This look is complemented by more of the “environment as HUD” concept that was pioneered by recent games like Splinter Cell: Conviction.

The game opens in a badly deteriorated downtown core with a much greater emphasis on urban decay than the series has ever seen. This has been replaced with a more down, dirty, gritty aesthetic.

Past iterations of the RR franchise have always been slick, clean, and carried the vibe that you were probably going be to slinging back martinis in a hip club after the race was over. This newer, angrier, “Apple doesn’t have an iPad in my color and therefore the entire world must burn” sense of consumer rebellion also comes with a new chassis for the look and sound of the game. Which also means knocking things-and each other-to pieces. Now, “The Unbounded” are making their stand against The Generic Man, by showing their displeasure through racing. This is not about optimistic, friendly faced corporations engaging in a bit of spirited competition with slick cars. When Namco handed the reins of the franchise over to Bugbear, those crazy Fins looked at everything the series represented and kicked in the nitro before sending it colliding through a wall at 160 KPH. Nothing about this is a sequel in the traditional sense. This is not the Ridge Racer you remember. What do you get when you take an established racing IP known for its unrealistic drifting and give it to Finnish people who are best known for their penchant to create races where stuff gets wrecked? You get an interesting new game that probably deserves to have its own IP. Still, Namco is calling this a Ridge Racer game, despite the fact that it’s not even developed in-house anymore, but instead created by the Finnish studio, Bugbear Entertainment. Once again, there is racing going on, though with a noticeable lack of ridges (at least in the beginning) and the conspicuous absence of everyone’s favorite vacuous yet pretty girl-mascot, Reiko Nagase.

Ridge racer unbounded drifting