Not too long ago, the fine folks at Deep Silver (the development house that is comprised of ex-Rockstar Vienna folks who are also working on the Wii title Cursed Mountain) decided to take myself and Hamza “I’m a F**king Shark” Aziz out to the dry, dusty, and majestic wastelands of Joshua Tree National Park to show us what life would be like as the protagonist of their upcoming biker-centric open world title: Ride to Hell.

I tried my best, but I could not instigate a full fledged bar brawl when we were at the event. Although, we did end up having a great time in the desert shooting guns, riding ATVs, talking to an honest to god biker gang, and drinking copious amounts of Jim Beam. (The 20 shots of Jim Beam were my idea, btw.) I feel that, even though biker gangs aren’t usually comprised of scrawny, sun starved video game journalists, we did get a good sense of what Deep Silver plans to achieve with their latest foray into open world gaming.

Pics and more fun, ahoy!

If you weren’t aware, Ride to Hell is sandbox style game that is based in the biker culture of the late 1960s. After returning to the West Coast from a stint in ‘Nam, the main character finds himself lost and adrift in the world that he comes back to. Not knowing what to do and greeted by an America that he’s unfamiliar with, he does his best to find his place in the turbulent environment of the times.

What is a man to do when faced with such choices? Well, join a biker gang, of course.

Sadly, I can’t say any more about the game other than that. Around, oh, say January 13th, you may be able to come right back here to the ‘Toid and find out all kinds of information about Ride to Hell. Maybe there’ll some impressions on the game footage or a developer Q&A from Hamza? Who knows! But you’ll have to stay tuned for more info on that.

In the meantime, enjoy the pictures that we took while we were out in the desert. And as I mentioned before, there were quite a few different activities we participated in that were intended to give us feel of the atmosphere and lifestyle of Ride to Hell.

One of those things was that we got to tear ass around the desert on four-wheelers. I can’t really say the experience gives us any biker gang cred, though. But since I’ve never actually been to Joshua Tree, being able to see the mountainy areas and drive around in them unhindered gave a very good mental picture of what Ride to Hell’s California setting is supposed to be like.

Also, it was fun as shit. Not to mention that Hamza almost killed himself while ATV'ing. He rolled the ATV over a dune, busted the orange flag on it off, and almost broke his hip. Now that's a real man! 

While we were hanging out in the desert, a real true to life biker gang came and chilled with us for a bit. They certainly had some incredible rides, as you can see in a few of the pictures. And when I talked to a biker for a bit, it went like this:

Dyson: So are you an actual motorcycle club?
Biker: No
Dyson: So then are you an actual gang, then?
Biker: (In super tough 300 lb. biker voice.) We ride for ourselves.
Dyson: Awesome.

Yeah, that pretty much sums it up. Along with that, we had a chance to “blow things up good” at a local firing range, which I must admit it was ridiculously fun.

To finish the day off, we were taken to a local bar that catered to the biker crowd for drinks and entertainment. We only halfheartedly tried to start a biker gang fight, to be honest. But the twenty shots of Jim Beam were a definite reality, not to mention the custom for the event “Devil’s Hand” shots. (If anyone named Laurence ever asks you if you want one, you say no.)

While this all may sound like a big ol’ party, and it was, Deep Silver really did do a tip-top job in giving a bunch game journalists and idea of what being a biker in the Ride to Hell world would be like.

Knowing that the activities they provided for us only gave us just a glimpse of what Ride to Hell will be like (supposedly), it certainly peaked our interests a little more than before. Also, when Hamza can give you his impressions of the game footage we were shown, you’ll get to see more of the actual game and what he thought of the gameplay that was shown.

 Still, a bar fight would have been pretty wicked.