Are You Interested in Motorcycle Racing Games/Sims?

motogp_2022_motorcycle_sims.jpg

Are you interested in motorcycle racing games/sims (details in comments)?

  • Yes

    Votes: 355 58.9%

  • Maybe

    Votes: 102 16.9%

  • No

    Votes: 146 24.2%
  • Total voters
    603
Racing on 2 wheels can be so very exciting. The several international motorcycle racing series prove that season over season. Yet, motorcycle games haven't really taken the sim racing field. So, what do you think about motorcycle racing games?

Now, I admit, calling most motorcycle games out there "simulations" might be a bit of a stretch, as all of them lack a certain degree of realism. Therefore, in the following paragraphs, I will be calling them "games".

Be it MotoX or Superbike, There are Bikes For Everyone!​

In the dirt, on roads, in the air or on the ground. Bikes have a variability in racing that arguably exceeds car racing. One detail that the IRL racing series show time and time again, however, is the incredible amount of overtaking. And that just makes sense.

Bikes are much smaller than cars. If they race on the same tracks, overtakes are much easier to come by, because, on tracks where cars could go 3 wide, bikes could go at least 6 wide. In racing series like the Moto3 that happens regularly. But even the larger machines have a much easier time just diving inside of their competitors cleanly.

So, if real life can make those races so close and competitive, why hasn't it taken the digital world yet?

Digital Two-Wheel Racing is Lacklustre​

There might be a few problems coming together. In fact, I own a few motorcycle racing games, but none of them could reel me in for a longer time. There's the MotoGP games which are just nothing special. A few in-development steam games are fluttering around for motox. And there's SBK 22. Which I'd rather forget altogether.

But instead of me listing up every problem that comes to mind, I'll just put the question to you:

Are you interested in motorcycle games? ​

If you have problems with them, what are the problem? And what would you suggest to make them more enjoyable? Let us know in the comments down below!
About author
Julian Strasser
Julian Strasser
Motorsports and Maker-stuff enthusiast. Part time jack-of-all-trades. Owner of tracc.eu, a sim racing-related service provider and its racing community.

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Comments

OZ67
Premium
They need a Consumer level Controller like a desktop mounted FFB Handlebar + VR Then I would definitely give them more time. As they are, too much of a learning curve /muscle memory with hand controllers and you need to be playing hour after hour to get a little competitive. Actually way harder than real life.
 
S
aasasd said:
Huh, afaik so far direct-drive wheels were the first and perhaps only devices allowing one to deliver injury over multiplayer—if one sets up the crash just right.
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Well, clearly remember a kid been thrown of the MC arcade hall bike back in the 80ies, the much heavier model I referred to earlier in this thread.

That said; Been driven both MCs and huge variation of road cars and track purpose race cars IRL on/off since I took my MC- and car driver licenses in 1990 and just as regards fourwheelers and even best motion rigs with +25Nm FFB, nothing compares to reality.

It is a huge mistake if one expects simracing to be able to model reality 1:1, myself I have never considered our field in that way.
Otherwise the result will be jumping from dissapointment to dissapointment.

But sometimes the discussions here at RD take strange detours, the other article asking audience oppinion about fictive tracks and cars and some answers are 'well, everything in a sim is fictional' - quite off the beaten record, being distortion of proportions, IMO.

But less can do it.

To me the most important task for a sim is the ability to deliver immersion. And even with pixel graphics back in the 80ies, the immersion on those arcade game MC rigs was far beyond recent decades graphics marmeladeof MC games simraced with keyboards, joysticks or gamepad controllers.

As I wrote, my thoughts back in the 80ies were, that good times would come in the future, speaking home MC rigs at entry level prizes.

But not the only field of major setbacks speaking simracing recent years, with venders betting the whole board on graphics marmelade, though a good VR engine would help just a tad.
 
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S
In relation to my previous post about immerson.
Sound is a big factor.
The SBK sim I raced round the Millennium was far better speaking sound modelling than my experience with Race4 yesterday evening.
Just found the 1985 Honda NS 400R, very close to the non-R public road version of which l drove while taking my MC driver license, some +32 years ago.
But Race4's bid for engine sound output is miserable to an undescribable extend; the sound of a petulantly insistent tiny wasp or city moped...while reality was a deep, sugary hum all the way up through the revs. Oh boy they got that one so awful wrong, a real pity.
 
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rup.car
rup.car said:
Extremely interested, I just wanted a AC for bikes so bad...But I enjoy playing MotoGp with a gyroscope controller, a lot actually, as the sport is the best one in my opinion.
Click to expand...

aasasd said:
Which version/year do you mean here?
Click to expand...
Helmet cam is really usable from MotoGP 21. It used to be really bad, but now it's good enough for a realistic and challenging experience without being so frustrating.
 
rup.car
turbo86 said:
You don't know how to ride a bicycle, do you.
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yes, if there's an opinion i find hard to believe is that you dont like bicycles or any of their derivatives, they are pure joy in motion. but to each its own
 
Pete Conway
Premium
rup.car said:
yes, if there's an opinion i find hard to believe is that you dont like bicycles or any of their derivatives, they are pure joy in motion. but to each its own
Click to expand...

