What is all the fuss about? This game is the worst ridge racer I have played, good thing they still have Pac-Man.
I started the game up, pac man of course! and onto a quick race. The graphics jumped out on me straight away and I though, impressive. The sound was crystal clear and catchy as was the cool voice over guy :p
The FX was not exactly very clear but it just goes downhill from here on I am afraid.
I quickly realized that the game was ALL about drag/drift style racing, which in theory sounds freekin awesome but the execution in this case, is dyer. After your first 2 races you will be bored, really bored. Everything is the same, you do not require breaks in this game, all you do is drift around to the corners to earn nitrous boosts which again sounds good but the reality is the opposite. The Boosts are just flashy and are barely effective anyway in the actual racing. Then again these boosts are just about the only way to take over another car of the same class.
EVERY race is the same, there is no variation whatsoever and even different modes in this game are boring, even after playing 2 player I was bored stiff after 2 races.
The game play is awful, smashing into a wall at 300 MPH will result in...nothing, not a dint, not even an impact sound, in-fact all the FX is bad. Go down a 1000 yard straight and do 5 360 degree turns at 300 MPH is just as fast as driving in a straight line, of course you will get your amazing +10 mph nitrous boosts faster this way.
It is the same thing, constantly. Drift, nitrous, drift. Whoever gets the lead at the beginning will win because it is nion impossible to overtake a non CPU player as crashing into walls or other cars does nothing, absolutely nothing.
I would not recommend this game to anyone, even the hardcore Ridge Racer fans I'd say to you guys, rent this game and take it back an hour later.
Average at best, I'd give it 4.5/10