You probably have read every sort of criticism about this game; the truth is that this game is simply beautiful.
The cars are realized with great care. The bodies are solidly built and the cars' lights all works exactly like those of a real car. During the night races you'll be able to see the lights of the dashboards into every car. The quality of the light effects is excellent, especially the halo produced by the cars'headlights are incredibly realistic. The reflections over the cars' bodies  are the most beautiful seen so far in a racing game; probably we have to wait for the next Gran Turismo to see something better. The tracks are very similar in their structure to the ones featured in the first PsOne's episode of the series. Anyhow, the power of the new console is able to create many wonderful effects. The buildings, for example, are very refined and other environmental elements, like the clouds in the sky, are undoubtedly good and able to create a nice atmosphere.
Unfortunately Namco's developers have not been able to implement an anti-aliasing procedure in this game, like they did for the European and American version of Tekken Tag Tournament. In the games there are also many pop-up effects, but both these issues are limited to the backgrounds. The graphics in Ridge Racer V are not perfect, that's true; but overall, this game is beautiful, and it's one of the best looking racing games ever realized for a gaming console.

Music in Ridge Racer V has a strong rhythm and is used to exalt the sense of speed in the player. The reproduction quality is good too, even though the game does not support the Dolby System of the Ps2. The car sound effects are good. Each engine has its own particular sound and in theory you could find out which car is behind you just hearing its sound. The radio announcer has a perfectly clear voice; the quality of the English speech is good too, but as usual in racing games it soon gets repetitive.

The cars won't be a lot, the circuits won't be too much various, but when you start playing this game you simply can't stop. There are many game modes and the possibility to select different difficulty levels makes this game accessible to every player. There are many hidden cars and motors waiting to be unlocked and you'll harshly fight to find that wonderful Devil car.