i don't really enjoy cars, i don't think i understand them. i don't get the excitement, i don't get the aesthetics, i can find beauty in a car design, but i don't get a rush out of it. simply put, i'm not a part of its culture

i am, however, gonna dig any car that has "DRUAGA" written in big bold letters on top of it's paint an immense amount. i'm sure this game is better for people who actually do like these machines, but i was genuinely content playing it. listen, Namco was king once. way before Atlus could start to even concede it's proven true red and black combo. this here is elegant, provocative and powerful, masterclass in design, really, in every way. nothing else was doing it like videogames were and much less like Namco was.

i honestly love how this game controls, i love how there's only two (three technically) different locations with tons of variations on how they're raced, i love the soundtrack, i love picking colors for my car, love the duel system, love the obnoxious DJ, i especially love driving at night it feels like everything to me. winning feels good, this game will make you tense and it will also make you relaxed because believe it or not there is enough time to appreciate the scenery.

i don't like cars but maybe if i had ridge racer v during my formative years i would have played racing games other than mario kart. or at the very least more ridge racer

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.

o fato do narrador dizer em todas as partidas que "está um tempo bom para uma corrida" me fez pensar se as condições climáticas se adaptam ao evento da corrida ou se existiram várias outras corridas que não assistimos e tiveram um clima não-perfeito e que aí o nosso protagonista (no meu caso, "enoque") é que é abençoado. estou pendendo mais para a segunda opção, visto que todas as vezes que o narrador exclama isso é como um anúncio, uma negação de todas as vezes em que o tempo tá meio feio. se são pedro respeita a corrida, imagina então a população: a gente tem uma cidade sem uma única pessoa na rua além da moça bonita que aparece na abertura. existe uma rádio que narra as corridas, mesmo sendo uma sociedade moderna, e como todas as ruas estão vazias (e todas as corridas são na mesma cidade [ridge city] mas não no mesmo lugar) de almas e de motores, presume-se que elas ficam em casa ouvindo o rádio. talvez olhem pela janela das centenas de prédios e casinhas que a gente passa, mas sempre escondidas. não dá pra arriscar sequer uma distraçãozinha.

acredito que essa seja a graça de dirigir: é uma coisa tão moderna e situacional mas que mudou o espaço geográfico e material do mundo inteiro. as cidades são feitas para os carros, as leis existem em voltas dos carros, os limites entre países precisam se adaptar aos carros, a tecnologia avança em volta de carros.

não dá pra ser um motorista sem se sentir a pessoa mais importante do mundo, a culminação de uma narrativa humanista que venceu a barbárie da natureza a ponto de tornar máquinas com rodas e explosões a nova natureza. o cachorro corre atrás do carro achando que é outro animal. o summon escondido de bravely default. a caminha quente do seu gato em dias frios — que nunca existem em ridge racer v, visto que toda corrida ocorre em um climinha agradável, como bem notado pelo narrador que levanta da cama e vai até o trabalho sempre que você pega o controle do videogame, e entra de férias quando você larga, agradecendo pela transmissão.

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.