Would you laugh if I told you that it took me several races before the Very Easy AI stopped lapping me in Supercross 4? I know, I know. I have thought about becoming Good. But since I don't want to make too much of a fool of myself, let me explain why that's a big selling point.

Milestone's experience in other games didn't seem to help here, not MXGP, not MotoGP, not even the Superbike World Championship I put out on my Pentium II in 1999. It was quite frustrating to watch 21 riders effortlessly pass me race after race while stadium crowds across the US watched. And Dylan Ferrandis: I am so sorry to have humiliated you virtually.

But Supercross 4 was a different kind of race, as I had to learn a new discipline, one that was different from mastering the slower and slower outdoor layouts of MXGP; AMA Supercross is a law unto itself, one challenging, undulating, tight course after another. AMA Supercross is a law unto itself, played out one after another on a challenging, undulating, tight course.

The physics behind it all are not perfect, as evidenced by the clumsy landings and strange deformations of bike and rider, but they are coherent enough to respect the challenge the game throws at you. To get the course flowing correctly, the rider's position must be adjusted when hitting a jump and when landing after a jump. Control the height and trajectory by tilting the bike and rider in opposite directions, turning the upward momentum into forward momentum. And this must be done on every jump. If you don't, you will be lapped by the Very Easy AI and laughed at in review comments.

That is, if you are playing in event mode or championship mode. The AI in the licensed series (250 East, 250 West, 450) is considerably more challenging than the career mode, which is in its element. With my hastily created custom avatar and his cold, dead eyes, I was suddenly victorious.

Series veterans will notice the newly expanded route from Futures to 450 Championships. But don't expect an NBA 2K-like "start from the bottom": as a rookie, you'll be racing the same 250cc bikes in the same locations as the top competitors, unlocking new championships one by one.

The focus is on developing riders, completing training events (don't get excited, those are truncated races), and spending points in the upgrade tree until you build up the next Jeremy McGrath. Or perhaps it would be more appropriate to say the next Jean-Michel Bail. Just like the Frenchman, Milestone aims for success in both road racing and moto, and shares many modes of expression in both disciplines: MotoGP players will appreciate everything from the rewind feature (appropriated from Codemasters' F1 series) to the impressive Unreal Supercross 4 will be very familiar with everything but the racing itself, from the rewind feature (lifted from Codemasters' F1 series) to the impressive Unreal Engine lighting and vibrant texture work to the somewhat anachronistic UI and race presentation.

With the clear emphasis on the grind to improve status, it is odd that it is easier to succeed in career mode races than in championship events, but increasing the difficulty can always fuel the grind and add a great deal of realism to the career can be done.

As far as I can tell, winning races is kind of the point, anyway. Earning in-game currency to unlock new customization options seems equally essential. In Supercross 4, while there is a generous "you landed the jump, we'll give you some cash," there are probably a zillion different items that can be unlocked. Helmets. Race suits. Butt patches (.) Goggles. Boots. And motorcycle parts: ...... Ah, motorcycle parts. The designer's obsession not only with the science of motocross, but also with the culture of motocross, can be seen here.

And if you're fed up with the world of professional racing; with men in snapbacks who look like they're listening to Five Finger Death Punch, racing around with more energy drink logos per square inch than Kyle's recycling bin If you're fed up; there's always compound.

In this free-form area, "Supercross 4" takes on a quasi-open-world aspect, allowing players to hunt for collectibles and create their own path. While it won't hold the interest of many players for long, Milestone deserves praise for its willingness to embrace different ways to explore bike handling without always forcing you to go all out. If you recall with any nostalgia the similarly free-form areas in Microsoft's Motocross Madness game, this compound is worth at least one visit; it's co-op-enabled and has an irresistible touch of insanity; it's a great place to get a feel for the world of bike riding, and it's a great place to get a feel for the world of bike riding, too.

Otherwise, the revamped track editor allows for all kinds of fine-tuning, whether for existing tracks or newly created ones. And as 99 percent of Trackmania's work is a series of loops and loops and loops, the point of this work is definitely to create something that no one else can ride.

Competitive multiplayer never works in Milestone's bike sim: if you fail on the bike, you fall off. If you fail on the bike, you fall off the bike. The online mode in Supercross 4 appears to have a solid enough netcode, but it often hosts races that continue to lose participants for the aforementioned reasons. Still, for a dedicated minority, it is what it is. [Milestone's passion for supercross oozes from the customization menus and the QWOP-like controls at every turn. Nevertheless, for hardcore fans, meaningful progress between releases will be a more important factor in their decision, and the pace of that progress is roughly the same as in the MotoGP series.