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SvennoJ on 26 September 2016
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ICStats said:
Peh said:

I never understood what was good about Ridge Racer in the first place. It was just 1 course in 4 variations and that's it. The demo of the game was more than enough for me, and I never touched it again.

I just don't get the hype about this game.

Even though it was only one track, RR had a very fun and challenging progression.  An old school game of mastery.

It used to be that games were small enough that the fun was to re-play and master every second and play perfectly.  As we progressed to games having lots of unique content (e.g. lots of tracks, cars, open worlds, etc.) the idea of endless re-play for fun has naturally dimminished.

True, the focus has shifted from mastering the tracks to mastering the cars. You used to unlock new tracks and new locations as a reward of getting past difficult races. Nowadays all tracks or the whole open world is already available from the start and you only unlock more cars and events.
Games like re-volt were tons of fun in split screen, yet also by yourself to master the tracks. Just like wipeout. Not that much content, yet it feels so good to get in the zone and complete flawless laps, best played with the weapons off. Old Burnout games the same again. Add in hot seat crash mode with custom made scenarios to master >>>>>> whatever the fuck crash mode was in paradise.

Trackmania still delivers some of that old school bliss for learning a track, as well as DriveClub. Most other games have gone with open world or real life tracks that have become stale. Open world racers are fun for a while, yet it quickly becomes a todo list of simple challenges instead of that feeling of knowing a track inside out. No real reason to come back to after you're done upgrading stats.

The old Burnout games didn't even let you finish a track until you got good. You had to earn crossing the finish line. No bouncing cars out of the way, drive perfect or crash. Crazy taxi did that in an openworld setting, which made getting to the other side of the city a reward in itself.