By Quintin Smith on February 7th, 2011 at 8:30 am.
Via Blues I notice that Japanese driving franchise Ridge Racer (Riiiiiiiidge Raaaceeeerrrrr) is, for the first time, coming to the PC! Yes. But not the Ridge Racer you know and potentially love. No. In the increasingly common practice of Japanese publishers farming their licenses out to Western games developers, Namco Bandai has given Helsinki-based devs Bugbear (makers of the popular racing series FlatOut) the task of constructing Ridge Racer: Unbounded. And it’s… well, take a look at the trailer below.
Here’s the line from the press release.
“Breaking free from all the pussyfooting around tame circuits*, politely bumping into rivals’ fenders**, Ridge Racer Unbounded has a new mantra – Drive, Destroy, Dominate – and it’s one that’s going to shake up the racing genre for good***. It’s time to break not only the rules, but plenty of cars too. You think you’ve seen crashes? You’ve seen nothing. In Ridge Racer Unbounded your car is a high-octane wrecking ball.”
I do think I’ve seen crashes, actually. I’ve seen both Burnout and FlatOut and other contenders in the actually-quite-crowded genre of racing-games-with-cars-resembling-high-octane-wrecking-balls. Tell you what. Maybe they mean in Ridge Racer: Unbounded your car is literally a high-octane wrecking ball! Not sure how that’d work, but if any of you guys want to draw one and post it in the comments you should feel welcome.
…oh. I guess your car is just a car. Nevermind.
* What?
** What?
*** Wow!
07/02/2011 at 08:39 Pemptus says:
Oh hey, another one of those games that are named after a (fairly) beloved franchise and have nothing in common with it apart from the core concept (cars go zoom!). How inspired!
07/02/2011 at 09:24 Pop says:
Pretty much – I thought Ridge Racer was about drifting implausibly round corners in implausible cars in implausible environments to win the affection of implausible Manga women.
07/02/2011 at 08:41 SquareWheel says:
The hell?
07/02/2011 at 12:07 stahlwerk says:
I second this. Hard.
07/02/2011 at 12:20 Henke says:
I replayed Flatout: UC recently and then checked out Bugbears website, wondering what their next project would be, but they were very hush hush about it. The trailer and it’s accompanying press release may be shit, but it IS another destructive racing game and it IS by Bugbear so no doubt it’ll be good.
07/02/2011 at 16:53 DrGonzo says:
Indeed, loved the Flatout games, which I find to be far superior to the Burnout series. They actually feel like you’re driving some kind of vehicle. Burnout is so disconnected from reality it feels more like toy cars to me.
08/02/2011 at 11:49 Andrei Sebastian says:
BugBear / Flatout = total awesomness
BugBear / Flatou / Microsoft Live = shit
Let’s just hope they get that in their heads.
P.S.
Live doesn’t support a lot of countries practically. So if you live in Romania (like I do), and you bought Flatout UC in this last year’s Steam winter sale you would have gotten totally burned (and I know quite a few people who went throught this).
Luckily most people know about the issue and got FlatOut 2
07/02/2011 at 08:44 Brumisator says:
If it weren’t for that hilarious 2006 E3, nobody would even remember the name Ridge Racer.
07/02/2011 at 11:34 mda says:
I know not of this hilarious 2006 E3, but ridge racer is a classic arcade racer to me… there! Proved you wrong. But how do you know I’m telling the truth? Mwa ha ha ha ha!
Got a link to whatever the hilarious thing was? ^_^
07/02/2011 at 11:41 Brumisator says:
Erm…did you read the article?
07/02/2011 at 12:32 Xercies says:
I remember Ridge racer Type 4 very fondly, a very great arcadey drifty racing game which made you feel like a god after awhile being able to do all the great turns by drifting. Nothing of that ilk has really come out since, and I’m disappointed that this game is just not ridge racer.
08/02/2011 at 10:51 mda says:
@Brum:
Yes I read it. Please accept my apologies for not clicking the link in the article… truly I am not worthy to speak to you.
It wasn’t funny anyway :/
07/02/2011 at 08:45 RogB says:
unbounded? sounds like a made-up word. (apparently its not, but sounds like it )
Need for Speed 24 : Betterer!
