Ridge Racer – Unbounded: Namco releases teaser
Realism is the holy grail of racing games and Namco’s latest teaser trailer for Ridge Racer: Unbounded does not stray far from most racing games’ obsession with attaining as high degree of realism as possible.
When it comes to game play realism for racing games, there are really only three arenas: physics realism (you actually feel that you are driving), detail realism (getting as much of the detail of the car right down to that, if possible, ‘fresh car’ scent), to ambient realism (realistic settings and locales). Ridge Racer: Unbounded, currently under development by Bugbear entertainment for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 formats, pursues the realism fight in the arena of graphics and ambience. Notice the light play on the surface of the cars and the gritty realism of the buildings lining the road. I felt like I was watching a slightly hazy version of The Streets of San Francisco (with updated cars, of course). The movement of the vehicles is very fluid and interacts well with the surrounding scenery.
All in all, the teaser does give the impression that Ridge Racer: Unbounded will acquit itself well when it comes to the realism wars, but I’m sure, racing purists will still find it lacking in the physics realm. This is always the case. There isn’t really a Battlefield 3 type of game changer in the racing genre looming in the horizon. It would be interesting to know when such a game changer would appear or are racing gamers just content to wait for the next generation of consoles to take the realism quest to the next level?
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