Ridge Racer 8

[Boozy The Clown]

Never trust the forum on release day !

Wed/ Thursday is "I've got it before everyone else because I'm so internet savvy I shop with the right places/pirate it and it's either great or shockingly shit.

Friday - Release day is - I'm getting this based on what the guys who already have it have said, can't wait new game enthusiasm overload.

Saturday - I played this last night and it was great, forgets to mention they were drunk, at a friends, didn't pay for it or blatantly knows its poor but doesn't want to admit it.

Sunday - The game has a few things that could be improved. Or here's how they should have done a,b + c.

Monday - OMG this game is shitcakes ! Trading it in for Fifa 09 today !

So that video Dimahoo posted of this running on his uber PC was that supposed to warn people off this ? Now I'm not one to give a kicking to a game I've never played but based on that video, I ain't never playing this. It looks like Split Second with the fun sucked out of it and replaced with slow cars and dull scenery. The explosions bits look really cheap and immersion breaking and if the 360 version looks or runs considerably worse than that video we're talking budget shovelware kicked out the door before it was finished and created by a team who were only in it for the money and willing to pump out any old shite.*

* This is all based on the video posted, I have seen nothing else to do with this game.

[mr_woo]

Well all I can say is I feel exactly the same way when I started playing it rather than the typical release day feelings (and I have done that to myself, got overhyped and then disappointed afterwards). Probably liking it even more due to spending more time with it and getting used to how it works etc. I'm certainly enjoying it more than I did Split Second (and I really liked that game too). Then again different strokes and all that jazz, especially when it comes to racing games. I know you're a big fan of the Test Drive Unlimited games and whilst I respect them find them deathly dull etc.

[Dimahoo]

Could we be looking at another of the great forum turnarounds here?.. From initial pre-release damnation, to post-release forum fave.

Erm....no.

No. Probably not.

[Boozy The Clown]

@ Woo - Name one game other than TDU that you didn't like and why.

[Dimahoo]

Woo have you played TDU 2 on PC?

Its awfuy nice.

[Boozy The Clown]

Hey lets get not stray off topic, let's get back to why you think this is so great, will be brilliant online, revolutionise the racing games genre with v2.0 track creation in the hands of those master technicians ( the consumers)

Build your own tracks/maps etc is such a bullshit waste of time. If people wanted to make their own games up they'd make games for a living, developers do your fucking jobs and stop using this "putting the tools in the hands of the players" pish as an excuse for not being good enough to design shit hot levels/maps/tracks yourselves. Seriously does anyone actually spend more than 10 minutes messing around with editors before deciding it's far too much work involved and for too little gain or are these things genuinely a selling point ?

[mr_woo]

@ Woo - Name one game other than TDU that you didn't like and why.

Sure.

Racing or games in general ?

Well for racing/driving games that I don't really like that much - TDU, TDU2, Hot Pursuit, Forza (any), Gran Turismo 5, Dirt 2 and 3, Burnout Paradise and probably loads of others if I were to sit down and think more about it. I'm really fickle with racing games and a lot of those were just finding them dull rather than outright bad. The thing that's really disappointed me the most in recent years is the lack of a proper rally game. I've just felt that with rally games the Dirt games have moved further and further away what I liked from the Colin McRae series. The WRC series isn't bad but I'd love a full on rally game by Codemasters as they got the handling spot on with Dirt 3 but I just felt that even the rally sections that were there were pared back a bit. It looks like we may get that back with Dirt 4 if the thing about them splitting the series is true with the Dirt Showdown coming out (or whatever it's called)

Ones that I have really enjoyed are - Blur, Pure (from what I've played), Flatout Ultimate Carnage, Driver San Francisco and the PGR games and more recently Ridge Racer Unbounded. Out of those I'd consider Flatout Ultimate Carnage and Driver San Francisco the best driving/racing games this gen. Love those 2 to bits.

TBH looking at those you may think 'why does he like that but not that ?' but I don't know, some games I just really take to and enjoy and others I don't.

For other general games I've disliked well the most recent one was that pile of utter fucking shite Ninja Gaiden 3. I won't rant about it, but yeah I hated it with a passion.

Woo have you played TDU 2 on PC?

Its awfuy nice.

If I see it in a Steam sale I'll maybe give it another go I'm certainly open to giving it another go.

