Generation Zero has bicycles as the main “silent” vehicle to get around, so you don’t alert the machines.
Parcel Corps (I played the demo a while back, I don’t know if it’s fully released) is about bicycle couriers, in a cool vibrant city. It kinda reminds me of JSRF in a couple ways, as you ride around on your bike and do all sorts of cool tricks, and there’s a funky soundtrack (from what I remember).
Eta: holy shit I forgot about, imo, the GOAT of bike gameplay: Bully. I remember trying so hard to get all the way through Shop class to get one of the best bikes in the game, and doing the paperboy side quest as much as I could just to experience that feeling, and earn tons of money. I ended up getting really good at it too.
look i’m not a ICE apologist or antyhing (these apply to EVs as well) but it’s not hard to figure out why car games are more popular. Also I’m not saying these are universal rules, i’m sure some disagree. But I think it’s safe to say these apply to most in the gamer market.
more power and speed = more fun.
Games are as close as most people will come to driving an expensive car like a BMW, let alone a Ferrari, or even actual racing cars.
Even if you argue people are just not culturally conditioned to aesthetically enjoy bicycles, could you even really appreciate them in the same way in a video game? you’d barely see them.
Cars are much more complex machines and that leads to each having a more unique character than bicycles, and that allows a greater variety of gameplay. For example, mid/front engine, ICE/EV, NA/turbo/super, FWD/RWD/AWD, etc. And usually in games there’s a progression from lower performance cars to higher performance cars.
Instead of leveling up your vehicle, you level up the infrastructure as you progress the game. By the end, you’re just taking the public transit system to the finish line.
I don’t know, bikes are incredibly diverse vehicles too. A tricycle is nothing like a cargo bike, a full suspension mountain bike, a road bike, a time trial bike, a BMX, a fixed gear etc. and they all feel very different to ride.
And while there might not be as many moving parts as on a car, a lot of engineering goes into the design of high end bicycles. If you’re into bikes, it’s very easy to appreciate the beauty and functional design of a well designed bicycle.
The fact that they are at their core simple machines which basic function hasn’t changed since the invention of the safety bicycle in the 1880s, yet have been innovated on ever since to arrive at the bikes we have today is what makes them fascinating imo.
Some people enjoy cars and some people enjoy bikes, but there isn’t really anything that makes one more inherently interesting.
I mean you could say the same about any current AAA game. A Zwift setup including the bike, trainer and device to run it on can easily be cheaper than a modern gaming rig.
Sure, but a modern gaming rig can play more than one thing. I get that it’s an enthusiast thing, and it’s pretty cool, but you REALLY need to know that’s what you wanna do/play at those prices.
Technically you can “play” other things too (there are competitors that offer the similar experiences), including GTA. But nobody is Zwifting for the gameplay anyway. It’s not really a game and just something to make indoor cycling in the off season a little bit less dull. Personally I don’t think it’s worth the subscription and would rather just watch a movie.
The excitement of F1 racing is unattainable to most people, which is why it makes sense as a game, but bikes are pretty tame. However, one thing that makes bikes interesting is their smallness, ease and simplicity. The Yakuza series has started picking up on giving protagonists such small vehicles, including a skateboard and a segway, and they make much more sense within those worlds than full vehicles.
I feel like this could be envisioned as part of a larger open-world game, not as the vehicle itself as a means to fun. Something like: You have an open world game, and it has cars, and they are faster than your bike. But they are far more nimble, can go in tighter areas, and can be stored in larger vehicles used to get around. So, something like picking the Gravity Gun in Half-Life 2, they’re a tool that’s fantastic for making use of the environment for better results, but not a “first-order strategy for movement”. This is even sometimes how they work out in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
Yeah bikes were really useless in GTA V because even the narrowest alleyway could be driven down. Hopefully they have some narrow alleyways that you might be able to skip down to avoid the police.
Riders Republic wasn’t for me, primarily due to the controls. Having just come from Descenders, the control philosophy felt so vastly different that I couldn’t adjust. It never stopped feeling like a struggle, which was a shame.
Road cycling is a rich persons sport, gaming is circuses for us poors.
No one wants to play ‘tour de riche’
A /decent/ Downhill game could be good (Descenders wasn’t it., super wide mariokart-esque tracks - give me some goat tracks that need berms on the corners)
Most(as in >half) gamers do not have a top end gaming PC. Shit most don’t even have a PC. And those people likely don’t have the next Gen consoles either. I only have a Ryzen laptop with bazzite, an old Gen 2 or 3 i7 with dual sli gtx260s that I’ve had for the better part of two decades, a steam deck, a Wii, and a super cheap PS4.
But the people that are buying the 5070s day 1 are likely the same people who have a $5,000 road bike hanging in their garage that they haven’t ridden since lockdown.
That’s kind of my point. Some people buy 10000€ world tour level bikes, but you can get a road bike with hydraulic disc brakes new for under 2000€ which will still be a very good bike and be future proof for years to come. And you can get much lower than that if you are willing to go used and ride something a bit older eg. with rim brakes and that will also be an excellent bike, perhaps better than a new one for 2k€.
Cycling is an expensive hobby (just like gaming), but it only gets ridiculously expensive when people buy into the marketing and want the newest, highest end stuff. Which is fine and of course you can get some marginal gains out of it. It’s like buying a 5090: your games will run a bit better, but you can get just as much enjoyment out of an older card for a fraction of the cost.
theguardian.com
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