Reviews from

in the past


After playing the previous 4 entries and seeing continuous improvement, I was hoping this would be the best game in the series. The cover art is certainly the prettiest. But it's like the devs went insane and decided that the handling in R4 was starting to get too normal, and this just isn't the Ridge Racer way. So naturally this game controls like ass. As long as you're holding down the acceleration button, the steering is too tight, but as soon as you release it, it sends the car spinning. If you don't try to fight it, the slightest attempt at steering without acceleration will literally turn your car 180 degrees around. This must be one of the worst-controlling racing games I've ever played.

This is one of those disappointing sequels that's ultimately fine but a step back in every way from the previous game without anything new to make up for it, just play 4 (personally Revolution is still my favourite).

I may come back to this later because it is solid but I just wasn't feeling it.

Downgrade from rr4 in everything except graphics and controls

I got accused of stealing this at an FYE once

the announcer is like "i am in the radio. there are Sounds on the street in Ridge City today. the Racing of Cars is going to be happening in Ridge City. Hot! Road for the Soul of the race. are you ready to need it or keep it?"

might be the best ridge racer full stop, and one of 4 PS2 games with neGcon support.


Ridge Racer Type 4 represented racing towards the future. The platonic form of driving represented by crossing the finish line and becoming the champion of real racing roots '99 at the exact turn of the millennium. In contrast, Ridge Racer V is racing in the future, as imagined in the Y2K era of the early Playstation 2.

Ridge Racer V is, compared to the soft, silky, jazzy vibes of Type 4, a much more aggressive game in terms of visuals, music and gameplay. This lead me to not like it as much as its predecessor first, but after playing more and learning the feel of the new tracks and cars, I came to appreciate the art of drifting through ridge city. Drifting is absolutely the name of the game here, it's much easier to enter a powerslide compared to previous games in the series, and even the grip cars will be powersliding around most corners. This results in early moments of frustration as you will regularly lose control of your car, but once you learn to tame these beasts, the game becomes very satisfying, the first time you win a GP against the brutally aggressive AI will be a moment to remember.

The music is still full of bangers like Type 4, but there's less direction in the soundtrack. You can tell that in Type 4 each song is designed to perfectly complement the race tracks - the bass solo in Naked Glow is just as much a part of Wonderhill as the environments and corners themselves, but while songs like Euphoria and Samurai Rocket are still great, they don't have the same kind of bond with the race tracks themselves, and frankly I found a few of the songs in this game to be forgettable.

Ridge Racer V takes a less narratively-driven approach. This time you manage your own team (which is mostly done behind the scenes), and participation in the ridge city race events is very much an individual affair. This leads to a more "console racer" and open ended feeling to the game, for better and for worse, but it does mean that this game has way more content and longevity than previous Ridge Racer games. I especially love how time attack is incentivised and contextualised within the game. Most tracks have a rival time that you can attempt to beat, if you beat all of a given rival's times, they will be available to 1v1 duel, and if you beat them in that duel, you unlock their special car that represents the extremes of Ridge Racer V's car design and variety. It's awesome stuff and I really wish more racing games did this kind of thing.

If you can take the time to learn this game it's an extremely rewarding experience, and one I appreciate in helping me get back into the racing game genre. You can tell that Namco were well and truly at the top of their game in this era, and Ridge Racer V definitely deserves its reputation as a standout early PS2 title. It doesn't quite reach the heights of Type 4, but it's close enough in almost all respects.

