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[DenogginizerOS]

I love finding out who my rival is for the day and then going into the huge ghost list and beating the ghosts of my rivals.

 

[whitehawk]

For people who still think $29.99 is too much, do what I did and get the digital version. $24.99 seems like a pretty good price. It really isn't as light on content as you might think. Trying to level up in this game is no easy task.

And after playing the game awhile I see what the team was going for. Definitely a departure for Ridge Racer, but it kind of works. You can score "VIP points" online or off, but they give you online objectives which change everyday, depending on the faction you pick. You then play for that team throughout. It's kind of like Ridge Racer's version of MAG. A persistent tug of war. It's actually pretty cool.

Yup, I did the same thing. I can swallow $24.99 Even with the lack of content, I will probably end up playing this a lot more than my other games.

Also using boost in 1st person mode really give you a good sense of speed. Bravo Scamco.

 

[Wonko_C]

PSN: AgentOtaku

First impressions on RR Vita. IT'S PURRRTY and I love the UI actually. Very smooth.
Played one open match but only 2 people joined =/

RR PSP. First time i've played it and yeah, it's 60fps but I mean, it's still visually dated. Framerate only get's you so far and I definitely prefer the clarity of Vita. I do appreciate the obvious wealth of content though.

Always love the UI music in these games also. What would you call it?

Agreed. Also after Double/Triple Nitrous and Ultimate Charge were introduced in RR6 onwards, I just couldn't go back to the PSP Ridge. Learning to time your nitrous so it ends right when you're going to drift into a corner added a lot of depth to the admittedly simplified drifting mechanics... Then Flex Nitrous came and made it all cheap again.

 

[Crazymoogle]

Agreed. Also after Double/Triple Nitrous and Ultimate Charge were introduced in RR6 onwards, I just couldn't go back to the PSP Ridge. Learning to time your nitrous so it ends right when you're going to drift into a corner added a lot of depth to the admittedly simplified drifting mechanics... Then Flex Nitrous came and made it all cheap again.

Haven't tried RRVita yet but Flex in 7 is pretty...weak? It just doesn't recharge fast enough and you need to hold it for a long time to hit Level 2 or 3 boost. Reverse Charge beats everything (if you can stand that one-shot style of play) but the rest of the boost styles all had interesting quirks...

 

[Wonko_C]

Haven't tried RRVita yet but Flex in 7 is pretty...weak? It just doesn't recharge fast enough and you need to hold it for a long time to hit Level 2 or 3 boost. Reverse Charge beats everything (if you can stand that one-shot style of play) but the rest of the boost styles all had interesting quirks...

Reverse charge should be easy to master in theory, but it messes me up badly for some reason.

Beating the final races in RR7 was impossible to me with the other types of nitrous until I tried Flex, then I beat those races in a matter of minutes. Regardless of effectiveness, when I mentioned cheap I meant that it's easy to just hold the button down near a corner and let go of the button when drifting for an easy ultimate charge, it doesn't feel as strategic as most of the other nitrous types.

 

[Crazymoogle]

Reverse charge should be easy to master in theory, but it messes me up badly for some reason.

Beating the final races in RR7 was impossible to me with the other types of nitrous until I tried Flex, then I beat those races in a matter of minutes. Regardless of effectiveness, when I mentioned cheap I meant that it's easy to just hold the button down near a corner and let go of the button when drifting for an easy ultimate charge, it doesn't feel as strategic as most of the other nitrous types.

Yeah, I get you, but where that fails is the DLC challenges. The all Angelus race is pretty difficult to beat with anything but reverse charge (actually I think there's also a reverse-only race as well...) Sure, you get easy ultimate charge, but not a lot of it...

All in all I think beat the majority of the game with quad nitrous...

(Reverse is interesting, don't get me wrong. But it's an awful lot of prep that can be absolutely useless if an AI or MP hits you even slightly)

 

[Argyle]

Is there a site with the grid mapped out anywhere?

The upgrade grid is designed to be pretty much openly hostile - empty blocks that unlock nothing, and no way short of consulting an offline guide to see what you are trying to unlock once the grid starts branching. Horrible.

