We are still waiting on a suitable Amiga AGA emulator with robust recording features before tackling such games.
Ridge Racer Type 4 (EU)
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Screenshot |
Player's Review
An alternate longplay which intends to be more accurate and show a bit more of the game. This is the PAL version of the game as it is the version I own. Now don't switch channels just coz its 25/50 fps. The game is stil fast and fluid and benefits from a higher 512p resolution.
This was quite a showcase title on the playstation one and along with games like Gran Turismo 2 and Wipeout 3 really showed that developers had grasped the hardware towards the end of the ps1 era and gave it a good send off leading into the ps2 era. You might have to watch closely, but there are some nice gfx effects going n such as reflections and texture shading. Having the fireworks light effects visible on the environment is a really nice effect to be seen on the ps1. I ride mostly in bumper view as the game is so much easier this way as you can judge the corners better. I do try to show chase view on one lap though but I make more mistakes in this view.
I play the game through the 4 different teams to show their stories using the corresponding car manufacturer. Now this game has a really insane locking system which would take a lifetime to unlock all the cars (or maybe 300 hours..) which is just ridiculous. I really enjoy the game, but not enough to play over n over n over for eternity to unlock all the cars which are worse then the ones I unlock through normal progression. There are 320 cars. 20 for each car manufactures and team combo. (so 20 x4 car types (80) x 4 difficulties (320)). To get the different car unlocks you have to replay the GP over and over and get all possible qualifying positions. And your reward for doing all this is the pacman car. Suddenly its worth the hassle!
There is some nice music in the game and I make sure that every track is played at least once by forcing the specific track in number order for each race.
This was a great game when it was released and it still stands up really well now and was a joy to play again. The game came with the original Ridge Racer and a turbo edition and it really shows how far ridge racer has come in 5 years between the titles on ps1. There is a graphical quality jump between Rage Racer and Type 4 as well. I think the PSP Ridge Racer releases was the high point of the game and Namco lost sight of what made the games great after this and totally lost the plot with Unbounded and Driftopia.
So now for the video breakdown. I go through all 4 teams and show full replays after each race. After each GP I show the Extra trial to unlock the special car for each team. After these team stories are shown I add a little bonus at the end.
00:00:00 - Intro and First GP with Dig Racing Team (Expert) and Lizard cars (Drift) a damn hard combination.
01:18:00 Extra trial - Race against and unlock the Lizard Nightmare car.
01:26:30 - Second GP with Racing Team Solvalou (Hard) using Assoluto cars (Drift). There seems to be a bug in the Euro version of the game (I tried a few different iso as well as my original game) where the Epilogue text does not display for this team. I re raced a few times and it would not show, if it exists at all.
02:36:00 - Extra Trial - Race against and unlock Assoluto Vulcano car.
02:43:10 - Third GP with Pac Racing Club (Normal) using Terrazi cars (Grip).
03:54:00 - Extra Trial to race against and unlock pac Utopia car.
04:01:15 - Forth GP using Micro Mouse Mappy team (Easy) and AgeSolo cars (Grip)
05:13:15 - Extra Trial to race against and unlock Mappy Age Solo Ecureuil car.
05:21:27 - A look at all the unlocked decals that can be applied to the preset cars. Followed by a look at all the trophies that can be earned in the game. 4 of them you saw me earn at the end of each gp. The other 4 I had to replay each team gp with a different car (Drift/Grip) to unlock the remaining 4 trophies.
05:26:04 - Finally with a bit of savegame magic (as there was no way I was going to spend hours unlocking the right way) I can show off the PAC-Man car you get after unlocking all cars in the game.
This was quite a showcase title on the playstation one and along with games like Gran Turismo 2 and Wipeout 3 really showed that developers had grasped the hardware towards the end of the ps1 era and gave it a good send off leading into the ps2 era. You might have to watch closely, but there are some nice gfx effects going n such as reflections and texture shading. Having the fireworks light effects visible on the environment is a really nice effect to be seen on the ps1. I ride mostly in bumper view as the game is so much easier this way as you can judge the corners better. I do try to show chase view on one lap though but I make more mistakes in this view.
I play the game through the 4 different teams to show their stories using the corresponding car manufacturer. Now this game has a really insane locking system which would take a lifetime to unlock all the cars (or maybe 300 hours..) which is just ridiculous. I really enjoy the game, but not enough to play over n over n over for eternity to unlock all the cars which are worse then the ones I unlock through normal progression. There are 320 cars. 20 for each car manufactures and team combo. (so 20 x4 car types (80) x 4 difficulties (320)). To get the different car unlocks you have to replay the GP over and over and get all possible qualifying positions. And your reward for doing all this is the pacman car. Suddenly its worth the hassle!
There is some nice music in the game and I make sure that every track is played at least once by forcing the specific track in number order for each race.
This was a great game when it was released and it still stands up really well now and was a joy to play again. The game came with the original Ridge Racer and a turbo edition and it really shows how far ridge racer has come in 5 years between the titles on ps1. There is a graphical quality jump between Rage Racer and Type 4 as well. I think the PSP Ridge Racer releases was the high point of the game and Namco lost sight of what made the games great after this and totally lost the plot with Unbounded and Driftopia.
So now for the video breakdown. I go through all 4 teams and show full replays after each race. After each GP I show the Extra trial to unlock the special car for each team. After these team stories are shown I add a little bonus at the end.
00:00:00 - Intro and First GP with Dig Racing Team (Expert) and Lizard cars (Drift) a damn hard combination.
01:18:00 Extra trial - Race against and unlock the Lizard Nightmare car.
01:26:30 - Second GP with Racing Team Solvalou (Hard) using Assoluto cars (Drift). There seems to be a bug in the Euro version of the game (I tried a few different iso as well as my original game) where the Epilogue text does not display for this team. I re raced a few times and it would not show, if it exists at all.
02:36:00 - Extra Trial - Race against and unlock Assoluto Vulcano car.
02:43:10 - Third GP with Pac Racing Club (Normal) using Terrazi cars (Grip).
03:54:00 - Extra Trial to race against and unlock pac Utopia car.
04:01:15 - Forth GP using Micro Mouse Mappy team (Easy) and AgeSolo cars (Grip)
05:13:15 - Extra Trial to race against and unlock Mappy Age Solo Ecureuil car.
05:21:27 - A look at all the unlocked decals that can be applied to the preset cars. Followed by a look at all the trophies that can be earned in the game. 4 of them you saw me earn at the end of each gp. The other 4 I had to replay each team gp with a different car (Drift/Grip) to unlock the remaining 4 trophies.
05:26:04 - Finally with a bit of savegame magic (as there was no way I was going to spend hours unlocking the right way) I can show off the PAC-Man car you get after unlocking all cars in the game.