Also, Ai Fukami > Reiko Nagase. :^)

melhor soundtrack já feita e eu sou o rei do drift nessa porra

near perfect followup to R4 going for a more urban and moodier feel this time, still feels amazing and much more of a challenge, shit's great

much has already been said by writers (or racers) more skilled than i on this site, but i felt the need to stress how aesthetically and mechanically mesmerizing the R4 and R5 combo is for me. their epoch stands as one of the most unique representations of the shift in era at the time. R4’s sharply stylized mellow post-90s tones have now been smoothened out in favor of industrial Y2K aggressiveness in R5. bubbly synths with deep pulsating electronic baselines hang over photorealistic cityscapes - genuinely still starstruck by how well this holds up visually as well.
R4 recognizes that racers are frequently perceived as limbs for their team manager’s goals while R5 displays individuality in racers as promoted by the lack of direct narrative: the announcer is never shy in enlightening us that all racers on the track deserve our respect. furthermore he’ll happily declare our tight corning as wicked or crazy. the steeper difficulty curve is also indicative of the millennial shift as racing has become more commercialized and widespread; making it to the top requires more perseverance than ever. races are broadcast over the radio due to their popularity and thus require enhanced narration layered on from the announcer.
would undoubtedly assert R5 as one of the most important games during its release. as far as ps2 launch titles go, this, the bouncer, & evergrace are some of the best in communicating 2000 as a year towards greater things in gaming.

This your new car, the Crinale is a speed demon that epitomizes Rivelta's design philosophy.
You've got a new engine RIVELTA R765DV, fire it up.
(better than type 4)

what is going on w pcsx2 for all the namco games to look busted as shit. emu dev usually prioritizes a select set of games to see recreated at their best, right. so I know for a fact these guys all have bad taste. in fact, none of you guys parroting "oh pcsx2 is fine for me" ever mention this! the future arrived in 2000 and apparently none of you cared!

born to race world a fuck 193838 dead pedestrians whatever,, Fuck walkability, city streets were made for drifting

i have been gaslit by backloggd.com once again

Coordination, planning and solutions on the go.
Taking a curve has never make me feel so accomplished.
It requires calmness while keeping a sharp eye on your opponents. I wouldn't say it's a game about preying on your opponents, but a game about being entranced while they are leading you, and then feeling the smoothness itself as you ride all by yourself.
Don't rush the experience; the first two hours are for losing and experimenting the different cars.

Solid Racer, handling feels pretty great and nailing drifts feels really. Music and visuals give the game a nice atmosphere. However it's pretty light on track variety.

Ridge Racer V: Launch Titles and The Lost Magic of Console Generations
There's nothing quite like zooming through the streets of Ridge City at night time, while "Euphoria" plays on the radio.
As of recently I've been on a bit of a Ridge Racer kick again, most notably putting my attention back on the fifth main installment in the series. The best way to describe R5 is bold. It's a game screaming with confidence and promise, amazingly optimized at 60fps and boasting insane visuals for the year 2000.
But that's just right, R5 was a launch title for the PS2, one of the highest selling consoles of all time. And yet, it fell under the radar compared to many other games on the system, even when it came out (I'm assuming that goes to Tekken Tag Tournament being the more appealing Namco offering). It's buried under the popularity of the entries in the series both before and after, being sandwiched in between Ridge Racer Type 4 and Ridge Racer 2004. It's overall a somewhat forgotten game, it didn't even sell that well and has never even been ported a single time… and yet, I find it one of the most profound launch titles of all time.
R5 represents a time when the leap in console generations was greater and mattered so much more. While its predecessor RRT4 was a game about looking towards the next millennium and the future of racing, R5 is the future, as insanely flashy UI and hard techno beats blast from the television screen. It boasts the technical prowess of this new generation of gaming in every single way it can. It's fucking AWESOME.
But the sad truth is that it doesn't feel like that anymore with the last two leaps in console generations. The jump in hardware doesn't land as much because we've reached a point in graphical fidelity that can't go much further than looking more realistic and being able to handle more of said demanding visuals better. This isn't entirely the fault of modern game developers, it's simply just the sad reality of how fast digital technology has evolved. And sure, maybe I am biased… I don't despise modern games but I certainly aren't very passionate for them aside from more stylistic ones that feel like old games. But it simply makes me sit back and wonder how the hell the next generation of systems could really do anything major to impress me, something to sell me on the next console and go “holy fuck, gaming has evolved.” It makes me a bit sad I missed seeing the insane revolution that was the fifth and sixth generation consoles.
Ridge Racer V is not the most impactful launch title, nor would it have been the most important pack-in title had it been one. But what R5 is, is a game that showed the promise and passion of the sixth generation of gaming hardware, and paved the way for the most important console generation of all time.