 

[OmegaZero]

Is there a site with the grid mapped out anywhere?

The upgrade grid is designed to be pretty much openly hostile - empty blocks that unlock nothing, and no way short of consulting an offline guide to see what you are trying to unlock once the grid starts branching. Horrible.

That sounds awful.
I can't believe I was considering getting this.

Spoiler

I can't believe I'm still considering getting this.

 

[B-Dex]

I was a team VIP yesterday. Feels good man.

 

[chubigans]

Is there a site with the grid mapped out anywhere?

The upgrade grid is designed to be pretty much openly hostile - empty blocks that unlock nothing, and no way short of consulting an offline guide to see what you are trying to unlock once the grid starts branching. Horrible.

It is terrible. I would have much, much preferred they got rid of all the tips and empty blocks and quadrupled the cost of the blocks that actually do something.

I mean what the HELL were they thinking with those empty blocks. It's like throwing all your work down a black hole. Jeez.

 

[B-Dex]

The music while waiting in an online lobby is cringe worthy. Terrible singing.

 

[DenogginizerOS]

I view the empty blocks as failed research....yeah, no, it sucks.

 

[Poimandres]

So, when all is said and done, how many tracks will this game have?

 

[DJmizuhara]

I got the Japanese cart, if I download the US DLC packs will it work?

 

[DenogginizerOS]

So, when all is said and done, how many tracks will this game have?

9 are confirmed if you include gold and silver passes. It is assumed more will come.

 

[Poimandres]

9 are confirmed if you include gold and silver passes. It is assumed more will come.

That's actually not too bad. More would be nice, but I could live with 9.

 

[DenogginizerOS]

That's actually not too bad. More would be nice, but I could live with 9.

Plus, all can be reversed.

 

[thirty]

Team Squaris BITCH!!! aaaaahahaha so awesome

 

[Liquid_015]

Haha, just bought it about 10mins ago! Can't wait to play it!

 

[btkadams]

are the tracks in the game (at the moment) from old games? or, are they new? do we know anything about the tracks coming? i love these games but can't justify the price if they are old tracks again.

 

[thirty]

Old games. As you can see from my posts in this thread I was dead set on not buying it but the fan in me couldn't resist and I caved. Glad I did tho. I'm LOVING the concept of the ghost races and the whole interface. If they continue adding old courses (seaside 765please!!!!!) This could be the best ridge since r4. OMG DAT MEGAMIX

 

[DenogginizerOS]

Wow! The uptick in quality ghost times (grkyhewy....DAMN!) indicates to me the vets are returning to RR. I must find another second!!!!

 

[dark10x]

Asking for new tracks in a Ridge game is odd to me. If you're a fan of Ridge Racer, you want the same old tracks, that's part of what makes up Ridge Racer.

The only thing I'm wary about on the Vita version is single player. I bought Ridge Racer twice on the PS1, with just a handful of tracks and a gaggle of cars. But doing the races, trying to get the White Angel/Black Devil car was exhilarating and kept me coming back.

Online races will be awesome, so I think I'm going to buy it, but really...I can't find any information on single player. Is there a grand prix option or does it not exist.

No no no, what I would like to see is another game that takes the same approach as Ridge Racer V. They basically took an environment well known from previous games and fleshed it way out. They have tracks that take you in all the other areas that were always blocked in previous tracks and it was fantastic. It also featured time of day changes to go along with it.

I would love to see another take on the Ridge City concept that delivers tracks that snake in and around one another.

 

[OSHAN]

How many damn VP points does it take to level past 10? I'm at 45 or something and still no advancment. Anyone have a chart?

Anyone?

 

[DCharlie]

Asking for new tracks in a Ridge game is odd to me. If you're a fan of Ridge Racer, you want the same old tracks, that's part of what makes up Ridge Racer.

Needs to have at least 2-3 new tracks along with remixed versions of familiar tracks.

 

[Lambtron]

No no no, what I would like to see is another game that takes the same approach as Ridge Racer V. They basically took an environment well known from previous games and fleshed it way out. They have tracks that take you in all the other areas that were always blocked in previous tracks and it was fantastic. It also featured time of day changes to go along with it.

