SORE THUMBS - Video Game Review (PS2)
Ridge Racer 5 - "More is more, or is it?"
by Charlie Baird

In the fashion of Eastern North Carolina’s Global Transpark Development zone, New Coke and Pamela Anderson’s theatrical coup de grace, Barb Wire, comes Ridge Racer V (RR5) for the Playstation 2. It too was a great idea that should have spent more time in the hands of the developers and writers and less in the clutches of the PR department. Okay, so maybe Pamela Anderson is beyond help from either set, but at the very least the writers could have given her a small scene where she kicks a computer-generated Tommy Lee in the teeth before tattooing the phrase “Mama’s Boy” onto his forehead.

Least you think that I have digressed, the above script addition is, coincidently, precisely what RR5 needs to bolster its Boy George-like testosterone level. A few well-administered kicks to the collective family jewels of the team responsible for user interface should have been doled out after the release of Ridge Racer 4. A twin to the frustration of its predecessor, navigating from RR5’s start screen to an actual race takes entirely too long. Especially on first attempt—I spent the better part of five minutes trying to pass from the save/load/new game screen through the team/driver name portion to the game’s garage.

The tallest hurdle to overcome is the genuinely American sentiment of lingual centricity. Of developed countries, the US seems to harbor the least ambition to grapple with understanding multiple languages. And why not? After all, what is the point of being a citizen of a Motherland (a geographical equivalent to a “motherload”) if all other countries don’t do their damnedest to make life easier for those citizens? Our staff reviewed a Japanese version of RR5 and all carried identical looks of incredulity when faced with the combination of English and Japanese interface dialogue. No, not an option to select which language you would prefer, some screens used both languages. The answer is a resounding “Wrong!” if you were hoping for bilingual instructions. In the same way that Cameron Diaz sometimes looks good and other times she looks like a poster child for Halloween masks, some screens in RR5 contain instructions in English and entirely different lines of text in Japanese. Are they paragraphs of useless filler text? Do they contain explanations or apologies for an anti-intuitive interface? Your guess is as good as mine. For all I know, they could be scathing diatribes calling for increased production of Pokemon merchandise and full-scale Digimon domination.

As with previous versions of Ridge Racer, the trailer was exceptionally produced and did a fine job of whipping the viewer into a graphical frenzy, eagerly anticipating the visuals to come. The beauty of RR5, as compared not only to prior incarnations but to almost any other video game, is that there is not a drastic decline in quality between the lead-in animations and the race-time graphics. The Playstation 2 graphic processor, while not light-years or even a stone’s throw ahead of Dreamcast’s, renders game-play scenery smoothly. A few frame rate problems aside, RR5 is chocked full of dandy effects and details that other platforms have been woefully without. The reflections of sky and track dance on the mirrored surfaces of the vehicles, and the surfaces of the walls and buildings enclosing the raceway are well-defined. Say goodbye to the parquet floor effect often employed to give the impression of asphalt speeding beneath the vehicle.

Have you ever been afflicted by the sudden craving for something sweet, only to be paralyzed by the number of options available to you at any given time? Sure you have. Then again, imagine a world without the endless selection of chocolaty, crunchy, candy-coated, gummy-filled, hand-dipped goodness available at convenience centers such as Starvin’ Marvin and Tank & Tummy? Don’t laugh, there are places like that. In fact, there are only three such places: Cuba, Kathy Lee Gifford’s kitchen (we can’t have Cody damaging his jury-swaying smile) and Race City, RR5’s host town.

From the moment you start selecting race options, there is an impending sense of dread that begins to coagulate. There are four game modes: 2-player (with two more nested options), time attack, grand prix and Free Run, which was supposed to give the driver a chance to get the feel for different cars and tracks. However, only grand prix and one 2-player option was available. I’m sure there was a reason why the other modes were inoperable. However, like Forest Gump’s million dollar wound, they must have kept that to themselves, because I never did see an explanation.

