Ridge Racer
Unbounded
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Game Information
Release Date: March 27, 2012
Developers: Bugbear Entertainment
Publishers: Namco
Platforms: Xbox 360, Playstation 3
Genre: Racing
Players: 1, Multiplayer: 2-8

Synopsis
The RIDGE RACER series takes off in a new direction with RIDGE RACER Unbounded. Join the Unbounded team, a group of lawless badass racers, terrorizing the streets of Shatter Bay and expand your ever growing territory. Drive & Destroy everything in your path to create new areas that were once off limits. Go online to Dominate and race an unlimited supply of user created maps.

Gameplay
Ridge Racer Unbounded has many features that will be sure to grab player's attention. Players will be able to use cars with low stats at the beginning of the game. By ranking up, players will be able to use vehicles in a higher tier class for future missions. Players will go through 20 different ranks and race in multiple cities to become the overall champ in Shatter Bay. After a player completes a mission, they are awarded 1-3 stars which are determined by the score they received for that mission. By reaching a certain number of stars, the next mission for that particular city will be unlocked next for the player to participate in. During a race, players will be able to fulfill their boost meter and obtain a speed boost for a few seconds but with a little something extra. While the boost is active, players will be able to "frag" their opponents which is basically blowing up their vehicle and watch it from the "frag cam" and see the total destruction of their rivals unfold. Players will also be able to participate in time laps and frag attack. Players who seek nothing but pure wreckage and explosions are going to enjoy frag attack. By playing online, players can create their own tracks and either have other players participate in them and vice versa.

Graphics
The graphics in Ridge Racer Unbounded are very clean and well developed. The vehicles are well distinguish and have their own twist added to the vehicle that it is similar to in real life. The textures on the roads, buildings, and other landmarks are well balanced and have the right contrast that brings out even the darkest and gloomy colors that appeal to the player's eyes. A cool feature noticed in the game is that the sun actually reflects off the windows of buildings and other cars instead of it just being a slow moving image as the player gets within view of the sun. The explosions from vehicles and explosive materials aren't what players would call realistic but does have great contrast and stands out. Players will also notice the dents and scratches upon each other cars as they get into contact with each other. Upon wrecking an opponent's vehicle, players will get to see the car slowly break into pieces, have shards break off, which gives that realistic feature that will entrap players to be amazed by the carnage of the wreckage.

Controls
The controls in Ridge Racer Unbounded are pretty easy to learn but could prove to be a hassle at some points during the game. The accelerator and braking functions are quite similar to other racing games on the same console. The game features a drift ing function but unlike certain games where the player just taps the braking button, the player has to press and hold the button until the car reaches a certain speed in order to actually drift. By doing it wrong will cause the player to possibly oversteer their vehicle. Like most racing games, the main controls are the gas, breaking, and steering functions so the game doesn't really have any differences with other racing games so players shouldn't experience too many difficulties.

Rating
Gameplay: 9.7/10
Graphics: 9.5/10
Controls: 9.4/10
Overall: 9.6/10