I'm tempted to pick up Ride 2 - I've never really been into bikes but it looks interesting, presumably you don't need a wheel to play it (for obvious reasons) but is it newbie friendly?
I've played the first Ride, Ducati 90th Anniversary and Ride 2 having never really been in to bikes or played any bike games before and found them easy to get in to with a controller. There are plenty of different assists available to make it more accessible and you can turn them on or off individually, off the top of my head you have the usual automatic/manual transmission, racing line, TCS, ABS, stability control, automatic rider lean, joint brakes, and I think wheelie control. Taking joint brakes off was probably the most difficult for me as a usually car-racing game player, but now I've got it down I would actually say I enjoy turning laps on Ride 2 over any other game I've played, it just feels more involving and I enjoy the different lines you typically take with a bike.
Ride 3 is out in a week and has been my most hyped game since it was announced, so I can't say anything more than how much I would recommend Ride 2, at least to try it out and see how you feel about the series.
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Gravel has a pretty nice discount at the moment, -70% leaves it at only £8.99 here in the UK. I'm tempted but I also know I've already got BF5, my missing ETS2 DLC and Ride 3 (when it becomes available on Steam) this month, so maybe I'll just wait until next month, or next year
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