ISLE OF MAN TT: RIDE ON THE EDGE 3

Go motorcycle racing on a tiny island

- Tom Charnock 

The Isle of Man TT is regarded as the greatest motorsport event on the planet, offering the ultimate prize in motorcycle racing. Fresh from the success of RIMS, does Ride on the Edge 3 developer RaceWard Studio have what it takes to grab the Tourist Trophy from previous custodian Kylotonn?

The first thing to note about Isle of Man TT: Ride on the Edge 3 is that this isn't simply a cynical re-skin of the previous games in the series. It's all too common an occurrence these days that the old adage 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' takes root -certainly when it comes to popular gaming franchises-but Isle of Man TT: Ride on the Edge 3 is a great example of how to take an established series and turn it on its head. The most obvious change here is that new developer RaceWard Studio has chucked the baby out with the bath water, and banished the menu driven system seen in the prequels; instead opting to drop the player into a pseudo open world based on a laser scanned 1:1 recreation of the Isle of Man-a dot in the sea between England and Ireland, if you're not familiar with it.

It's not a complete recreation of course, but enough of an open(ish) world exists so that the player, in the guise of any one of the real life TT racers, replete with 2022 season accurate bike and leathers (2023 riders and liveries are coming as DLC), can idly traverse the highways and byways of the titular isle, discovering new routes and points of interest and of course, discovering race events to enter. It really is a night and day approach and breathes fresh air into the Isle of Man TT series-I for one was not expecting a Forza Horizon-lite approach. Granted, you can't take these slick-tired, two-wheeled road beasts off the beaten track and go full Dakar Desert Rally across hill and dale, but it is encouraging to see the game come at the iconic annual motorcycling event from a new angle.

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