It is a little late, but here is my review of yet another heavily underrated PS3 racing game, Ridge Racer 7.
Ridge Racer 7 is the last mainline Ridge Racer game, with the latest spinoff Ridge Racer Unleashed released about 5 years after. It is a PS3 launch title, purchased by my family at launch along with F1 Championship Edition and Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 (my mom actually completed that hot hunk of garbage). It still holds up as one of the smoothest running games on the PS3 at 1080p, locked at 60FPS. The release of Ridge Racer 6 on Xbox 360 ran at 1080p at 30FPS locked, and the difference shows.
But I only recently found my copy (about 4 months ago), and have played it a lot ever since. The story consists of you being a foreign racer entering the most prestigious drift racing event in the world, the Ridge State Grand Prix, hosted by the UFRA. You gain a starter car by completing a Manufacturer Trial, which also allows you to buy other cars by this manufacturer. There are 3 cars available, each with separate handling characteristics.
Since this game is an Arcade drifting game, there are 3 styles of general handling with a few differences based on the car. Dynamic handling is heavily based on large attack angles and quick transitions, making it easy to drift. But it comes with a huge drawback, decreased traction out of turns. The Danver Bayonet is the starter car that fits this characteristic. Standard handling is a balance of angle and traction, making it extremely easy for a beginner to use. The Kamata Fiera is the car of choice for this category. Mild handling reduces drifting in general for a traction based setup, for which the Age Prophiete suits your needs. I personally used the Fiera for the first half of my playthrough, as it suits my style more.
Once done with the manufacturer trial, now you can race your car in the RSGP and UFRA single events. You may need to upgrade your vehicle from time to time, like engine, tire/suspension, and nitrous upgrades. These increase speed, enhance handling characteristics, and increase and change the way nitrous can be used. Nitrous charges when drifting, and can be used once a certain bar has been filled. If equipped with a high enough nitrous, your car can use double or triple the NOS power (if charged to these levels). If your NOS ends right before you drift, you can earn what is called an Ultimate Charge, which increases the rate of NOS refill. The strength of the Ultimate Charge depends on the amount of NOS used.
There's also a good amount of customization, but it is locked behind manufacturer trials and cash shortage. You can customize bumpers, hoods, rims, wings, skirts and liveries from cheap to did I just spend 10k on a single hood?
I just realized I haven't talked about how to drift, and it's a drift racing game (why am I like this). To drift you can either turn in the direction you want to drift, release and re-engage the throttle, and angle to your liking, or you can brake-drift like a NFS 2015 pleb. (not sorry) It is easy to learn, very difficult to master, as more angle and speed equate to more NOS recharge.
Once you finish the first 4 RSGP stages, you move on to Cat. 3 cars, bringing an increase in speed. This happens again after RSGP 8, when you move to Cat. 2 cars, again bumping speed upward. RSGP 13 introduces Cat. 1 cars, the fastest in the game, along with the longest event (10 races). After completing all 13 of the events, the 14th and final RSGP round is unlocked, using the Cat. 1 cars. It is 3 races long, and shows the end movie after winning it. But there's something hidden at the end of the tunnel which I won't reveal.
The online community for this game is still going, as the servers are still open. However, the community is not as full as it was 15 years ago. I have not personally played, but have heard the experience is challenging to say the least.
But how does it hold up? The graphics are heavily dated for a PS3 game (with 720p livery textures in a 1080p format), though the menu and cinematics are 100% viable today. The physics are extremely arcade-y, something that is getting closer to being lost to time. You can tell the love and effort put into this game, with the Bandai Namco themed brands, the full Solvalou game in the startup screen, and a secret in RSGP 14. There are about 30 tracks (including reverse tracks) and more than 70 cars (using duplicates in each category).
To conclude, this game was a delight to play, and I am still not finished yet. I still have a lot of the Single Events to do, along with the extra content after the RSGP. (It might be illegal, but who knows
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Also massive photodump xDDDDD