As I mentioned on main @LowPolyRobot I wanted to feel less bad about doing a ton of posts in one place since I know the TL gets clogged up fast, so, gonna post here in order to feel less bad since people would be opting in for lots of screenshots and game posts! Ridge Racer R4? It's fucking good! I've been playing it all day. The grand prix is bite sized, a total of 8 tracks, and it's just a fun time each time through. I've gone through it with 2 teams (Japan and Italy), and working on a run through with the American team now. While I've used a different team and sponsor combo each time, it seems like your team will even have a minor effect on the sponsor car, since each team has their own tuning preferences, which is a really neat way to make all the cars feel unique through each run.
Also? The game is gorgeous, some really good looking wide open environments. Reminds me of how much I love the large environments in Wipeout 3, which is probably my other big favorite PS1 racing title. There's also a nice trail effect, as well as a toggleable frame-buffer like effect during replays.
Some environmental pics from outside of the actual races, during the little introductions. These are really nice and I just wanted to share some of the environment without the cars.
I think aesthetically the night tracks are my favorite, with Brightest Nite being my most favorite. Incidentally? It also has my favorite song (The Objective) by default. The soundtrack to the game is also good! Go find and listen to it if you've never listened to it.
I don't really drive anymore since moving out east but I used to like night driving (and more accurately parking in a parking lot at 2am and just hanging out playing games, talking to friends, or getting some late night food) and like... it's funny how even a racing game with night tracks still kinda makes me feel all cozy and at peace lol
Gotta post some more favorite trail pics too. Every PS1 and PS2 game that does trails makes me happy and this game is no exception, also with that frame-buffer-like blur effect on the replays that you can add, you can make the trails really pop in screenshots. I think some might think it makes the static images messy when its on, since it's an effect meant more for motion, but I personally love the look it gives. A visual doesn't need to be clean and crisp to have a beauty to it, I wouldn't be bothering with my analog shader setup if I believed in that, so I personally love the way some of the blurrier images with the in-game filter look.
Obviously the tail lights are gonna be the star w/ the trails, but don't sleep on the headlights imo. They have a nice glow and they even get their own trails as well in some shots!
I'm glad I'm a bit smitten with this game now. It's something kind of out of my usual comfort zone, I don't really play racing games often and even when I do I'm not great at them, but as an arcadey racing experience this game just feels good to play. The cars feel good, the tracks feel good, learning the tricks like how to drift (and how grip cars 'drift' relative to cars made to drift), and it's just like, something fun to load up and chip away at. It's not something that demands any kind of commitment (Other than maybe unlocking all the cars which is probably a herculean task lol), and the main Grand Prix mode is something you can just kinda replay a ton because it's got its own setup and it's always gonna be a bit different, but also, every session is just its own little thing rather than being some part of a large altogether story or campaign or something.
Anyway I think that's most of my thoughts, I just wanna post more pictures of the game!
I also like the way it gives you a new car, it being delivered via truck whenever you get a new one.
It's up to you to master it! Good luck!
Oh. The music player in Ridge Racer Type 4 just does an attract mode while you listen to the songs, this rules pic.twitter.com/LQWMsSXIkI
— a low poly robot (@LowPolyRobot) August 6, 2024
I don't know how to properly embed videos but!!! Anyway. Man. The music player is an attract mode where you can listen to the songs while watching an automated playthrough of a track. This game is so cool....
Finally taking a break since my hand hurts from holding down the accelerate so much lmao.