A big step back from type 4 which is very disappointing, with very repetitive tracks only taking place in one location again. If this was a sequel to rage racer it would be a lot more forgivable, but as a sequel to type 4 it is a sad attempt. Only thing interesting about it is its difficulty. easily being the most difficult game in the series

There's a good game here but the AI is complete dogshit. The handling is pretty nice though. I'd rather play a good game like Ridge Racer 6 or 7 instead tho

i AM enjoying racing to the max, thank you

Ridge Racer V is a difficult game, which is a massive departure from Type 4's more pleasant and easy going difficulty, that I feel compliments the game's entire direction. The music is a lot more abrasive, the announcer has a less relaxed cadence and a new racing queen Ai Fukami replaces fan favorite Reiko Nagase. The visual aesthetics are of that Y2K futurism era and even though it's going for a different tone, it does feel like a Ridge Racer game with the mix of urban, seaside views and drifting.
While I do enjoy how it's a tougher game than Type 4, I'll admit that a Ridge Racer game being a relaxing experience appeals to me a lot more. The fact that this game made me question if I preferred it over Type 4 says something about its quality and appeal though and I would love to be able to play the game on original hardware, or at least a smoother experience than how my PC was emulating it.

EDIT June 1st 2023: I must have been playing it on normal difficulty, because I made sure to put it on easy this time and it's a lot more laid back. Also, using a later build of PCSX2 that emulates the game better on my PC, even though it's not perfect, so uh yeah this game rules!

the other racers must take me overtaking them to heart because they try to fucking kill me every time i do it

a very natural evolution from the PS1 games. the announcer sounds like a total goober(awesome). all the courses are various different paths in one big city which is pretty cool honestly. For a PS2 launch title this game also looks great, albiet maybe a little jaggy but that doesn't hurt anyone. The menu design is a vibe of its own. Plays like the earlier ridge racers and not like the more modern boosty ridge racers so purists rejoice with this one. The soundtrack is kinda meh though. Def a good PS2 arcade racer despite its age.

Where Ridge Racer 4 felt buttery smooth and gorgeous in every way, V tests your limits with some truly unforgiving AI and harsh penalties for the smallest mistakes. The mood is darker to match this, the story is completely absent again and the soundtrack has shifted gears; DRFTDVL and Fogbound are excellent. The handling is precise to a fault and never feels off, and the return to arcade-like 60fps helps massively. I see this and R4 as complimentary to each other, though the full package isnt quite as smoothed off. I wish I could turn the announcer off, there is very little track variety, the resolution feels less crisp than it's PS1 predecessor thanks to poor software-level interlacing.
Still, this is just as worthy as Ridge Racer 4. An excellent sequel that treads new ground without forgetting what made it so great. Unbelievable that a game launched the same day as the PS2 can play this well.

eu sou horrivel em jogos de corrida.
eesse jogo é legal os visuais são incriveis só não curti muito a musica quanto o 4

"You're tuned to seventy-six point five on your radio dial, Ridge City FM."

The sun setting on the horizon paints the city and its streets a golden yellow hue. DJ Ken Ayugai tells me over the radio that we've got the perfect weather conditions for a grand prix today. I can't say I disagree.

I take the wheel and speed my gorgeously rendered Fiera through the futuristic Japanese city streets, along looping expressways and down its winding coastal clifftops overlooking the sea, all at a lightning fast 60fps. Welcome to the age of PS2, baby.

The sound of roaring engines and rubber tires burning on asphalt fills the cool evening air.

