't have the list, there are over 65 "new" bikes when counted from all the DLC. But "new" is tricky because a lot are just race versions of bikes in the game or in the dlc. Which is a better deal delux or season pass can't say and guess it would depend on when you purchased it and if it were on sale. You end up with same content.
 

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