Ridge Racer 7 [PS3]

Every Sony console has launched with a new edition of Namco's Ridge Racer, so it was only fitting that after a detour onto the Xbox 360, the series would dash out of the gate hand in hand with the PS3. For the seventh episode, Namco has packed in 40 cars, 20 tracks and a load of customization options for nearly every aspect of your ride. But numbers can't camouflage the fact that this is essentially the same game we've been playing for years.

Once again, Ridge Racer's action is fully arcade in character. You'll pilot a succession of cars in three classes, loosely organized by their drifting ability. Races feature a field of fourteen cars (online and off) on lushly detailed but non-interactive and ultimately antiseptic tracks. You'll earn nitrous boosts during each race, which can be strategically deployed to pass a whole field of racers at once.

The game certainly looks great, though arguably not quite as much so as the Xbox 360's Ridge Racer 6, which was darker, but more detailed. The trade-off for detail here is the ability to run in 1080p resolution, and every other resolution for that matter. So if you've got a television that does 1080i but not 720p, you'll still see the game in HD, not down-converted to 480p.

The problem is that, while the series has visually improved with each new hardware release, not much else has changed at all. Yes, there are improved slipstream mechanics, allowing you to gain an extra speed boost when tailing opponents, and this edition heavily focuses on the art of drifting, or sliding around corners perpendicular to the line.

But the drifting here is hardly an art, and barely even a technical accomplishment. The physics model is far too rudimentary to make drifting truly variable; all you've got to do to initiate a drift is steer into a turn, let up on the accelerator, then jam it back down. After that, it's just a matter of steering the proper way to regain control.

The cool thing about drifting is the inherent loss of control. That's where the art comes in; there's an intuitive relationship between momentum, the car and the pavement...or there should be. Here, no such dynamic is in evidence. Botch a drift and you'll just skitter along a guardrail at the edge of the track. No damage, no real loss of control, and therefore mo real passion.

The ability to compete online with a full roster of options adds a shade of compelling content, but it's hard to get too excited about practicing for hours to nail the perfect line with no visceral representation of your failure. Mastering Ridge Racer 7 feels more like a mathematical exercise than a game. Technophiles may love it for exactly that reason, but other audiences may wonder where the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat have gone.