Provided you opt for the career-like Grand Prix mode, you must then select a car. “Welcome to Cuba. Feel free to choose from our expansive selection of Renaults, Peugeots, Tatras and Kent “Jerry Hathaway’s whipping boy” Torokvei’s personal favorite, the Citroen.”

Well, it was almost that bad. You start out with six cars to choose from. SIX! As a rule, when a racing game has fewer cars than “Deliverance” antagonists had teeth, I get a little itchy. Not as itchy as Ned Beatty, but my attention does start to wander away from the screen the same way it does when I hear, “You sure do got a purdy mouth, boy.”

As redeeming as the graphics may be, the sound flushes away any excess brownie points. There seems to have been little effort or attention paid to provide different engine and performance sounds for any of the race cars. The various cars lumber along, their engines droning the sad tune of a molested bagpipe.

I don’t need for all of the engines to have their own characteristics and timbre. What I do need is for the person responsible for inline commentary to at least speak clean English. There are two words in particular where the speaking parts sound as if they were either computer generated or stolen from a poorly dubbed version of “Days of Thunder:”

• Rookies. Pronounced like dookies, with an R
  
• Comfort. Pronounced as two separate words: Com Fort
  

The game is easy to play if you haven’t been playing a motorcycle racer with insanely responsive controls for two weeks straight. After an adjustment period, the game is fairly easy to control. The biggest difference I saw between the performance of the cars in this game and of cars in other games like Porsche Unleashed and Gran Turismo, is that drivers who rub, nudge, ease up on or in any way make contact with any other object are severely penalized by an immediate drop in speed. While it does keep you on your toes, it seemed a bit punitive at times and did not appear to affect any of the computer opponents. Isn’t that always the way.

Alas, though the game may not be possessed of the addictive qualities like some of the other games we have tested, it is a neat little racer and drew us all in time after time. More importantly, though, the PSX2 seems to be poised to challenge the other big boys. It will be interesting to see what state the platform will be in when it is released in October. If you find yourself overcome with curiosity, and you live in the Raleigh area, you can preview the PSX2 and several of its games at Gamer’s Edge. Otherwise, you and all your little friends will just have to sit idly by until Sony rolls out the US version in four months.