Indeed, but it's a matter of where someone's interest lies, and like the time when I asked my wife what her favourite car was I got the reply "Red I suppose"
so, if it ain't someone's thing then, well... it ain't.
 
D
its certainly not a stretch to call mx bikes and gp bikes sims. the more mainstream ones sure but there are actual sims, the main issue is you have to use a controller for something that in real life you lean over. i play mx bikes quite a bit, took like 100 hours before i was able to do much of anything in it but it does feel really good when youre flowing nicvely around a track
 
Metla
Premium
I consider the issue isn't the lean, but that the input has zero chance of replicating all the rest of the inputs that go on at the same time, countersteering, weight shift within the lean, braking (forward and back), and when they try and do that crap it makes it less realistic and stupidly hard.

The immersion isn't there because it's all about trying to balance the controller inputs, and not the bike as it is represented on screen.

Handle bar controllers won't and don't address any of this.

Just simplify the crap to cover what can be simulated and give us stunning graphics and audio. Work on having the bikes match real world performance and make it controllable.
 
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THK84
leon46 said:
Don't think this is real. The project was a scam to steal people's money. Some poeple ordered it and paid but never received it
Click to expand...

was it a Kickstarter? xD

But good to know. Thanks for the heads up.
 
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O
Pete Conway said:
If I was rich I'd have a rig for a Motorbike sims, (not that I feel I'd use it more than a car rig... which I also don't have) but I'm not and I can't really get the feel of a bike without sitting on one, I used to ride and loved it, and often on shorter exhilarating trips forgetting to breath.
I've played a few motorbike beat-em-up games and that's ok with a controller cos it's just behind the bike and fun, but sims are for me at least immersive, and just as I can't drive from wingman cam with a controller, I can't do Bike sims without bars, and I'd feel weird sitting in the arm of the settee with a set of Handlebars.
So for me it's a no go area until the lottery win... but I don't do the lottery ;)
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I'd still try GP Bikes. The handling and physics are so good you ignore the fact you may play it with controller in first person view.

That said it does support all kinds of controllers, from full rigs to steering wheels and VR.
 
O
Mekonrider said:
As biker that's fairly decent at riding I only play bike 'games' for fun. You'll never be able to replicate the use of the body that happens when you're pushing on or get the same feedback.

Give me Driveclub Bikes or PGR4.
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I play MXB and GPB mainly because they allow body control seperate from steering :D
MXB having more body control than GP, because it has sit and dab for example.

Best bike games / sims out there right now.
 
O
stenovitz said:
In relation to my previous post about immerson.
Sound is a big factor.
The SBK sim I raced round the Millennium was far better speaking sound modelling than my experience with Race4 yesterday evening.
Just found the 1985 Honda NS 400R, very close to the non-R public road version of which l drove while taking my MC driver license, some +32 years ago.
But Race4's bid for engine sound output is miserable to an undescribable extend; the sound of a petulantly insistent tiny wasp or city moped...while reality was a deep, sugary hum all the way up through the revs. Oh boy they got that one so awful wrong, a real pity.
Click to expand...
Hey! I highly recommend adjusting audio Equalizer for Ride 4 to make most out of it. I'm fairly sure that game was made for consoles + home theater. You need good speakers and volume to get the most out of it. I hated the sounds originally too.

Try increasing bass and midtones higher, and bit less high freq.

If I play R4 I use amp, giant tower speakers or studio headphones and now I'd say it's one of, if not the best sounding bike game. (Handling is still a meh for me tho)
 
S
Metla said:
[...] zero chance of replicating all the rest of the inputs that go on at the same time, countersteering, weight shift within the lean, braking (forward and back), and when they try and do that crap it makes it less realistic and stupidly hard.
Click to expand...
A very relevant input.

But "zero chance" is a stretch of which again reminds med of the heavier 80ies arcade game hall rig, of which the heavy body part (including a foot pedal) was hinged to the bike handle bar.

Which in at least some way delivered the immersion of countersteering through gyro-effects.

But ability to forward/backward weight shift was still clearly missing.

However, my thoughts are that this should be doable. Though, requires some per-bike-type modelling, since resulting weight differs much from e.g. RR, chopper, etc.

Then add VR to it, and I would bet it feels just a tad more realistic than flat screen gamepad controller steering :)
 
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A
I wonder if some kind of position sensors, a-la VR controllers, would allow for a simpler bike controller without a bike-size mechanical rig. Slap two of the sensors on your buttcheeks and ride your broom with that handlebar ducktaped to it. Not much in terms of feedback, but then again no need to have a room dedicated to the rig.
 
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TheRealCeeBee
sold my last car a little over 5 years ago,and 100% bike commute since then, I also do a LOT of ADV riding, so id be the ideal market for this but to date havent found a single game that that is even remotely interesting in the way car sim is due to controller issues. If they can do what Kayak Vr Mirage did for that game, make me feel like im actually in a kayak and actually paddling it, id sell a kidney to own the game.

Skip in to about 4 minutes

 
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D
Ever since I got the Isle of Mann full track mod for rFactor2, I would say say my answer is NO!
 

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