🏍️ RIDE 5 (Xbox) Review – Great Fun, Big Garage… But Still Annoyingly Flawed

By Ben Grayson – Get Ben Riding

Let’s get this out of the way: I like RIDE 5.If you love bikes, race series, and pretending you’re Jonathan Rea on a Tuesday night, this is pretty much the only big bike game we’ve got. And that’s the problem — it should be incredible… but it’s still held back by some really avoidable, really frustrating issues.

Here’s my honest take.

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⭐ The Good Stuff – Why You’ll Enjoy It

Huge Bike List & Track Selection

RIDE 5 is basically Gran Turismo for motorcycles. Hundreds of bikes, loads of tracks, everything from road weapons to superbikes. If you love browsing bikes, tuning them, and testing them, this game absolutely scratches that itch.

It Looks Great (Mostly)

Lighting, weather, reflections — when it’s on form, the game looks brilliant. On Series X|S it shines. On Xbox One it still runs fine, just with some visual downgrades and longer loads.

Career Mode Has Good Depth

Career is long, varied and gives you plenty to work towards. There’s something oddly satisfying about grinding your way up to your dream garage.

Split-Screen Is Back

Finally. If you’ve got mates over, couch racing is actually fun again.

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🥴 Now the Annoying Stuff – And There’s More Than Last Time

❌ No Official WSBK, BSB or AMA Liveries… Why?!

This one blows my mind. There is currently no proper WSBK or BSB game on the market. Milestone already have the physics, the bikes, the tracks…

And yet we get no official series liveries.

No Brookes. No Rea. No McAMS. No BMW Motorrad WSBK livery.

NOTHING.

It’s baffling. It feels like a massive missed opportunity — especially because everyone who plays RIDE wants that experience.

❌ Time Trial is Broken — Because of Cheaters AND Silly Rules

Time trial should be the best mode. Instead:

• There are lap times that are literally impossible

• Some riders are 20 seconds faster than P2

• Clearly hacked or glitched

• And Milestone just… leave them there?

It ruins the competitive part of the game before it begins.

Then add this stupid rule:

Touch the curb a millimetre too hard? Lap invalid. Mate, this is BIKE racing. We live on the curbs.

I get cutting corners, but sometimes it invalidates a completely legitimate lap because you kissed a rumble strip like it owed you money.

Infuriating.

❌ Physics and Performance Differences Are Weird

This one surprised me.

You'd expect:

• Road bike

• Then modified

• Race bike

To feel massively different. But in RIDE 5? The gap is weirdly small. Some of the road bikes feel almost as quick as their race-spec counterparts.

Feels a bit off.

❌ Bike Sounds Are Still Wrong

They’re better than RIDE 4, but still robotic. They don’t capture that angry bark of a big twin or the howl of a screaming inline-four.

And changing the exhaust makes almost zero audible difference. Come on… this is Motorcycles 101.It matters.

❌ Replays Are Still Glitchy

Another long-standing Milestone issue.

When your rider is knee-down and the track camber changes:

• The knee vanishes into the track

• Sometimes the foot pegs clip through the tarmac

• It looks like your rider has unlocked ghost mode

It’s subtle, but once you see it you can’t unsee it — and it kills the immersion.

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🤷‍♂️ The Verdict From a Real Rider

Here’s the honest truth:

Tourist Trophy on the PS2 still feels more realistic. Yes, the PS2 game. Yes, from 2006.The handling was just… right. You could feel the bike move under you in a way RIDE has never totally nailed.

RIDE 5 is good. Very good, depending on your expectations. But every time I think: “THIS is the one…”…it does something silly that reminds me it’s still not quite there.

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⭐ Final Score: 3.5 / 5

Would I recommend it? Yes — if you’re a bike fan, you’ll enjoy it.

Will it annoy you? Absolutely.

Does it fill the hole left by no BSB/WSBK game? Not even close.