Need for Speed: High Stakes

"NFS 4 is so slow that it's more like an interactive slideshow than a racing game."

Stay away from NFS 4, don't even waste your money renting it! Believe it of not, NFS 3 is still the best of the Need For Speed series on Playstation.

Need For Speed 3 on Playstation is a fun game especially with its hot pursuit mode. Even though its frame rate was not fast enough to create a silky-smooth racer, yet the game was still fast and fun.

About a year later after the release of NFS3, EA released NFS: High Stakes (NFS4) in March 1999. Sadly, NFS4 being a sequel to NFS3 not only fails to tune up the frame rate, but ended up with an even slower frame rate. The frame rate is so low that it's more like an interactive slideshow than a game! I'm not kidding here, you've been warned.

The graphic in NFS4 is dull, there's hardly any improvement over the graphic of NFS3. And frankly, I find the graphic in NFS3 to be quite beautiful even when compared to the games released in year 2000. The tracks' graphic in NFS3 is bright and colorful. NFS4 on the other hand tried to take a more realistic approach to its graphic but ended up with uninspired and dull-looking graphic.

The presentation in NFS4 is hideous and slow. The menus' operation are very time consuming, they should have retain the better menu structures found in NFS3.

Those guys in EA have totally screw up the hot pursuit mode! When playing the hot pursuit mode, there's no other vehicles on the road and no more computer racer to race with, all there is on the road is your vehicle and a few police cars chasing you. The new element of being able to play as the police is not really that fun either. And since the NFS4 is right now a very slow racer, there's hardly any fun playing other racing modes.

Overall: 5/10
In a nutshell, NFS4 is made up of lousy graphic, snail-paced frame rate and dull game play that is hardly entertaining. Why would you want a copy of NFS4 when NFS3 is far more superior in both graphic and game play? Believe me, if you play this lousy game in front of your friends, you'll be laughed at for the rest of your life.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 06/26/00, Updated 06/26/00