Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Ridge Racer Unbounded


UPDATE: Gamespot video review added

I'm in the minority - I love Ridge Racer. This? This is not Ridge Racer as I know it, but it is crossing into Burnout territory. I know, I know... this game is trying HARD to be a Burnout/Need for Speed lovechild. But, who knows, maybe it's worth a shot. It has a track/city creator that looks fairly impressive and seems to play a lot like Revenge. It was also developed by the studio that created the FlatOut series.

Maybe one day a racing game will come along that will partially fill the void left in our hearts by the abandonment of Burnout 3. This might not be it, but it can't hurt to try it out.

Release date: March 27th, 2012

20 comments:

umo said...

I'm going to wait a few weeks and hope a demo comes out, but this is one that has no competition at the moment. So if it works well it could be a good summer.

Trials Evolution could take up the slack if it's left wanting though.

umo said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RjQpXVstxk

Giant Bomb have taken a quick look at the game. Seems a bit dark and gloomy.

md said...

hmmm, not many reviews out yet. looks like it could go either way.

Chronic said...

Looks pretty Burnout, uh, "inspired" to put it nicely. The notion of a track creator is great, and because its Namco we dont have to worry about the game going offline after 3-4 years. Im willing to give it a shot if you guys are.

md said...

*sigh* the more I read previews and reviews, them more I regret posting anything about it...

md said...

so far, Gamerankings shows it has a 68% average rating. Reviews scores right now are 5, 6, 6, 8, and 9.

Blank said...

Im gonna see about picking it up on my way home tonight. Saw a video of the advanced track editor, that alone is more than enough reason for me to check it out. Seems pretty fun from what i've seen. All the reviews tend to be getting onto it for not being ridge racer and for taking elements of other racing games and not doing them as well. But i think the combination of all the different elements is what will make it fun. Same idea with Burnout Paradise, as a burnout game its only ok; but as its own racing game by itself it was a lot of fun. All about perspective.

Blank said...

Im gonna see about picking it up on my way home tonight. Saw a video of the advanced track editor, that alone is more than enough reason for me to check it out. Seems pretty fun from what i've seen. All the reviews tend to be getting onto it for not being ridge racer and for taking elements of other racing games and not doing them as well. But i think the combination of all the different elements is what will make it fun. Same idea with Burnout Paradise, as a burnout game its only ok; but as its own racing game by itself it was a lot of fun. All about perspective.

md said...

reviews now: 5 6 6 8 8 9 (70%AVG)

umo said...

In that Gamespot review, he's British so no excuse for saying at 1:40 "sway-doh futuristic" instead of "sue-doh" (psuedo) futuristic.

I wish they didn't use 'frags' to mean takedowns too. Hopefully there'll be an option to turn off the 'takedown camera' it switches too after every frag.

Md said...

Headshot!

Blank said...

The game is pretty solid, but its not the burnout we are looking for. 'Fragging' someone simply means hitting the boost button and rubbing against them for a second or two or luckily running them into a wall on the side of the street. At least from what i've done so far is not nearly as intense as the smashing and everything that we got used to in B3. You can turn off the camera though, which is a nice little benefit.

The drifting is...lackluster too. You drift with the B button and its basically the key to winning any of the races. Gotta hold it down for most turns though it varies a little by turn and car, it doesnt give a good sense of drifting freedom though if that makes sense...like either you drift well or you spin in a circle....

Chronic said...

What I dont understand is, why one of these companies doesnt just blatantly rip off the physics of Burnout 3. If Criterion wants to reinvent the wheel, someone should just step in and make the game we all want. They can take whatever liberties they want with the look of the game and the track design, etc, but mka ehte drifting and takedowns feel like classic Burnout 3 - a game which by all accounts was never surpassed in this generation of consoles.

It seems our only hope is to pray that EA looks for a cheap cash in and reissues the original B3 game in HD with some of the tracks and cars from Burnout Legends.

md said...

HUGE FUCKING SAD-FACE

Chronic said...

Someone being able to boost into you from behind for a takedown seems kind of silly. The whole joy of Burnout was battling for a takedown - the hunter could easily become the hunted with just a slightly mistimed boost or shunt, and sometimes you would finish neck and neck after laps of heated battling.

