One of the great things about NFS is that you can find plenty of shortcuts during a race. They are always well placed and well hidden. Usually they are gated or barricaded, and it’s always fun to plow through those locations and get a little boost in the race.
As mentioned earlier, there are plenty of cars to try out – once you’ve unlocked them. The physics of the cars are all different – the heavier the car, the harder it is to steer in a hairpin turn. After getting used to a favorite car in the early rounds, when I traded up there was a rather lengthy learning curve for me to re-establish my driving line in races. That does make sense to me and it’s nice to see that different cars provide different racing results.
If you like turns and twists, Need For Speed: Carbon is your game. It is amazing how many hairpin turns and horseshoe turns are in these races. You’ll definitely have to learn to take those corners the right way in order to play. I have to say that the turns can get annoying – it just seems like the turns are there because the developers wanted to make it that much more difficult to play – it doesn’t seem very realistic.
Also, let’s hope you like nighttime racing, because it’s always dark here in Carbon. The graphics are pretty good for a PS2 although not great if you have been used to the next generation consoles. The visible “air rush” coming from the back of the car as you speed though the night looks more like comic book drawings. The lighting effects – specifically your car’s headlights as they cover the road – are very impressive. There are some hiccups in frame rate when a lot of cars are racing on the screen.
The other thing EA has added this year is the “autosculpt” mode where you can really customize your car. It’s great to be able to differentiate your car from the rest of the pack – however, it would have been much better if you could bring your car online, like you can on the Xbox 360 and PS3.
The sound is not bad. The soundtrack for the game is heavy hip hop and very repetitive. The audio of your car’s engine and sound effects for when you scrape up a wall are decent.
Overall I felt this game was a step backward in the series. Fans of the 2 year old Underground game will love this one, while fans of Most Wanted may want to sit this one out. I prefer Most Wanted to this game, just because it seemed to be more of a challenge and I was more excited to play. This one feels like the other nighttime racing games that we’ve already played, and although the autosculpt and customization is really a nice touch, that alone is not going to win me over to keep playing this game. The game is definitely worth a rental, but that’s about it.
