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So I finally beat a third game from my Summer Gaming list. Ridge Racer is of course the classic PS1 launch title that showed off Sony's new piece of hardware as a viable option for near arcade perfection. (See: dsheinem's blog for a wonderful post on this game's release). This was a game I had at least tried before this Summer, but never spent any real time with. Now before I get started, brief disclaimer:  when I say I beat Ridge Racer, I mean I beat it on Mid-Level. To me, that's beaten -- at least for the purposes of this challenge. My goal with these games was to get through them for once. To play them to the extent that I get to the end credits, and can say that I've honestly experienced the games to a point where I can have an actual educated opinion on them. So although I didn't try to beat it on the hardest mode -- I'm just not a completionist gamer. I don't care about unlocking everything, achievements, 100% or any of that kind of thing. To me, it's about the experience and having fun.


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So what did I think of the game?

First, The Good:  Ridge Racer looks phenomenal, even now. I mean I'm playing this on a PS3 and still impressed with what Namco was able to pull off all those years ago. The game feels great as an arcade racer. Though it certainly doesn't trump OutRun in my opinion for pure arcade racing thrill -- it is a blast. The Galaxian mini-game to unlock more cars is unique and actually makes the loading screen fun.

The Bad:  Really the whole game is just one track. I mean, the track gets switched up a bit depending on difficulty level, and you can even race it backwards. But still. One track. Certainly this wasn't a big deal upon its release, but by today's standards this felt very limited to me, making the game slightly boring to keep reattempting. Also, I found that drifting never really clicked with me. I peeled out a lot, even using the car with the best traction. The other thing I found was that I handled curves much better playing in first-person view, which kind of irked me as I much preferred the third person perspective otherwise.

Ultimately, I'm glad I spent the time to get through this one. It's still fun and challenging today. But more likely I'd next check out a sequel with more tracks than come back and revisit the original again.


Chrono Trigger
Dead Or Alive
Duke Nukem: Total Meltdown
Mega Man X4
Metal Gear Solid
Mr. Driller
Myst
Ridge Racer
R-Type Delta
Silent Hill


As for other games, Chrono Trigger I need to get back into. I kind of stopped around the 10 hour mark. I'm somewhere around the third or fourth mission of Duke Nukem. Mega Man X4 is still infuriating me, as I can easily make it up to Sigma, but he kills me in his final form even though I have two E-tanks. And I recently started playing Metal Gear Solid, in which I'm about an hour and a half into and really impressed by.

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