Ridge Racer 6
Posted December 12, 2005
I distinctly remember being floored while playing the original Ridge Racer on the original Playstation. It ushered in the era of 3D racing games, out with the pixels and in with the polygons. Ever since Ridge Racer, almost every new console has launched with a Ridge Racer to show off the graphics engine. Basically, they take the same Ridge Racer game and add a fresh coat of paint to show off the new system. This can work well at the launch of a system since many people are very interested in the graphics capability and are willing to overlook flaws in gameplay. Unfortunately Ridge Racer 6 doesn't even measure up in this department.
For a car racing game, Ridge Racer is about as arcadey as they come. Most anyone can just pick it up, play it and do reasonably well. The gameplay is ankle deep compared to the Grand Turismo series or even the Project Gotham series. I can't quite recommend this title because of the lack of originality, lack of gameplay, and small amount of replay value it contains. Even the graphics are a letdown and that's a one of the deadly sins for a game that is designed to show off graphics.
With that said, it does work as a "family" game that you can get your uncles and cousins into during a Thanksgiving visit since it's so easy to pick up and play. For $60 though, you might as well get Project Gotham Racing which has great graphics and great gameplay. So in other words, rent it.
Gameplay:
Drifting is the name of the game when it comes to being a Ridge Racer expert. In order to be successful, you must drift every corner. Luckily, drifting happens to be pretty easy to do, so this is not a big deal. When you hit a corner at a fast speed your car will start to become uncontrollable, so you have to just allow your car to decelerate without braking and allow your car to "drift" around the corner on its own, then once the corner is gone you must steer your car into the direction of the road and accelerate again. Sounds complicated? Well it sure isn't, and that's why this game just didn't appeal very much to me.
The other problem with this game is the lack of actual real cars you can choose from. There's simply, fast, faster, fastest and most fast. The cars do look cool, but if you can't drive them in real life so who cares? I'm not sure why they don't start licensing real cars, even uber-arcadish "Outrun 2" for Xbox included a few licensed speed machines.
On the topic of the cars, they sure don't seem that fast. Even when you drive the top speed you don't get any real sense of the speed. For an arcadey game this is an absolute must. In the aforementioned "Outrun 2", the scenery whizzes by at light speed, even when you are driving relatively slow.
Perhaps this lack of speed is why the cars never seem to be difficult to avoid? It's strange because when you are racing most of the time it feels like you are racing out there all alone. The other cars are more just props than actual competitors on the track trying to beat you. The AI in basically non-existent, no one tries to block you out, you simply cruise by them or they cruise by you as if it was a Sunday drive.
ONLINE
Up to 14 people can race at once, and if you've raced online before you know what to expect. I played very little of the online, but what I did play seemed just fine. A few idiot encounters as to be expected can ruin an experience as in my case. From what I did play online nothing really stood out, but of course it's always good they included it.
Graphics:
The graphics are terribly dull in this game. Perhaps this game could have been somewhat salvageable with eye-poppingly insane next-gen graphics. Even here it doesn't measure up to the brilliant Project Gotham Racing 3. It appears Namco simply bumped up the resolution and didn't put much of anything into making this game have the best graphics of the next gen racers. This is probably the most disappointing part of this game since with a Ridge Racer game you know you aren't going to get anything more than a skin-deep racing game, even the skin is boring.
The courses found in the game are dull, colorless, and lacking in creativity. They don't use actual destinations, so they could have let their imagination run wild and create visually stunning fictional tracks like "Outrun 2". Instead we get drab and dreary places where you won't even feel like looking out the window. It does run at a very smooth 60 fps but this doesn't make up for such boring scenery.
The reflections found in the game are probably better than average, however, with some really nice use of lighting. Still you'll find this rather inconsistent with nighttime lighting effects poor implemented. You'll see certain lights not show up where they should at night, like your headlights for example and wonder why they aren't being reflected anywhere. It's sad the game even chokes in this area since at first it seems like it has potential.
Audio:
Overall the sound is very run-of-the-mill, with various house beat and techno tracks used. The tunes are fun, upbeat, and similar to what you've heard in previous Ridge Racer games. If you like this genre of music you'll probably enjoy the music here. I'm not a huge fan, so for the most part I turned up the stereo and listened to other tracks.
The 5.1 didn't sound all that hot either compared to other 5.1 racing games I've played. The 5.1 sound didn't do a very good job spatially translating the visuals. I expect to hear the cars coming up behind me but here it was pretty tough to hear anything in the rear and sides.
Conclusion:
There's no reason to get this game with Project Gotham Racing 3 already on the market. If you are a die-hard racing enthusiast you might get a few hours of play out of this game, but you'll soon find yourself posting it on Ebay or the DVDTalk Video Game Trading Forum. If there is such a thing as a Ridge Racer Fan, then certainly that person will enjoy this game since it's no different than the other Ridge Racers they put out.
