All I remember of Ridge Racer was the old arcade days, little did I know that it's now in it's eight incarnation with Ridge Racer Unbounded. Continue to read on to find out what happened with our hands on experience at GAMEfest.
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| Yes I broke the car - A LOT |
A week ago I manged to get some hands on time with this new version, and it's kind of a 'duh' moment to say it has changed, despite being only limited to one car and race track. Controls on the 360 version run like any other racer with the left and right triggers as the brake and accelerator respectively, the B button as drift and X as boost - unfortunately there was no other controls open to us nor was there any sign of a UI, despite position, speed and boost bar. Therefore we started on the assumption that this would be a normal track demo to show off the engine.
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| Oooooh pretty numbers followed by crashing into said numbers |
That was until I hit the first corner: I was detracted by a unique feature of the game - the score going across the building in 30 foot high numbers sci-fi drama Fringe style (if you don't understand go watch it it's really good). This clearly explained the lack of interface as it was plastered all over the race track, only this and position number were currently on 'Fringe' mode, car posision numbers and damage hovered over each car in question. This feature I loved because I saw more focus was put into racing, because I didn't have to quick look all around the screen to find out how well I was doing - it was literally there in front of me.
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| Messy |
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Back to the first corner, if anyone knows me in driving games, I crashed; thus showing off the damage effects on the car, it had no baring on the driving but again this was alpha so it could be a later developed feature. Anyway as I tried drifting through said corner I had gained boost, which I immediately used to catch up - sending me stright into the roadside cafe sending chairs and tables everywhere. This was the first signs of the terrain destruction built into the game, hitting boost at the correct time can clear paths through anything including bridge pillars, which then opens up the track to whole new modes of play. Filling the boost bar opens up a second and more extreme level of destruction where a target reticule appears on the screen, which if the boost is timed correctly sends you flying through fountains and buildings, creating shortcuts in a very cool style.
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| Points for damage? Lovely! |
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As said there was only one track and car open to us at GAMEfest but it certainly left us wanting to play more, Fatal compared the city to Need For Speed Underground but I felt more of a Burnout vibe to the racing, so if you are a fan of either keep your eyes on this one, we can't wait to get our mits on a more complete version.
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