Battle of the Ports

[Yakumo]

After all the periphery noise in this thread, I did not even know the original discussion of Ridge Racer originated from this!

Fantastic video Yakumo, I want to pick up the original PAL UK dual case release after watching that!

hahaha, yep this video has caused some major discussion. It's also doing well on YouTube. Over a thousand views in 1 day. Small numbers by YouTube standards but big numbers for my videos.

[nakamura]

Ridge V isn't stripped back compared to 4. 4 is the same 8, tracks in a row over and over again. You also race them at the same speed settings. There is no change. It doesn't even have reverse tracks and most of the cars are reskins.

Type 4 is very much misleading with content.

[Wools]

Ridge Racer V has the same identical track, with different course extensions mixed with time of day settings to liven it up.

For me as a massive Ridge Racer fan who loves every game in the core series, Ridge V is stripped back. It doesn't mean more content is better and I agree that the control is more slick compared to Type 4, but it's not difficult to see why it feels like a slightly expanded version of the original Ridge Racer.

[Dogg Thang]

I haven't played V since the early PS2 days so I can't argue details, only feelings and perceptions at the time, but my memory of the handling is that it was really sluggish compared with Type4. Was it that cars felt much heavier? If that's not actually the case (memories fade), there was definitely something in the handling that hugely disappointed me after 4. For me, there had been a massive progression in handling when Rage came out and then another leap for 4 and V just threw it backwards for me.

I'll freely admit too that one thing that I really didn't like about V was its complete lack of style, something 4 was loaded with. It's not of core importance when it comes to racing and shouldn't be a primary consideration but it was definitely a factor. To me, it felt old which a game on my shiny new console shouldn't. The godawful borders on our version didn't help that.

[Asura]

The godawful borders on our version didn't help that.

I suspect this might have been my problem. Did it have a very poor PAL port? I can't remember what, but something visual about RRV put me off a great deal at the time.

[Wools]

I suspect this might have been my problem. Did it have a very poor PAL port? I can't remember what, but something visual about RRV put me off a great deal at the time.

Yeah, for the PAL UK port of Ridge Racer V Namco put very little effort in and we had massive boarders on the game. But rather oddly, they decided to optimise the speed of the game so it ran slightly faster then the Japanese original! I don't think it effected the music or audio, but the game itself ran faster. It was so odd!

Talking of Japanese PAL ports, Namco's version of Tekken Tag was slagged off on the Japanese release for having no Anti Aliasing so when it reached the UK, it ran slower and with boarders but had AA switched on so looked nicer.

I'm so glad we don't live in those days anymore!

[nakamura]

Ridge Racer V has the same identical track, with different course extensions mixed with time of day settings to liven it up.

For me as a massive Ridge Racer fan who loves every game in the core series, Ridge V is stripped back. It doesn't mean more content is better and I agree that the control is more slick compared to Type 4, but it's not difficult to see why it feels like a slightly expanded version of the original Ridge Racer.

It's not stripped back, it's focused. The 6 main cars offer more diversity in control than the '300' cars in R4.
I do with V had more content though.

V did have much heavier handling than 4 that's for sure. The gameplay felt a stride forward for me without removing the feel of Ridge. Visually I personally find it very appealing too. The colours are warm due to the lighting and it's smooth, flashy yet subtle. It still looks stunning today.

[Wools]

It's not stripped back, it's focused. The 6 main cars offer more diversity in control than the '300' cars in R4.
I do with V had more content though.

It's a valid criticism but also redundant when no-one would use all those cars! I've only used around 15 machines yet found some real subtlety and nuance in various drift cars in Type 4 that I never found in Ridge V as the control was so much more simple and easy to control.

I know you're now going to argue why did Namco include all those cars but I will agree! However, Project Cars is not a lesser game because it includes over 100 cars. It allows for some choice and I have probably only used about 20 of them. I don't think anyone is using the argument that Type 4 is better because it includes 300 cars, Namco have just given you a massive career mode if you so want to exhaust it. I certainly don't want to play that much for just a simple car so have never progressed past the normal 8 race career structure before I started playing TT and 2 player split screen.