07/02/2011 at 09:55 Leelad says:
Was thinking that the title seemed unfinished
Unbounded death car race sim shift carbon paradise
Or something.
07/02/2011 at 11:40 mda says:
UNBOUNDEDEDEDEDED!
That’s what I reckon, anyways.
07/02/2011 at 08:50 phenom_x8 says:
Love ridge racer when I was a console gamer (RR 4 around 99). Fascinated by its costumization option when formed new racing team! It even allowed us to create our own team logo.
Is there anyone thinking that it’s just flatout series rebranded as Ridge Racer??
07/02/2011 at 08:50 randomnine says:
Okay. The trailer opens with this dramatic, character-focused intro, so I’m vaguely immersed… and then she drives out into a street and T-bones a taxi for no reason. What the hell? That’s not awesome, it’s just reckless. THIS WOMAN DOES NOT HAVE MUCH RESPECT FOR THE HIGHWAY CODE
It’s possible I’m too old for this.
I never played FlatOut. Was it any good?
07/02/2011 at 08:55 Brumisator says:
Flatout had a pretty fun gimmick, where the cars have drivers with rag-doll physics.
It was a decent driving game, but the most fun was to be had in the little arcade games, where you’d play giant bowling, or giant darts with your car.
“wheeeee!” *crash” “kekekekekekeke”
the Flatout games are realitvely cheap on Steam, and also at least one demo.
07/02/2011 at 09:01 hamster says:
Oh god lol i spent minutes laughing at the trailer.
07/02/2011 at 10:53 Serph says:
“Real time car change… So here’s this giant enemy taxi… you flip over this taxi on its back… and you attack its weak point for MASSIVE DAMAGE…”
07/02/2011 at 13:09 bill says:
I got Flatout 1 for $2 in the steam sale to play on my laptop. It’s ok.
The crashes are kinda fun. But the driving model is just a little unrewarding. Couldn’t tell you why, but it doesn’t have the great feel of some racing games.
The environments are fun to drive through and crash into, but there aren’t that many of them, so they get reused (but with different courses).
The rubber-banding is very very obvious. If you crash or get lost, you often find a big queue of cars waiting for you round the next bend. At least on the easy cup.
I was rather disappointed by all the physics-crash minigames. I thought they sounded cool, but must say that I only tried each one a few times before going back to the racing.
Never finished it though.
07/02/2011 at 16:57 DrGonzo says:
Well, I loved the Flatout games. Probably the only racing games, other than Blur, that I’ve enjoyed since.. Possibly Sega Rally or Hot Pursuit.
07/02/2011 at 19:41 Slow Dog says:
FlatOut wasn’t particularly inspired. The driving’s insipid, and its damage model’s off, so you can get a daft procession of cars with burning engines.
FlatOut 2, though (and presumably FlatOut:UC, being essentially the same game), is brilliant. I can imagine the folks who don’t like GRID/DIRT – style skiddyness won’t like it, and the Ragdoll games are daft, but the basic impact-fuelled driving experience is great.
07/02/2011 at 09:00 The Hammer says:
What a curiously crap trailer…
07/02/2011 at 09:08 Mo says:
Riiiiiiiidge Racer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJElsNaC6yQ
07/02/2011 at 09:09 Gonefornow says:
The similarities between the NfS Underground logo and this are, no doubt, well calculated.
And while watching the trailer I ,for some reason, kept waiting for some Zombies to pop up.
Alas, that was not the case.
07/02/2011 at 09:14 Stijn says:
For a game already boasting about its crashes, that yellow car is curiously unscathed after the first impact.
07/02/2011 at 09:14 StingingVelvet says:
I am truly surprised that not every comment is about the stupid subtitle.
07/02/2011 at 09:17 Lambchops says:
All this talk of “high octane” brings to mind PC racer Hi-Octane, which I think came packaged with one of my families early PCs. It was probably rubbish but I seem to remember rather enjoying it. I was probably 7 or 8 at the time and at the edge where cars with miniguns and missiles could keep me entertained for many an hour!