Hey lets get not stray off topic, let's get back to why you think this is so great, will be brilliant online, revolutionise the racing games genre with v2.0 track creation in the hands of those master technicians ( the consumers)

Build your own tracks/maps etc is such a bullshit waste of time. If people wanted to make their own games up they'd make games for a living, developers do your fucking jobs and stop using this "putting the tools in the hands of the players" pish as an excuse for not being good enough to design shit hot levels/maps/tracks yourselves. Seriously does anyone actually spend more than 10 minutes messing around with editors before deciding it's far too much work involved and for too little gain or are these things genuinely a selling point ?

I just love the way it handles the various mechanics and gels together. I don't think it's a revolution but just a great fucking arcade racing game. The way you have to balance many things about how to build up your power, when to use it, when to use the shortcuts, judging the right time to use your power etc. It asks a bit more of the player compared to a game like Split Second and I just like that a lot. As for the track editor well it's not something I'd personally use as I'm not very creative but it's cool playing cities/tracks made by other people. You'd be surprised at what people like to do on both PC and console. Sure look at Forza, you have people who love to create decals and get very creative with that sort of thing. I doubt Unbounded is the game to really get a community going around it's editor but the idea I find to be really cool. There's some talented folk out there.

[Dimahoo]

Boozy, theres no point.

Your only going to swamp the argument in a sea of negativity based on what you think when your gaming world is only based in console land where you don't get the chance to mod.

Have you seen what someone did for GP Legends for example?

Did you see ONE person created the Isle of man TT. For cars?

Or the Mille Miglia?

A track you've always dreamed of playing but will never actually get because console gaming is simply about making money. Even the tracks you did enjoy in Forza 3 were shortened yet get a PC developer to make a game and they get bigger.

Damn, give an editor to some positive mods mate and you'd be blown away.

Sure okay..in this case the editor may not be amazing, but your general argument is totally flawed becuase you assume no one can be bothered. But give us the tools and we can.

What about the peeps on here that used Trials?

I'm sorry but you really don't seem to understand what goes on when you give people freedom to create.

Whats really funny is that the game you love so much hasn't even had a track update yet.

How about ole' Danno gives his engine to real gamers and we'd have created a ton of tracks in the 6 months since F4's release.

I won't dispute in this case you've got a point but in general your way off the mark.

[Boozy The Clown]

How many tracks have you made then Dims ? Being a "real gamer" and all that goes with it ?

I'm speaking personally here but of all the console games I've owned that came with the facility to make your own levels I just couldn't be arsed. I don't have the patience to even make basic paint stuff in Forza so how someone could spend the magnitude of man hours it must take to create even a basic Halo Forge map or Far Cry 2 or whatever else there is, baffles me.

Okay so my last post may have been a bit confrontational on the subject but whilst I know and accept that there are teams and individuals modding stuff on a daily basis surely this functionality is wasted on 90% of the people who own the games that feature it.

Also please stop with the "Ol Danno Forza needs tracks" pish it just makes you sound all PC elitist and a prick.

We both know that if Forza's track software was released to the great unwashed we'd just be drowned in a tidal wave of really poorly made tracks which either didn't even work or were blatantly poorer in quality than the official ones. All these PC games where you get extra tracks on a daily basis, we both know that they're 99% five minute distractions. You'll maybe race on them once or twice but then it's on to the next one because it's supposedly better.

Quality over quantity any day of the week.

[Dimahoo]

I haven't made any. I don't have time because i'm learning how to make movies on my uber PC

A good edtior is as much a success as the game its made for.

Modnation, GT5, Trackmania, Halo Forge, Trials, Forza are all good examples of editors that work for successful games.

And many of them are not distractions. Entire leagues are run on them but just don't seem to acknowledge that there are loads of people just like us on Forza doing the same thing on other sims.

[spatular]

I've enjoyed this quite a lot, I'm not the biggest fan of destruction racers like this as they can be pretty frustrating but this one I think just stays on the right side of frustrating - more challenging, although I haven't tried to 3 star all the races... The handling is pretty good with some fun drifting, the variety of events in single player is good, the frag/destruction system works well and isn't too annoying - I've not been fragged by opposition all that much. So above average about on par with split second imo. I only rented it mind, probably would be happy to pay around £25.

It's not all good mind, hard to see where to go sometimes because it's quite dark. Occasional craziness from the physics/collision detection. Identikit tracks blend into each other. Although some interesting time trial tracks show the track editor can do interesting things - I was disappointed there weren't more of these. All imo anyway

[Dimahoo]

Well apparently your not allowed to like it now.

