Yes it's strange,but it's not disappeared completely ...if you search for the game...it will show on the upper right corner the update button
And this is why I love Ridge Racer and am glad that people are giving this game a chance. As with any Ridge Racer game prior any car in the given class is competitive you just need to know how to drive it in confines with the "rules" of the game. The only real issue I have with this game outside of some minor interface things is that it doesn't really tell the player the "rules". I knew the rules which is why I adapted really quick to this iteration but as others in the thread have noted, this game is hard and a few folks even gave up prematurely. I tried to give some tips to beginners for how I drive but in the world of RR even the grip cars can drift and suit others style better. I like the aggressive drifts and constant "dynamic" styling and out of control feeling of those cars but I have been beaten numerous times online in Ridge Racer 7 by grip cars. The are just as competitive but are just not for me. As you have more than likely found grips cars are a lot easier to tame on the straights and slight bends but on the higher degree turns they are a little more difficult to get around while maintaining that high speed. More power to anyone that can tame the Class 02 grip car as that thing was a nightmare. That to me, the challenge of taming a car on these tracks that are all pretty great, is the ultimate reward when it comes together. Not some extra credits to be forced to buy a new car in order to proceed. I felt that way with Need for Speed Most Wanted even with that game's grind but I never really felt that with Asphalt and that to me is its biggest flaw despite having some rad stunts.
I believe EX builds faster in turns but burns off faster and HI burns better but doesn't build quite as fast. That's what it does in RR7 and from playing it seems to be the same here (more on that weird dissonance between the two games and their stats below). So for the drift cars you want EX with Ultimate Charge since you can get sideways and stay there thus building charge faster and more often even if you aren't staying at maximum speed for as long. You want HI and auto for the ideal setup for the grip cars as you won't build as fast but with auto charge it doesn't matter as you will always build at the same speed. Since you are also in a grip car you want to pop off nitrous on straights and with multiple tanks if you have them to take advantage of the grip and the car's natural strength of speed but typically corner like crap. Slightly off-topic but I was playing Ridge Racer 7 last night and the cars are almost all the same yet have completely different stats either on purpose or by mistake which is a little strange. So I screwed around with both versions and I think the devs inverted the stats by mistake or maybe it was by design for balance purposes. The HJ600 (the Danver) in Class 03 is a massive drift (dynamic) car in RR7. After playing with it again I remember it now. In this game it is so grippy that unless you mod it it doesn't seem to want to stay sideways for too long. Could be just me and maybe I am legitimately missing something and screwed up my entire thought process on the outset of the game but it is a little strange after playing both back to back. The Magnifico for another instance is listed as a mild car in RR7 but here it is clearly a drift car. Maybe it is a physics thing or it could be that it is just easier to drift all around so the default stats are all screwed up. It also could just be a glitch too. In any event once you mod every car you can essentially tune them to one end of the spectrum or the other so it doesn't really matter too much. One final observation is that it wasn't me being crazy in thinking it was harder to see and take turns on the smaller screen. The tracks are noticably smaller in the iOS version. You can fit 4-5 cars across on these same tracks in the PS3 version but you can barely fit 2 across on most tracks, 3 if you are lucky.
Finally bought it and it's fun so far. Well, the graphics aren't that good imo but it runs much much much smoother than A8 on my rMini. I expected the worst cuz some user(s) mentioned the framerate isn't that good on A7 devices but i have no complains so far. It's btw the first racing game were i switched to on-screen steering instead of tilting my device. Dunno, it's easier for me in this game. Didn't regret it.
