The Ridge Racer V It's description Win new cars, trophies, and engines. The original Ridge Racer was the meat in Sony's launch sandwich when the original PlayStation hit the U.S. The arcade driving game came home and introduced console gamers to the next big thing. But today, those halcyon days seem like ancient history. As the Ridge Racer series evolved, it became much more than a simple arcade port, adding more tracks and cars, and refining the game's trademark powerslide style of driving. The last installment of the game, Ridge Racer Type 4, really seemed to be as good as the series could get on the existing hardware. Thankfully, Sony has come along with a new box, and Namco is keeping pace with a new Ridge Racer game. But Ridge Racer V all but ignores most of the gameplay refinements that the series has seen over the years, returning to the general driving style of games like Ridge Racer and Ridge Racer Revolution.
Graphically, Ridge Racer V is the most impressive of the PlayStation2 launch games. The game looks like the other Ridge Racer games, but without all the pop-up and pixelated vehicles and environments. Little things like trees on the sides of the track, and the glow that emanates from your red-hot brake pads as you brake while driving around corners really bring a lot to the look of the game. You can even see the gauges inside your car light up when your headlights come on in a tunnel or while night-driving. The cars are well designed, and the environment mapping that creates the almost-too-shiny reflection on your car is pretty amazing. The display isn't flawless, though. The entire game has a very aliased appearance, making the edges of the cars and tracks look really jagged. The better your TV is, the more noticeable the aliasing becomes. Also, there are some seemingly random moments of slowdown, but it's rare and only occurs for less than a second. The game still sports only two camera angles, a first-person and third-person view. The third-person view is much tighter and closer to your vehicle than in the previous games, and it takes a bit of getting used to.
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