So, I'm playing Ridge Racer on Vita.
It's a franchise that I like but I was going to give it a pass this time due to the bad vibe it is giving off pre-release. I end up picking it up cheap (around 23 US$) and remind myself RR wasn't always 60fps in the old days. What the hell - why not?
I fire it up, don't have much of an idea what's going on and get my ass whooped by a ghost I selected. I guess I let my racing team down by not getting any team points, but I get credits to upgrade my car. So there's progression win or lose, which is great.
I figure out that I should pick someone on my level. I can browse a range of ghosts who are all fellow players, and choose one that I feel confident with.
Conversely, when I race, the game uploads my ghost. People can pick up my ghost data, see how I'm doing and maybe challenge my time. They can do this over the global ranking or by getting my ghost through near.
This is happening all over the 3G network, anywhere and anytime. To me, it's this that is really amazing.
I really feel strongly that this game delivers a "next gen" handheld experience because all the parts come together incredibly well. A sense of community, rivalry and, for lack of a better word, "connectedness". What it does in terms of an end to end experience, just works. The UI deserves a special mention because it is beautiful. The shame is that the game engine lets it down and the content is lacking at launch.
I've got a feeling that people are going to post here and say welcome to 2011 or something and say Forza or GT did this ghost sharing thing already. But hey, this is the first time in a while portable gaming has had me come away thinking - wow, Ridge Racer just did that.
It's a franchise that I like but I was going to give it a pass this time due to the bad vibe it is giving off pre-release. I end up picking it up cheap (around 23 US$) and remind myself RR wasn't always 60fps in the old days. What the hell - why not?
I fire it up, don't have much of an idea what's going on and get my ass whooped by a ghost I selected. I guess I let my racing team down by not getting any team points, but I get credits to upgrade my car. So there's progression win or lose, which is great.
I figure out that I should pick someone on my level. I can browse a range of ghosts who are all fellow players, and choose one that I feel confident with.
Conversely, when I race, the game uploads my ghost. People can pick up my ghost data, see how I'm doing and maybe challenge my time. They can do this over the global ranking or by getting my ghost through near.
This is happening all over the 3G network, anywhere and anytime. To me, it's this that is really amazing.
I really feel strongly that this game delivers a "next gen" handheld experience because all the parts come together incredibly well. A sense of community, rivalry and, for lack of a better word, "connectedness". What it does in terms of an end to end experience, just works. The UI deserves a special mention because it is beautiful. The shame is that the game engine lets it down and the content is lacking at launch.
I've got a feeling that people are going to post here and say welcome to 2011 or something and say Forza or GT did this ghost sharing thing already. But hey, this is the first time in a while portable gaming has had me come away thinking - wow, Ridge Racer just did that.