By Lewie Procter on August 11th, 2011 at 4:25 pm.
It’s a long time since Namco Bandai last made any noise about their reboot of the Ridge Racer series, but with Gamescom just around the corner, they’ve readied a trailer hinting towards an emphasis on city-building and car-smashing. City-building! Some of the first proper footage of Ridge Racer: Unbounded lies herein:
And a slice of text to go with the moving pictures:
Create an unlimited number of tracks with the City Creator, share it online and play!
There’s quite a lot of tasty looking destructible scenery on display, and the “City Creator” sounds like they might be planning on giving Trackmania 2 a run for its money. It looks like it has an open world layout to me, but since they are also making references to “tracks”, it’s hard to say just yet.
Ridge Racer Unbounded is out next year, and you can expect hands on impressions on it from Gamescom.
11/08/2011 at 16:27 Inigo says:
Ridge Racer?
On PC?
What?
11/08/2011 at 16:29 Jim Rossignol says:
Namco like PC now, apparently.
11/08/2011 at 16:34 DrGonzo says:
It’s the devs of Flatout isn’t it?
11/08/2011 at 20:38 BAReFOOt says:
Now all that’s missing, is a tool to import my old Stunts (4D Sports Driving) tracks.
Especially those that rely on being able to drive across a slanted piece or other crazy stuff it wasn’t meant for. ^^
12/08/2011 at 00:56 Synesthesia says:
as long as there’s pacman as a drivable car, i’ll buy it. I miss the absolutely stupid car designs from RR4
11/08/2011 at 16:29 pakoito says:
It’s…
11/08/2011 at 16:33 Fringe says:
Trackmania?
11/08/2011 at 16:34 AndrewC says:
Burnout Paradise!
11/08/2011 at 16:35 DrGonzo says:
Looks just like Flatout 3 and it pretty much is. Made by the same developers I read somewhere. Absolutely loved the first two Flatouts, tried the Burnout series afterwards and couldn’t get along with it at all. Really happy to see that the series will carry on in some way.
11/08/2011 at 16:58 pakoito says:
RIDGE RACER
RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIDGE RACER!!!
11/08/2011 at 17:04 stahlwerk says:
*awkward silence*
11/08/2011 at 17:15 Xercies says:
Not Ridge Racer Type 4
11/08/2011 at 20:50 Lasre says:
Monty Python’s Flying Circus!
11/08/2011 at 21:14 Azazel says:
Long have I waited to see this on a PC games website. That day is this day.
15/08/2011 at 16:04 Araxiel says:
It’s Crashday!
Anybody? Did anybody except me play that game?
15/08/2011 at 19:08 manveruppd says:
It does look like Burnout Paradise with more smashing! :o We’ll have to wait and see whether it’s truly open world before we know if it can fill that racing-shaped void.
11/08/2011 at 16:31 westyfield says:
I like the way cars can happily smash through foot-thick walls, but the moment they so much as tap another car they explode.
11/08/2011 at 16:34 Diziet Sma says:
I actually like that too. This looks like ridge mania revenge. I approve.
11/08/2011 at 18:26 Keymonk says:
You’d assume if they all have the same power and mass, they’d be at an impasse?
11/08/2011 at 16:38 Flukie says:
I always want to play a Ridge Racer game but then I get let down by how it plays like a rhythm music game in a driving sense. Where you just have to get your timing right and driving skill is out there.
Similar to snaking in Mario Kart, but constantly. At least Mario Kart has driving in too.
This however looks like a hopeful exception adding in elements of other games and a level editor of all things, great to have it coming to my favourite platform too, if its still looking good up to launch i’ll pick it up.
11/08/2011 at 16:48 DrGonzo says:
I reckon it will go down the Flatout route, which is similar to Burnout in that it’s about powering around corners, the faster the better – if you aren’t going to make it round the corner, you’re best off using nitro rather than braking.
11/08/2011 at 16:41 ZIGS says:
Never cared for Ridge Racer but this being made by the chaps of Flatout fame, I am very interested
11/08/2011 at 16:47 Flameberge says:
If we pick at our compeer screens will ‘Ridge Racer; eventually come away and we’ll see ‘Flatout 3′ underneath? Because that’s exactly what this looks like (though that’s no bad thing, in my books), and would make sense, being developed by Bugbear.
