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.