I would love to see another take on the Ridge City concept that delivers tracks that snake in and around one another.

Ridge V is still my favorite Ridge. God what a killer game. I actually bought a NeGcon recently so I could replay it with that. I should get on that...

 

[golduck342]

Guys, back up your data every once in a while.

I had just started for the day, opened the app brand new and just went straight to search for an online lobby. The game froze on me. Music kept playing, sleep button was responsive, but nothing else. Had to hard reboot the Vita. When I restarted the game, it asked me to choose my team again and set up my ID... back to level 1.

Granted, I was only on level 3 but it's gonna suck to reunlock upgrades and get my progress back... I just finished a 30 lap run on single lap time attack last night!

 

[Lord Error]

This game is really damn good! It's slick as hell, looks fantastic, control great. 30FPS is the only drawback, but it's otherwise the best looking RR there is, and one of the best looking racers period! The lighting, the shine on the cars, the DOF use, all so good, so much eye candy.

I'd say the worst part about the game was downloading all the free content they have for it, of which there's so much that it really took a while. The negativity surrounding this game is mind boggling to me, now that I finally got to play it....

 

[DenogginizerOS]

Couldn't agree more. This game has taught me a lot about how I will choose to make future purchases, how worthless some game reviewers are, and how awesome the Vita is.

 

[thirty]

Does this game really have no intro? A ridge racer with no intro movie? Loving the game but that really grinds my gears.

 

[Ran rp]

Guys, back up your data every once in a while.

I had just started for the day, opened the app brand new and just went straight to search for an online lobby. The game froze on me. Music kept playing, sleep button was responsive, but nothing else. Had to hard reboot the Vita. When I restarted the game, it asked me to choose my team again and set up my ID... back to level 1.

Granted, I was only on level 3 but it's gonna suck to reunlock upgrades and get my progress back... I just finished a 30 lap run on single lap time attack last night!

Giant deal breaker here. $10 or nothing, Namco.

 

[Lord Error]

Does this game really have no intro? A ridge racer with no intro movie? Loving the game but that really grinds my gears.

You can get one of the best intros to anything ever made by downloading a separate 70MB 'demo' executable. I think this demo is US and JP only for now though.

 

[Wonko_C]

I don't know why didn't I ask this earlier but here it goes: Are all the cars exactly the same? I say this because all of them have the same top speed and they are no longer in different drift categories since you can freely adjust the drift style with a slider.

I am terrible at noticing differences between cars on every racing game I play and would love it to have a bar graph like Wipeout 2048.

 

[DenogginizerOS]

I don't know why didn't I ask this earlier but here it goes: Are all the cars exactly the same? I say this because all of them have the same top speed and they are no longer in different drift categories since you can freely adjust the drift style with a slider.

I am terrible at noticing differences between cars on every racing game I play and would love it to have a bar graph like Wipeout 2048.

I am curious about this as well. After racing against a ghost on the same level as me this morning who had the same upgrades but was beating me in the straights at the start, I switched my car to the one he used and that erased the difference.

 

[OmegaZero]

Gah, this sucks.
There are many aspects of this that are turning me off, the lacking content and 30 fps being the biggest offenders, but...it's Ridge Racer. For the Vita.

Wipeout is the overall better deal, so why am I hesitating?

 

[robot]

Flex Nitrous is awesome.

Also took me awhile to realize the 4 teams make up the 4 face buttons of the controller.

Xealot all the way.

 

[Wonko_C]

Gah, this sucks.
There are many aspects of this that are turning me off, the lacking content and 30 fps being the biggest offenders, but...it's Ridge Racer. For the Vita.

Wipeout is the overall better deal, so why am I hesitating?

I would say go for Wipeout. It's the best game to show off what the Vita is capable of in my opinion. But I am as much a Ridge Racer fan as a Wipeout fan so I ended up getting both.


OT: My machine is finally max level (LV7), yay! but I still have only A group upgrades, LOL. Unlocking upgrades through the grid is addictive, but I think they shouldn't tell you what you are going to get, at least it wouldn't feel horrible if you didn't know you're about to flush 400CR down the drain, I'd rather see "Surprise! there's nothing here! Better luck next time! (trollface.jpg)" than what we currently have.

