Video: New Ubisoft Video Game Lets You Ride Red Bull Rampage
Mountain bike video games have a pretty patchy history with some notable highs being Downhill Domination, Descenders and Shred 2 and some notable lows being... pretty much everything else. While skateboarding got Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, snowboarding got SSX and BMX got Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX, mountain biking has been left by the wayside with no big developers really stepping up to the plate to make an mtb game, until now.
Riders Republic (sic) is a new video game from Ubisoft that pits action sports fans against each other in a mass multiplayer experience. Players can choose to ride snowboards, skis, wingsuits, road bikes, or, most interestingly to us, slopestyle and downhill mountain bikes.
From what we can gather, this isn't going to be a hyper-realistic sim game but a cartoony, fun experience that allows you to compete between disciplines. There is an element of realism though that comes from being able to ride licensed bikes from brands including Commencal, YT, Santa Cruz, and Specialized, and the ability to ride real events and locations such as Red Bull Rampage and Mammoth Mountain. In fact, you can ride at seven US National Parks in total: Mammoth Mountain, Yosemite, Grand Teton, Sequoia Park, Bryce Canyon, Zion and Canyonland.
The Red Bull Rampage section of the trailer hints at a first person mode
There's a solo play career mode where you can climb through the ranks to become a pro or there will also be online modes that include the following competitions:
- Competitions: Competitive races and trick challenges playable in PvP
- Mass Starts: 50+ player races where nothing is off limits
- Multiplayer Team Modes: 6v6 team PvP matchups
- Community Jams: 50+ player events which randomly pop up on the map
- Online Cups: The ranked multiplayer progression of the game, where you can make your way up the leaderboard
The game will be released on February 25 2021 on Playstation 5, Playstation 4, X Box Series X, X Box One, PC and Stadia but it can be pre-ordered now. More info, here.
Press Release: Ubisoft
ABOUT RIDERS REPUBLIC
Live out the rider's fantasy as you roam free in a huge, vibrant open world, always buzzing with other players around you. Immerse yourself in iconic American national parks including Bryce Canyon, Yosemite Valley, Mammoth Mountain... all mashed up for you to shred! Squad up with your friends and compete in a wide range of multiplayer modes: feel the rush of downhill races, dominate maps in team vs team competitions, or give it your best shot in epic mass PvP races with more than 50 other players.
Key Features:
JUMP INTO A MASS SOCIAL PLAYGROUND
From snowy mountains to arid canyons, ride through some of the most magnificent destinations on earth: the American National Parks. Bryce Canyon, Yosemite Valley, Sequoia Park, Zion, Canyonlands, Mammoth Mountain and Grand Teton have all been faithfully transposed and mashed up together to create the most unique and lively playground. Gather in a vibrant social hub and meet a wild community of fellow riders.
MANAGE YOUR CAREER AND MAKE IT TO THE TOP OF THE LADDER
Create and shape your own rider through evolutive, progression-based gear and define every aspect of your avatar. Whether you want to be the best snowboarder alive or the fastest thing on two wheels, everything is possible. Make a name for yourself in a variety of sports, rise to the top of the leaderboard in career mode and sign with legendary sponsors from a wide range of outdoor action sports.
MAKE THE MOST OF NEXT GEN GAMEPLAY
Riders Republic will run at 60 FPS on next gen consoles and display more than 50 players simultaneously live on screen. With the game’s very intuitive character and camera control combined with an innovative trick system, all players, casual and hardcore, will have the chance to experience untapped joy from the very beginning.
ABOUT RIDERS REPUBLIC
Live out the rider's fantasy as you roam free in a huge, vibrant open world, always buzzing with other players around you. Immerse yourself in iconic American national parks including Bryce Canyon, Yosemite Valley, Mammoth Mountain... all mashed up for you to shred! Squad up with your friends and compete in a wide range of multiplayer modes: feel the rush of downhill races, dominate maps in team vs team competitions, or give it your best shot in epic mass PvP races with more than 50 other players.
