Frustrating
A Customer from Guildford,
13th April, 2008
I'm a big fan of the PSP version of Ridge Racer, and remember playing the original on the first PlayStation many years ago. So this latest installment on the PS3 came as a big disappointment to me. Getting a good start is now critical, and relies on you keeping the rev meter just below the red line and then flooring the throttle as soon as the race starts. Get it right and you'll pick up half a dozen places by the first corner. Get it even fractionally wrong and you'll be left trailing along at the back of the field (or, if you get it badly wrong, several seconds behind the rest of the cars). If you do get a poor start, you might as well reach for the restart button, as all but the first few races of the career mode are surprisingly tough to win. Partly that's because Ridge Racer 7 seems to be far more punishing than the PSP version when you make a mistake. Also, the cars run much closer together. In an eight car race you'll often find half the field running together in a constantly squabbling gaggle, so if you do slip up and lose a bit of speed you can end up dropping three or four places. Getting those places back is a lot tougher too, because the nitrous system has been completely neutered. Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but it seems to be much harder to charge up your nitrous boost in Ridge Racer 7 than in the PSP Ridge Racer. You'll be lucky to get to boost twice during a typical 3 lap race, which is pitiful. All of which you might expect from a more hardcore game, but Ridge Racer is and always has been a fun arcade-style experience. It's not about serious driving, setting up your car or realistic physics. It's about the sheer pleasure of throwing your car into a corner and drifting through it, tyres screaming, and muscling your way past other cars at high speed. And while the handling is still quite arcade-like, the game as a whole is just too tough and unforgiving on beginners. If you're happy to work at the game for days on end, perfecting your drifting technique and learning every track off by heart, you might still enjoy Ridge Racer 7. But if like me you just want to sit down, play it and have some fun right from the start, you may well get frustrated.
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