Pot calling the kettle black much? I've seen your favouritism for the other brand as well in both this thread and A8's own thread. Oddly, I love Asphalt 7 (and despite the hate I actually like Gameloft as a dev). Still do and actually used to play that a lot over Accelerated at the time. I actually like the brand a lot and even have the DS, 3DS and Vita versions of Asphalt although the Vita one isn't that great. Aspahlt 8 made a lot of changes that are both super great and at the same time really terrible. If you'll note I have said many positive things about Asphalt 8 and funny how I have earned a bunch of those stupid boosters and kits too, but you are missing the point. You shouldn't need them to progress or compete in the community challenges that Gameloft is posting. A racing game should be about skill and not about who spent the most money or time grinding out cheap online wins at a cheap 1,000 credits a win to get a streak going to get some boosters. I never had an issue progressing in Asphalt 7 without grinding and to me that game was pretty perfect in terms of balance where the person who wanted to throw more cash to progress could but it wasn't required to move on in a timely manner. It hasn't happened a lot, but there are some odd matchmaking things that happen in A8 and they all seem to happen when I am on a streak which is what makes it frustrating. If I ever play the game again online and see another anomaly I'll screencap it. I'm not near an open Wi-fi spot much when not home which is where I typically play games on my phone. This is another gripe as I have to play online to get any kind of decent return on credits as Gameloft got rid of the participation credits in the single player despite them saying they never touched the in game economy. Plus I have been on another Super Hexagon fit so I have been playing a ton of that when in meetings. The season pass for Republique also was discounted recently and I bought that. If you'll notice, I have been ultra critical about this game too by the way. It isn't perfect by any stretch but the one thing they nailed was progression and the seperation of pay-to-win despite the ominous in-app store which even to me looked really shady upon first boot. Granted I paid for the game up front but then again, I paid for Asphalt 8 upfront too and came to a screaching halt in Season 5 when I ran out of credits and a way to earn them consistently without constantly replaying races I had already won. I've only had to replay races in Slipstream either because I screwed up or because I wanted to. Never because I had to and never because I needed more credits because the game wanted me to buy a specific car for a specific challenge. You don't even need to upgrade your cars to proceed in RR since if you are good enough, you can beat the AI without the upgrades. In Asphalt and even in other iOS racers like RR3 or GT2, if you don't have the right car and/or upgrades you are not going to win. Period. You are dusted from the start and will never the first place racer again. Happens in multiplayer too even on cars that are the same which is a little odd. I agree that the game seems to have been forgotten but again I get the feeling there was a problem with the Android version fo the game since that was delayed upon release. As much as I get that this game isn't perfect and yes, it isn't for everyone, there is nothing shady or even lazy about this game. It is a Ridge Racer game that has more content than the last proper release even after that versions DLC is taken into account. It costs $3 bucks and requires no more from the player to proceed and this is without grinding for hours on end. It was even on sale a few weeks back for a dollar. The game plays great and looks great on my iPhone 5 with pretty much zero in the way of technical issues (I get there are issues on other devices and that should be fixed).
Not that it's not possible, but there is the push to spend ur creds to progress or grind forever. Fair point, as that is what most mobile games are about. I'll chalk that up as a "drawback", if you will, to the platform. Hey, agreed, for $3 I can't really complain. But even you can probably see how there are other games out there at the same price or less (and not necessarily racers but other console-ish experiences) that have all the kinks worked out and went through a long enough beta stage that these issues never left beta. My opinion on BN is my personal experience with the company. Not reflective of the old Namco, but since Bandai bought them, they have cash-cow'd a lot of great franchises. Remember RR unbound? That was almost the nail in the coffin. So I will give credit to the fact that this iteration is a return to their roots, albeit a somewhat incomplete and rough-around-the-edges version.