One thing I'll add. When using a max grip setup, you can use auto mode for nitro like rapaleeman said, so you're guaranteed to get some boost. Another way to set it up though which works just as well for me, is to set both nitro sliders to normal. This makes it so your nitro tanks fill up very quickly just from the normal drifts you do to get around sharp corners. I like using drifting to fill my nitro tanks because it adds a little more strategy to the driving. I've been going back through the stage 4 races with the Bayonet, setup as follows. Engine, Running Gear, and Nitro upgrades are all maxed out. For running gear, top slider is all the way to the left for minimum drift angle, bottom slider all the way right for max grip. Nitro I have both sliders all the way left, normal and normal. The way I drive with this setup is sort of opposite from when using the Fiarre. I only drift when I need to to get around a sharp corner, and recover from the drift as soon as possible. Any corners which I can take at full throttle without drifting I do. I only use boost on straights, I never boost while drifting. With the Fiarre, I like to go to the opposite extreme with the setup. All upgrades also maxed out. For running gear I set top slider all the way right for max drift angle, and the bottom slider all the way left for min grip. For nitro I use EX and Ultimate. With this setup I generally try to drift as much as possible. I also won't use any boost on the first lap in order to build up several tanks, unless it's a knockout race in which case I might need to boost to avoid being last when crossing the finish line. Once I have several tanks built up, I can start boosting while drifting through corners, and keeping the drifts going as long as possible even down straights. On curvy tracks with this setup I can keep boosting for practically whole laps. I had a really hard time with this setup on some tracks though, like the Harbor Line reverse, because there aren't many good drift sections. For Harbor Line Reverse I finally ended up altering the settings to be the same as what I used for the Bayonet before I could win with this car in a knockout race. I really like being able to have these really different setups, because it really increases the replayability of the game. It's like a whole different game figuring out how to win the same events with these opposite setups.
Seems like the framerates got a little better on the ipad 4 on the update. Not sure if it is from my car upgrades or the upgrade, but seems a slight bit better.
Meaning of Nitro options I've been experimenting, trying to figure out exactly what the Nitro tuning options mean. I did these experiments by running a Time Trial race repeatedly so I could try to reproduce specific actions without other cars getting in the way, and tried changing one parameter at a time. Here is what I've discovered. I know rapaleeman has said some of this already, so apologies for any repetition, but just thought I'd post what I've found since it might be helpful to have it all in one place. The Nitro tab has two sliders. The top slider can be thought of as controlling the size of the nitro tanks. The smaller the tanks, the quicker they fill up while drifting, but the less boost you get out of them. On NRML the tanks fill fastest, but you get the least speedup from each tank, EX means the tanks fill slower but you get a bigger boost, and HI takes the longest to fill but you get the biggest speedup. I also tried timing how long a tank discharge lasts, and oddly, on NRML and HI the tanks take a little over 5 seconds to discharge, but on EX a discharge takes a little over 6 seconds. The bottom slider controls how you fill the nitro tanks. On Normal, the tanks fill fastest during high speed drifts without boosting, but fill slowly when drifting while boosting. On Ultimate, the tanks fill slower when drifting while not boosting, but fill much faster when drifting while boosting. On Auto, the tanks just fill at a steady rate regardless of what you do. As far as how this translates into strategy, if you're on a track with lots of long straits and not many good drift corners, or if you just prefer grip setups, it would be better to use settings which allow you to fill your tanks quickly while not boosting, and use boost to build up your speed on the straits. So use NRML or EX on the top slider, and Normal on the bottom slider, and don't boost through corners. Ideally you want to time your boosts so they end just before a corner, so you can drift through it at max speed. On tracks with longer sequences of corners, or if you just prefer drift setups, you might want to go with EX or HI on the top slider, and use Ultimate on the bottom slider, and focus on drifting while boosting to keep your tanks full and keep a continuous boost going. When driving this way, if possible I won't boost at all until I get at least two tanks full, since then I can start a sequence that keeps going. This is tough in knockout races though, since you have to make sure you're not last at the end of each lap. In time attack or normal races, you can play a long game, and catch up during the second and third laps. Finally, if you don't want to bother with thinking about drifting to fill your tanks, then I'd say use HI on the top slider and Auto on the bottom, and only drift when you actually need to to take a corner. P.S. There really should be a manual or tool tips in the game, or maybe a more thorough tutorial, to tell us this info instead of making users guess. I'm sure this is all very arcane for anyone who hasn't played the console games. Even if you have, the options in this game aren't exactly the same as any of the console versions AFAIK, so it's a bit weird that they just threw this out there without any instructions. I'm guessing this game would gain a bit more traction if they just made it more accessible by adding more help, since it's really one of the better iOS racing games IMO.