Also here is a hastily drawn paint image of a high octane wrecking ball:
http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/4240/hioctanewreckingball.png
07/02/2011 at 09:29 Baggypants says:
Bullfrogs Hi-Octane rocked. Budget PC Wipeout. Did you prefer the car, truck or doughnut?
07/02/2011 at 09:35 Lambchops says:
It was all about the Juggernaut thing.
07/02/2011 at 10:43 BooleanBob says:
Subsequently I’ve heard that Hi-Octane was something Bullfrog shoved out of the door to try and recoup the money they spent on the Magic Carpet engine.
But it was still brilliant. Take the doughnut. If you kill literally every other car, you will come first. This was the only correct mentality to assume when playing.
07/02/2011 at 09:19 tomnullpointer says:
erm…
WARFACE!
07/02/2011 at 09:22 Sigma Draconis says:
Not just Unbounded, but Outsourced, too!
07/02/2011 at 11:26 Shubb9 says:
I’d go with Uninspired
07/02/2011 at 09:25 Tunips says:
3?
07/02/2011 at 09:29 ZIGS says:
I understand this might piss off the Ridge Racer fans but to me, someone who never cared for Ridge Racer and loved FlatOut, this is great news. In fact, I was recently wondering what bugbear was up to, here’s my answer
07/02/2011 at 09:46 Warth0g says:
What the.. I don’t get it? She gets out of quite a nice looking car that looks a bit like a Nissan 370Z, but isn’t.. then she gets surreptitiously into a slightly crappier looking car that looks a bit like a Dodge Charger, but isn’t… then hoofs it straight into a busy main road?? Errmm, why? Usually the crashing bits are at least as a result of racing somebody…
07/02/2011 at 09:47 apa says:
that’s a 5gen camaro, isn’t it? not the stock tail lights though.
07/02/2011 at 09:53 Chizu says:
Thats a rather unimpressive trailer.
And I never cared all that much for Ridge Racer, certainly in its later renditions. They felt strangely un-interactive, with your car rotating on the spot and seemingly going around a corner what ever strange angle you decide to point it in.
That said, I did enjoy flatout so maybe they can make this Unboundedededededededededededededededed thing more enjoyable.
Also, that was a horrible cgi lady :(
07/02/2011 at 11:27 Shubb9 says:
Does jerky marionette lady with bulbous head not do it for you?
07/02/2011 at 09:59 DJ Phantoon says:
It may be Ridge Racer, but it’s no Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiidge Raaaaaaaaacer!.
07/02/2011 at 10:23 BrendanJB says:
$599 US DOLLARS
07/02/2011 at 10:40 Riztro says:
What the hell is wrong with her hips?
07/02/2011 at 10:46 Pepelusky says:
And then, i dont think i’d have a reason to walk thru that steam coming out of that manhole.
07/02/2011 at 11:05 Matt says:
I thought Namco was going to stop working with western developers. I guess that was just a lie to hide their incompetence at publishing…
07/02/2011 at 11:09 yhalothar says:
so they took the arcadey goodness of ridge racer and turned into another burnout wannabe?
07/02/2011 at 11:28 NPC says:
Do they imply destructible environments? Like BFBC2 with cars? That could be neat, if the cars are at least somewhat less destructible than the environments, so the fun lasts.
07/02/2011 at 11:33 Man Raised by Puffins says:
High-octane wrecking ball? Why, only one assortment of misfits could be behind the wheel of that.
07/02/2011 at 11:34 CyberBrent says:
Why did she kill that taxi driver?
07/02/2011 at 12:05 stahlwerk says:
Because he was fare game?
07/02/2011 at 11:41 Navagon says:
I thought the whole super-powered car thing kind of flopped commercially? Neither Blur nor… that other one… (Split Second?) seemed to do very well at all. Both seemed to drop off the map almost before they were released.
But, being a Bugbear game, it could be very good in its own right.
Edit: Wrecking ball car.
07/02/2011 at 11:51 mandrill says:
Oh come on, can we not have marketing for a game without the pneumatic females please, there’s really no need (unless the game is about pneumatic females, which this game isn’t)
07/02/2011 at 17:44 Dances to Podcasts says:
Pneumatic female?
