You?d be excused on first play of thinking that the handling is nearly the same as that in Hot Pursuit 2. But after a while of playing you?ll find that it?s much more arcadey, and frankly better. There?s still a certain element of realism but EA have favoured fun over it this time. Truth is that if you were speeding down tights streets and back alleys trying to avoid traffic whilst using Nitro Oxcide (NOS) at 180mph you?d crash, and crash and crash. But with the new handling is bloody amazing! After Burnout 2 this is the fastest game ever. The scenery goes whooshing past (on consoles not so great, but more on that later) with pistons at full blow and your vision blurring. Nothing is faster than the drag race mode. It seems simple, you drive in a straight line, shifting gears at the exact right moment and avoiding traffic. But, it?s probally the hardest mode in the game. By the time you hit 190mph you cant see a thing, the builders are mere blobs and that car that seemed so far away has just left a mark in your lovely bonnet. Add to this looking at your speed-o-meter to know when to shift up and having to change lanes and it soon gets frustrating, but very thrilling. The place where most the action takes place is in Underground mode. Unlike other Need For Speed games this is about street racing in Fast and the Furious style, if Vivendi didn?t have the rights to that this would probally be called that, so it?s all about respect. 111 races in all is a mighty challenge, which starts off easy but by race 30 the AI will leave you in their dust. By winning races you earn money so you can upgrade your car (more on that in a sec) and when you upgrade your car you get more respect which means you advance to bigger races etc. Upgrading your car is probally the main attraction to this game, after all who wouldn?t like to be able to design there custom made dragster? You can do simple stuff like change the colour of the Neon glow and paint work all the flame to gettin flame jobs and unique designs. You can also buy new engines, breaks etc but that isn?t really much fun ?cos its under the bonnet and doesn?t look like your supermodel paintwork. Downsides? there?s a dissapointing number of cars totaling in at a mere 28. Which to be fair is enough but after Hot Pursuit 2 having 70+ licened cars including Ferraris and McClaren F1?s it seems a tad weak. Biggest dissapointment for me though was the fact theres no replay mode. The fact that Hot Pursuits was so good is what?s really annoyin, replays would of looked so much better flying through the air and winding through the back alleys.
Graphics -
This is where the game gets let down massively or is great depending on your point of view. First of all the consoles. It doesn?t look bad on the 3 consoles but it just doesn?t look good. Even the best of consoles (Yes, even Xbox) can?t really handle the graphics that well, so credit to EA for making the game look that good but damn them for not converitng it from PC that well. All the lighting is blurred, some may think that that?s for effect but it?s not, and it?s hard to see where you are going. After 15mins play my eyes started to hurt from trying to figure out where the track is. On PC though it?s a different story! I don?t have the best of PC?s, far from it, but it looks bloody great on my monitor. The level of detail EA can squeeze out their engine is stunning, from the cars to tracks and lighting etc. This is what it should, and would look like if the consoles could handle it.
Lifespan -
Well unless you get the PC version (See graphics section for more convincing) which has a great online mode there isn?t much replay value after completing the game ?cos you?ve played all of the levels so many times you?ll porbally have got bored of them. Completing Underground mode should take 3 - 4 weeks though because it?s a heck of a challenge. Online it?s very fun, showing off you car and challenging other racers to a race, and it?s even ok to play on 56k. Winninga races puts you up the rankings which means that more people wll challenge you etc.
Overall -
A very good driving game courtesy of EA. Vey quick and good for thrilss but also has quite alot of depth witht the car editor. Let down by the fact it?s crap on consoles though. If you have a PC capable of running this don?t hesitate to gho and buy this now, you won?t regret it. If however you don?t i really wouldn?t recomend this. Bump the score up 10% for PC users.
79%
Information Card
PLATFORMS
PC, PS2, X-BOX
DISCS
CERT
COMPLETION TIME
2
8 hours (approx)
DISC TYPE
DIFFICULTY LEVEL
CD
Moderate
PRICE
£29.99
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