New Review Posted: 187: Ride or Die

[Daniel Weissenberger]

I review 187: Ride or Die, and find ti to be far better than the title or box art would suggest.

"Once again, the content versus gameplay argument rears its ugly head. 187: Ride or Die is the pinnacle of everything that people complain about in 'gangsta' culture—the celebration of criminality, the devaluation of human life, the mute bikini girls firing automatic weapons, and, of course, the omnipresent ridiculous slang. The content ranges from the puerile to the idiotic to the genuinely off-putting, yet at the same time, it's probably the finest car combat game ever released. Is it worth bearing the awkward and ridiculous setting to experience the stellar gameplay? In this case, yes."

Looking for more review? It's here.

[Mike Bracken]

Wow, I don't know that I've ever read a review here that I felt more opposite of.

The time I spent with 187: Ride or Die was so painful, so banal, so utterly pointless and without merit that it would get my vote as one of the worst games of 2005. From the boring gameplay to the laughably bad "homages" to street slang, everything about the experience screamed "CRAP" to me. I was actually embarrassed to play it in front of people.

That's just my .02, though--and I find it fascinating that we can both play the same game and feel so radically opposite about it.

Mike B.

[EnduroGamer]

My thoughts exactly. I mean, come on, even IGN gave this game a 5/10. It has a Gamerankings score of 54%.

I think Danny is the new Doolittle.

No offense, Mike.

[Chi Kong Lui]

Car combat games is one of those polarizing genres. Not too long ago, Scott gave Road Kill a surprisingly positive review as well:
http://www.gamecritics.com/review/roadkill/main.php

I love a classic PC game called Deathrace or something. RC Pro AM and Car Battler Joe were nice, but I never understood the attraction of the Twisted Metal series.

Chi

[David Stone]

I'm definitely in the "what on earth were you thinking" camp. I got to play it with a couple of friends earlier this year. I'm a pretty open-minded person, but this game went over the line for all the wrong reasons. The offensive language served no purpose other than to give the game "edginess". I don't mind hearing vulgarities, but if games are trying to make their claims to be art, we have to sweep BS like this game under the rug. So much crap without merit in this game...

[chris mautner]

Danny, re: your review.

I respectfull, and rather vehemently, disagree

[Daniel Weissenberger]

Oh, you're right about the gangsta content - it's massively offensive and almost unwatchably bad. I loved the gameplay though, and found it to be simple, addictive car combat that I could keep going back to and enjoying, as well as a fun multiplayer experience.

Should whoever green-lit the gangsta concept be drawn and quartered? Sure, absolutley. But that didn't make the car combat any less fun.

Also, to give it one piece of credit, it did have the guts to have an ending far more realistic than any other gangsta-themed game.

Although it's possible that I'm the only person on earth who bothered to play enough to see that ending

Oh, and you can look forward to my scathing review of another prominent gangsta-themed game early next year!

[shun]

This is sort of OT, but did anyone see the preview of the new Final Fight:Streetwise?

http://ps2.ign.com/articles/675/675920p1.html

Apparently, Capcom has now entered the "gangsta" fray and is vying to go "street".