The next game in the Ridge Racer line has come out. R: Racing
Evolution has superb graphics, a detailed story and a large
assortment of beautifully rendered cars.
The gallery version of the cars is outstandingly well done. The shine
and reflectiveness makes you feel like you are in a dealership looking
for a new muscle machine. And, even though the in-game cars don't quite
have this spectacular a look, they are still some amazing models. The
landscape and car models have a lot of detail in them and they are all
displayed without slowing down the frame rate. After the race, you can
sit back and watch the replay from different cameras around the track.
This way you will get the full affect of the high detailed images.
In Racing Life (R:RE's story mode) you are treated to some great
CG cutscenes as your character progresses through the chapters.
There is a wide variety of music to listen to while racing down the
track. Unfortunately, I found that the default volume of the radio was
too loud to let me hear what everyone else on the track was saying. So
thankfully, there is an option to adjust the volume as well as an option
to just turn the music off. I found I raced better with the music
turned off -- plus you get to hear what your pit crew is saying, not to
mention the banter that goes on between cars.
The main attraction R: Racing Evolution has is its Racing Life
mode. This story mode puts you in the shoes of an ambulance driver who
has been discovered by a manager at G.V.I -- a well-known racing team.
Your first missions involve proving yourself and showing the team that
you have what it takes to race professionally.
As G.V.I's new driver, you will get access to many cars from Dodge,
Honda, Acura, GM and several other brands. You will drive cars from many
classes --everything from the Mini Cooper to the S2000. As the game
progresses, you will even develop a rivalry with a driver from another
team, Gina. Typically she is the car in the lead and the hardest of the
bunch to pass up.
In this mode you earn cars, movies and RP's (reward points). These
points are the currency in the game. With these (earned by finished
races with a certain rank, putting on a lot of pressure on the track and
various other categories) you will be able to buy new cars, tune up your
old cars as well as buy challenges and racing events.
One of the interesting features about Racing Evolution's races is
the effectiveness of pressure on the other drivers. As you approach a
driver from behind, a bar appears over their car. This bar is different
lengths depending on how well the driver can keep his or her cool. As
you approach, the bar will fill up -- turning from blue to yellow to
red. If you stay on the driver's tail, they will eventually mess up.
They may take a curve too wide or lose control of their car. Either way,
it helps in getting and keeping them behind you.
The amount of control you are given over your cars is amazing. Besides
the standard options of automatic or manual transmission, you can also
choose to have Brake Assist turned on (an option that seemed to hold me
back more times than not). You can also adjust the suspension at each of
the wheels -- this got a little above my head though, so I can't say
much about that.
In the Time Attack mode, you race around an unlocked track in hopes of
beating your best time. If you want to, you can follow a ghost car
around the track. This car follows the path of your fastest recorded
lap. The game also features a Two- Player Versus mode. Here you and your
friend share the screen as you see who has the best control.
One major problem I had with R:RE is its lack of an autosave --
or even a message asking you if you wanted to save. When I first played
the game, I spent several hours going through the Racing Life mode. I
got about halfway through when I decided to quit for the day. When I
returned a few days later, I realized that none of that progress had
been saved. I went to the Load/Save option and saw that the file I had
started was still set on Chapter 1. That means that all of the vehicles
I had unlocked or purchased, as well as the challenges I had completed
were gone as if they never existed. And as of now (when I am writing
this review), I have yet to get near that point in the story again.
I'm sorry, but as a programmer, I can see that it should be really easy
to call the save command, or even ask the user between races if they
want to save. If it isn't as simple as adding a few lines of code, then
there is something seriously wrong with said code. This seems like major
goof in a very solid game.
On a side note, this game also comes with a free copy of Pac-man
Vs. This multiplayer Pac-man has one person controlling the power
pellet gobbling partial circle on a GameBoy Advance, while up to three
other players act as the ghosts on the Game Cube. This game can have a
slightly addictive quality to it, but it will often lead to tangled
wires when the role of Pac-man changes hands -- literally.
It took me a while to get use to the controls of R: Racing
Evolution. Maybe it was the fact that the accelerator is the Right
Shoulder button, or maybe it was simply because I just got done
reviewing two Hot Wheels: World Race games; either way it took
some time. Once I got into the swing of things though, I found the
controls to be quick and responsive.
You shift gears (with the manual transmission) with the A (shift up) and
B (shift down) buttons, while the Left Shoulder button is the brake and
the X button is the hand brake. The Y button is to switch to the cockpit
view, where you are closer to the ground and have the advantage of a
rear view mirror.
Besides the distinct lack of an autosave feature, there are very few
problems with this game. If you are a racing fanatic, then you should
definitely pick up a copy of R: Racing Evolution, and even if you
aren't, then give it a rent. You might find yourself fascinated with the
storyline just enough to go and get it.
Each race in R: Racing Evolution can be set to one of three
difficulty settings. These three settings are pretty dead on. I found
the Normal setting to be just my speed because it was challenging, but I
knew
If I kept working on it, I would eventually get past it and continue the
story. The Easy and Hard settings are basically what they sound like.
The other cars are harder to pressure in the later setting, while they
aren't quite as fast in the Easy setting.