I don't like writing bad reviews for games that should have be better than they are. To me this game brutally reveals that the Ridge Racer series has lost its glimmer since the early Playstation days. With the racing market so crowded, there's nothing here that makes it stand out from the crowd. It truly needs to be completely torn apart and redesigned into something different in order to distinguish itself from the others. At the very least they could put out the best graphics on a car racing game if they are just going to simply recycle the game over and over again. The fresh coat of paint they put on every new version is always the same color and the paint is cheap. It's time for something different.
For a car racing game, Ridge Racer is about as arcadey as they come. Most anyone can just pick it up, play it and do reasonably well. The gameplay is ankle deep compared to the Grand Turismo series or even the Project Gotham series. I can't quite recommend this title because of the lack of originality, lack of gameplay, and small amount of replay value it contains. Even the graphics are a letdown and that's a one of the deadly sins for a game that is designed to show off graphics.
With that said, it does work as a "family" game that you can get your uncles and cousins into during a Thanksgiving visit since it's so easy to pick up and play. For $60 though, you might as well get Project Gotham Racing which has great graphics and great gameplay. So in other words, rent it.
Gameplay:
Drifting is the name of the game when it comes to being a Ridge Racer expert. In order to be successful, you must drift every corner. Luckily, drifting happens to be pretty easy to do, so this is not a big deal. When you hit a corner at a fast speed your car will start to become uncontrollable, so you have to just allow your car to decelerate without braking and allow your car to "drift" around the corner on its own, then once the corner is gone you must steer your car into the direction of the road and accelerate again. Sounds complicated? Well it sure isn't, and that's why this game just didn't appeal very much to me.
The other problem with this game is the lack of actual real cars you can choose from. There's simply, fast, faster, fastest and most fast. The cars do look cool, but if you can't drive them in real life so who cares? I'm not sure why they don't start licensing real cars, even uber-arcadish "Outrun 2" for Xbox included a few licensed speed machines.
On the topic of the cars, they sure don't seem that fast. Even when you drive the top speed you don't get any real sense of the speed. For an arcadey game this is an absolute must. In the aforementioned "Outrun 2", the scenery whizzes by at light speed, even when you are driving relatively slow.
Perhaps this lack of speed is why the cars never seem to be difficult to avoid? It's strange because when you are racing most of the time it feels like you are racing out there all alone. The other cars are more just props than actual competitors on the track trying to beat you. The AI in basically non-existent, no one tries to block you out, you simply cruise by them or they cruise by you as if it was a Sunday drive.
ONLINE
Up to 14 people can race at once, and if you've raced online before you know what to expect. I played very little of the online, but what I did play seemed just fine. A few idiot encounters as to be expected can ruin an experience as in my case. From what I did play online nothing really stood out, but of course it's always good they included it.
Graphics:
The graphics are terribly dull in this game. Perhaps this game could have been somewhat salvageable with eye-poppingly insane next-gen graphics. Even here it doesn't measure up to the brilliant Project Gotham Racing 3. It appears Namco simply bumped up the resolution and didn't put much of anything into making this game have the best graphics of the next gen racers. This is probably the most disappointing part of this game since with a Ridge Racer game you know you aren't going to get anything more than a skin-deep racing game, even the skin is boring.
The courses found in the game are dull, colorless, and lacking in creativity. They don't use actual destinations, so they could have let their imagination run wild and create visually stunning fictional tracks like "Outrun 2". Instead we get drab and dreary places where you won't even feel like looking out the window. It does run at a very smooth 60 fps but this doesn't make up for such boring scenery.
The reflections found in the game are probably better than average, however, with some really nice use of lighting. Still you'll find this rather inconsistent with nighttime lighting effects poor implemented. You'll see certain lights not show up where they should at night, like your headlights for example and wonder why they aren't being reflected anywhere. It's sad the game even chokes in this area since at first it seems like it has potential.
Audio:
Overall the sound is very run-of-the-mill, with various house beat and techno tracks used. The tunes are fun, upbeat, and similar to what you've heard in previous Ridge Racer games. If you like this genre of music you'll probably enjoy the music here. I'm not a huge fan, so for the most part I turned up the stereo and listened to other tracks.
The 5.1 didn't sound all that hot either compared to other 5.1 racing games I've played. The 5.1 sound didn't do a very good job spatially translating the visuals. I expect to hear the cars coming up behind me but here it was pretty tough to hear anything in the rear and sides.
Conclusion:
There's no reason to get this game with Project Gotham Racing 3 already on the market. If you are a die-hard racing enthusiast you might get a few hours of play out of this game, but you'll soon find yourself posting it on Ebay or the DVDTalk Video Game Trading Forum. If there is such a thing as a Ridge Racer Fan, then certainly that person will enjoy this game since it's no different than the other Ridge Racers they put out.
I don't like writing bad reviews for games that should have be better than they are. To me this game brutally reveals that the Ridge Racer series has lost its glimmer since the early Playstation days. With the racing market so crowded, there's nothing here that makes it stand out from the crowd. It truly needs to be completely torn apart and redesigned into something different in order to distinguish itself from the others. At the very least they could put out the best graphics on a car racing game if they are just going to simply recycle the game over and over again. The fresh coat of paint they put on every new version is always the same color and the paint is cheap. It's time for something different.