Race great cars in great games


Need for Speed Carbon

After rebooting the franchise with Needyou slipstream behind them, giving you
for Speed Underground, EA has continuedsome extra speed from the reduced drag,
to produce some solid street racersand from there you can pull aside and
under the Need for Speed banner. Lastslingshot your way past them. Scouts
year's Need for Speed Most Wanted, whichhave a knack for finding the many
featured hilariously over-the-topalternate routes and shortcuts that can
live-action cutscenes and seriouslybe found in most races, and they have
tense police pursuits, proved to be ashort neon tracers that follow them,
high watermark for the franchise. Nowmaking it easier for you to take
it's being followed up by Need for Speedadvantage. You'll definitely find
Carbon, which downplays the role of theyourself in races where your wingman's
police chases, introduces some simpleinfluence is the difference between
team-racing mechanics, and occasionallywinning and losing. But often, your
takes the action off the city streetswingman's presence is either unnecessary
and into the outlying canyons. The newor an actual hindrance. Blockers are
gameplay doesn't always improve theonly really effective in taking out
experience, but the racing can still becompetitors that are behind you, and
quite intense and still has a pronouncedeven then, they're not very reliable.
sense of style.Drafters work as advertised, but the
Carbon continues the story where Mostlengthy straightaway needed to set up a
Wanted left off. For those just tuningproper draft is rare in Palmont City,
in, Most Wanted ended with youwhich limits their usefulness. Scouts
recovering your stolen car and bailingare the least useful of the three
out of the city of Rockport while thebecause the neon tracers don't seem to
overzealous, anti-street-racing Sgt.get longer as the cars you drive go
Cross continued his pursuit. At thefaster, so eventually, there's just not
start of Carbon, you're making your wayenough time for you to anticipate an
to Palmont City when Cross, now a bountyalternate route. If you didn't call on
hunter, catches up with you and totalsyour wingman, you might expect him or
your car during the chase. Before he canher to just hang back. But we found
collect his bounty on you, though, yourourselves getting bumped into and boxed
old friend Darius steps in and pays offin by our wingman on several occasions.
Cross. You are then put to work, takingIt's not ruinous to the experience, but
over the turf of the other rivalsometimes it makes you wish they would
street-racing crews in Palmont City. Itjust go away.
seems that you've got a history in thisCanyon duels are challenging, but their
town that predates the events in Mostrepetitious structure can sometimes make
Wanted. And during the course of thethem wearying.
game, you'll learn more about thatThe game relies on some pretty
fateful night you skipped town.tried-and-true types of races, but it
Different characters will give theiralso throws some curves. You'll find
takes on the night you supposedly ranplenty of common stuff, such as
off with a big red duffle bag full oflap-based circuit races, point-to-point
cash. And by the end of the game, you'llsprints, and checkpoint races. But there
not only find out what really happened,are also some unique races, such as the
but you'll have taken over all of thespeed-trap race, where your standing is
street-racing territory in Palmont City.determined by your cumulative MPH as you
race through a series of speed traps.
Outside of the actual gameplay, one ofMost races take place on the city
the more endearing aspects of Moststreets of Palmont, but there are also
Wanted was the way it used live actorsdrift events, which can take place
in CG environments for its storyeither on a closed racecourse or on the
sequences. These sequences invariablywinding canyon roads that surround the
featured plenty of actor/model types,city. The goal in the drift events is to
trying a little too hard to talk toughscore points by making clean drifts
and failing spectacularly at it. Thearound corners. The car-handling changes
technique remains the same in Carbon,completely for the drift events and
though there are more story sequencesfeels much more slippery than in the
now and a slightly more self-aware tone.rest of the game, which recalls the
The heavy use of flashbacks is andrift events found in Need for Speed
interesting idea, but the story ends upUnderground 2.
being kind of muddled. And none of theYou'll also face off with the different
villains come off as particularlycrew bosses in the canyons, and these
menacing. Although it's hard to reallyevents may test your patience. Once
qualify any of it as sincerely good,you've taken enough turf for a crew boss
it's just over-the-top enough that folksto challenge you, you'll first race
who enjoy stuff like The Fast and theagainst him in a standard city-street
Furious, ironically or otherwise, shouldevent. If you beat him there, you'll
get some enjoyment out of it.advance to one of the game's canyon
Most Wanted had you racing to raise yourcourses, which are narrow and
visibility with the police and take onundulating. Here it's a two-part race,
the most notorious street racers inwhere you'll first have to chase the
Rockport. In Carbon, it's all aboutboss through a point-to-point race, and
turf. Palmont City is divided into fourthen reverse roles for the second part.
major territories, each of which isYour score on the first half is based on
predominantly controlled by a differenthow close you stay to your rival; then
street-racing crew. Each territory isin the second half, your rival tries to
then further divided into zones, andoutdo you. These events can be quite
within each zone, you'll find startingchallenging because the courses are
points for a variety of different racetechnically complicated, and the crew
events. Winning at least two events in abosses tend to be better, more
zone will put it under your control. Andaggressive drivers than the average
once you've taken over all the zones instreet racers. There are also a number
a given territory, you can take on theof ways in which you can instantly fail.
head of that crew. As you continue toIf, during the second race, your
extend your reach across Palmont City,opponent manages to get ahead of you for
rival crews will come back and try tomore than 10 seconds, you automatically
retake territory the same way you tooklose. But on the flipside, if you can
it from them, forcing you to acceptget ahead of your opponent for more than
their challenge if you want to maintain10 seconds in the first race, you
control. Having to go back and reraceautomatically win both races. Also, each
events that you've already won is kindcourse is absolutely rife with cliffs.
of a pain, but the open-world structureThis means that if you take a corner at
is nice and gives you plenty of optionsthe wrong angle or speed, you can launch
to take on races at any given point.your car off of a cliff, immediately
However, you won't be taking on all ofending the race. All of these elements
these crews by yourself, because Carboncan make for a tough but fair race.
lets you bring along a wingman into manyHowever, failure takes you back to the
of the races. These computer-controlledfirst half of the canyon duel, even if
companions break down into threeyou failed during the second half. It's
different behavior types--blockers,kind of a minor point, but it's one that
drafters, and scouts. Blockers will runcan turn a canyon duel into a real
interference for you, spinning outchore.
opponents at your command. Drafters let



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