How do I even win a race?

[VEKTA]

I'm playing Shatter Bay (the offline campaign) and I can't win, and I'm not really sure why. The big hangup seems to be that I can't ever get enough boost, because attempting to drift always throws the car into a wild fishtail or 180. I end up using the brake instead of the handbrake to keep control through corners, but I'm finishing between 9th and 12th in every race.
I've spent a lot of time playing racing games like Midnight Club, Forza, NFS, old school arcade racers like Extreme G, San Francisco Rush, etc. and I've never had this much trouble with a racing game. Am I the only one? Am I doing something wrong?

[Jackknife Johnny (>N<)]

Just practice and learn to drift. Took be a bit to get going but i've dominated 3 areas now. You unlock better cars and it makes this a bit easier

[Indigo Jinx]

I feel ya jt Ride Racer games are wierd... the better you do the more the A.I. cheats & drifting is NEVER the same twice... all the cars drift differently so some I drift with brake & some with the drift button it depends on the car & the curve... enter turns from outside & LITERALLY aim to barely hit the inside corner of the turn (you'll miss it mkay) & tap brake or drift to break tires loose, IMEDIATELY countersteer & hold it till you're almost through the turn then wiggle left to right & pump gas VOILA you just drifted (results may vary for wheel or keyboard users this is for controller) if you still have trouble turn down the textures & or rez in the prelaunch menue to get a better framerate which does help with drifts... as for the single player A.I. Do what everybody else is doing & levelup doing user created tracks THEN with the cars unlocked beat single player... there's over 10,000 tracks on the server or you could make your own, go to the post I made for user city names to find some good ones, good luck!

[VEKTA]

Thanks guys. I've got a reasonable framerate, so that's fine.
It's totally hit-or-miss on races, like the outcome is based 100% on luck. I can come in 9th on one and then win the next by 6 seconds. The race class cars seem to work much better than the street class. I'm getting way tired of exploding because an AI player touched my car though. Will try levelling up on some custom tracks, and then using the cars in single-player.

[Indigo Jinx]

Oh I forgot to mention besides the car's performance stats being (arbitrary) try each car to find one in each class that suits you, the computer A.I. is OFTEN easier to beat if you DON'T chooose 1a the cars with the "highest" stats in a class (like NFS games) & if you restart the race a few times without exiting the event they often "let up" a little (also not unlike NFS games) If I didn't know any better I'd say the same person who programmed the A.I. on the old (GREAT) classic NFS-Most wanted also programmed these scriptbots doLOb

[ViRiX Dreamcore]

The orhter RR games were a lot easier to drift in than this one for sure. I'll give those things a try though.

[Mister Gravity]

Like they said, it's just a matter of learning to drift better. Practice makes perfect. My first race, I came in 12/12. Now I can pull off first places almost every time. Need for Speed it ain't. It's an entirely different creature.

[美里吴彦祖]

i would just restart it everytime i hit a wall or something until i can finish a perfect lap with #1

[Slaved]

It took roughly 10 hours to get the story mode complete, now I'm just trying to 3-star everything. And I still don't think I'm that great.

There are dependancies on luck too, but nothing's out of your control or completely avoidable.

The game's complete lack of tutorial as of some other things seem to have led to it's demise - it tanked at retail, but it's still enjoyable if you get pass the few quirks.

There are few things though:

1) The drift button is meant to be held down. What it basically does is allowing you to retain your speed while moving around the corner. You can drift without it, but you lose speed and you can't make as agressive a turn. I don't know exactly how it works deep down, but that's the sort of picture I've gotten.

2) It doesn't allow you to drift all_the_way_around_of_every_ corner, only the most spacious ones where you have the space. Drift only when you have to or only when you need to fill up the powermeter, if you can turn around a corner while pressing the gas and just by turning with the stick, it's better to do so.

Some cars with crappy handling cannot get through every corner with max speed, they'll spin around. If it happens, reset car immediately, turning around takes more time than that.

3) Ideally you go into a corner from the outside, start drifting early and try your best in making it clean. This excludes shortcuts. Basically what you need for drifting is space, and the traditional corners offer this the most if you cut in from the outside of the corner.