Narrowly avoiding collision against the extremely aggressive and punishing AI, I carefully manoeuvre my way through the pack one by one towards my ridge racing destiny.

On the radio, "Paris" (Nobuyoshi Sano) begins to play, its ethereal techno sounds punctuated with cool, emotionally charged piano runs.

Chills tingle down my spine. I'm in the zone now.

I can almost feel the cool evening air in my face as I take the final stretch of road, my palms sweaty but mind razor focused.

The wise words of DJ Ken reverberate inside my head-

"Those drivers face danger at every turn of the track. You've got to give them crazy daredevils some respect for that."

Damn right you do.

The culmination of hours of practise and hard work, I ease off the accelerator, executing an inch perfect drift as I turn into the final corner, soaring past my stunned rival and putting me firmly into first place.

DJ Ken says "That's some wicked steering! Check him out!"

Thanks DJ Ken.

I can taste victory now. Those countless hours learning every inch of every track is finally paying off. This is my time.

Heart racing, I leave my opponent behind me in a trail of dust and roll over the finish line, triumphant.

"There goes the winner! What an incredible race!"

I cheered. I shouted. I fist pumped the air. Nothing prepares you for this.

I win. I am the Ridge Racer.

And just like that, I am snapped back to reality by my girlfriend, looking distinctly unimpressed…

"I'll be impressed when you stop playing on easy mode, bitch"


Went petrol go-karting yesterday and managed to hit a few pretty solid drifts on a hairpin by applying the exact principles learned in games like OutRun 2 and Type 4, which felt very, very sweet. (I also gave myself pretty severe whiplash by spinning out on a downhill, but we'll ignore that) Having never so much as attempted a handbrake turn in all my fifteen years of holding a driving licence, finally getting to experience the rush of throwing my backside out caused me to zoom home, exorcise my disc and compare notes with the virtual worlds that taught me all I know about how to drive good (and bad).

Glad I've persevered with this one - I wanted to give it up early on, but the volume of comments suggesting that this was a beautiful gourmet lobster that needs to be cracked open in order to access its meaty innards is a positive example of how reading Backloggd opinions can enrich your gaming life. As everyone says, it is brutal in its opening hours, with punishing S-corners and AI drivers that work so hard to block your every opening to no real detriment of their own. Worth it, though, when you get a handle on how the handling here subtly differs from Type 4: the beginner car is more beginner-friendly than it first seems, essentially allowing you to "correct" a turn you've already started accelerating into in order to turn it into a drift, even when the corner's almost done - a life-saver, especially when your rival has plans for how to run you off the road. The other cars aren't so easily mastered, though, and the rest is up to you - trying to explain their mechanical ins and outs would be like describing how to ride a bike, essentially useless in comparison to just feeling it out for yourself.

Seven tracks (half of which intersect with each other) seems like hardly any at all, but when multiplied with the number of cars on offer and how wildly they differ, you realise you're essentially being offered a series of puzzles that involve working out when each car should turn or shift through gear - a smart game designer's way of maximising value from what was very likely a limited development time. The heroic, master, etc. GPs are less refined measures of improving the game's longevity by just bumping pure numbers up, but are nonetheless welcome because they let you go insanely fast with no real additional risk. Does drafting belong in Ridge Racer? Sound off in the comments below.

Outside of relatively minor mechanical quibbles and course semantics, all that really divides most Ridge Racer games is their vibes. In this regard, I feel like *V lags a few seconds behind 4. I get it - the potential of a new millennium is far more alluring than actually living in it, and there was no way a PlayStation 2 launch title could compare to a generational capstone... but the aesthetic sensibilities here don't feel as confident or coherent. Type 4's soundtrack plays out like a cohesive album by a single artist, whereas V is more like a compilation CD of electric dance tracks with no specific theme, a gamble of tone that doesn't always pay off. I hit [RANDOM PLAY] in Type 4 and I'll always be happy; in V, certain tracks have me considering whether it's worth just hitting the crash barrier and starting again - that's no good! Relationally, this is in many ways the Tekken 4 to Type 4's Tekken 3. Despite all that, this is, of course, you know it, still leagues and miles better than the vibeless drudgery of Gran Turismo*, which I also played yesterday. You WILL have a good time here, if you stick with it. Guaranteed!