Ridge Racer name merged with Flatout gameplay with a sprinkling of Streets of SimCity perhaps.
11/08/2011 at 17:08 Springy says:
Infinite
dragonstracks!11/08/2011 at 17:32 felisc says:
mmmh, this ridge racer game seems to be very friendly on the replay scenes. I still enjoy a replay after a car takedown, but after a jump from a window ? that’s a bit too much.
11/08/2011 at 17:47 MartinNr5 says:
I think the editor looks way too complex, with rotating buildings and all. It’d been a lot better if they went for a more traditional approach.
12/08/2011 at 14:34 drlemon says:
I don’t belive that was actual editor footage.
11/08/2011 at 17:47 Muzman says:
The bendy, rotatey buildings in the trailer make me want an Inception tie-in racing game.
11/08/2011 at 21:54 Nyst says:
I was going to say that myself;
I want to play a game where the buildings flip and rotate like that during the race itself.
11/08/2011 at 18:00 fallingmagpie says:
…where are the ridges?
11/08/2011 at 18:35 Daz says:
Looks excellent! The thing I really miss when I play trackmania is exploding other cars, this seems to have trackmania’s ott tracks and full collision and destruction…win!
11/08/2011 at 19:38 jlaakso says:
Hi guys, my name is Joonas Laakso. I’m a producer working on the game. Really cool to finally get to discuss the feature we’re the most excited about!
Just wanted to weigh in on one concern here: the whole point when starting to make the City Creator was that absolutely anyone can create their own cities (comprised of multiple tracks – it’s not open world). It’s going to be super easy to use. The goal is that making a retail quality track shouldn’t take more than one minute. Obviously we still want to also cater to people looking for a more in-depth experience, too.
11/08/2011 at 20:52 BAReFOOt says:
What about importing Stunts (4D Sports Driving) tracks? Should be done in a day, and would be AWESOME. ^^
11/08/2011 at 21:15 Moke says:
Sounds great Joonas.
Also, communicating with the community like this will get you everywhere.
12/08/2011 at 00:38 BunnyPuncher says:
Making a proper track within a minute?
I think I’m sold anyway but if you’ve pulled that off successfully…. wow.
11/08/2011 at 19:50 shoptroll says:
So it’s the return of U-Drive it from SimCity 4: Rush Hour just with better controls?
11/08/2011 at 20:03 Ocho says:
Looks like an awesome fusion of burnout paradise and Trackmania. If it delivers what it promises, and the cars handle well and interesting, rather than the usual faux-realism of most modern racers, this could be one of the best racing games for a long time
11/08/2011 at 20:28 Waltorious says:
Are there going to be ANY ridges in this game?
11/08/2011 at 20:40 Jake says:
The parts where the cars are driving through a transforming Autobot City are pretty great, just need Starscream having to shoot off his own foot and a “the Insecticons are in our way…” shortcut.
11/08/2011 at 21:33 Uglycat says:
I played too much of this in Morrowind.
11/08/2011 at 21:51 Navagon says:
It’s a bloody shame it’s a Namco Bandai game as it looks like it could be a lot of fun, even if it does look like it’s very heavily biased in favour of the player.
But after NB withholding payments from CDP because of NB’s love of shitty customer-punishing DRM I just can’t justify putting any money their way.
11/08/2011 at 22:43 ran93r says:
Sorry but if the cars don’t gently bounce off walls and barriers with an annoying “dunk, dunk, dunk” then this is as much Ridge Racer as Duke Nuke Forever is the messiah.
I’m a sucker for a racing game and I guess if you have a brand you may as well use it but this doesn’t smell like RR to me.
That said, I’m only griping about the use of that particular franchise, looks alright.
12/08/2011 at 01:41 Tony says:
Lame. San Francisco Rush meets Burnout meets Trackmania. I’m guessing the “create” aspect of this is going to be a lot of pre-made junk that’ll be exciting for about an hour. Oh, and the name “Unbounded” is SUPER-freakin’ lame. “Unbounded.” Really, “having no limits”? That’s never been tacked on to a franchise before!
12/08/2011 at 08:01 MartinNr5 says:
Don’t be shy, tell us how you really feel.
12/08/2011 at 10:22 Kefren says:
I’m bored of petrol-guzzling car racing games. Can we have more free-running racing games please?