Ridge Racer Series

[RV1985]

From the official Bandai Namco site:

Ridge Racer™ is back...Unbounded™



Ridge Racer™ Unbounded™ gears up to carve its own destructive path on a spectacular collision course with PlayStation®3, Xbox 360® and PC.

Ridge Racer is on its way back into the eager hands of gamers. Ridge Racer™ Unbounded™ is coming to add an unexpected dimension to the series and deliver an original blast of ferocious racing adrenaline.


Features

Break free from convention with a new mantra – Drive, Destroy, Dominate

New breed of racing machines: Traditional racing machines are out, badass street machines are in.

The city is your playground: become the king of Shatter Bay!


Good Morning, Afternoon And Evening Everyone!!! XD

Yep, no more racing circuits but sandbox gameplay (Shatter Bay? Oh geez...). It's really gonna be Burnout Paradise Lite apparently. Man, am I excited now...

The release date info is kinda strange, the German version of the site says 2011, the UK version 2012. My guess would be Q1 2012...so there might still be a couple months left for us to rant about how bad the finished game is before the sun blows up!

[tvrman]

I wonder whether this is a reflection on the Japanese gaming industry as a whole ? At the last Tokyo gaming show there were comments about the fact the Japan had slipped behind and did not know how to cater for a global audience. I think this had lead to some Japanese companies now wanting western software houses to produce their more global products.

Polyphony have probably reinforced the need to do this but making such a hash of GT5 (but let us not go into that here) after a really stupendous GT4 offering on the PS2.

Namco have probably lost confidence in themselves which I think is a great pity, as the core ideals of RR - those very Japanese cores, are what made the game the one that we all love and have enjoyed over many years. IMO RR5 is still the best ever single player arcade racer experience, and RR7 was not broken.

It is a shame that Namco have handed the reins over and we all wait and hope for a surprise, but at least our expectations will not be high.

tvr

[Reezellthia]

Does anyone know how well this news has been recieved in Japan? Especially their RR community. Was wondering if they are in as much uproar as we are

[krazydl]

Not sure about entire RR7 community in Japan but I asked one of my friends and he told me that rr7 fans he knows are very upset at this news. (and I believe he know a lot of RR7 players)

I'm pretty sure most of them are pretty angry as well.

[RV1985]

Seriously, at this point I wish they'd just take Ridge Racer 3D, revamp the graphics to HD niveau, add the RR7 online multiplayer mode we're used to, and release this for PS3/360/PC instead of wasting time and money on the crap that Unbounded is "bound" to become.

What I've seen of recent RR3D footage has actually been better than I was expecting at first...if only people would upload more videos showing some of the NEW tracks...

The soundtrack seems really good overall too.

[rollonequick]

RR 3DS is really nice, I played a demo down in the city center in nottingham... Its plays like Ridge Racer 7, and Ridge Racers on the PSP.... The new tracks I played were really nice and surfside resort was also one of the playable courses, the nitrous spots seemed really close to that of rr7, but I was racing with cat 3 and 4 only, as the higher classes in the demo are not available.. It looks like they will have some of the same settings like auto rocket start, over limit start but for some reason these were not available as you had to use POINTS but there was no way to get points in the demo??

There were loads of people around me so I had to put it down after 3 races :-(  the 3D part of the game is really hard on the eyes, you have to keep the 3ds completely still or else your eyes have to re-focus to the new angle and its really hard to keep is still as you want to move the 3ds when you are drifting :-) ..

So the 3ds version will be KEY for us who love rr7 but that means buying a new console!?

[RV1985]

Good to know, I was already wondering if you were able to change certain parts like plugins etc. again.

As close as it might get to RR7, it's still out of the question for me to buy it, or a 3DS for that matter...a) it's too expensive, b) there isn't really anything else upcoming game-wise that would interest me, and c) the biggest reason: RR3D has local multiplayer only but no online mode...which sucks big time. I mean seriously, how often does the average player happen to get multiple people with the console, the game, AND a certain skill level together in the same room?? Local MP for handheld titles has always been kind of a waste imo.

As fun as the game might be, there will be no motivation in the long run to play it after unlocking everything because of this.

Oh, and yeah, most of the feedback about the 3D effect I've read from people since the release has been so-so at best. Many claim It gets hard on the eyes after a while (as you mentioned) and it depletes the battery in no time (from 8h per recharge without it to a mere 5h with 3D)...seems like the big selling point of the system isn't that great after all

[RV1985]

New, short trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TORO3lrn02U

Quick developer interview:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22qvBLRn1IY

None of the vids does anything to help me feel better about the game. Tbh, I'm even more worried now than before

The series doesn't need a spin-off pushing it in a different direction, as the number of real classic arcade style racers already has decreased significantly over the last few years. RR is one of the last bigger, still active franchises in the genre left, so don't friggin' try experimenting on it!

I really have no idea what Bamco JP is thinking...nothing against the guys/gals at Bugbear, but judging from the interview, they could've just named it FlatOut 3 as well and it wouldn't make a difference...

Oh, and no, I won't even bother trying to figure out the exact release date, since I really don't care anymore by now

[Reezellthia]

I dunno, I liked the interview. I've never played a bugbear game but the way he was talking made it sound like they have lots of experience doing racing games. There will definitely still be a drift element, and I'm sure it will have a bit more depth than say burnout paradise. Maybe I'm just a sucker for marketing tho

And wow, has it really been 5 years since RR7 came out?

[krazydl]

It came out 11/17/2006 .

Which means I have known you guys for more less 4 years. WOW

I haven't had a relationship with any of my girlfriends that long. I must like you guys a lot. LMAO