Descenders Next, the sequel to my favourite extreme bike sim will launch without bikes.

Descenders is one of my favorite PC gaming experiences in recent years. I love the thrill of hurtling down Mt Slope without falling off. It's a perfect "just one more try" game. Think Tony Hawk or SSX but with bikes. The main course was procedurally-generated trick gauntlets, but the sprawling hand-made bike parks--of which there ended up being dozens--grew to be the main course for me. I enjoyed falling off my bicycle: my rubbery avatar would sometimes fly miles into the sky.

Descenders Next is slated to be released on Steam and Game Pass by 2025. This news had me pretty excited until I read the fine-print: Descenders Next will be an "evolution", of the original, that will cater to a wide range of extreme sports varieties. It won't have bikes when it launches. Instead, it will focus on boarding: snowboarding and Mountainboarding.

The sequel to my favorite bike game will not have bikes at launch. But hey, they may get them in the future. And given the strength of Descenders, I'm eager to see RageSquid expand its wings. Descenders Next aims to be the "only extreme sports game you will ever need" and it will gradually add more styles. If you think of Riders Republic you are not alone. Ubisoft's open-world extreme sports game mixed a variety of "extreme" disciplines such as biking, snowboarding and even jetpacks.

Descenders Next is going to face some competition but I'm confident it will find its niche. Descenders' downhill biking was much more fun than Riders Republic's, with looser controls that suited more precise (and risky) tricks. The more competition there is in the "going fast downhill" genre, the better. I love it and I'm sure I'm not the only one who loves it.

The environments have also changed a lot. In Descenders you were either on a procedurally-generated track in an otherwise featureless map, or in one of the game's handmade parks (basically theme parks for doing hectic stuff on wheels). According to Mike Rose, publisher of No More Robots' Descenders Next game, there are several biomes, each of which caters for a specific sport.

Rose explained to me that there are a number of nodes scattered across the maps, and which node you choose determines what level you will play. "You start the game in a handcrafted park. To find other parks and shops (where you can buy gear), then you ride through the procedural (off-piste) nodes until finding another handcrafted park node." Other words, procedural activities and sprawling parks will not be discrete in Descenders Next.

Descenders Next, when it launches with boarding, will have online multiplayer, "multiple large" biomes and a lot of customizations to unlock. There will also be reputation to earn. Sign up for the online Test Sessions at DescendersNext.com if you want to participate in them later this year.