Motorcycles are an exciting mode of transportation and far more interesting to master than any other road vehicle.

In life (and in video games) I?ve always enjoyed their delicate balance of precision and power and, in some cases,

their ability to execute full-on flips and land safely. I can?t say I ever saw an articulated lorry do a 360 degree corkscrew

while the driver made obscene hand gestures to passers-by and still come out relatively unscathed, but then maybe

I?ve lived a particularly sheltered life, far from the arenas teeming with people gawping at dump trucks getting major

air off a dirt ramp.

Anyway, I digress. I?m here to talk about RIDE, the motorcycling equivalent of Gran Turismo from the creators of the

popular MotoGP series (Milestone). I?m here to tell you why it works rather well as a racing sim and why it sometimes

fails as a fun experience.

RIDE gives you hundreds of real-world bikes in different classes as well as official bike gear and bike parts to play

with, all accessible in the tried and trusted routine of doing well and earning credits to unlock them. It features a

decent selection of popular real life tracks that take in street, TT and GP race types to name but a few; you can also

customise your bike and rider in a fairly in-depth manner too, so you can see where the GT comparison comes into

play. That also extends to the sim-like nature of the gameplay, but I?ll come back to that later on.