Ridge Racer Unbounded - Limited Edition

RRU is the DARKEST racing game ever, it makes NFS underground games look like a sunny beach. Want to try RRU before purchase? Just play any racing game with the brightness turned so low, you cant see the track. Thats RRU for you. Even with the brightness turned to the max, you can barely see the track most of the time with a properly calibrated display. I guess the game was only play tested/developed with a noncalibrated displays with the backlight at full power...

Drifting is not as bad is people claim, nor is the difficulty. This game DOES NOT have rubberband AI so as long as you dont make mistakes, you are pretty much golden. One mistake however can lead to retry being the best option. Sadly the games dark visuals can cause rage quits when you wreck on the last corned, while you were leading by a mile.. just because you cant see anything at times. The biggest problem with the difficulty is the fact that inorder to open new events in districts, you must reach a certain combined score. Second race opens at 20k, 3rd at 38k, 4th at 55k and so on. These events can good (racing) or horrible (drift/frag/time attack) which are mostly luck based. I win actual races on the first try about 70% of the time, most I've had to retry has been 3 times. However I'm stuck on a useless drift even, because the scoring system is not explained at any time and I cant unlock the next event without compliting this stupid drift event. I also had to retry a dumb frag attack race about 20 times today since its 90% luck on how you happen to hit your targets. 4 cop cars in a bunch and you ramming them at 70mph can either lead to 4 frags or just 1, based on luck. Why cant I skip these stupid events bugbear? I didn't have to complete these stupid sideshows in flatout games...

Soundtrack is not as bad as in earlier bugbear games, but I only listen to 3 songs on the soundtrack and skip the rest (dubstep argh). This leads to further frustration when retrying an event for 20 minutes and listening to the same song for the 10th time in a row.

With some brightness and difficulty tweaks (and perhaps by using custom soundtracks) the game could be a 4/5. However the rage quit inducing darkness and difficulty spikes keep it at a 3 for now.

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 dark but i didnt find that a problem not nearly as dark as some people say as for custom soundtrack put youre music on youre xbox and play during game you still get the ingame noise wich is nice all in all the physics are good the ai is challenging and the graphics are good a go between forza and burnout seeing as burnout havent released anything since paradise.

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.c

So 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! You still get races where you feel you are on it but come last, but other races where just everything goes right and you win. Real satisfaction.

I mean, no car tweaking, no sense of garage, stupid dynamics, but that was Burnout non?, and from time to time you soooo nail a race :-)

Its no Forza, not even a good Burnout, but its better than most reviews suggest, patience!, 4/5 for sure, a blast.