I at least limit my favouritism to the appropriate thread, ie the games own thread. When I express favouritism to it here, it is merely in reply to your incessant need to talk about another game in a thread it has no relation to. If you feel a need to continuously bring it up, well I'm perfectly entitled to reply to you as you are the one that has brought it up, not me. And further on the favouritism, despite he fact that I d have a clear favourite, I've never openly criticised this game, ie the one this thread refers to, in this thread and I've also never openly criticised this game or discussed it in the other thread. You however do the opposite and even continue to do it in the very post I'm actually replying to because you simply can't stop criticising the other game with every given opportunity in the wrong thread. I honestly do not care about you're gripes with the other game are any more. You have expressed them enough that it is abundantly and perfectly clear what you're opinion is. What I do care about is a complete disregard for the thread title of this one whereby you start off with you're criticism of A8, then throw in some throwaway comments on this game but its clear that the ultimate point of you're post is simply to criticise the other. Pointless criticisms of the multiplayer of one when people are having problems with the campaign of another are also just another way of you sneaking in you're criticism in here because that comparison is about as pointless and incomparable as any I've seen. Context and comparing like for like is important in any comparison. Now, we get it, you hate A8 and love Slipstream. That's fine and a perfectly acceptable and valid opinion. Now stick to the topic at hand. Criticising A8 is not going to help people get over the difficult spikes they are having with this one, maybe try and keep it to the areas they are having problems with rather than raging on about the other. I have, but I only ever feel a need to express it once, delete it and move on. I've no interest in expressing it at every opportunity because there's enough of that going on already, I fail to see the productiveness in it and once a game has disappointed me or left a negative impression, I move on and forget about it. It would seem more productive and useful to actually promote the stuff that is good rather than incessantly complaining about the stuff that isn't. If a game is good, its daily usage data should increase and if it doesn't, promoting it will help in that direction (to probably a very small degree). If its bad, it should decrease naturally on its own. And irrelevant of what everybody may think, its daily usage that is far more important than any negative commentary on a forum. Dungeon Keeper is a good example of the importance of daily usage data points from some recent info I've seen from EA. Despite all the rage, its daily usage data points are still increasing. So rather than voting with negative comments on a forum, I simply vote by deleting. When the numbers decrease, more attention will be payed to what's wrong in the first place. That's not to say that commentary is not important. It certainly helps in informing, tweaking, improving, bug finding and numerous other elements but repeatedly criticising the same elements in a forum serve a far less fruitful purpose than simply not playing at all. Overall metrics and data points carry much more weight than random people making random comments on the Internet. Take of that what you will. Anyway, even if I was constantly saying negative things about games on here, would anybody here really even care anyway? Would it change their own opinion? Unlikely I'd imagine.
I hear your words. To be clear, I said nothing about 'taking every opportunity' or any level of extreme criticism you site. Incessant negative hollaballu serves no one or useful purpose. Merely making a more general statement in your regard. Not trying to offend.
Not at all, I knew there was no offence intended, that's why I replied and tried to be as clear as possible. I understood your point and just took the opportunity to clarify my general position. My terminology probably wasn't the best, but no, definitely no offence taken, I appreciated the opportunity to clarify my position.
I appreciate your take on ios gaming. Your accessments usually focus on the positive aspects a game possesses. I would be interested in your views on a games shortcomings as knowing a games downfalls has more of an impact on whether I buy or not. Sometimes your accessments seem like paid promotions. I have read posts where you actually defend a games shortcomings. Anyhow, cheers mate.
Two things and then I'm no longer going to reply to you. I don't hate A8. The game plays great. I hate the balance and I think I have made that perfectly clear. The other thing (and the reason I am going to dismiss your posts from now on) is I have actually contributed what I think to be quite a bit of actual help and at least tried to assist others in beating Slipstream. You know the topic you clicked on. While my obvious rants and off-topic ramblings have been noted by others and even myself in previous posts (it's unfortunately one of my flaws) from what I can tell you have contributed nothing to this thread but to reply and defend Asphalt 8. That's it from the past 35 pages. I was bored sitting here at my desk waiting for a meeting to start and checked. You contributed absolutely nothing in regards to the game in this topic (Slipstream). Makes me wonder why you even clicked on it in the first place. Your posts in the Asphalt 8 threads are nothing but apologies and defenses which makes me question if you have some type of agenda. You can't preach to me to keep it on topic (again, I have even acknowledged my flaws) when in fact you were never on topic to begin with. That's the very definition of hypocrite. In any event Slipstream is a weird amalgam of old style gaming with a new style of pricing interface (which actually kind of sucks). You don't need to spend any extra real money but the game is constantly willing to offer you IAPs. Luckily Slipstream kept that nonsense from the Vita version in that game and even the daily ad seems to be gone. I'm still hopeful for the multiplayer update that was promised but if nothing else comes to the game, at least there is a portable version of Ridge Racer on phones that is actually really fun to play and requires nothing after the initial purchase other than for the player to get better. Even if said version has probably the worst and most confusing menu and car ratings systems I have ever seen it is still miles better than the past iOS version and even the Vita version. If I can think of anything else to maybe help others in my random play sessions I'll post them here.
Agreed rapaleeman. While you have written a few rants about how A8 compares unfavorably with RRS, you've also contributed probably the largest amount of helpful info about playing RRS out of anyone in this thread. Something people may want to consider is that the help you're getting here is free. When someone helps you for free, whether it's on an internet forum or in person, you may need to accept the personality who comes with that free help. That's true to an extent even in professional relationships, but at least if you were paying someone to help you you'd be more entitled to demand that they do things the way you want, including only talking about the things you want them to talk about.
