http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/driving/ridgeracer6/preview_6133385.html
TGS 2005: Ridge Racer 6 Hands-On
TOKYO-Typically, the official, numbered Ridge Racer games have debuted on
Sony's game consoles, while other systems ended up with games like Ridge
Racer 64, or in the case of the PSP, just Ridge Racer. For the first time,
Namco is bringing a full-on all-new Ridge Racer game to a non-Sony platform
with Ridge Racer 6. Though the version being shown at Tokyo Game Show 2005
doesn't have much to it, it already seems like it fufills most of the
requirements on the Ridge Racer checklist.
And what, exactly, is on that checklist? OK, let's see. Car named after
another Namco franchise? Check, the one car in the demo is called the
Mitsurugi Meltfire. Planes and helicopters constantly flying overhead?
Though we only saw one track, that track was full of aircraft. That one
track, called Harborline 765, also has a classic Ridge Racer design,
complete with bridges, windy curves, tunnels, and so on. There's an
English-speaking announcer popping off all kinds of nonsense. Also, and
perhaps most importantly, the game plays precisely how you'd expect a Ridge
Racer game to play. It's got the same sort of "on-rails" style to its
drifting, where breaking the wheels loose with a quick tap of the brakes
just causes you to automatically whip around even the tightest of hairpin
curves. The game also takes a cue from the PSP Ridge Racer by giving you a
three-stage boost meter, which fills as you drift.
The race being shown was a time attack event, so there weren't any other
racers or traffic on the course. The game's track and car design fit right
into the standard Ridge Racer aesthetic, though the overall visual quality
of everything has been bumped up a bit. The game already has a good, smooth
frame rate, and it manages to convey the game's high speed pretty well.
So far, Ridge Racer 6 seems to play precisely how you would expect a Ridge
Racer game to play. We'll have to wait and see what else Namco has up its
sleeve to see if there are any new twists to the long-running race formula.