Key Features:
JUMP INTO A MASS SOCIAL PLAYGROUND
From snowy mountains to arid canyons, ride through some of the most magnificent destinations on earth: the American National Parks. Bryce Canyon, Yosemite Valley, Sequoia Park, Zion, Canyonlands, Mammoth Mountain and Grand Teton have all been faithfully transposed and mashed up together to create the most unique and lively playground. Gather in a vibrant social hub and meet a wild community of fellow riders.
MANAGE YOUR CAREER AND MAKE IT TO THE TOP OF THE LADDER
Create and shape your own rider through evolutive, progression-based gear and define every aspect of your avatar. Whether you want to be the best snowboarder alive or the fastest thing on two wheels, everything is possible. Make a name for yourself in a variety of sports, rise to the top of the leaderboard in career mode and sign with legendary sponsors from a wide range of outdoor action sports.
MAKE THE MOST OF NEXT GEN GAMEPLAY
Riders Republic will run at 60 FPS on next gen consoles and display more than 50 players simultaneously live on screen. With the game’s very intuitive character and camera control combined with an innovative trick system, all players, casual and hardcore, will have the chance to experience untapped joy from the very beginning.
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though I can´t play the 50+player events?
damnit
Also is that POV camera mounted on the characters dick or what?
Also looks terrible IMO.
Not a bad idea, but did the physics just look totally "off" to everyone else watching the trailer?
I don't mind if they want to do an over-the-top, silly MTB game - but if you can't make the physics make me think "WTF?" I a trailer, I'm not super-hopeful.
To be clear, I'm not asking for a 100% accurate simulation of mountain biking. But in Steep for example, you can do things no human could ever do in real-life, but it feels like they more or less got the physics right. A realistic-if-inflated simulation of skiing and snowboarding.
Watching that horde of mountain bikers go down the mountain didn't feel that way at all. It felt like there was no kind of simulation of the way mountain biking's physics work in the real world at all.
Bummer, because this could be a fun waste of time.
It’s a belter of a game, but I was always wishing they’d bring bikes into it as they introduced different sports.
This has pretty much answered what I was hoping for! As long as you can skip all the challenges and rad crap, and still be able to just freeride the mountains on your own, then I’m sold! I guess I’ll have to buy a ps5 to play it on, but this is the one game that’s sold it to me so far!
Buzzing!
Give us a realistic perception of speed, tight and twisty tracks on realistic slopes and that's it. Heck, if an MX game like MXGP with a "MTB Mode" would be fantastic!
X Box X: $499
Rider's Republic $69
Huge Ass TV to play it on: $899
Hell, I'd have enough left over to buy a new bike!
If you've not played the originals, then it's a great game but you could finish the main single-player challenges in a few days (bit longer if you have limited playing time and/or mediocre playing skills. I have both). Local and online multiplayer can give it a longer shelf life though.
That soundtrack though... worth every penny.
Was looking forward to re-playing for nostalgia and like you said, the sound track.
Like @Didnotsendit says, you can polish off the main stories quickly. There are a lot of pro skaters you can do the campaign in which have slightly different special challenges, and create a skater is pretty well fleshed out. I’d say take your time playing it and just have fun.
No regrets buying it - just wished my friends had xboxes so I could play online with them, but cross-platform play is a rumored possibility. The servers are stable and I’ve played a bunch with people around the world with no issues. Create-a-park seems to be seriously reduced from prior versions and nobody is really putting out many levels that are good at the moment.
The nostalgia is strong. And you get straight back into it within 3 seconds of rolling down the ramp of the warehouse.
Just don't forget that the PS4 controllers aren't wired like they were for PS1. So if you throw it across the room in frustration*, you gotta go fetch it back.
*There's the secret tape, there's the ramp to get to it, line myself up straight and... [taxi out of nowhere]
Although... to be fair, maybe the continued emergence of the "connected exercise bike" and the larger scale fitness culture (fitbits, garmins, etc.) could mean a larger audience to sell to. An MTB sim game which doubled as a piece of fitness equipment could amount to something, I guess. But then again, who wants to work up a sweat playing a game? Nah, pass me another beer instead, please.
Like will you be able to get the YT in the North American release.
(I like YT by the way)
Virtual reality is not reality and virtual experiences don't count.
Why not?
it's just a game, it's there for entertainment reasons and the point is obviously to have fun, but you talk like it's supposed to replace actually riding your bike