Unfortunately, even after the last update which is supposed to fix general bugs, like I say in my earlier post, it still crashed my phone at the exact same place that it did it last time. And I also tried to restart and close everything but no, it doesn't work . So I'll say this ; IF YOU HAVE A IPHONE 5S WITH THE iOS 7.0.4 AND ARE PLANNING TO BUY IT, DON'T BUY IT FOR NOW, MAYBE LATER, BECAUSE IT'S NOT OPTIMISED FOR THE A7 CHIP
It crashes in the rookie challenge - the 3rd tournament - the first race It when they do the countown to 3-2-1, that's where it always crashes
That sucks but thank you. I'm also curious, although I think I know the answer, if the game supports iOS 7 controllers (Moga in my case). I can't do virtual controls and have held off on this game (besides the above mentioned deal killer) because of this. IF they do or plan to support it, I'm in. If not, I just can't do virtual controls on a twitch racer like this (and I've been playing this game since it's arcade birth...Old School !)
Thid game is awesome, if anyone is considering a racing game tonight, get this one, it has the thrills of Asphalt 8 and is alot of fun.
I've been playing this series since the first unit hit my local arcade back in like 1995 (I think). The touchscreen controls are borderline perfect here although the tilt controls are not for me. The only real issue is that sometimes my thumb wanders and that is a "me" problem not a "game" problem. As for the game itself, if you are a fan of the series it works perfectly on my iPhone 5 and I have finally completed the campaign. No IAP are required and the $3 was well spent for me. I reinstalled Asphalt 8 just to play the "Game of the Year" again and honestly I can't stand that game anymore. The racing is still fun as kickflips and flatspins are rad but the cost of some of the later cars and the race difficulty is just too high for a game I paid for (I know it is freemium now but I paid for it). The big issue I have is the AI and balance of the races. The fact that not all Class D cars are competitive in Class D races makes that game a deal breaker and why I uninstalled it again this morning. This works in every class and the fact that they require you to buy certain cars for certain races makes that an artificial barrier of entry. Constantly being reminded to buy more currency becasue the payouts are so low in comparison to the cost of upgrades and such that it became a real annoyance rather quick. Knowing within the first 10 seconds whether I was wasting my time on a race due to not having enough crap on my car really bothers me as that to me is a paywall. I will say the cloud save system from Asphalt is what every game should have. It was great to restart the game and have all my unlocked cars available even though the game frustrated me. RR Slipstream doesn't do that and no good racing game should. If a game is going to require upgrades then it either needs to make the races slightly more difficult as you go or make them short enough that the grind is easy to overcome with the money easy to earn. Need for Speed Most Wanted did this as there were no upgrades but races were super short to grind through (most under 2 minutes) and the cars you really needed to win weren't sky high in price. Some were super expensive but they weren't mandatory. The mandatory cars were given to you in the Hot Rides. not only that but the practice on those course was needed for some of those later runs. In Asphalt, if you just happen to buy the wrong car you are screwed as it just won't be competitive enough once leveled up to beat the AI and that makes me sad as you have wasted a ton of money and time. A Dart should be able to win every Class D event it can enter, granted it will need to upgrade where some of the other cars will already have the power/handling but it should still stand a chance if a player is good enough. It doesn't and that is just wrong in my opinion. I get forcing an upgrade in the next season or whatever but even in the first season it is outclassed almost immediately which is crazy unbalanced to me. True you can buy the wrong car in RR but it isn't because the car can't win. It's because the player can't tame it. I drive dyanamic and as such I bought a dynamic car. Had I bought a mild car I'm sure I would have had a much more difficult time progressing but that would be a "me" problem. Anyway, Slipstream is a great game that is only marred to me, by the appearence of IAPs and the slightly confusing stats screen for the cars.. They are not needed or even required at all. In fact, you can recreate the RR bucks cars body kit and handling with upgrades on its base model (not the vinyls though). They seem to just give the person who is bypassing a lot of the game to see the end a little easier go of it. Then again, why a person would do that is beyond me as this is a racing game with no cutscenes or story to speak of. Everything unlocks naturally as you progress in terms of tracks and classes. I love this game and any fan of the RR series should as well. Even new fans of racers should give it a try as the physics aren't quite as crazy as the console versions though the AI is ruthless but grounded in that they play by the same rules as you do. They don't cheat despite the initial appearence of it as if you turn on the no Slipstream booster (I was testing them all to see what they did) the AI won't catch up if you are ahead. Normally though, and this is why people think they are cheating, is they will boost into a turn, get full speed and abuse slipstream to fly pass you. Pro tip: you can do that too. Also, the cars seem to have slightly more weight to them in turns and it seems they are a little more automatic at regaining grip which is why the touchscreen controls seem to be great. You don't have to babysit them as much as you used to in the console versions which seems to work out. End Rant.
