Ride Review

There's a particular corner on the Potrero track that can be taken flat out at high speed, but only if you got the preceding corner absolutely right. This sweeping left-right section represents a perfect microcosm of the Ride experience. Your patience, discipline, forward-planning, and applied knowledge are rewarded with a massively gratifying sensation of 'nailed it', as your simulated superbike hurtles around a banked curve and straightens up at some 150mph, a few feet from the barrier on the left, close enough to high-five the cookie-cutter spectators. You won at that corner. But are you similarly prepared for the next one? You might have noticed there weren’t any other bikes mentioned in that scenario. That's because Ride is at its best when it's just you vs. the tarmac. It's about how it feels to own a beautiful motorbike and take it out on race tracks or public roads. It echoes Gran Turismo in its reverence for the act of manipulating the controls of gleaming machines of speed, but as GT5 proved, that doesn't automatically make it a great game.

MotoGP 15 Review

MotoGP 15 is one of those 'incremental updates' that invariably causes wailing and gnashing of teeth. But actually, in this instance, the small tweaks have made a noticeable difference to the experience, so I'm not sad. This is a more welcoming and consistent package, and just as exhaustive in terms of reproducing the sport. 

As before, you get all the teams, bikes and riders of the current Moto3, Moto2 and MotoGP season, but you also get last year's too, with a 2014 events mode asking you to replicate classic battles like Rossi vs Marquez at Qatar. It's a great use of the license, and seeing Valentino beaming at you from the loading screen (alongside a suitably inspiring quote), goes a long way to making you feel closer to the real life sport. That said, the presentation feels very similar to last year's game.