Where'd all the customization go Milestone? Ride 2 was better!

[revealing_unseen]

I've been thoroughly enjoying playing Ride 5. It's been a couple years since I last played a vehicle racing game, let alone the Ride games. Last game I played was Ride 2 and since getting into Ride 5 I'd have to say the graphics, physics, sounds and other mannerisms seem spot on. But one thing has really been bugging me, where's the customization? And I don't mean the livery customizer, I'm talking about your character and bike customization.

In Ride 2, I feel like you had some better customization, firstly with your rider. You could change a lot in terms of body position, anything from you head angle, to your shoulders, to how much your elbow sicks out when you're at full tuck, and what you looks like at the starting position. They even had three different presets you could save to swap between styles. That was both the sportbikes and the supermoto bikes. You even had celebrations, a simple addition, rather than just riding off after a solid win. Gear choice seems better in Ride 5 though, with a lot of nice choices, so in that regard, I was satisfied (though a couple additions I'd like to see would be Bell Helmets and some Icon gear).

The bike customization in Ride 2 was a very thorough, and more realistic in terms of options you could apply to your bike. These were options that I and many others may do to our bikes in real life. In Ride 2, in the engine you can port your cylinder heads, change your ECU, air filter and even your oil type because if you didn't change the oil it actually effected performance. Changing your chain actually did something other than allowing you to change the color. They had the option to actually add a quickshifter. I know most modern bikes can get one from the factory, but it would be nice to see this addition for the older bikes. You could change your brake lines from stock to steel braided (which slightly improved braking performance), change the color, the type of break pads you're using, caliper type and the color of those as well. So the engine additions were more familiar to us riders and the fact they added to the game made it feel more immersive.

More on the bike cosmetic options, in addition to changing brake line colors, you could change the actual hand grips (with some color options), the brake/clutch levers colors, and the triple tree color. I felt like these options would've only expanded, getting ASV levers or other brands involved to only make the experience that much deeper.

In Ride 2, a small attribute to the multiplayer, a simple yet effective one that many games do is accolades. There's no badges or titles to show your competitors that you've taken on the harder challenges or completed any difficult accolades. I feel like they've been conversation starters in lobbies. "How did you get that time on that track?" or "So Yamaha's are your favorite bikes?" etc etc.

Overall, Ride 5 is an awesome game that I'd recommend to anyone. Granted I haven't played the 3rd or 4th, so in my perspective, the mannerisms of the bike in Ride 5 (shakes, character wind buffeting, etc), the better POV helmet camera (which is what I play most of the time), and sounds are all way better and a huge improvement over the latter that I've played. I would just like to see some of those extra options come back, to make the game that little bit more immersive, especially since some of those options would make a difference in your ride as well.