You didn't even bother reading the post you're replying to, did you? Unbelievable. Calling someone a hypocrite is insulting and derogatory and against the rules by the way so expect to be reported. Questioning my motives is beyond ridiculous also. I'm here a lot longer than you so if my motives were questionable, you can be sure the mods would already have taken action. And on that point, I've been here a lot longer than you so my free advice has gone out to many more people than yours, or Bilboa's for that matter, in many more game threads. What you two need to learn is that a thread is meant to be on the topic of the thread and using it as a way to sneak in your criticisms of another game, whatever the game may be, is not its purpose. And you said it yourself, I've only replied to your rants and ramblings on A8, so if you choose to veer off topic, expect a reply. As to why I clicked on the topic in the first place, well I have the game, I too am hit by the ridiculous difficulty curve, low earnings and unresolved and abandoned bugs and am looking for a solution. Has any of your free advice helped? Well, no. Do I have anything to contribute that would help? No either. I have made an effort to not criticise it, not here or anywhere else, because underneath it, there's a decent game. Just not a good enough and supported one. As to apologies and defences in the other thread, you're obviously not reading those either because what they are in reality is explanations. I have an understanding of certain things and while I may lean on the sympathetic side of most developers, it doesn't change the fact that all I offer is detailed explanations of a particular scenario. I can just as easily not explain at all and give no free advice but I see the forum as a way of sharing knowledge that I may have a deeper insight to because of my connections. A new member like yourself who has contributed to one thread might not see it that way but whatever, question my motives away, you're not the first and you won't be the last. On the point of motives, it's very interesting that you joined to comment on this game, have made one or two random posts on a couple of other games but primarily and repeatedly defended this game while also in the same breath criticising its main competition. I'm not sure if its wise for people in glass houses to throw stones. Edit. A reply won't be needed, I will be taking your orders and abandoning this thread and the associated game.
Abandoned definitely comes to mind on this game. Still never got a response on my email to the dev team and don't expect to. Anybody coming to this thread, there's some good info pages back. Those looking for new info, sorry but Bandai Namco is a crap company that trashes the name of Namco and goes for easy cash grabs by putting out half @$$'d experiences on most of their franchises, especially the ones (like Ridge Racer) that have a great history and don't deserve to be hoar'd out like this. I think I'm done on this thread too. The game was rushed and it shows in the gameplay and frame rate. This can be debated and defended all day, month, or year but playing the game is testament to something that needed just a little more time. Instead it came out bugged right before Xmas, got a quick patch, and BN is on to the next franchise to cash-grab from.
Well, I'm still enjoying this game, though I will say the extreme battle races are really tough, and do make me miss physical controls more, since the amount of precision they require is tough to get with touch and tilt controls. I've been playing Ridge Racer 6 some more on my Xbox lately. That also has an equivalent to the extreme battle races once you finish the normal part of the campaign, which are really hard to beat. But at least I don't feel like I fail as often due to missing the control inputs I meant to give, as often happens to me with the iOS version. I realized something about the car statistics that may help others, regarding the drift angle statistic. Several people on the thread said they thought that higher positive numbers indicated cars which were meant to be grip cars, and negative numbers were meant to be drift cars. I realized it's actually the opposite. If you read the article posted on the Namco Bandai site about the drift angle setting, you'll see that higher values (toward positive) mean the car is easier to get into a drift, and harder to get out of a drift. So for instance in class 4, we had been assuming the Fiare was meant to be the drift car and the Bayonet was meant to be a grip car, but really it's the other way around. If you use the Bayonet, and also adjust the drift angle setting all the way to the right, you'll end up with a car which stays in drifts very easily. Knowing this, I was able to do a bit better with the ultimate drift style of driving. On tracks with a lot of curves like the Island Circle track, I'm able to keep boosting almost continuously around the whole track. With this style of driving, I find it a bit harder to get through a pack of cars since it's easier to lose control when maneuvering quickly or getting bumped, but if I can get to the front of the pack I can run away from everyone even in the extreme battles.
I get what they are saying but even trying it again it seems that the more towards the positive the car doesn't want to break loose for me. When it does it goes nuts per usual and yes is harder to regain traction but it is much easier to drift with the slider towars the "-". The Fiare is still significantly easier to break loose to me. The Bayonet still seems to be the grip car no matter what I set the sliders. It seems to hug the turns. Whatever works I guess. Maybe it is just the way I drive in the game. One major negative I discovered is that the boost slots you buy with the RR bucks is per car not per class or a total unlock across the board. That is a major thumbs down. Granted the boosts aren't needed but I was super curious as to if it was a universal unlock and it is not. That sucks.
I just tried the new update. It performs noticeably better on my iPad 4. It worked fine previously, but there were frequent framerate drops. I had gotten used to it, but with the updates it's very obviously running at a higher framerate, and not only looks better but feels more responsive. I haven't tried the new version on my iPhone 4S yet. Previously the performance was too poor for me to enjoy it on the phone. We'll see if that's improved too.
Has anyone else noticed the difficulty going down significantly post-update (at least in Class 03)? I guess it could be because it's now smoother/more responsive, but wow... I'd been stuck on several races for weeks and just breezed through them tonight. Definitely not complaining, though; I found the game way too hard before (though very fun).
I tried a couple of the class 4 extreme challenge races and didn't think the AI were any easier. I did feel like I had more precise control of the car though, which made it easier to do well since I could thread my way through traffic more precisely. I think the higher frame rate makes it feel more responsive due to the lower latency. On my iPad 4 at least, it now feels completely smooth like other iOS driving games I have, where before it seemed like it was struggling, as if it was meant for faster hardware.
Just tried on my iPhone 4S, and it's better there too. It clearly struggles with the framerate, but it's playable now if you kill other apps or reboot, where before it just kept crashing. Too bad there's no iCloud synching...
