1.4.2012

Giving this game the title of 'Ridge Racer' seems a little unusual, as it honestly has very little to do with any Ridge Racer that has come before, but that is far from a bad thing. Typically Ridge Racer games come out with a new system, and they haven't changed much since the original PS1 titles. Unbounded however is developed by the team that made FlatOut. If you never played any of the FlatOut games you seriously missed out, they were a fantastic blend of Burnout and Destruction Derby, and Ridge Racer Unbounded clearly has the same basic build that started the FlatOut games.The racing in Unbounded is incredibly fast and furious, the AI will never simply let you stroll into 1st place and keep it,every race you win, you have to seriously battle for, which really makes you feel like you earned it. The sense of speed is fantastic, and the car handling feels great. The drifting mechanic is a subtle nod to Ridge Racers of old, and takes some skill to truly use it, it certainly isn't easy to start with. Get the hang of the drifting mechanics and not only does it feel awesome to throw your car around corners sideways, it will massively help your race by earning you boost too.The incredible scenery destruction returns from FlatOut, cars can be taken down much like in Burnout, but in Unbounded, you can smash your way through pretty much anything that isn't a solid building. Small walls and outsticking brickwork can be smashed right through, and once you earn yourself a power boost, the game will highlight places you can boost smash your way through, usually opening up shortcuts, or occasionally offering ways to take down other racers (such as boosting into a gas truck to create an explosion, taking our anyone caught in the blast).In fact the general game presentation is gorgeous. The HUD is very basic, leaving only the most vital of information on screen, you don't even get a mini map! That feels a little odd at first, but very old school, and I actually enjoyed the challenge of not having the map there, you have to rely on your own senses. Some lovely touches pop up along the track as you race, you will occasionally pass floating text reminding you how many laps are left, or how many seconds you are behind (or ahead). It may sound a little weird, but it's beautifully done, reminds me a lot of games such as Dirt/Grid and Splinter Cell Conviction especially. Splinter Cell used the same idea and Unbounded truly shows the idea works well if used right, it's a very stylish presentation.There is plenty in this game to keep you going, the single player is tough, although you don't necessarily have to win races in order to progress, you can keep unlocking events then come back to older ones once you get some new cars, but although it's challenging, it never feels unfair. The racing is tight and tense, you can't take being in the lead for granted, and this just makes it so exciting to play, you have to stay engaged in the race all the way, slack off and you'll pay for it.The multiplayer has all the basic options you'd expect, and works pretty well, I haven't encountered any real noticeable lag or any problems with it online. There is no split-screen mode available though, which I feel is a shame as FlatOut was a fantastic game to play with people, it had party options through the roof and compared to that, Unbounded feels a little more focused on the solo player, but the online play is still good fun.Graphically the game is fantastic, I already mentioned the great way the game is presented on screen, but the actual visuals are just as good. The entire game is limited to a city setting, which does start to feel a little repetitive after a while, but it's not boring. The city itself can often be quite colourful and varied, and paired with some stylish lighting effects and an eye-bleeding sense of speed, it really is a good looking game. Then someone drives through a wall and kicks debris everywhere, you can often create quite a big mess by the time you finish a race, and the game carries on without a hitch.The audio is probably the only part of the game that feels very old school Ridge Racer. You have some thumping tracks from artists such as Skrillex, and remixes of older Ridge Racer tracks bring the nostalgia for older fans. The cars themselves make some great noises and there's a great sense of impact as you smash your way through the track.Unbounded does come complete with a pretty comprehensive track builder, basically the developers say you can virtually rebuild any track from the single player if you spend long enough tinkering with it. You unlock the pieces to build tracks with as you play the single player, so you will need to at least beat part of the game before you can really start to get the full potential out of this, but you could easily spend a lot of time here.Overall Ridge Racer Unbounded is a fantastic game, just one that barely has anything to do with the Ridge Racer series. It feels more like an old school Burnout game than anything else, but I actually enjoyed Unbounded much more than Burnout Paradise. It's a challenging, yet extremely fun game, and it deserves your attention, just expect quite a different experience to a normal Ridge Racer game. Approach this game with an open mind, and you may well find one of the best arcade racing games this generation, seriously I haven't enjoyed a racing game this much since Burnout 3.

