Battle of the Ports

[J0e Musashi]

RRV is only hated by so many because it has "less" content than R4. It's a better game in every aspect. It strips back the style over substance that R4 so heavily appealed to the masses with. V has the closest handling to the original and Revolution. It's simply a joy to play. There is absolutely NO bull****. It's just RR1 with better visuals and sonics. It's one of the best looking PS2 games of all time. The atmosphere is unparelled by any other Ridge game too. R4 cannot touch it for feeling.

I had the Japanese version on launch. It took the release of Onimusha to make me consider another purchase outside of auto-buying. RRV is one of the greatest games of all time. If not for Ridge Racer and RR7, it could possibly be the greatest launch title ever made.

[Sam The Man]

The thing is i found the previous main 3 entries to be a joy to play but in slightly different ways. I found the handling of RRV to be equally as good but i found it disappointing in all other areas. Track design, Music, Graphical style and content and i didnt find it to have the atmosphere of the first 3 especially Rage.

[J0e Musashi]

Rage had hills.

[Sam The Man]

I know!!!

[nakamura]

I think there is also a vague bias against Ridge V. A lot of bitter people that it launched with the system that killed the DC and how a it was a joke because MSR was apparently so much better.
Terrible PAL port aside, I feel not enough gave it a proper go.

[Sam The Man]

Mart i assume that comment was aimed at me? MSR was i.m.o both better & worse than RRV but it was Sega that killed Sega more than Sony and def no bias from me against RRV i just felt it was a let down compared to what RR games came before it and what it could of been. As i mentioned i owned and loved all the main 3 that came before it and the original arcade game i spent more money on than any other arcade game bar Daytona USA 1 & 2.

In fact speaking of the old RR games do you remember when we went down to Bournemouth to buy Type 4 with the Jogcon on the day of release (PAL)? I remember you having a go at me afterwards for spending ?10 on myself in Burger King on 2 Bacon XL meals!!!

[nakamura]

Haha nah it wasn't aimed at you bud, just a general feeling I've always got from people over the years, you fat Bastard! [emoji6]

[Asura]

I think there is also a vague bias against Ridge V. A lot of bitter people that it launched with the system that killed the DC and how a it was a joke because MSR was apparently so much better.
Terrible PAL port aside, I feel not enough gave it a proper go.

Like a bolt from the blue, you just flipped a switch in my brain. I remember now with almost perfect clarity; I was against RRV because I felt it looked worse than the Dreamcast games I was playing and had a bad PAL port - so I really wanted it (and the PS2, at the time) to fail.

... or, I might be thinking of that Squaresoft racing game; was it "Driving Emotion"?

[nakamura]

Not. Sure. If. Serious.

[Asura]

Not. Sure. If. Serious.

I was a teenager, and I've always been a bit of a 60fps guy. You know how it is as a kid; your console is a huge expenditure in cash, and you really don't want it to fail or you're going to have to buy a new one! I don't mind admitting I was a bit of a DC fanboy when I was a kid. That being said, I was never the kind that trolled and flamed message boards.

Games like that seemed sloppy after so many DC games having 50/60hz options and the like. I felt the DC had been a real step forward over what had come before (online features etc.), and at the time the PS2 looked like a step back. It's hardly controversial to say that back then, in Europe, the PS2's launch could be seen as disappointing; the manner in which it swept the DC aside was just the salt to be rubbed into the wound.

Things quickly changed of course, and these days I consider the PS2 possibly the finest console ever. I warmed to it around the time of Devil May Cry.

[nakamura]

Obviously it was a poor pal port but it was 60 fps with zero slowdown, depth of field effects, stunning lighting with effects like sparks and glowing discs. It was an impressive title and still remains visually impressive today.

When you compared it to many DC racing games, again PAL aside, it's far more impressive as a package. But then I never played the PAL port.

[Asura]

Obviously it was a poor pal port but it was 60 fps with zero slowdown, depth of field effects, stunning lighting with effects like sparks and glowing discs. It was an impressive title and still remains visually impressive today.

When you compared it to many DC racing games, again PAL aside, it's far more impressive as a package. But then I never played the PAL port.

It was mainly the jaggies, combined with the PAL issue. I felt at times they made it seem really low-res, whereas DC games had a vibrant, "clean" look that the PS2 struggled to emulate until a fair bit later.

I'm sure you appreciate how it was. Back then, with relatively little to go on, you made your purchasing decisions etc. on the basis of relatively little info. What I'd seen of RRV, I disliked due to this, so I never really gave it a fair chance. My impressions of it come from getting it for ?3 second-hand many years later, when it certainly didn't seem impressive (though I'm willing to accept it played very well).

[nakamura]

Presentation wise it blew all of Sega's arcade racers to bits. None of those naff voice overs you get when choosing a car or track. It felt professional and dare I say it, mature.

[Asura]

Presentation wise it blew all of Sega's arcade racers to bits. None of those naff voice overs you get when choosing a car or track. It felt professional and dare I say it, mature.

Naturally I understand what you mean. Personally I've always had a fondness of the kitsch appeal of Sega's stuff. That being said, I don't personally remember much about RRV's presentation.

Where's "The 90s Arcade Racer" at these days?

[nakamura]

It was mainly the jaggies, combined with the PAL issue. I felt at times they made it seem really low-res, whereas DC games had a vibrant, "clean" look that the PS2 struggled to emulate until a fair bit later.

I'm sure you appreciate how it was. Back then, with relatively little to go on, you made your purchasing decisions etc. on the basis of relatively little info. What I'd seen of RRV, I disliked due to this, so I never really gave it a fair chance. My impressions of it come from getting it for ?3 second-hand many years later, when it certainly didn't seem impressive (though I'm willing to accept it played very well).

The jaggies was a massive thing that was played on by those that wanted the machine to fail. Everyone totally ignored the stunning image the western versions of Tekken Tag produced. It was fully anti aliased and like Soul Calibur, looked leagues ahead of the arcade game.

I agree a lot of DC games looked clean, especially Sega's own arcade games and ports. However a crap ton look scruffy too.

RRV did suffer a bit from jaggies. I often wished they had also added anti aliasing but I've grown to love the razor sharp image.