RiMS Racing, the tried and tested of this new Made in Italy simulation
RiMS Racing
A few days ago we had a conference call for the presentation of a new IP of the French publisher Nacon: it is RiMS Racing, acronym for Rider Motorbike Simulation, developed by the newborn Milanese studio RaceWard. We could not fail to tell you a few more details about a game that aims to explore new frontiers of simulation on two wheels.At the end we were also provided with a code for a private beta that allowed us to try with RiMS Racing hand and tell you all our impressions.
Racing set-up for motorcycles
The developers (some of them from Milestone) immediately wanted to clarify that RiMS will be very different from games like MotoGP or Ride, aiming for a higher level of realism, not only in terms of aesthetics.With a romantic vision, it could be said that the goal is to recreate the visceral bond that is established between the centaur and his motorbike. The title offers eight of the most powerful two wheels on the market: Aprilia RSV4, BMW M1000 RR, Ducati Panigale V4R, Honda CBR1000 RR, Kawasaki Ninja ZX10 RR, MV Agusta F4 RC, Suzuki GSXR-1000 and Yamaha YZF R1. Twenty tracks: ten "closed", traditional in style, including a revisited version of the Monsanto track in Portugal, and ten "open", where we find five iconic locations to tackle in both directions. These include the Great Victoria Desert in Australia and the San Marco Pass in Italy, a real place of worship for two-wheel purists.
There are five game modes for single player (single race, private tests, academy, tutorial and career), and three for multiplayer (public challenges, private lobbies and split-screen). The offer is completed by a photographic mode and a section dedicated to the player's palmares.
As can be easily understood, the career is the highlight of RaceWard's offer. It unfolds over twelve seasons, for each of which up to nineteen events can be planned. The player, in addition to playing the primary role of rider, is also called to direct off-track operations.
Career mode
A Ducati Panigale in the fold It starts with a small headquarters, divided into three departments: engineering, research and management. Each of these can be upgraded over time and while the level of the team will not affect the riding characteristics of the bike in the slightest, it will provide some advantages. For example, a good sales department will allow you to obtain spare parts at lower prices; an improvement of the research structure, more precise information on the evolution of weather conditions, and so on. The headquarters of the team will in turn be "alive", as it will be enriched with all the trophies won or the celebratory posters.One aspect that was emphasized during the presentation is that of planning the calendar: it will not simply be a matter of facing the races mechanically one after the other, but it will be necessary to carefully establish which activities to dedicate to between Grand Prix and the other, for example by participating in events organized by sponsors, facing private tests to evaluate new components or unmarking some challenges proposed by the mechanics. The driving model is linked to double delivery with the incredible possibilities of customization of the vehicle.
Each bike has been divided into forty-five zones: from the saddle to the tank, from the brakes to the fork, there is practically nothing that cannot be changed, except for the engine, an element on which the manufacturers have placed a veto.
Customize everything
The very bad of Noale We start by buying a standard bike, exactly as it comes out of the dealer, on which aftermarket improvements can then be fitted. There is no experience process such that at certain levels the best upgrades are unlocked: just as happens in reality, the only problem to be asked is that of the budget, since all the updates are available immediately. There is talk of over five hundred original and really existing components that any centaur could install on their two wheels.Following the same logic, the exhausts compatible with the CBR1000 will obviously not be installed on the Panigale. Each modification interacts with the rest of the mechanics, therefore the equation according to which more expensive components corresponds to a more performing vehicle is not necessarily always true in RiMS.
To assess the impacts of the modifications, RaceWard has developed a real-time telemetry, called the Motorbike Status Check. It is a tool that allows, by pausing the game, to evaluate on the fly the state of wear of the tires or the level of acceleration out of the corners, or the fuel consumption. A refined system that translates driving sensations into tangible data, without necessarily having to enter the pits.
The same obsessive search for realism has also been placed on the driver: you can choose from two hundred items of clothing to customize your avatar, adapting your driving style to your tastes, such as posture during the folds or the handle for braking. The falls will also affect the suit that will have to be replaced following a crash.
In the saddle
Photo mode in action Taking the gamepad in hand, we were faced with a simulation quite strict, even with many driving aids enabled. The control of the motorcycles requires constant intervention on the directional sticks, because even in the straight sections the wheels must be addressed with surgical precision, under penalty of a corner entry that leaves no other options than the fall. Maximum attention also to the dorsal levers, in particular the right one which corresponds as usual to the accelerator: if you press too hard out of the rope point you risk skidding and sometimes ruinous falls.Driving aids are the traditional three: traction control, anti wheelie and engine break; for each of them there are four levels of intervention of the ECU. The first, as you can easily guess, prevents the rear wheel from slipping during acceleration, cutting the engine power. The same technique is adopted to prevent the front wheel from coming off the ground, while the engine brake influences the slowdown of the vehicle when the accelerator is released.
The physics engine has always been one of the strengths of the KT engine (think also of TT Isle of Man) and in RiMS Racing it has been further perfected thanks also to the indications of the manufacturers and with the help from a real professional team, whose identity has not yet been revealed. The mass of the bike is noticeable in the changes of direction, much slower than the very fast Milestone MotoGP bikes, but it is not just about folds: the real difficulty lies in entering the curve and reaching the apex. With the lower level of realism, various smudges are forgiven, but just select the intermediate difficulty to be punished at every length: desperately clinging to the levers while leaning is equivalent to being thrown off the bike in a few moments. The ideal trajectories must absolutely be improved, given that in several points it is recommended to brake with exaggerated advance and in others the computer suggests to tackle some folds in full by taking risks that only Marc Marquez would have the guts to take.
Technical aspect
The first-person view is difficult to use As mentioned above, the game engine is the same used for the other titles of the transalpine publisher, namely the Kylotonn KT Engine. There is no support for ray-tracing, while to a specific question the programmers replied (smiling) that they will do everything possible to reach 60 frames per second in 4K on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. On the editorial reference PC of course there were no problems maintaining a frame rate of 100 in Ultra HD, albeit with several episodes of stuttering in the open tracks. These are essentially the same defects that we had also noticed in WRC 9, with the title "sobbing" when some portions of the track are loaded.As in the official title of the World Rally Championship, we noticed some inaccuracies, such as the bike losing grip even in the asphalt escape routes or hitting the guard rails on the side of the road even if in fact not they touch. From an aesthetic point of view, the title is fluctuating: the models of the bikes are truly spectacular and rich in detail when viewed in the garage, a little less during the in-game sessions. What is out of place is the surrounding scenery, whose appearance appears a bit too dated especially in the open slopes.
The audio worked in fits and starts, but in the moments when we could listen to it, it seemed to us that the roar of the bikes was really accurate, with a characteristic sound depending on the manufacturer (very nice the cry of the MV Agusta). The game, whose release date is set for August 19, will be available for Windows PCs and last and penultimate generation consoles. A free demo version is planned for the Steam Next Fest from June 16 to 22, with limited content.
RiMS aims to offer a very realistic gaming experience and, as far as we have been able to try, it seems to succeed quite well, so much so that sometimes the joypad is almost inadequate as a controller. Too bad for some slowdowns and other technical flaws that are a legacy of the KT engine. The graphics don't scream a miracle, which is a shame considering the driving model. Finally, the multiplayer should be evaluated, which could give various satisfactions, even if it seems that it is not, at the moment, among the priorities of the developers.
