RiMS Racing

Up there with the best.

Intro

Your helmet drowns out the sounds of the crowd and the engines of the other riders as the lights begin their countdown. You squeeze the clutch and rotate the throttle just enough to keep the revs in the sweet spot - the razor's edge between a slow start and a cloud of wheel spin.

It's go time!

Tearing up the tarmac, you lean forward into the bike, pushing the front wheel down to cancel its overwhelming desire to leave the ground and flip you on your back. Flicking up rapidly through the gears, you tuck in behind the tiny screen of glass above the dials, seeing the reflection of the red needle as you hit 200mph. You glance either side as you scream past the 150 metre marking board, a tight right hander rapidly approaching. The riders you're sandwiched between will not lift, and neither will you. Picking your line, you gently squeeze the front brake and hold down hard on the rear, shifting your weight across the seat, untucked, elbows out, just managing to control the slide, sparks flying from the occasional gap between your knee and the asphalt.

Through the muffled padding of your crash helmet, your hear the crowd roar - you exit the corner in first place.

Now you just have to hold onto it.

Review
Ex-Milestone developers, racing alumni who worked on Ride and WRC among other such titles, banded together to make their own studio, with a focus on the passion of racing and why people love it. Combining this unique approach with true simulation handling, a hands on totally unique upgrade system, fantastic graphics and accurately recreated race tracks, RiMS Racing is right up there with Isle of Man 2 as the best two wheeled racing available on Xbox right now.

It also has hilarious ragdoll crashes which send your rider into orbit, which is a very good thing, as it lightens the atmosphere of the steep learning curve - you'll be breaking a lot of virtual bones before you even finish your first race, let alone win.

RiMS racing is all about the motorcycle. It's a game built completely around the idea of owning, racing and enhancing your two wheeled steed, and it takes itself very seriously. As you work your way through the seasons of career mode, you'll use money you win from races and challenges to upgrade your bike, and buy new bikes too.

Every single vehicle is licensed as you would expect, with manufacturers such as BMW, Ducati, Yamaha, Asprilla, Kawasaki, MV Agusta and more having their various iconic rides recreated in game with exquisite detail. Every awning, every fuel tank, every pipe, every chain has been built for the maximum accuracy and realism, and the passion of the development team really shines through. This level of obsessive detail - right down to the hundreds of real world licensed parts you can swap out and upgrade on your ride - extends to the physical act of upgrading, too. There's no "pick a part from a list, hit buy, see stats change and hear a wheel nut gun" approach here. Want to swap out your brake discs? Focus on the wheel, rotate the thumbsticks to loosen the nuts and bolts, remove the calipers (rotate and examine them if you like), slide the stick to remove the old disc, insert the new one, replace the calipers, rotate the thumbsticks to tighten the nuts and bolts, and you're there.

It might sound like a chore, but it really isn't - it's odd at first, sure, but as it requires attention and physical interaction from you, it makes every upgrade feel important, much more so that just scrolling along a list of parts and picking "the best" you can afford.

As you race in numerous events, your parts will generate wear and tear, and will need to be swapped out for new ones in time. This is where one if the game's coolest features comes into play.

Whilst racing out on track, a quick hit of a controller button will pause the action instantly, wherever you are, as long as you're not mid crash. You can rotate the camera around your bike in real-time, and each individual component will highlight as you do, giving you on the spot feedback about the damage and wear on each part. Pit stops play a role here too, allowing you to refuel and get minor repairs whilst mid race.

This level of detail is present everywhere - helmet and dash cams are fantastic, with every bike's unique dials and switches modelled beautifully. You can even choose how many fingers your rider uses on the break levers and how they lean into corners, which foot they place on the ground when stationary, to match your own real world techniques. Perhaps because of this level of attention afforded to the bikes, there is one huge caveat - there are only eight stock models. You of course upgrade them and make them your own, but still - it's hardly Forza on two wheels.

All of this would be for nothing, though, if the racing was crap. Thank goodness, then, that this is up there with the best of the best when it comes to in the saddle action.

Let me say to start with that yes, there are difficulty and accessibility options to make your life easier on the road. You can choose to simplify the riding physics, to use ABS and Traction Control, and to combine the breaks so you just have to use one button for both front and back amongst other choices. It's up to you if you want do that, but it's when playing without those safety nets that RiMS Racing really shines.

It takes a lot of practice. A lot. Remember the first time you played Gran Turismo? TOCA Touring Cars? Richard Burns Rally? Yeah, that kind of practice. But it's so, so worth it. Even more so than Isle of Man 2, the physicality of riding a motorcycle has never felt more real. For the enthusiasts, this is the gold standard of two wheeled simulation racing. Tracks are fantastic too, with many real world locations as well as some great fantasy tracks based on famous roads from around the world.

This all makes it so, so annoying then, that the career mode is something of a letdown.

It hurts to say this, but it drags. Your "career" is essentially one long, long line of events that you progress through in linear order. It's literally a line you scroll across. You can swap up some of the events for others - you might be tempted by doing three races in a row for cash prizes, but that may put too much wear on your parts, so you might decide to skip a few to be in a good place for the next big competition round. That's strategic and really cool, but it doesn't alter the fact that working along a line of 70+ events isn't exactly inspiring.

If you can overlook that, though - and you should do your best, because at the end of the day you spend most of your time out on track - then RiMS Racing will give you exactly what you're looking for, as long as you're a two-wheeled racing nut with an obsession over detail. This is one for the sim racing fans, and uninspired career progression aside, it's up there with the best.