The whole "my car touches yours, BOOM!" aesthetic is probably my biggest beef with this game (as well as games like Revenge and Paradise).

md said...

ok, i downloaded this for PC to try it out. It's actually pretty fun and the drifting has a slight learning curve. Not sure how online takedowns would be. they are easy in single player, requiring nothing more than touching you opponent while boosting. so far, it's a great game. might buy it for 360 when the price drops

umo said...

I've noticed it's VERY SHOUTY IN THE FRIEND'S STATUS.
Someone is playing 'RIDGE RACER TM UNBOUNDED' and they are 'PICKING A RACE' then 'PLAYING DOMINATION RACE IN SHATTER BAY'

If you look at what's come later Burnout 3 had so much variety in the tracks and locations I think it would be a lot of work to make it all HD based on the old assets.

The real issue with EA doing a HD remake though is 4 years later they'd shut it down again :(

umo said...

I got this yesterday. I haven't tried online modes yet but going by the number of World cities that have been made it's not sold many copies so far.

Single player does have some modes reminiscent of Burnout. There's a road rage where you have to take out as many (25 for max reward) police cars using the POWER button when you are touching them. In this mode you drive a big rig cab and the POWER automatically recharges after a few of seconds.

Once you 'frag' the initial one touching you it cuts to frag cam and you can still kind of aftertouch your way in the 3rd person view to hit other nearby cops until the takedown cam ends.

There's a time trial mode which is get to the end of a long lap in 1m 30s where you have endless cops like road rage that can do you damage but generally serve as fodder to earn POWER so you can use it as boost.

There is not really any battling in races there are 11 AI and you start 11th, to win you need to frag them as you go to overtake them, earning a refil of your POWER so you can take out the next one or open shortcuts.

POWER can only be used Burnout 2 style, once it's full. Then it drains all at once. The main mode Domination has POWER used for opening shortcuts, boosting and fragging people you touch with it.

I like the Shindo races which remove the fragging and shortcut opening aspects and just have the POWER used as B2 boost.

I tried making a track and when testing it I realised I could probably use a banked corner to hop over the wall. So I tried it and went right over first time into a glitch. The problem is all the blocks are tiles so even off track there's very limited space before you hit the solid edges.

I know Autolog is probably copyrighted but I can't see any friends leaderboards for any of the single player stuff, or any leaderboards at all. I'm over halfway through the single player races. Unless the online has some magical stuff happening I might sell it and play Trials

Another odd thing is the X button is not used. It would be ideal to have it as a look behind button, considering how easily you can be taken out by someone behind you. Instad you have to flick the right thumbstick down. I am not sold on the HUD shoving details into the world that only show up on certain parts of the track. It doesn't help me be less distracted, it's more distracting trying to wait for the text to cycle to show how many seconds you are ahead. There are things shown on the HUD and it's no bother to spend a half second when *I* choose to, to gather the information I want. Instead you have to wonder what lap you are on, how many laps there even are.

But you are never left in doubt about what song is starting to play, some of them have long titles that stretch right across into the middle of the screen. It's made worse by the fact when you play your own custom music it STILL shows the song info on the screen every few minutes which can be very offputting because you're not hearing songs end so it's out of context.

Just had a quick read about the multiplayer and ppl are complaing of unstoppable timers as soon as 1st place finishes, even if everyone finishes in a few seconds the timer still counts out in full. Also, it seems races in session are invisible so it's Burnout lobby style with no idea how many people, if any are online and races starting a countdown once a couple of people are in the lobby, so little chance for all the slots to fill up.

http://www.metro.co.uk/tech/games/894965-games-inbox-ridge-racer-problems-wii-u-news-and-peter-molyneux

umo said...

Finished the single player. After that trailer/intro I half expected some vague story to unfold, but there was nothing more said about the Unbounded.

The parting shot was a surprise though. The last event you unlock features a circuit racer type car, maybe more like a Domintor than the Euro. Why didn't they just start the game with cars like that?

I tried the multiplayer and for public games at least there is a non-stop timer and only 2 other people joined in the time available. Taking people out was just like single player. Sit behind them and when you have full POWER, just activate it next to or behind them.

It's okay, for a racing game. Nothing to set the heart racing though.

Chronic said...

Son, I am disappoint.