4) Awards give you full boost, but only once. If you get "trasher" award, you get full boost. If you do something that would award it again, you won't get full boost. This is especially notable when you jump over something for airtime, or drift a lot, or when you know you're going to do some award-worthy - know when you get a turbo next so you know not to hoard the turbo if you get it again in 2 seconds.

5) Shindo Races don't award you for destruction, frags cannot be done in normal way. Turbo meter fills up fast. Demolition awards for destruction, destroying the smaller objects can fill the power meter fast.

6) Drift races are quite different, getting a long drift combo is pretty much required for the time boost. And don't stress about them, it's mostly about pick the right car sort of thing. Cars with the best handling and speed might not be the best, since those attributes interfere with the goals of acquiring a long drift or then the car is "back in total control" all too early....

7) Frag races, resetting car, not going too fast etc. are quite important factors. When the cards swarm around try to get into the inside so that you just pinball around the cars. Also disable the cinematic reel after frags (final note b) ).

Final notes:

a) Get a gamepad or don't play at all.
b) Options menu is accessable... but only ingame. I don't know who the genius was. There you can at least disable the cinematic camera when you go through a building, or score a frag. It is both good and bad, sometimes the AI driver will save you from an impossible scenario, but sometimes you lose frags or shortcuts because of the cinematic.

The worst part is that the game doesn't bring out any effort in explaining any of this. Well, Namco didn't bother marketing either so I don't exactly know what their deal was, the game tanked at retail very hard (80k retail sales versus million plus of RR7) and BugBear claims to be happy with the game, they probably made a good deal too considering that they're not going under or anything. I'd say it's a good game, but a bad product.

[OFFTOPIC]

As a sidenote I cannot understand how in the hell does anyone like the standard Ridge Racer. If I want play a racing cars with spaceship physics, I play WipeOut, not Ridge Racer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlKTEmcj5Vg

[/offtopic]

The other thing is the lack of splitscreen, but I'm not sure if the consoles could have handled both destructive gameplay and splitscreen. I doubt they would've managed that all too well. Split screen is especially important for a certain segment of the arcade racers, though I don't think the younger people playing burnout (Burnouts are good games - I loved the third installment - so don't get me wrong, but it also fits for a wider audience which RRU doesn't accomplish) would really want to learn a drifting mechanic.

It wouldn't hurt them a bit if they would've managed to copy the ideal driving line feature from forza and some short tutorial cutscenes to tell people what the hell is going on with the game. There are some other, smaller things too but the game was delayed and the release was needed.

Rather have a bit unfinished game labeled as failured experiment rather than go all-out with finished game and a marketing campaign... if the game was delayed any further, they would've had people waiting for Forza Horizon and NFS: Most Wanted instead. It's a fight you wouldn't be able to win, really... having RIIIIIIIDGE RACERRRRRR the die-hard fans would doom to hell against the current flagships of the genre.

I say it again, good game, bad product. I feel a bit ashamed for grabbing this for such a cheap price.

[raff]

Look at the car stats get ones that have realy good handling and lower then half drift and it should get easier after that you just have to get good at playing it takes time

[Indigo Jinx]

For somebody who doesn't "think they're very good" SlaWed sure has LOTS to say... Like the majority of racing games the car stats seem to be arbitrary numbers that mostly mean nothing... some of the cars with LOWER speed are faster & some of the ones with a full drift meter stat drift like trying to drive a cow patty... just try the different cars out to see what's the best, only a yogurt would go off the stats alone & never try the others (especially if they were having problems winning)

[Archangel138]

It takes time because the idiots at namco decided against including a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ drifting tutorial and included some of the cheapest ai ever put into a racer.

[GAIMER]

You'll learn it. keep working on it :)

[Woeful Wraith]

This game blows. The controls are sluggish and unresponsive. Just turning a corner is stupidly difficult and drifting without crashing is near impossible an dthe computer AI cheats like hell. Took almost 50 attempts just to not fail the very first race. Brutally stupid in design. So many peopel said this game beats Flatout. Sorry, Flatout is incredibly superior to this piece of crap.