Pros: Drift racing, themed after Fast 'n Furious (if you like that trashy movie)
Cons: Poor graphics (rushed into release), singular gameplay, hard to win
The bottom line: If you are crazy about drift-type racing, this is for you. For most racers this is too hard and too boring.
This is my 2nd outing with a Ridge Racer game, the previous being with the original RR for the PSP. I had some fun with the PSP version so I rented this title for my PS3. I was very disappointed.

As you probably already know, Ridge Racer is an unconventional racing game in that you must master the drifting (letting your car slide through corners) in order to win the races. In other words, you cannot hope to win any race without adequate drifting (which in turn gives you nitrous boosts). While mastering drifting is not hard for the average racing fan such as yours truly, the technique gets tiring quickly. It's pretty much the same thing every time, and after a few races you'll probably come to dread cornering rather than enjoying the racing.

So gameplay is problematic. You may also take issues with the fact that none of the cars modelled in RR is a real car. Instead they bear such silly names like Age, Absoluto, etc. This is not surprising given that the kind of drifting advocated in RR is not real at all and there's absolutely no real-world physics involved.

For a PS3 game, the graphics is terrible. While frame rate is good, the tracks (which are probably rehashed from previous RR games, a common practice in the RR series) are surprisingly low-res. This is apparently so when you compare RR's graphics with that of the Gran Turismo HD Concept demo, which is can be downloaded free from the PS3 store. There are very few environmental effects, and the tracks feel way too generic and unexciting.

I absolutely advise against paying the big bucks for this game. If you want to relive the RR drift racing or what to give drifting a try, rent the title or find a demo. In fact, you'll probably get more satisfaction from a PS2 version of the RR series since you'll be paying much less for the game.