12.4.2012

Forget comparisons with Need for Speed, (which IMHO has only a handful of excellent titles in the entire franchise), this is more like Split/Second with the difficulty cranked up a couple of notches. It is also more of a driving challenge than your average arcade style racers out there, which might put casual gamers off, but not those who like their racing fast and destructive.As a member of the Unbounded, a bunch of reckless street racers, it is your job to reclaim the city district by district (that's about there all there is as regards story). Each one has a number of races of different types; pure racing, frag as many opponents as possible, drifting and time trials.You have to score points in a race to be able to unlock the next races, new cars and blocks you can use for designing and publishing your own tracks (yes, it has a track editor!). Only your highest score in each race is recorded and goes towards the total district point score. In addition, you have a reputation level which accumulates every time you race (haven't found out what this is for yet, but its probably some loose relation to the story).Each race begins with a rolling start, no gears just pedal to metal. In pure race mode you have to finish in the top three to count as actually completing the race, which thanks to the AI is more difficult than it sounds. If you stay at the back for too long there's little chance you make it the front before the race ends. The flip-side is that there's no catch-up like in NFS, so if you get to the front of the pack and don't mess up you should be able to maintain your lead. The other race types are solo challenges against multiple opponents or against the clock, scoring points from the lengths of drifts or number of opponents you take out. For an arcade racer I find the car handling very good, and the FWD, RWD and 4WD all respond as you'd expect. Only bad point I found was that at relatively low speeds the cars had a tendency unmanageably drift, independent of the type, so go easy on the accelerator if you need to recover from a stop dead or a wrong turn.Points can be scored during the race by breaking stuff and fragging opponents. Except for the buildings, much of the environment around the immediate track can be smashed, like petrol stations, railway track supports and sometimes clipping the edges off some walls, though this isn't true for all of them I sometimes end up crashing into something I thought I could demolish. But your main source of destructive power is the power bar which builds up by driving fast, drifting or getting air. When it's filled you can torpedo yourself into an opponent or better, use it to destroy one of the many targets around the track, like a bridge support, a supermarket, billboard and so on. You only see targets when your bar is full, so it's wise to hold on the first lap or so just to see what you can crash into. You get slow-motion cinematic view of your results for a frag or target. This is what you spend most of the time doing in the game and is practically identical to the system used in Split/Second for power boost and demolitions. In addition to destruction, you get additional point bonuses for finishing in the top three of achieving the top three goals. In the higher levels I can see this getting tricky, because it's difficult to concentrate on winning the race and hitting targets at the same time. In practice you find yourself concentrating on doing one or the other, even though obviously the highest possible scores can only be achieved by doing both.I don't have much more to add regarding gameplay and I haven't had a chance to check out the multiplayer yet, though I am looking forward to trying out other players' track creations. Graphics are nice and the cars look good, though it's not state-of-the-art and there is less decoration and details on buildings than you might find in other games. I do like the colour style which gives it a streetwise, gritty kind of feel. Also the overall game performance is great. After the initial load of each race, the time it takes for restarting is practically instantaneous and the frame rate is consistently smooth which is a real pleasure. The soundtrack, if a little short, is fantastic if you like dub-step and it fits the mood, though it's not really my scene.I'm surprised by the rather negative comments this game seems to be taking. My impression is that the reason it isn't getting the credit it deserves is because people have been getting their expectations up for either another Burnout or a remake of a previous Ridge Racer. Maybe it's because I'm not familiar with the Ridge Racer series that means that I'm not prejudiced about the name, but as far as I'm concerned if you want something more interesting than NFS and enjoy fast paced, arcade style racing with the added bonus of blowing stuff up, then this is definitely worth checking out.

2.4.2012

What we have here is a game that is not Ridge Racer, yes it has the name in there, it also has car styles like RR aswell as a couple of tunes taken from classic RR games, but that is where it ends.The producer of this game stated that this is not the next installment of Ridgeracer (RR8), instead it seems this is a game that was being produced for another studio but acquired by Namco. It`s mechanics, engine, style is very much different from the classic arcade racer, but is that really a bad thing?Personally I say no, I do feel the Ridge Racer title has been thrown in there to give it the extra sales but this game can really hold it`s own. Graphics are nice,would have loved full 1080p graphics as opposed to the 720p it displays, but with the amount of carnage that goes on in this game I guess the consoles wouldn`t have been able to handle it all in such high resolution. I played some modes in this game where you are tasked to "Frag" any racers, cop cars or even trucks on the track, this leading to total destruction with cars smashing around the place, obliterating pillers and other destructable objects in their path when you ram them, there is a massive amount of detail parts and particles flying around all with no slowdown at all.It is mentioned by another reviewer that you can`t control the drifts, that is not true, I have really got the hang of drifting to build boost for speed and smashing, so if I can so can almost anybody else.I find the "Drift Challenges" a bit to much of a pain personally, even though I am pretty good at drifting in this game it tends to expect very difficult scores for you to achieve, so for me that is the weakest mode in the game.However the rest of it is great fun, you have Classic racing style, Domination where you race to destroy cars and buildings and earn first place on the grid, Escape where you are being chased by police and must survive to the end of the track within a set time, and finally my favourite mode where you are out there to "Frag" as many racers, cop cars or truck (sometimes even all of them) as fast as you can while smashing through buildings to earn extra valuable seconds to your time. There is also a time trial mode which has ramps, big curved grids ad collectable coins scattered around to challenge you further.Online I have found a bit disapointing if I am honest, sure there is a hell of a lot of user created tracks, but there are loads which are poorly designed and not well thought out, but among them are some superb courses with well thought out designs and challenges. My biggest upset though is the lack of active players to race against, it could be that it is early days for this game, or I am looking in the wrong places for players to race with, but it is disheartening. I really hope it gets better soon.My final thoughts:If your looking for a fix for classic Ridge Racer hunger, your looking in the wrong place.If your looking for something fresh to cure your craving for chaotic destructive fun, you should get this now.