Also please stop with the "Ol Danno Forza needs tracks" pish it just makes you sound all PC elitist and a prick.

I'll call him what i like, thanks

[Meh]

You're.

[Dimahoo]

Oh yeah....sorry.

You've wet my fire there...meh.

[Dimahoo]

Loving the neg sweep right now. Utterly amazing. Keep it up.

Or try spending your time on typing something worthwhile.

Anyway. I like it. Its like Burnout a lot, it probably won't last long but its passed the moment in this present "dearth" we're experiencing in arcade racers.

[ColinMac]

I may be the biggest Ridge fan ever. And I hate it.

I loved NFS: Hot Pursuit, Burnouts etc. And I still hate it.

It's going to trade-in.

In fact, I booted up Burnout: Paradise to see if I was being slightly biased - and it almost looks next-gen compared to this....

Try it. Or NFS - whichever was your previous pleasure.

Me? I'm off back to Vita Ridge, and PS3's brilliant Ridge 7....

[dvdx2]

agreed - its as festering pile of doo-da, but each to their own i suppose (Edge 9?)

If they had taken out all the fragging/ destruction nonsense bits and focused on the racing and presentation it might have been alot better

[Dimahoo]

I think if you focused on the racing alone - well to be honest i don't think theres enough here to do that setting it all in one city.

At least not one like this thats just...well its just pure urban.

Part of the RR charm was having cities on top of the other areas like beaches, coastal plains, mountains and that.

They have removed a lot of what makes RR so good to look at and drive within.

[dvdx2]

I think if you focused on the racing alone - well to be honest i don't think theres enough here to do that setting it all in one city.

At least not one like this thats just...well its just pure urban.

Part of the RR charm was having cities on top of the other areas like beaches, coastal plains, mountains and that.

They have removed a lot of what makes RR so good to look at and drive within.

RRV did it the single city really well though. Having the RR license really gave them so much to play with.....dont know what to really say - just very disapointed with it

[Dimahoo]

Yeah they did. I dunno i mean....i like the way it plays.

It just feels satisying to me. Its really easy to go wild and hold drifts. Its very much a cream cake. It won't last long but it tastes great to me.

The feeling or mechanic isn't much different to Burnout or HP or even Blur and smashing into stuff and then seeing that in slo mo looks really cool.

It doesn't feel anything like Split Second though - that felt oddly rigid to me. I certainly don't mean the game was bad but this plays far more like the former games then Split Second. It just has a nice freedom about the control. Turning early and maintaining speed through drifts. The other games have done that as well but i don't think thats a bad thing. Probably just the fact i've not touched an arcade racer in a while and this fills that gap.

But i can still invision it being good fun online with 8 players all knowing how to drift and having to battle boost strategies to win.

Oh well.

I think PC peeps should play Flatout 3 just to see a game done really badly.

[Fatsam]

Split Second's handling was its weakest element. This cars are much more enjoyable to drive in this. It's like a slightly more arcadey Blur/PGR. The drifting is particularly enjoyable, something the Burnout games never quite excelled at either.

Yeah this game's ace I reckon. The graphics may not be that hot, the destruction may not be as spectacular as Split Second or Motorstorm Apocalypse, but it's got a lovely meaty street battle racing feel to it. And the balance between pure racing and the power smashing stuff/cars is spot on in the main events.

Perfect level of challenge too with competitive, but pretty fair AI. There's depth to this racer, and I've loved getting my head around the intricacies of the thing and gradually improving.

[Gotters]

I am very disappointed but just can't get on with this, I was really looking forward to it with Bugbear's heritage and have given it a fair crack but its sat next to my car keys for imminent trade in later today.

Back in the lock with you Nessie.

[88h88]

Dimahoo's vid makes it look pretty naff but then he appears to be one of those nutters that uses a behind the car view. Everyone knows that real pros use bumper cam for max speed.

[Dimahoo]

I can play either with many games with arcade physics and power sliding. Depends on how the dev have set up the camera though.

In this case it works but i don't do it with something like GT5 because that camera is crap.

To be fair, its not a game i really want to be pro on. I just like the feel.

Also my video doesn't do it justice as anyone with a PC will tell you.

Its 30fps, stutters, and compressed twice.

.

[Yewone]

...and finished!

