Ridge Racer Unbounded

[Psykoboy2]

If you know me, in almost even the smallest of ways, you know my love of arcade racers. For me, it starts with Burnout and gets compared from there on down with the likes of Blur and Split Second. So yeah, when I saw this:

I knew I was in.

The game releases this week and I figured I would start a thread for it. I don't know if there is high scores or challenges or anything like that. In fact, I know very little about the game except you can make your own tracks:

This is Namco in publisher and IP only, while the development has been given to Bugbear, the guys behind Flatout. Although from the track creation, you'd likely think it comes more from Trackmania, but regardless, anytime you have cars crashing, blowing up, flying all about...then you have my attention.

Anyone else getting in on this?

[Psykoboy2]

First review I have found from Edge Online:

Any given session throws up shades of Split Second: Velocity’s explosive set-pieces, as well as Burnout’s slow-motion car crumpling and, of course, visual reflections of classic Ridge Racer’s showroom shimmer, but there’s never any doubt that this is Bugbear’s own opus.

To know the hierarchy of Unbounded’s carefully arranged scenery is to master the game and to be able to outwit its fierce AI drivers. Initially, it’s incomprehensible: some walls crumble to dust, while others stop you dead in your tracks. But once you’ve deciphered the plethora of assets, the sense of empowerment and achievement is up there with the genre’s best, and accompanied by the thunderous beating of your pulse.

Bugbear has been playing around with physics and destructible environments for years, but here it’s struck the perfect balance between realism and exaggeration. Destroyable objects react to your bumper as you’d expect, yet don’t fatally slow you down. Civilian traffic never thwarts your advantage, flipping out of your way and often smashing into the windscreen of your rivals. It helps that the framerate is so smooth, never stuttering despite the constant presence of debris.

On the track editing aspect of things:

The editor is no last-minute addition: it’s a Forge-calibre DIY tool that enables you to publish your own creation, populated with all the jumps, obstacles and mayhem you can pack into the generous grid space. You can set event objectives, too, meaning that if the game’s brilliant, brutal gauntlets aren’t to your liking, you can effectively design your own campaign for you and others to enjoy and destroy.

Their score: 9

[fitbabits]

Appalling name aside, this looks like fun. Next Gamefly rental, for sure.

[menage]

This looks good. Maybe when it drops.

[Tayaya]

I definitely want this game... even though it's not a real RR game (which is OK because the last few of those have been stinkers).

I'm a big Flatout fan, though I skipped the last one 1 and 2 are some of the most enjoyable PC racers of their day. Everything I've seen about this game reminded me of Flatout physics-wise, and seeing the track editor really locked in my desire to pick this up. Just waiting for payday!

[Tayaya]

I picked this up in light of the positive press it got from Edge. Numerical scores aside, the things they said about the game jived well with what I look for in an arcade racer.

Impressions so far: It's good, but it's not great (yet... I have a LOT of game to unlock). It's definitely not a Ridge Racer game, but for fans of something like the Flatout or Split Second games, it's definitely a solid and polished contender in that same vein.

It looks decent, the controls are passable (not as razor sharp as I'd like, and the drift mechanic in the game feels very strange... it's not Ridge Racer, and it's not realisitc, so I need to figure out just how "in between" it is), and the music is excellent (a good blend of RR 5-7 era tunes, and some new ones from Sampling Masters AYA and MEGA, Skrillex, and others). As I unlock cars and the game gets a little faster and tighter, I'm starting to like it more, so I'll definitely let you guys know how things shake out in the long term.

And no matter what, it's better than Ridge Racer Vita! :P

[menage]

Got this for free, but quickly lost interest. It must be the drab setting but i'd rather play Split Second or even better, BLUR. Just felt off this one. And whats up with the stupid difficulty.

[Tayaya]

I've noticed a lot of people mentioning the difficulty here, and other than the Drift Showdown events I've been 3-starring everything on the first or second go (I'm about 1/3 of the way done with the singleplayer). Once you get used to the game's "system" it's really not that hard at all. The environments get cooler than the drab starting area as you unlock them, but the game never shakes that overly generic feeling it has.... it's missing some of that classic RR "style" that keeps me coming back to the series after all these years.

I would have to say that I too like Split Second better, even with its overall lack of content.... it's hard to beat being chased by an assault heli in a racing game, or dodging explosive drums being dumped from the back of semi trucks. That shit was butthole-clenchingly awesome.

Blur and I never got along - I played the beta a LOT, but just never found my happy place with that game no matter what I tried.