Panel	Graphics	Sound	Playability	Replayability
Eric Schofield Editor-In-Chief	8.5	5.5	7	7
	Life in the new millennium is going to be pretty good! The graphics are rich with detail and the frame rates are blazing! The attention to detail in RR5 is pretty freakin’ phenomenal. You can see fine details with reflections from the car and damage when you bump into something. Periodically, a frame or two would glitch up and the backfire from the exhaust looked cartoonish but over all, RR5 is rich with detail and color!	I think the programmers are hell bent to provide us with horrible music and sound effects. This is not just with this version of RR folks, ALL versions are pretty damned sorry. The cars sound mostly the same and the music is uninspiring. The DJ is annoying and his blabbering is completely useless. Plug in some headphones and jam to your own favorite tunes…RR5 has little to offer here.	The game controls are stiff, stiff, stiff. After playing a few Dreamcast games, the reaction speed in RR5 seemed lethargic in comparison. The cars just didn’t respond as quickly as we had gotten accustomed but once you adjust, the game is fun to play. The menu screens to RR5 are nothing short of a nightmare – it takes far too long to get down to the business of racing. There needs to be more car choices to start off with and the PS2 uses the same trusty Playstation controllers we’ve all grown accustomed to.	RR5 is more of a typical “racing game”. Advancing to the higher levels is difficult and there just wasn’t much else to keep you interested. RR5 reminds me of the great arcade machines you find in arcades or beer halls – which are a ton of fun with a group of friends but the long term draw will be limited without more options to customize your own garage.
Lane Singletary Design Editor	10	5	7.5	7.5
	Its amazing what technology has brought us in the past twenty years. From my first Atari game system to the new Playstation 2, video games have advanced from square pixilated boxes into graphics so real its like watching a live event on television. Ridge Racer V for PS2 has achieved this with the highest quality of graphic reproduction I have ever seen.	The sound effects in Ridge Racer V could be a little better. The music is pretty lame and the car sound effects are lacking the high revving roars that most high end sports car are known for. For a game with great graphics, I think the sound should be just as awesome.	The lack of playing modes and cars to choose from in Ridge Racer V equals “crappy game” in my book. I guess you have to sacrifice something for such awesome graphics. The only racing mode that worked properly was the “Grand Prix” section. In this race mode you must race against eight other competitors and finish in the top three in order to advance. One problem with this, everytime you completed three rounds of racing the damn machine locked up. I hope PS2 works out its glitches before it releases the game to US shores.	The replayability was not so bad. It was very difficult to advance to higher levels but once that was accomplished there wasn’t much else to do. If our machine would quit locking up after only three rounds of racing, this game would probably have awesome replayability.
Steve Egan Photo Editor	9.5	6	7	6
	Awesome. Truly a step forward for Sony. With its built in DVD player and 128-bit graphics processing RR5 is just a sign of things to come for the PS2 platform. The graphics are crisp, detailed, and bound to please anyone who felt that the current generation of Playstation games were lacking.	Although the sounds are realistic and entertaining the music is not. With REALLY bad Japanese to English voice-overs and music that sounds like it stepped out of a horrific 80’s, big hair, glam rock, tripping episode you, will be more apt to put on a set of headphones and get your big hair fix from listening to the newest reincarnation of MOTLEY CRÜE. I am hoping that all the PS2 games don’t turn out like this one in the sound department	I found that the interface was extremely difficult to navigate but once you got through that conundrum it was a fairly entertaining game. I was never a big fan of the original ridge racer on playstation but RR5 is a quantum leap forward in comparison. The cars did NOT have the normal physical characteristics I would have expected for such an advanced gaming system but time will hopefully fix that.	I have a hard time being completely objective about this category. Although the game play was decent I found that after a few games the racing became fairly simple. Another reason my objectivity should be questioned is that the game kept locking up after getting finished with the third track as well as in 2 player mode. I am sure that RR5 is a fun game once you get to the other tracks but as it stands I can’t proceed.I have a hard time being completely objective about this category. Although the game play was decent I found that after a few games the racing became fairly simple. Another reason my objectivity should be questioned is that the game kept locking up after getting finished with the third track as well as in 2 player mode. I am sure that RR5 is a fun game once you get to the other tracks but as it stands I can’t proceed.
Jacquie Blake Office Manager	7	7	9	9
	Since I am not a notive at playing video games, I had very few expectations of this game. With each “bump” against the wall or guard rail (and that happened a lot), I expected to see lots of dents on my car and the fearful sound of metal twisting . But no dents or metal twisting. The car looked the same as when I started the race. That was disappointing. But I did enjoy the sparks that flew out from the back of the car when I jumped a hill or bumped into another car. Now that was exciting.	I thought the sound was okay. I loved the screeching tires when I rounded each turn of the track as I headed for yet another guard rail while trying to catch the pack. And as I hit the rail, I expected to hear the dreadful sound of metal scraping a surface it was not suppose to meet. You know the sound you hear when fingernails are scratching a chalkboard. But no sound. Not even a thump. Oh well…. During the race, the announcer was talking too low and it became very distracting. I was having enough trouble trying to avoid the walls, guard rails and other cars much less listening to him.	Once I understood the controls, I enjoyed the game. I found myself yelling and screaming at the cars. After a few tries, I came in 12th place. Now you may be thinking, 12th place that’s awful. You have to realize I do not play video games and came in last place several times. So I was determined not to be last again. And you could not proceed to the next track until you won at the first one. I would STILL be racing on the first track if it had not been for Charlie. He won the first race and changed the track so I could race on a different one. And that was frustrating. I found all the walls and guard rails on that track also, but it was nice to look at some different scenery.	I would definitely play this game again. Even without the dents in my car or the metal scraping the guard rails, it was fun. I was surprised how quickly I became obsessed with trying to win. So now that I’ve had a taste…….GENTLEMEN..START YOUR ENGINES !!!