 

[Ben Morales]

There seem to be differences in the cars handling, and probably acceleration. I was trying to get the Dynamic and Dangerous trophy for winning a race with the drift settings on maxed Dynamic. Right before moved the slider over, I changed my car to the Promessa. I then tried to race (my cars are at max speed right now), and I couldn't get control of the car after drifting. I had to really throttle and counter steer like crazy. I changed back to the Elenie, since I'm so used to Age Solo cars from R4 and PSP RR. Got first place right after that and I could control the car better.

 

[isamu]

Yeah, I will certainly play this game.

Spoiler

If someone *gives* me a Vita and the game

 

[geebee]

PSN: BlueNocturne

Big fan of Ridge Racer, so I had to get this no matter what... say what you will about the content, but the online is amazing especially for a handheld title. Team Squaris here... lol

 

[jooey]

Giant deal breaker here. $10 or nothing, Namco.

one bug that isn't widely reported is a giant dealbreaker for you among all the other dealbreakers in the game that people have been bitching about? use your head.

 

[Ran rp]

one bug that isn't widely reported is a giant dealbreaker for you among all the other dealbreakers in the game that people have been bitching about? use your head.

I wasn't serious, lol. The only real deal breaker for me is the lack of content. Everything else sounds good except for the 30fps, but I can live with that.

 

[Liquid_015]

Gaf,

We should have a racing league, or a NeoGaf dedicated room for us Ridge Racer fans!

By the way, which team did the majority pick? I'm with Xealot.

Haha, just got VIP for 24 hours XD

 

[chubigans]

Flex Nitrous is awesome.

Also took me awhile to realize the 4 teams make up the 4 face buttons of the controller.

Xealot all the way.

My mind is blown.

 

[Brigandier]

PSN: True_Weltall

If anyone feels like having a game sometime!!

Also is it me sucking or is there a lot of cheaters playing this game?. I can be leading a race from start to finish and put in a flawless race then as soon as I cross the line I'm like 5th and people who are similiar rank (12) are beating me by like 10 seconds??.

Being beaten by 10 seconds especially when I'm on form at Highland cliffs seems fishy to me.

Hate people who purposely crash into you at full speed and drive backwards crashing into people too.... I need to find a bunch of players who are competitve but not dicks.

 

[isamu]

The reviewers are missing the key aspect of this: online lag free racing against people all over the world.

It should be noted: online races have been lag free even when players from Japan, Great Britain, and the US are in the same lobby/race.

Can anyone else vouch for these claims? I have a hard time believing you can get lag free or even close to lag free online gaming on a portable using a freakin' 3G connection. Denogginizer....can you please tell me what kind of connection you are on, or what areas you use to play online with your Vita?

Wi-Fi at McDonalds?

3G at some random location outdoors or indoors?

At your home via your own wireless network?

 

[Resistance100]

Can anyone else vouch for these claims? I have a hard time believing you can get lag free or even close to lag free online gaming on a portable using a freakin' 3G connection. Denogginizer....can you please tell me what kind of connection you are on, or what areas you use to play online with your Vita?

Wi-Fi at McDonalds?

3G at some random location outdoors or indoors?

At your home via your own wireless network?

You can't play online via 3G. Only Wi-fi.

 

[Alex Connolly]

Yeah, can vouch for the incredibly smooth online experience this game offers.

The only misstep is not being able to invite friends to your game AND not being able to have friends find you/race with you if they're even a single level below or above. Unless I'm missing something.

Had multiplayer between myself (JPN) and a friend last night (AUS) with no hitches or connection issues at all. Bliss.

 

[Brigandier]

Stupid question incoming, Can you not change race tracks in the lobby?.

 

[Alex Connolly]

Stupid question incoming, Can you not change race tracks in the lobby?.

Swipe down and select RANDOM in the create lobby options. I don't think there's any other way. Almost token how well the game does in some areas and how bizarrely obtuse the game is in others.