Gamer Mania 2: Ridge Racer 6 vs. Full Auto

So in my search for good 360 games that I don’t have, I tried out Ridge Racer 6 and Full Auto. Now I’m going to talk about them a little bit in kind of a vs. style, I know it's a weird set of games to put up against each other, but I'm going to do it. They're both still racers inside, so they're kind of alike.

Gameplay: Ridge Racer 6 is the same as usual, for about the 7^th time, and it’s getting really old. All you do is drift.. and drift… and drift. They tried to make it a little better by adding a nice nitrous system, but it doesn’t do enough to change the game. They both have a nice set of modes by the way, Ridge Racer with just time trial, career, and a few others, and Full Auto with career, arcade (racing without guns), and I think a time trial. Anyway, in Full Auto, it’s got a nice, fresh idea: adding guns to cars. So you’re racing but also trying to blow up the other cars. Real cool idea with a lot of potential, but they could have made it a lot better. The Unwreck (reverse time) feature is beyond cool and very useful though. Who wins for gameplay and fun? Well, it’s kind of hard to put these 2 against each other, but if you do, it’s an easy win for Full Auto. Way more fun and cool.

Cars: Since these are racing games, I guess I should talk about the cars. Ridge Racer 6 has a nice line-up with like 100 some cars and a bunch downloadable on the marketplace. Nice set. Then Full Auto has about 25 cars, all of which are really cool and different… but they all go about the same speed: really slow. This is a hard call: Ridge Racer has like a million cars, but FA’s are all different and cool. I’m going to say it’s a tie even though FA’s cars all feel slow.

Graphics: Then we go to the graphics. Ridge Racer 6’s cars look stunning, but all the 360 racers cars do. The problem with this game, some of the grassland/forest tracks have graphics that look way arcadey, and it pisses me off. I’m not paying $60 to get a game for XBOX 360 with games that remind me of arcade games. Now, Full Auto, wow. Everything looks great, awesome particle effects when you blow up buildings, shiny cars, nice looking tracks. Easy win for FA.

Sound: Sound is another one-sider. Ridge Racer has a ton of music, but it’s got the most annoying damn announcer ever. I swear, this was one of the things I hated the most about the game. HE TALKS 10 TIMES A MINUTE! His voice is also annoying as hell. If you could turn him off, the sound would be great. I think you might be able to use a custom soundtrack, but I don’t know if it would get rid of the announcer. I shouldn’t have to do that either. Full Auto sounds great. All the guns, music, and everything is nice. Another win for FA.

Multiplayer: The last competition area is online play/multiplayer. Ridge Racer really excels here, with up to 14 players in online races. I didn’t actually try it, but it sounds nice, still… it’s the same game. I actually tried Full Auto, which is for up to 8. It’s not all that amazing, but good none-the-less. Gonna have to be another tie here.

Everything Else: It’s pretty obvious which is going to win, but I’m just going to talk about a few small things. Ridge Racer has some really confusing menus… which get pretty annoying. It’s got quite a few modes, which makes it a little bit better… but overall, this does not feel like a next-gen game at all. They really just slapped on pretty cars and a nice online mode and tried to call it next gen. It also has some weird ass achievements like – beat all the races without nitrous. Umm.. wasn’t that supposed to be one of the big improvements? Why award someone for not using it? I don’t know.

Full Auto, however, feels like a next-gen game. It has its problems though too. Most of its maps are way too alike, and they’re hard to tell apart, but there is some variety. I also have to bring up the slowness of the cars again… It’s not that cool, but the thing is, if it was faster.. it wouldn’t work that well. I don’t know what they can do about that. And, two last things. There are too few guns, but they do mix them up some, so it’s not all that bad. Last thing, even though it has an incredible level of destruction, there are things missing. I’d love to be able to knock down subways and make my enemies go around.

Verdict: In case you didn’t realize, I think Full Auto is a better game, but it gets kind of old and something just feels off. It easily beats RR6 though if you put them up against each other. But if you don’t.. Ridge Racer 6 gets just 2.5 bottles of “CRAAZY nitrous” out of 5. Full Auto gets 3.5 out of 5. My suggestions are, Ridge Racer, unless you are a diehard Ridge Racer fan (pick it up if you are), get the PSP version instead, maybe a PS2 one for probably $15-20 for either. Way cheaper, and pretty much the same game. If you want a good, pure racer for the 360, get PGR3, NFSMW, or Burnout. I bought RR6, but returned it the next week for Tomb Raider: Legend. Full Auto – rent it, then maybe buy it. If it drops to $40 I know I’m getting it.