And 1 mans focus is another mans stripped back! I consider Type 4 (300 cars and all) a focused Arcade game with only 8 courses. But there's no question with Ridge V, as Namco reverted back to the original Ridge Racer method of using 1 location with multiple ribbons of tarmac through it, people like myself thought it was a stripped back effort when there was such variety in Type 4's courses and car design.

I'm sure we'll never see eye to eye on it though!

[nakamura]

Project Cars is a different kettle though, it's real cars and trying to appeal to as wide a range of car fans as possible.

Rage had a deep yet small career mode that while only contained one location and four tracks and a small selection of cars, had a less repetitive nature than 4.

In fact, V is basically a sidestep of Rage Racer and is not based on the model of the original. It has a set location, class based GP setup and a small bit diverse selection of cars.

[Wools]

Rage had a deep yet small career mode that while only contained one location and four tracks and a small selection of cars, had a less repetitive nature than 4.

I played Ridge Racer Type 4 thus: Pick a car, go through the 8 beautiful and varied courses before completing the game.

It was an Arcade game but rather than having 1 location with different routes through it, it had 8 wildly different courses that each had their own atmosphere and looked completely different to the last one. Mixed with the emblem designer, huge selection of cars all with their own distinct handling characteristics and various other additions like 2 player mode and Sony PocketStation support, it's a more complete package than any of the early Ridge Racers.

Which ever way you try and twist it, it's not hard to see why Type 4 gets a lot of love or people prefer it over other entires.

[nakamura]

Why is it I'm 'twisting' it?

Why could it not be you?

Type 4 doesn't feature 8 wildly different tracks either. Several of them share sections up to half a lap long with Wonderhill and Edge of the Earth.

[Wools]

Why is it I'm 'twisting' it?

Why could it not be you?

Type 4 doesn't feature 8 wildly different tracks either. Several of them share sections up to half a lap long with Wonderhill and Edge of the Earth.

I did not mean that you exclusively are twisting it, I mean however you want to construe this (Yes, including me) it's not hard to see why a lot of people on here prefer Type 4 over all the early Ridge Racers.

Remember, there is no true answer in all of this. We're all arguing over semantics and what we prefer!

And yes, Type 4 does have wildly different tracks in comparison to every one of the early ridge Racers that used the same location design.

[nakamura]

It's been a fantastic discussion, Wools so I was shocked when I read that. Apologies there.

I can see why people also prefer Type 4 and I maintain it to be down to art and music. It still plays really well too. I just believe V was overlooked because it wasn't as flashy on the surface and that's a shame.

[JazzFunk]

I'm loving the fact WIML is on its way!!!!!!!

But I'm HATING RR5 is a blue iirc? My PS2 HATES blues. But all this RRV talk is making me wanna play it, especially if the PAL was speed optimised! I did not know that, all I remembered from getting it back in 2001 or whatnot (when my PS2 liked blues) was that the borders were horrendous and I was expecting the speed to have suffered the same fate.

[Sam The Man]

I loved Ridge, Rage & Type 4 but Rage was my favourite simply due to the amazingly designed courses. The handling was brilliant too even if it was slightly different to the 1st which also had brilliant handling. Type 4 did change the handling model but i don't think it made it a bad game as it was just as playable. I also agree that the presentation was excellent and felt the music was probably the best in the series.

RRV was another overrated game and where i lost interest in the series. I found the course designs to be bland and found the graphics/graphical style to be ugly especially so as i was playing the PAL version. It felt like half a game basically and although i found the handling as good as ever albiet more like the 1st i remember feeling Namco should have delivered much more and at this point borders were irritating me more than ever. It was another disappointing game in a long line of disappointing PS2 games.

Wipeout Fusion being another after the brilliant 3 games on PS1.