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04. kohta / "euphoria"
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last year, I played Astro's Playroom, the PS5 pack-in game. it was ok. i was immensely endeared to the way it posited itself as taking place "inside" your PS5, which i thought was a great conceit for kids to enjoy a prohibitively scarce piece of tech that is being taken out of their reach by assholes like me who aren't so much interested in the games available on it now but in the promise of games to come out in the future (Final Fantasy XVI) while they complain about how bad the Demon's Souls Remake looks.

the most interesting part of it, though, was it's reverential references towards the past of playstation, in ways that sit increasingly strangely with me. Certainly, sony acknowledging that they have a past was a breath of fresh air against their landmark launch title, the aforementioned Demon's Souls remake, speaking to a greater desire to obliterate the past with the gleeful cooperation of myriad voices in the industry. but as a launch title, as something that is designed to get you excited about playstation 5, it feels like a strange foot to put forward, spending so much time in the past rather than on the exciting future playstation 5 has to offer. maybe that's because there is no vision for what the future looks like, certainly not a vision that we'd like to live in. what's coming out for the PS5? what does it have to offer? i can't tell, and astro's playroom couldn't either.

Ridge Racer V is not a pack-in game, but it has the essential soul of one. released in 2000 alongside the playstation 2, the year that Ridge Racer Type-4 rang in ahead of schedule, RRV's jaw-droppingly sick UI, smooth rounded Y2K futurism feels molded around the PS2 and it's dashboard, an atmospheric place that feels most at home in the dead of night when everyone else has gone to bed. the use of the PS2's system configuration aesthetic in the save menu clinches it: this is a game intrinsically linked with the PS2, set inside it just like Astro is set inside the PS5, to such an extent that playing it on emulator felt wrong to me, and compelled me to seek out a physical copy and find a way to hook up my PS2 to a TV that has outmoded it to the point of needing a technological prothesis to facilitate communication between the two. the game's use of a a singular, compact space only enhances this sensation: these are the streets of the PS2, a city of pristine tarmac and glass monoliths that reflect the rays of the sun onto the streets, empty save for the machines that ride through them and give them life.

it is a game not only about the PS2 and why you should feel great about having spent money on one, but also about the promise the PS2 represents, about the future it represents, and what it means to be here. in many ways, this makes it the philosophical antithesis to Astro: a game that never once looks in the rear-view mirror for more than a second.

to underline this point, we must look at the front-cover star: ai fukami. reiko nagase was only in ridge racer for a couple installments, but already her presence was ingrained enough in the minds of ridgeheads that her replacement immediately produced frustration and rejection. but her replacement was purposeful. this is a new ridge racer for the new millennium. we're not going to keep anything, even the fake cgi girl you like.

the racing itself is similar kinesthetically to R4 but in practice feels almost completely different. if R4 was about pushing your machine through ultimately forgiving tracks to hit the front of the pack, then RRV is a game of perfection, of mastery of it's language of curves and bends and aggressive opponents, who no longer exist as obstacles to be passed like the wind but as snarling competitors who can and will leave you in the dust if you make even a single mistake. a single graze against a single wall is all it can take to leave you out of the race: nothing less than fluency can be accepted.

this is the future. this is what it is like. it will not wait for you, and will not carry you forward into it. sink or swim. adapt or die.

