Ridge Racer 7

In other words, there's a wealth of potential in customisation, and Ridge Racer fans who worked their way through the relatively rigid sixth instalment will be salivating at the prospect. Equally promising is that the "Ridge State Grand Prix" mode is far more varied than the equivalent campaign mode in RR6. Instead of lining up a procession of races each time, and eventually being allowed to do the same with special classes, duels, quad (four-car) battles and expert routes, here the player is given three basic avenues of exploration: grand prix, manufacturer trials and single events. GPs take you through a few tracks (the number varies) in eight-car grids, accumulating points for your position at the end of each race, as well as inheriting your finishing position for the next race's grid. Manufacturer trials and single events are one-offs - the former are straightforward races that then offer you access to a manufacturer's parts, while the latter are more varied, with everything from 14-car "overtake" races where you start at the back of the grid to time trials and no-nitrous races. Overall it's easy to grasp, and unlike RR6 it's usually possible to return to the map screen and do something different to the run of races you just completed.

On the track, things are slightly different to RR6, to the game's credit. The AI is more immediately challenging than it was, remaining in your rear-view for longer, and when it becomes challenging its elasticity ensures that even if you're making regular use of Ultimate Charge you can't afford to spend the whole of lap two banging your nose into the wall and smoking cigars. The introduction of slipstreaming also has an impact here - not only does it allow you to catch up with cars more easily if you're blocked off by giving you a slight speed boost as you ride along in someone's wake, but it means that simply using the rear-view to block off AI overtake attempts won't get rid of them, because they can do the same to you.

RR7 also introduces a number of new tracks, although the majority will be familiar to fans of its predecessor, including the likes of Sunset Heights, Aviator Loop, Airport Lap, Rave City Riverfront and other regulars like Harborline 765 (as well as a welcome high-definition take on one you may recognise from another of the Ridge games). Newcomers include Mist Falls, which takes you behind a waterfall, demonstrating the engine's capacity for beautiful lighting contrast between the extreme brightness and glare of sun beaming through the water on one side, and the dark, moist, cavernous tunnel that dominates the rest of the screen. MF also mixes it up with houses on stilts and giant Buddha statues when you head out again into the sun, which is, er, nice. Other tracks see you racing through jungle and Aztec ruins, and speeding along highways that'll remind you of the Florida Keys. As you'd expect, they're all full of hairpins and huge jumps that help you marvel at the oily ocean, breathtaking vistas and loony helicopters that always pop up on lap three.

Taken online, the game offers Global Time Attack (download other players' ghost cars and race against them) as well as 14-player racers, and there are constant leaderboard updates after each race whether you're online or off. An addition here is that it's also possible to download new challenges posted to the PlayStation Store, suggesting that Namco aims to do more to support this PS3 instalment with downloadables than it did with RR6, which, at the time of writing, only offers background music and vehicle-unlock keys as downloadable extras. Another wacky internet thing that RR7 benefits from is a ticker along the bottom of the menu screens, which continually puts top lap-times and other information in front of you, including testimonials recorded by players who got to the end of the Grand Prix section. If you're looking for mine it says, "Ten hours of pretty yawn, that."

Which brings me back to the original point. I'm quite good at Ridge Racer, admittedly, but even the best player in the world shouldn't be able to play something for ten hours without finishing less than first, which is what I did. That's ludicrous. I was doing all sorts of races, but I wasn't being deliberately ponderous about my quest for glory. I certainly wanted that glory. Even so, it took ages before I unlocked the "extreme" races that start to pose a challenge with duels and quad battles, and even longer before I got my hands on a proper special-class car with which to amuse myself.

And really that just underscored the larger problem: RR7 is back to front. The Pronzione car is a sort of hovercraft. You have to beat it to win it. I did this on my first go, not because I was cunning and skilful, but because I was driving in a car with a higher-than-usual top-speed that I bought in the shop, and an auto-charge nitrous system that allowed me to do the bare minimum of drifting and gave me about six Ultimate Charges during the race. Here's an idea for next time: make the main game hard immediately, and offer these items as crutches that beginners can fall back on if they need to, earned through some sort of "starter GP". I don't know. I'm not a game designer. But it strikes me that the best and most rewarding experience you can have in Ridge Racer, or indeed any top racing game, is honing your skills and then unleashing them to beat off the challenge of a semi-cheating AI rival. Preferably one with a name you can swear at on the umpteen occasions you don't quite manage it.

Ridge Racer 7 certainly offers that in places, but it doesn't do it anywhere near enough. Its main problem is that it starts off easy, and as soon as it gets a bit difficult it rewards your patience with things that make it easier again. When I unlock the Pronzione, which has one of the most brutally efficient nitrous charge systems in the game (auto-charging and flex-nitrous, effectively), surely I should be called upon to justify my ownership of it, and not just suddenly able to obliterate the opposition more than I could previously? The same goes for plug-in units that automate the best-possible boosted start. Why do that just at the point that your game should be asking for peak skills? And so, yes, difficulty levels would be handy next time, Namco, my love. I want you to punish me. I've been a bad boy.