The year is 1928, and after tireless campaigning by the suffragettes, women get equal voting rights in the UK. 1949, Simone De Beauvoir writes The Second Sex and precipitates feminism as a concept. 1960, and the world's first oral contraceptive pill starts a sexual revolution, liberating womankind from the shackles of biology. And now, in 2004, we witness another feminist landmark. After five outings as objectified, track-side eye candy, the Ridge Racer women finally graduate to driving the cars they've spent so long strutting alongside. True, they do wear impossibly tight racing leathers and show an alarming amount of chest furniture, but y'know, in an empowering way.

After almost five years, Namco's Ridge Racer is back on PS2 and as its new heroine Rena, her story mode and the title suggest, it's all change for the illustrious arcade racer series. Mercifully, the process of evolution has been slow enough that the series hasn't turned into a word processor or RPG. R:Racing Evolution is still about fast cars and tight corners, although we're not nearly as impressed with the new beast as we hoped we might be.

The problem is that for a franchise that always prided itself on its petrol slick, big grin racing, R:Racing Evolution feels and looks like it's lost its nerve. In its place is a Gran Turismo lite clone that for all its polish, technical competence and licensed cars and tracks can't decide whether it wants to embrace utter realism, or its predecessors' legendary arcade handling.

This is not to say that the game is bad. It's not. It's likable, even if much of it's been borrowed from other successful racing games. Central to R:Racing Evolution is Racing Life, a story-driven mode that follows the career of Rena, an ambulance driver turned professional petrol head. Over its fourteen stages, Racing Life takes in a mixture of racing styles. Alongside NASCAR (yawn) oval track racing in Le Mans class cars you'll find multi-stage rally championships, one-off events in classic collectors' cars, GT tournaments, and even drag racing complete with US muscle cars. Humiliate the opposition and you win a car to add to your collection. You also win points for style, drafting (driving in an opponent's slipstream), powerslides and impact-free driving, which you can use to buy new vehicles, mod existing ones and purchase new challenges and events in the game's bid at longevity, Event Challenge mode.

Context sensitive pit chatter works well, as does an innovation in the form of a meter that appears over opponents' cars as you approach them. The longer you dog their bumpers, the quicker their meter slides towards red. When it flashes you've thoroughly psyched out your opponent, who is then more likely to make mistakes. As you'd expect from Namco, the cut-scenes are beautifully rendered, but so far as adding depth to the racing experience is concerned, Rena's story is little more than a linking device for the different race styles. It's also surprisingly short, ending as abruptly as it starts after little more than an afternoon's play.

Which leaves Time Trial, Vs, Arcade and the treats in Event Challenge to keep you coming back. In this latter section particularly, the developer has gone to great lengths to provide variety and control. There are single races, one-make races, points-based championships, one-on-one tournaments and even Gran Turismo-style precision-based stop and start challenges. You can customise your display to show as little or as much info as you need. In need of an ego boost? Then why not set up a race that pitches five tiddly Fiat 500s against your behemoth of a Bentley EXP Speed 8? Of course, you may not want to, but Namco has left that and a score of other doors open just in case you ever do.

That's the good news. Less encouraging is the fact that you'll be unleashing all of this variety on the same fourteen tracks (including a number of 'reverse' variants). But that's nothing compared to the sadness that committed RR fans will feel when they get to grips with the neutered handling. Maybe it's down to the (admittedly gorgeous looking) licensed cars, but whatever the reason, the gutsy, powerslide hungry handling that underpinned previous Ridge Racers has gone. We suspect the overhauled handling may be more realistic (we've never taken a corner at 178kmph in a Saleen SR7 Mustang so we can't confirm that 100%), but one thing we are sure about is that it's not nearly as much fun in the middle of a race. Thing is, sim-wise R:Racing Evolution can't compete with the depth of GT4. And as for ludicrously irresponsible, insanely fast arcade racing, Need For Speed Underground does that so much better. So if there is a next time Namco, have the courage to be true to the franchise. Gamers will thank you for it. That's a racing certainty.

Graphics 80%
Pretty, but is it realism or arcade polish?

Sound 70%
Great pit chatter but whiny engine noises

Gameplay 60%
Not as grin inducing as we'd hoped!

Lifespan 60%
Plenty to unlock but enthusiasm will wane

Overall 60%
Falls firmly between arcade and sim stools and aces neither category. Sadly, Ridge Racer is no longer the race leader of old.