Well every other car board has a thread about this game, so ill post my review.
The game is based off of Underground 2, but is alot easier to just grab and play, there is still the roam around the city mode, but you can skip that and just choose the race you want to do from your menu. Which I think turned off alot of people.
The gameplay is pretty decent, but the physics are a bit stretched..every car behaves the same despite FWD or RWD..(havnt tried an AWD yet). There was never an instant where not downshifting to the right gear caused utter catastrophe (like Gran Tourismo 4). That said, the game is fun despite all unrealistic-ness.
Somethings dont seem right in the devlopers mind however..:
A. They include the Cadillac CTS...Badass....yet its the base model...not the V series...wtf? This is somewhat remidied in that you can put on a body kit that is 95% of what a CTSV looks like (black mesh grill isntead of chrome). Its some little things that I think could have easily been put in but wern't. They include the Vuaxhall Monaro..which is obviouslly a simple rebadge job...proving that they did do simple rebadge (codeing wise) of the cars, so why not include the XLR (vette copy..with minute tweaks for weight/power). But it is good to see the Monaro make an appearance...although I would have prefered Holdens new version.
The cars include exotics now, with only a handful of sport compacts..which is a welcome change from the underground series. Case in point is that you can't get a civic. A move I applaud the devlopers for, along with the unincluding of Nissan (although I would have liked the 350Z to appear, I am bloody tired of the 6 some odd year old skyline still being declared the best car in the world...with only minor argument for that title going to the Supra which is still available in the game). The car list is overall pretty well representing the entire specturm..with a minor gap between 30K and 50K cars..and from the 90-100K to the 300K+. The only real lack in the car department aside from the above is Ferrari, (the Carrera GT and SLR Mclaren but not the Enzo doesn't feel right). I would have liked the Aston Martin Vanquish instead of the DB9..(they are again near practicaly the same car), they have both the new Porsche Cayman S, and 911..which are near identicle..so why not?
The customizing factor is still there, but its much more toned down than in the previous games, there are about 5-6 body kits that are the entire thing to choose from, gone are the choices for individual bumpers and side skirts. A note to you Woodward GTO fans, the Woodward GTO body kit is available for the GTO. The customizing no longer is just for show either, as changing the cars looks will lower your "heat" level..or the amount the cops are looking for you. Gone are the customizing sound systems, and the neons. Vynels and tint is still there, and some other things...but thats about it unless you want cheasy numbers painted on your car door. The performance tunning is also gone, instead of a whole menu of options and settings, its down to a sub menu for more driving habits than tunning..its down to steering, handling, brakeing, areodynamics, boost, and a couple others. They are pretty dumbed down also, with no way to really test their settings. Handling for example sets whether you want the car to slide around or have more grip..with no mention of under/over steere at all.
Which brings me to my next point, the return of the police. This I think is the heart of the NFS series, and its done very well in this game. The cops will get more pissed off the higher your heat level, and will upgrade their tactics the longer and more annoyed they get. So far I have only gotten to level 3 (starting to build to 4) with my GTO, and they went from cruisers, to undercover cruisers, and now to GTO interceptors, along with road blocks and spike strips there is talk of a helicopter but I havn't seen it. The cops are abit of a joke at level 1, I can ram them and get away pretty easily..but the GTO cops are a bit tougher.
One of the fun things to do, and neat tricks I think are really cool is that there are "pursuit breakers" that you can hit to destroy things to block your bath...while this is HIGHLY unrealistic, its fun as hell. For example in one area you can hit a support beam to a donut shop, and the giant donut will fall off the roof and block the path behind you. Another interesting part is that you can run into 18 wheelers and they will loose their cargo..I.e. logging trucks will dump logs on the road, and car carriers will drop their cars to smash up things behind you. Another cool point, if your being chased by the cops in a race (which happens frequently) if you win the race you then have to proceed to run from the cops afterwards. That and if you run long enough they will send two SUV cops towards you trying to ram right into to slow you down...this however seems the most unrealistic cop tactic.
The sounds are pretty good, the supercharger on the Cobalt SS/SC (my starter car) was quiet at first but got a healthy whine once I started modding. The 6.0 in the GTO sounds very nice and deep, (almost like they stole a Borla sound file...^_^). The soundtrack on the other hand isn't nearly as catchy as Underground 2...Its mostly generic rock/rap artist..which tends to drone on...but if you like that sort of music more power to ya.
The annoying things I have found is that burnouts don't produce nearly enough smoke, and there is an effect when revving in Neutral that shakes your car...nice effect, but if you hold down the gas the car shakes repeatedly and starts to roll....That and the cops while cool, take out the fun of roaming around the city because if you go over the speed limit, or start to drive enthusiastically you will get them on you...and I, along with most people, arn't going to spend 5 minutes going from one side of the map to another at 35 MPH in a Lambo. Also, the speedometer has a LCD look to it, which looks cool, but makes it hard to read the current MPH as it blends in to the rest of the digital speedo. Another thing is you have to guess what reward you get when you beat a member of the "black list" two are various prizes and one is the other persons car...which I have in turn been selling. The odds are 2/3 for getting it if you use both your turns trying to find it, there are six possible choices however, with the others being unique upgrades. The last thing, being that if you have a highpower, or decently powered car trying to get away after running into something is almost redundant and pointless..My supercharged GTO for example just spins through first and second on anything but pavement, so trying to get away from being pinned in from the cops is **** near impossible alot of times. This may be different in an AWD car but I have yet to try it. Also, the cops don't change because of how fast your going, but on your heat level. So you can have a Ford GT doing 200MPH and the regular cruisers will keep right up. I think it would have been a better idea to simply have the heat level be the tactics they are using, and have the cops use cars based on what your driving.
All in all I give it a 9 out of 10. It may lack some of the reality of Gran Tourismo or others..but its way fun and started to give me carpal tunnel syndrome from hours of playing on my keyboard.
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I took some of the extra $$ and bought another to look like mine.
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