and i love it. i'm shit at it, don't get me wrong. this is second only to F-Zero GX in terms of sheer difficulty i've experienced in a racing game, it took me hours to complete the first grand prix on the normal difficulty level, but that's why i like RRV, for reasons quite apart from why I like R4. it's a game that demands something totally different, and something that I relish to give it, a sense of mastery buoyed by the genius decision to repeat curves and straights and corners across multiple tracks, simulating the sense of growing mastery in a series that would otherwise risk bringing you back down to zero with a single new track that doesn't gel with you. even when you're on a new grand prix, you know that corner coming up. you know what to do. you're ready.

it's still really, really hard. but no one said that forging a future, staying alive in it, would be easy. lord knows we all struggle enough in the future we've found ourselves in.

racing through ridge city at night on solitary time attack roads made me strangely sad. not because i wasn't enjoying myself, but because i realized that i miss this. i miss this feeling, the feeling that the future is here and god we are so excited that it's here, i miss the boundless optimism we had about how the internet would change the way we talk and think and connect us like never before, before we started talking about hellsites and posting and post-post-post-post-post-ironic self loathing. i miss the sheer unbridled enthusiasm for mobile phones, of cloud strife in advent children whipping one out being given the same triumphant framing as arthur pulling the sword from the stone. i miss when launch titles were so brazenly about the future instead of desperate attempts to relive the past. despite never playing it till this year, i miss Ridge Racer V. i miss PlayOnline. i miss dot hack. i miss The 25th Ward. i miss The Bouncer.

god, do i miss The Bouncer.

i recognise that this is oxymoronic, contradictory, to pine nostalgically for a sense of anti-nostalgia futurist optimism that burned out two decades prior, but i can't help but feel this. i've become more and more invested and interested in this kind of early 2000s futurism over the past year, and more and more eager to find the way it makes me feel in my daily life. because I think we might have done this to ourselves. i see it in how the people i know who are most jaded about Online are the people who actively seek out people to be miserable and angry at, consciously or otherwise. i see it in how we characterize our phones as evil bricks that siphon away our life even when they offer us the world in our hands. i see it in myself, and the way i engage with this website, hyper-focusing on interactions that make me feel miserable and worthless instead of the majority of warm, lovely people i interact with on here.

i'm not advocating for a removal of critical thought, here. there are critiques to be made of all of these things and reasons for why these resentments and frustrations spring. there are a great many things wrong with the internet - and the world at large - right now. but what i do want is to be more optimistic. i want to find that hope that there is a brighter future, that technology can connect us in ways that are positively transformative, and that we can transcend the now and race into a brighter tomorrow, together.

i've been trying to write a book for...too many years now. it's always in mind - not a single day goes by where i don't pore over it in depth in my head. it's about the world, and how i feel about living in it, about two people who are aware that they are living in the last days of the world and how they come to terms with that. because that's how i feel, all the time. my cringe bio on backloggd i've had for a year now is how i feel: stuck at the end of everything, playing video games. and that isn't necessarily a statement of hopelessness: i do think that the world we live in now is corrupt and evil. but it's only ever the end that i think about, there is never a thought about what comes after. that's why the book has remained mostly unwritten: i don't know how it ends. i don't know what comes after this world. but i think i would like to start trying to imagine it, if i can. to change my perspective so that i do not look on the future with an eagerness for the end, but with an excitement for what comes after that.

i want to find that world. i want to find that tomorrow to believe in, the one that Astro's Playroom couldn't discover, but one far away from the world Ridge Racer V arrived in. i don't think i can find it here, and i don't think i can find it now. but, still. i want to believe in it. because sony computer entertainment sure as hell doesn't.

