Towards the end of Rena's rookie season, Eddie comes up with a plan to leave G.V.I. Later, when the first rally race chapter was introduced, Stephan's team mechanic Eddie is introduced, and it is revealed that Stephan was once a very good team manager, until an accident occurred involving one of his racers, he was forced to go into the dark. It is later revealed that Gina despises G.V.I., and her contempt for the company spills over to Rena, whom Gina considers to be their pawn. However, she quickly develops a bitter rivalry with independent veteran racer Gina Cavalli. At first, Rena benefits from the company's influence and is given equipment and opportunities to race in major events. She accepts and joins Stephan's team, oblivious to the fact that the team is sponsored by a shadowy corporation called G.V.I., which determines the placing of the racers in the race, as shown in one of the chapters, when Rena (the player) is forced to place second, not first. Along for the ride with his injured team member, the former racing engineer and now team manager Stephan Garnier is impressed enough to offer Rena a chance to become a racecar driver herself. Pressed for time, Rena pushes her driving skills to the limit in order to deliver the injured racer to the hospital.
On one afternoon, she responds to an accident at a racetrack. Rena Hayami is introduced as a Japanese ambulance driver living in a nondescript Western country. Racing Life is broken up into 14 chapters, and each one is separated by a cutscene that advances the story. Racing life is a fixed story-driven mode that lets you play as Rena, a young Japanese woman who goes from driving ambulances to the top of the professional racing circuit. RP are necessary to buy new and better cars, tune-up owned cars to improve their performance, and to get into the racing events of Event Challenge.
These changes will be reflected in the races, affecting acceleration, speed and/or handling.īy winning and clear races or drive skillfully, the player can get RP (Reward Points) in the Racing Life, Event Challenge and VS modes. The automobiles also can be adjusted in the Setting option through the menus, feature additional settings as final drive ratio, ABS, car weight, maximum HP/Torque, etc. Using the directional pad, the player can adjust settings of brake, steering, stabilizers and center LSD only in certain cars. The displayed information depends of the car and the course of the race. Allows players to do car settings adjustments while racing. Multifunction Display is a system that updates the player about the race condition in real time. When it's completely full, it starts to flash, indicating that the car ahead will make a critical mistake, paving the way for passing the out-of-control opponent. The affected competitor initiates a dialogue. The closer the distance, the quicker the Pressure Meter would start filling up. This measures the psychological pressure inflicted upon a car in front of the player's. To help newcomers to the series and casual gamers, the game offers a default brake assist feature.Īdvancement in controller technology from the sixth console generation meant that the intensity of acceleration and braking could be controlled with the trigger buttons of the Xbox and Gamecube controllers, while the DualShock 2 made use of the face buttons with its proprietary Pressure Sensitive technology.Ī prominent feature in this game, when competing with the AI, is the "Pressure Meter". Mechanics such as acceleration and braking in tight curves are now mandatory, leaving behind the arcade-friendly style that defines Ridge Racer. Conceived by a development team comprising members of the Ridge Racer series and Namco's MotoGP, the driving mechanics of R: Racing Evolution try to focus more on the real-life physics of motorsport cars.