Cars or Motorcycles - Which one do you prefer in video games in general?

Motorcycles in games have only really worked for me in those arcade games where you sit on a physical bike. Riding a motorcycle is all about momentum and balance and those things are really hard to translate to a controller.

Can anyone actually think of a game what did motorcycles well?

So those who don't understand what I mean that I had much better with car racing series such as Formula 1, WEC Le Mans and others more than motorcycle racing series.

I was meant to say that I had a better time watching on TV live and virtually racing for them in games.

I guess that the most realistic motorcycle game would be Milestone's MotoGP series.

@gtxforza: I've tried the MotoGP games a few times. They seem well made, but it's really hard for me to get a grasp on riding the bikes.

Car controls are generally quite simple, you turn left and right. With bikes however you shift your weight to all four directions as well as the weight of the bike and turn the handlebars on top of that. It just seems like too much to map on any sort of controller. I love riding bikes in the real world, but in games they just never feel good.

Not sure any vehicle in a game has ever felt cooler than the GTA: San Andreas FCR-900 on the highways. It was so fast, so agile, and had such a great engine sound.

That said, in the aggregate, cars. Motorcycles are a guarantor of pain and humiliation, whereas the worst that can happen to a car is it breaks down and you have to get a new one.

@isomeri: Me too, also not to mention that motorcycles cornering are slower than the cars when it comes to the on-road circuit racing in their respective tiers.

In most cases outside of racing games, driving cars feels so-so to absolutely garbage while motorcycles have good handling but you run the risk of hitting things and flying off.

Cars. Motorcycles are cool but often in games with both, you're hitting things (even driving through obstacles like light poles) that cause you to fly off your bike. If that isn't an issue, the leaning to turn still feels a little less immediate than driving a car in most examples I can think of.

I tend to only encounter video game cars and motorcycles in open world action games and invariably I find motorcycles more maneuverable and thrilling.

I never thought about this before but its actually motorcycles as that is what I will default to using. At least in gta style open world games.

Bikes either control super well or really terribly and both outcomes are often equally fun.

I prefer motorcycles because it's fun and fast to zigzag between cars. You only need a slight gap to blast past a group of cars. And the stakes are higher, because you're typically so much more vulnerable on a motorcycle vs being in a car. One hit and you can be sent flying. That makes it exciting.

Motorcycles because, and I'm just going to say it, they are much cooler than cars.

@onemanarmyy: I see, also in arcade-style racing games like Project Gotham Racing 4 on Xbox 360 and Driveclub on PlayStation 4, I've experienced both cars & bikes, so I say the cars are much easier for me.

I think bikes are more fun to drive, but car focused racing games have bigger budgets, and there are a wider variety of them. There is no motorcycle equivalent to Need for Speed or Forza Horizon for instance.

Ride is probably the biggest motorcycle game out there, and I like it a lot, but Forza Motorsport, GT, or even Project Cars are just much higher quality products. They probably get double the production budget of Ride. Same when compairing MotoGP to the F1 series.

I guess my point is I want to like bike games more, but ultimately car games win out.

I prefer bikes. When a bike gets out of shape, it's genuinely terrifying but I feel some games struggle to convey that. Tourist Trophy and RIMS manage it but there's also what @judaspete says about polish. Even when Polyphony Digital did give bikes a proper product, it was so small in comparison to Gran Turismo 4. It's a much smaller market with a handful of manufacturers and a lot of modern titles bear that out.

@judaspete said:

I see what you mean about motorcycles.

I remembered that a lot of gamers were asking Electronic Arts to bring back the Road Rash series (The motorcycle combat street racing game), oh hopefully in Twisted Metal for PS5 will feature motorcycles in the roster of playable vehicles.

The first Need For Speed installment to feature a licensed motorcycle is Need For Speed Heat, in that case, it's a 2019 BMW S 1000 RR, ridden by a non-playable character during the cutscenes.

For Ride, I have heard of this franchise a long time ago, I haven't played it so I cannot judge it.

I highly doubt that Polyphony Digital studio would bring the Tourist Trophy IP back while I believe that RIMS and Ride are both modern alternatives to that.

Similar to that the DiRT main series is pretty much like an alternative to Evolution Studio's WRC and DICE's Rallisport Challenge series.

Edit: I hope there will be more and more motorcycle games to come onto the 9th generation gaming era.

Also, when it comes to Grand Theft Auto and other open worlds, bikes are just way better at cutting through traffic.

That is very true.