POST-MILLENNIUM RACING. type 4 is for your worldly mensch, the racing connoisseurs and aficionados. the final legs of real racing roots '99 ushered in the new millennium on new year's eve, signalling celebration of what came before and eager anticipation of what was to come. the future arrived in V, a title with sensibilities that cut deeper than expression.

competitive sports (and more particularly mixed martial arts/combat sports) over the past few decades have long reckoned with and compulsively obsessed over the perfect distillation of instinct and science; they have subsequently raced toward achieving idealized equilibriums of the two to sharpen emerging talent, and in no ridge racer is this competitive element more clearly expressed than in V. V is for the drifting junkies, the highway savants, the people who communicate in shifting gears. ridge racer's humble offerings have long skewed towards quality over quantity, and V remains no exception with only seven tracks, but they're by far the best tracks in the entire franchise - the perfect intersection between high-octane enjoyment and intense opportunity for replayability and mastery. even at normal difficulty this is a significant degree more demanding than any ridge racer prior to it. not only is the general tempo of a racing bout faster, but success (and lack thereof) can be determined in the first lap depending on whether or not you have demonstrated the prerequisite driving IQ. without a consummate level of control and without the ability to read flow, you're going to be almost immediately outclassed by the enemy AI which has now been retooled to be far more aggressive than in prior entries. at a minimum, you'll need to configure every single corner and stretch of the track into an equation to be solved and make an effort to intimately understand their nuances, which is compounded by the handling of the default six cars feeling more distinct than ever before. no two vehicles are ever going to approach a situation the exact same way anymore, with routes on a map feeling tailored to each of their advantages and disadvantages. one vehicle might be able to get away with gripping asphalt til their rubber is chafed and raw; another might find that shifting gears down temporarily is the only option for success. it was the first time in the franchise i felt like all the minutiae of a match really mattered and if i wasnt countersteering appropriately, looking for opportunities to shunt out trailing cars behind me, and committing terrain to memory i'd be done for. the relentless difficulty coalesced into probably the most intense racing game i have ever played, but it felt alien at first; more than ever, drifting, seemingly built on new physics, appears to factor in gear, weight, speed, acceleration undertaken during the drift, countersteering input, proximity to other vehicles, and terrain, so it almost evokes ace combat's core appeal of a constant set of calculations to be undertaken. aesthetically it's really impressive for one of the first games launched on the PS2: muted winter-blue skies, sunsets on the hills of ridge city, darkened city apartment blocks as if to suggest no life exists outside of the competition on the streets. strong art direction has really allowed it to stand the test of time in a similar capacity to type 4. drifting into the warm and heightened glow of the sun at dusk is everything in this game. once again the soundtrack just does not miss a beat, this time incorporating more diversity in the tracks that really perfectly encapsulate the game's identity as an early aughts project. fogbound serving as the game's lo-fi grungy breakbeat anthem is just perfect for immersing you into the hyper-vigilance required for a race and euphoria is pretty much one of the all-time great VGM tracks. really didn't expect this but i think i have to give V the edge over type 4, with its gorgeous menus and evocative soundtrack it genuinely goes blow for blow with type 4's accomplished aesthetic while simultaneously offering the in-depth and transformative qualities i tend to look for in racing games. i think there's something to be said for type 4's aesthetic idealization for driving versus V's gesturings at reality that games of its generation would later become obsessed with, expressed through an air of practicality that emphasizes function over form, a less flashy yet sleek UI combined with more in-depth mechanics. to put it a different way: never did the characteristic racing game lean in type 4, did it unconsciously in almost every race in V. gonna be playing this one for a looong time. the only real problem i have here is that going for a grip class vehicle with automatic transmission is unquestionably the easiest way to play which is unfortunate for people like me who prefer the exact opposite

also ai fukami is a much hotter race queen than reiko nagase is, it's insane. earnestly upset she never came back because people thought she wasnt as iconic as reiko. once again tenure has sabotaged the prospects of a promising young lady and all you fools have deprived her of a JOB! sorry your 3D waifish mascot lady who only appears in pre-rendered CG to fawn over you and your big [engine] can't compare to the brazen edge of realtime animated ai fukami!!!! as if to say 'show me what you're made of, first!' well, i pledge this grand prix to you, fukami! drift-class danver toreador, manual transmission, i know what im about