7.4.2012

Well it's been a year of controversy for the games industry so far aint it; EA get voted worst company of the year, we've got people rising up in a rage over the ending to the mass effect trilogy, I personally was happy with the green ending and am more concerned over being fisted by Cameron and his constituency at every turn, but that's small potatoes compared to Ridge Racer turning all Burn Out and having a control system you have to learn! Holy hell people what's happening to the world! Well enough of the social commentary and on with the review.THE GOOD:- Graphically its all in order and gone are the clean, but ultimately lifeless, highways of the original ridge racer which are now practically bursting with grime,graffiti and endless environs worthy of the most prolific street walker.- The soundtrack has also been grunged up a touch with more crunchy techno beats rather than the squeaky-clean, j-techno, tripe of the past entries.- Smashing everything in your path makes you feel all mighty and stuff and is accompanied by some sweet and thunderous sound fx.- The different modes on offer are a blast and i do so dig the tidy twist on the usual time trial mode.- the control system is epic once you assimilate and get all zen on it. Get in the zone, stop expecting games to fit the usual treads and cater to you, and your need to unlock trophies for every little action, or go play the latest copy-and-paste FPS.- There's a ton to do and even more to truly master.THE BAD:- To counter my rather snippy remark up there i must say that this could have had another name bunged on it, it didn't have to be ridge racer because other than being driftastical and having big bold car models it aint a RR, but I applaud any series that takes a big chance to do something new with its premise...then again its a bit like burnout and split seconds premise too....- That Skrillex song repeats way too much, but hey it beats the new SSX soundtrack any day of the year.- No tutorials would inevitably make people cry when the controls are so tight.- The mixed reviews from users are cramping the online communities growth a little, but good reviews from most sites are making sure people are at least on there.- a lot of the destructive "shortcuts" wont put you ahead of the pack but they do give you points i suppose...and they look spiffy too.THE UGLY TRUTH:It's a good game, but it's a game by any other name - I cant help but feel that if it didn't have a well known brand plastered across it people would be more accepting. As for the controls; just get used to them or play something else, it couldn't be simpler really and although the controls are a bit different they are tight and with a bit of time you'll be rocking them; add to that great graphics and destructive elements that are a blast and you're onto a winner.

9.11.2013

Ridge racer unbounded on first looks appears to be an arcade style game, it really isn't. Read on for why, but firstly I'm addressing two other issues...First off: I have to take issue with the makers use of the title, I'm pretty damn sure "Unbounded" is not proper grammatical english.Secondly: You may have heard tons of moaners saying this game is too dark, I have no issues here. Sure on default it is, but just go to options & turn brightness up & on full it looks like a normal daylight race or if you do want slighly grittier feel adjust slighly darker. If your tv is hd compatible & you are using a hdmi cable from Xbox360 to tv you shouldn't have a problem.So, why is the game not arcadey at all?

2.7.2012

GREAT GAMEPLAY AND GIVES YOU A RUSH and kids will love it at any age .This game is developed by bugbear who created the amazing flatout 1 2 and carnage.The game was a breath of fresh air.Straight away I was racing and getting some extreme thrills.Feels like quality gaming from back in the day with and injection of Extreme Kaos and GFX.Tracks are opened up very early on and u can choose which areas to race rather than a forced route.I am loving the heavier controls.U have to hand brake to earn boost then u use that boost to destroy your enemy with an exploding object or boost up the back side or or smash through the environment finding much needed shortcuts.Later in the game u start to get your