Much to my own surprise Ive actually completed the thing. Got pretty addicted to the career over the past few nights, the Domination events really started to click, and its actually surprising just how tactical some of the racing becomes on later stages. Requiring proper management of boosts, knowing when (and when not) to drift, and the various shortcuts etc. The AI is also some of the most competitive Ive come across offering a really tough challenge throughout.

As has been said many times in the thread already its never going to redefine the arcade racing genre, and it really doesnt bring anything new to the table either.. But there is definitely some good racing to be had with it.. with the exception of the bloody awful Frag Attack and Stunt events of course.

Hopefully a few more people may give it a whirl once it plummets in price (if it hasn't already) it really isnt that bad!

[max renn]

What worries me most is that the negative reviews etc surrounding this title impairs the likelihood of another traditional Ridge game coming out. That can't happen can it? You think? Honestly? Hold me....

[Dimahoo]

I'd argue RR Vita has impaired the RR Brand more.

[Yewone]

What worries me most is that the negative reviews etc surrounding this title impairs the likelihood of another traditional Ridge game coming out. That can't happen can it? You think? Honestly? Hold me....

Nah I wouldn't worry... This feels like more of a (failed) sideproject for the Ridge franchise... A bit like R.Racing.

Besides with a new Playstation on the Horizon it's almost a given that it will ship with a new Ridge at launch... It's practically tradition now!

[mr_woo]

What worries me most is that the negative reviews etc surrounding this title impairs the likelihood of another traditional Ridge game coming out. That can't happen can it? You think? Honestly? Hold me....

I wouldn't worry about that at all, I doubt they'll stop making Ridge Racer games in the traditional sense but I hope they at least shake the formula up a bit. I hope BugBear go back and do another Flatout game, such a great series.

[Karzee]

Eurogamer:

The game that would become Ridge Racer Unbounded first existed as an unrelated prototype before publisher Namco stamped its Ridge Racer brand on it, developer Bugbear has revealed. Namco convinced FlatOut developer Bugbear to adapt its pre-existing racing game into a Ridge Racer spin-off, lead producer Joonas Laakso told Eurogamer.

"There's definitely a misconception among fans that we're responsible for trying to take the series in a new direction," Laakso explained. Instead, it was Namco who contacted Bugbear about the idea. We were working on a driving game prototype that Namco had seen a couple of times. So they certainly knew what we were going to do at that point."

Bugbear's work-in-progress had already had Unbounded's arcade-inspired "gritty back-alley feel", Laakso explained, denying any suggestions that Bugbear had deliberately attempted to alter Ridge Racer's formula. The prototype was then adapted after the Ridge Racer label was applied.

"After we knew we were going to make a Ridge Racer title obviously we made changes to make it fit into what we felt a quality Ridge Racer title should be like," Laakso continued. "Even though it was going to be very different. We took a long hard look at Ridge Racer's 'artificial' feel to make it mesh with what we were doing." Laakso specifically notes ?Unbounded's lighting and music as examples of this. "We tried to make it feel more stylish and mature."

So why did Bugbear decide to package up their protoype with a Ridge Racer name? Laakso mentioned the difficulties in launching a new arcade racing IP, and the recent commercial troubles faced by arcade racers Split/Second and Blur, which failed to perform commercially despite critical praise.

Unbounded's disappointing UK launch seemingly continued the pattern. It crashed into the UK all-formats chart in 21st place last week. This week it had vanished from the top 40 altogether.

"I'm worried that it's part of a general apprehension towards new arcade racing titles we've seen with the release of Blur and Split/Second," Laakso said, addressing Unbounded's chart performance. "It doesn't seem to be anything to do with a game's quality."

Bugbear tried to combat this pattern ahead of time by cramming Unbounded with as many features as late as possible, right up until the last stages of development. Bugbear wanted "to try and make sure it was worth the full asking price," Laakso continued, "but maybe there's just not quite enough for people out there. Then again I feel we have a chance at making a slow-burning title. We're waiting to see global sales of the game. It's so hard to get a single new IP out of the gate," Laakso concluded: reason enough to want the Ridge Racer moniker behind its new game. "[Namco] wanted it to benefit from the impact of having the Ridge Racer name."

As for where the series could head next, Bugbear is confident that any future Unbounded and Ridge Racer games would remain separate entities.

"[Namco] sees this as two different franchises, Laakso concluded, speaking on the possibility of a Ridge Racer Unbounded sequel. "So there could be an Unbounded 2 and Ridge Racer 8, but whether this will happen anytime soon or come next-generation, we just don't know yet."