07/02/2011 at 12:09 Crescend says:
Well, I have high hopes in them, gotta support finnish games developers whenever I can :) Really enjoyed the flatout series, I hope the ridge rider franchise gives them enough freedom to create the awesome wrecking ball racing game they’re aiming for.
07/02/2011 at 12:22 manveruppd says:
Errr… you mentioned only 2 high-octane arcadey crashy driving games, so I guess the genre isn’t all THAT crowded on PC… :p I for one welcome our new high octane overlords!
07/02/2011 at 12:33 poop says:
In the latest sequel to, Long Running Racing Franchise, Long Running Racing Franchise : Exciting Words, the player is thrust into a fast paced world of street racing where there are no rules and the police and traffic are as dangerous as the sexy babe hotrod drivers you will face. With the new Thing Destruction engine you will be amazed as you smash into police cars and walls in slow motion for the hundredth time!
07/02/2011 at 12:37 Xercies says:
Man her hips wobbled right to left a bit to much…and what has happened to her midsection!?
07/02/2011 at 14:05 JKjoker says:
maybe her midsection is … unbounded!
07/02/2011 at 13:03 dwl says:
‘Unbound’ woulded have sounded bettered.
07/02/2011 at 13:04 bill says:
They spelled Flatout wrong. It starts with an F not an R.
That said, Flatout Unbounded looks ok… but what i’d really like would be if someone made a modern version of Ridge Racer. Anyone remember that? It used to be cool. Shame they seem to have abandoned the license.
07/02/2011 at 18:28 Shih Tzu says:
Actually, Namco announced a new Ridge Racer. It will be on the… what is it… 3DS! It is like an Android phone, except it makes your eyes feel pleasantly drunk.
07/02/2011 at 13:12 DeanLearner says:
I am assuming this is a classic case of…
TRAILER BRIEF –> GENERAL IDEA –> COOL TWIST
with the cool twist, a weird psycho driver, that cannot be explained because they have forgotten to include the GENERAL IDEA of the trailer in any form what so ever.
P.S. Women drivers. HAHAHAHAHAAHhahahahaaa heeeh.
07/02/2011 at 13:46 strange headache says:
Flatout was great for one thing and one thing only: 8 player Bus vs. Chili destruction derby.
07/02/2011 at 13:53 MindFukr says:
Don’t care about Ridge Racer at all, never have. Enjoyed all Flatout games but wasn’t really looking forward to another one (unless it would have been completely new game not just another remake), so this is actually great news.
Bugbear got the skills to develop a fun, arcade racer and I’m pretty sure they’ll deliver. Vroom.
07/02/2011 at 14:03 JKjoker says:
if that woman driver (of course!) shook her hips any harder she could travel in time!
07/02/2011 at 15:05 terry says:
She’s going to come back to a flat battery.
07/02/2011 at 15:15 Horza says:
Ridge Racer should totally have Ridge Forrester as the main character.
07/02/2011 at 15:35 something says:
Its like I’ve always said, robot prostitutes from the matrix universe can’t drive for toffee.
07/02/2011 at 16:39 Navagon says:
Of course not. Have you ever tried picking bits of toffee out of robot teeth using cold, senseless robot hands and a tongue designed only to give a French kiss of death? Toffee just isn’t their cuppa, mate.
07/02/2011 at 21:52 Zogtee says:
Right. A couple of things.
1. Unbounded. Is that even a proper word?
2. That is NOT what happens when you broadside a car. Unless you have a magical forcefield around your own car.
3. That woman needs to see a doctor. There is something wrong with her hips.
07/02/2011 at 23:16 laddyman says:
Probably already posted, but this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3UwyXdM3P4
That is all I have to say.
07/02/2011 at 23:43 Simon Dufour says:
Too bad.. what I actually liked about flatout was the scrap cars.. now we’ll essentially play a flatout game with supercar. that suck.
11/02/2011 at 10:23 RegisteredUser says:
“Drive, Destroy, Dominate – and it’s one that’s going to shake up the racing genre for good”
Death Rally & Carmageddon in DOS.
Where were you then, buggy bear?
Oh that’s right, NOWHERE.