4.4.2012

Burnout Revenge on the PS2 was a FANTASTIC game, and sadly the PS3 version (Paradise) took a different, free-roaming direction and lost the main thing that made the Burnout games great, rather than good.Ridge Racer this is not, but let's face it, the Ridge Racer recipe is now rather long in the tooth and the thought of racing made up cars and drifting perfectly around corners requires little in the way of skill.Ridge Racer Unbounded - think of a marriage between Burnout Revenge and Split Second and you're pretty much there. There is also an easy to use track creator and tracks and events can then be globally uploaded (a la Little Big Planet) for others to use. Saying that,

22.8.2012

This is one of the best racing games I've ever played! It has excellent vehicles, crisp graphics, impressive track editor and it's extremely fun.Pros:16 Standard Domination cars plus extra for limited edition and dlcs (which are well worth getting!) and 16 Shindo racing cars which are beautiful and extremely fast plus 3 surprises which I won't reveal!Good career, a little on the short side, it took me just 4 hrs to complete it but there is plenty of fun afterwards in levelling up and creating thousands of custom tracks!The drifting takes a little getting used to but once you've mastered it the game will be yours!!Cons:Once you get to level 25/30 it takes an awful lot of points to level up,

8.7.2012

Alright 4/5, but such harsh reviews...I'm a casual gamer specifically in to racing, I'm pretty good at Forza, and lurrve messing around with Burnout.Having completed all racing games of interest (I don't do off road or F1) I thought maybe Ridge Racer might offer something to fill the gap since the brilliant NFS Hot Pursuit, and the awful NFS The Race.But not being a big fan of the arcade racer I thought well I'll see what people say.Too difficult, impossible to win, weird AI, e.t.cSo I played a demo and sure enough, impossible, and odd. But having rented the game, and since bought for nothing, its great!You just need to get used to the stupid cornering, then it's a blast!

8.9.2012

i bought this game after playing the demo im really enjoying it seen alot of people whining its to hard which i dont get its a challenge if you crash to much you lose ok but you still get xp think of this game as a burn out hybrid you have different race styles one of wich is racing and taking down youre opponents frag em smash them into walls other cars blow u p tankers to take out people you name it great fun drifting is easy you just choose a car with decent drift and practice sometimes helps to drift slightly before the corner.you also have track editor and as you rank up in single you unlock new bits and cars wich can be used in editor all in all this is a really good arcade racer it is

30.6.2016

I simply could not believe how good this game is. This game sold very poorly, and as such, went under the radar for most. It was hated by Ridge Racer fans, because in truth, it's strays VERY far from the formula in other Ridge Racer games.It draws far more inspiration from games like the PS2 Burnout games and the Flatout games. In fact, it was made by the developers of Flatout (Bugbear Entertainment). it's extremely fun, and quite challenging. I think the AI is pretty merciless, and I suspect they do cheat a bit, but as long as you build up boost relatively frequently you can defeat them easily enough. This game is all about destroying the environment (like Split Second) and your opponents (like Burnout)

25.1.2013

I originally played the demo version of this game and found it really frustrating for a few goes but I couldn't stop playing. I then read these here reviews and went and bought it anyway.With a little bit of practise this game turns out to be totally fantastic. The drifting absolutely makes this game what it is. Want to frag as many cop cars with a lorry in a set time limit? YES FREAKIN' PLEEEEASE!! Not really sure about all the 'too dark' comments, I haven't noticed it although in games settings you can adjust the brightness.I love NFS Most Wanted on original Xbox, I would place this right it up beside it for sheer thrills.

8.7.2012

this game is brilliant a little bit better than i expected i have played ridge racer games in the past and was dissapointed. but this one is awesome its like split second,motorstorm and burnout rolled into one. u can crash through buildings u can perform takedowns on other drivers just like u can in burnout. u wont be dissapointed if u buy this game its probably the best racing game on ps3 except from dirt showdown. give it a go u wont be dissapointed also u can create your own tracks and put jumps on it and explosive barrels and various other items i am suprised how good this game is just buy it or u will miss out.

2.4.2012

Please ignore the negative reviews posted here RRU is one hell of a joy ride! Although it greatly draws inluence from Split second, burnout and motorstorm apocalyse, it combines the game mechanics of the 3 mentioned games and blends it into something truly fantastic. The explosions, drifts and smashes. Its brilliant.Oh and did I mention the soundtrack?, its trully amazing!If you are into adrenaline pumping street racing action, then Ridge Racer unbounded is definately the game for you.

8.7.2013

In web is builded almost 7000 city ,, players how is greated these and uploaded. And you can drive forever. Very much beauty for you eyes, colorful and good grapic picture. Arcadian stile , but speed rush and adrenaline is nice. I like arcadia style games.Somtimes this city demolition feels stupid , but sometimes ok fun .. And you can build own city too and run own way- this is somthing new and very likable possibility.

Ridge Racer: Unbounded - Reviews

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