Ridge Racer V
Welcome, my friends, to the first must-have title on the PlayStation2. Not surprisingly, it's a Namco game.
Published: June 30, 2000
Welcome, my friends, to the first must-have title on the PlayStation2. Not surprisingly, it's a Namco game. Ridge Racer V does for the PS2 what Soul Calibur did for the Dreamcast launch: secured Namco as one of the best programmers in the industry, if not the best. If you actually had the money to import a PlayStation2, you better sell that kidney, give blood, donate hair, or do whatever it takes to get your hands on this game.
Graphically, Ridge Racer V is easily the best-looking racing game ever. That's right, ever. Honestly the screenshots you see to your right really can't do the game justice. It's a beauty that simply must been seen in montion, and I don't mean in video, I mean in person in all it's 60 fps glory. Hell, even the friggin' menus are amazing. I literally spent 5 minutes sliding back and forth through all the Flash-esque menus. I haven't seen something this good since Ace Combay 3. Funny how they're both Namco games, isn't it?
The sheer amount of detail is staggering. I've caught myself just marveling at the small things, stuff like rear window defogger lines, dash panels that come on at night or when you enter tunnels. More than once, the amazing amount of eye candy has sent me slamming headlong into a barracade because I was too busy staring, mouth agape at the 128-bit goodness before me.
The lighting is probably the most impressive element of R5's fantastic graphic repretoire. It's simply breathtaking to see the setting sun streaming through trees, and then splaying across the right side of my car, only to watch it move to the hood and then the left as I round two corners. And the beauty of it is, midday really looks like midday, as do the evening and night races..
But are the graphics perfect? In a word, no. The reflection mapping as amazing as it looks, isn't true reflection. It's a couple of highly detailed environment maps that are wrapped around the cars at the proper moment (skycrapers in the city during the day, skyscrapers and street lights in-city at night, florescent lights for the tunnels, trees for the outdoors), but it's no less amazing. There's also a very small bit of popup, but you really have to look for it.
Most are calling R5 a movement back to the powerslide-heavy early days of the series, and I have to agree. While it will take you anywhere from 30-60 minutes to grab the control scheme (especially if you were used to R4's simple gas-brake-gas powerslides), once you've learned them, there's no going back. There's an infinite amount of control on the powerslides, and that perfect U-turn is only a half-second away from a one-way ticket to wallsville.
R5's music rages from fantastic to craptastic. Some tracks actually make the CD sound like it's skipping, looping an annoying beat or sound endlessly until your ears are practically bleeding, then launching into another ear-slipping tyrade. Other times, the music is downright ingenius, such as during the menu operations or on some of the shorter tracks. It can range from grating to gyrating, and you never know what you're going to get. Luckily, you can turn the music off, or manually select a track for your own listening pleasure.
Because we don't yet have the optical cable, we weren't able to check for true Dolby surround on the effect, but what we hear were standard Ridge Racer fare: light and unobtrusive, they got the job done.
While I can't call this the best Ridge Racer ever (it's just too close to call), I can easily call it the best looking ever. This is Namco quality at it's very best. If you're lucky enough to have a PS2 right, do yourself a favor and grab that game NOW. If not, sit tight, you'll have something to look forward to come this Fall.
Graphically, Ridge Racer V is easily the best-looking racing game ever. That's right, ever. Honestly the screenshots you see to your right really can't do the game justice. It's a beauty that simply must been seen in montion, and I don't mean in video, I mean in person in all it's 60 fps glory. Hell, even the friggin' menus are amazing. I literally spent 5 minutes sliding back and forth through all the Flash-esque menus. I haven't seen something this good since Ace Combay 3. Funny how they're both Namco games, isn't it?
The sheer amount of detail is staggering. I've caught myself just marveling at the small things, stuff like rear window defogger lines, dash panels that come on at night or when you enter tunnels. More than once, the amazing amount of eye candy has sent me slamming headlong into a barracade because I was too busy staring, mouth agape at the 128-bit goodness before me.
The lighting is probably the most impressive element of R5's fantastic graphic repretoire. It's simply breathtaking to see the setting sun streaming through trees, and then splaying across the right side of my car, only to watch it move to the hood and then the left as I round two corners. And the beauty of it is, midday really looks like midday, as do the evening and night races..
But are the graphics perfect? In a word, no. The reflection mapping as amazing as it looks, isn't true reflection. It's a couple of highly detailed environment maps that are wrapped around the cars at the proper moment (skycrapers in the city during the day, skyscrapers and street lights in-city at night, florescent lights for the tunnels, trees for the outdoors), but it's no less amazing. There's also a very small bit of popup, but you really have to look for it.
Most are calling R5 a movement back to the powerslide-heavy early days of the series, and I have to agree. While it will take you anywhere from 30-60 minutes to grab the control scheme (especially if you were used to R4's simple gas-brake-gas powerslides), once you've learned them, there's no going back. There's an infinite amount of control on the powerslides, and that perfect U-turn is only a half-second away from a one-way ticket to wallsville.
R5's music rages from fantastic to craptastic. Some tracks actually make the CD sound like it's skipping, looping an annoying beat or sound endlessly until your ears are practically bleeding, then launching into another ear-slipping tyrade. Other times, the music is downright ingenius, such as during the menu operations or on some of the shorter tracks. It can range from grating to gyrating, and you never know what you're going to get. Luckily, you can turn the music off, or manually select a track for your own listening pleasure.
Because we don't yet have the optical cable, we weren't able to check for true Dolby surround on the effect, but what we hear were standard Ridge Racer fare: light and unobtrusive, they got the job done.
While I can't call this the best Ridge Racer ever (it's just too close to call), I can easily call it the best looking ever. This is Namco quality at it's very best. If you're lucky enough to have a PS2 right, do yourself a favor and grab that game NOW. If not, sit tight, you'll have something to look forward to come this Fall.
