Need for Speed is back on the road
For the avid, hardcore racing fanatics and veterans of the Need for Speed series the departure from the 1994 realistic simulation of car handling and physics to a more arcade style racer didn’t go down too well, but since Need for Speed II the franchise has continued to grow and gain a new following of gamers that seek the thrill of high speed driving, frantic police chases, and in their latest game, Need for Speed Carbon, EA are hoping that the fan's enthusiasm extends to the increasingly popular drift racing.
After playing the demo, which is now available on the Xbox live marketplace, I wasn’t expecting much, the controls seemed flimsy and I was experiencing plenty of slowdown during the race sequences. The demo actually dates back from E3, and after playing Need for Speed Carbon at a press event last week, I found it difficult to understand why EA released such a poor demo when the version I played ran smoothly, looked great and the cars handled well.
Need for Speed Carbon caters for two types of gamer. The sort who enjoys pimping and tweaking their ride in order to maximise their car’s performance or look or those who enjoy the fast and furious arcade-style thrill of the ride. If you fit into both categories you’re in for a treat because Need for Speed Carbon has an abundance of customisation options, lightning quick races and a number of new features that make it the pluckiest racer of the series so far.
Need for Speed: Carbon features tuners, exotics and muscle cars. Each car has its own strengths and weaknesses and your first difficult choice will be to pick the car that best suits you. Tuners have a decent tyre grip and are excellent at navigating any tricky corners, exotics are known got their high speeds and muscles are renowned for their straight-line acceleration. I’ve tested out each of these car types and all drive with the correct characteristics, although racing purists may be put off with how easier each of them are to drive
I played a preview version, which seemed pretty much finished (although I hear EA may be still tampering with the AI race lines) and jumped straight into a race with a tuner without fine tuning my vehicle.
When it comes to driving games I’m not the best, in fact I gave up playing online with PGR3 because everyone else was so damn good, but in Need for Speed Carbon I was able to drive at high speeds through busy streets, weaving in and out of traffic with little effort at all, not once did I crash, spin the car off the road, nor lose control of the vehicle around a tricky corner.
Perhaps this was a fluke, so I raced half a dozen races but was able to win each race with no problem at all, and even when a race lasted two or three laps I was able to jump straight ahead of the pack and leave them dead before I’d even reached lap two. Now personally I don’t mind this because my co-ordination isn’t great at the best of times, but I couldn’t help thinking that it wasn’t entirely realistic and wondered whether racing fans would totally approve.
All of the racing modes lead to the main goal of winning a territory from another crew and once a territory has been conquered you’ll take part in the main boss battle. The boss is far harder to race than any of his crew members and requires the utmost concentration to beat. Firstly you’ll take part in a normal circuit race and once you’ve beaten him he’ll challenge you to a canyon duel which takes part on the winding rounds where a sheer cliff face looms to your side. The duel involves two stages, firstly you’ll need to chase the boss and stick as close as possible to his rear end or overtake him to gain points. Then it’s his turn as you speed off and he chases you around the steep track. The person with the most points wins, but the race can be over extremely quickly because if he manages to speed off into the distance because you’ve crashed or just can’t keep up with him, his points will build and once he’s overtaken your score; it’s game over.
The AI of the boss does seem slightly unbalanced at the moment. In the circuit race he’s pretty easy to beat, but as soon as you hit the canyon duel, it appears as though he’s supped up his car and it’s much harder to keep up with him. Overall the canyon duels are tense, exciting affairs which have the added anxiety of an unforgiving cliff face that quite often ends up being your nemesis. The only really frustrating aspect to the canyon duels is that if you win the first canyon duel race and then lose the second one you’ll have to start right back at the beginning. I suppose it makes sense, because you lost overall, but I had strong feeling of injustice every time I lost only a couple of seconds from the end of the track.
The story of Need for Speed Carbon is told through a mixture of CGI effects and live action. Unfortunately I was in a room with quite a few other people who were making so much noise that I have no idea whether the story is good or bad, but they did seem to be superbly orchestrated and give the game a cinematic gritty edge. The sparkling streets are well designed and driving down some of the winding roads with a view over the city at night is pretty outstanding,
Need for Speed Carbon is shaping up nicely. The overall look of the game, together with the CGI effects and furious race action should be enough to keep the new wave of Need for Speed fans happy. At the moment the AI needs a bit of tweaking here and there as the game feels far too easy. The difficulty of the canyon duels and street wars races is just about right and personally I’m happy that the cars handle so easily. Customising your vehicle is a lot of fun and easy to get into even if you know nothing about cars and the live action sequences help to give this street racing the gritty edge it needs.
Need for Speed Carbon hits our shelves on November 3rd.
The full preview can be read @
hexus
