Need for Speed Carbon

"The REAL DEAL: Toky... er NFS Carbon REVIEW!!"

Another year another NFS, but is this one worth the long haul or is it simply a weekend rental?

History

Just a quick little history on the series: The 1st NFS was sponsored in part by Road & track. The idea was simple: a racing game with (for the time) a more realistic take on handling centered around exotics/high end sports cars. NFS2 came out an they dropped the Road & Track support an introduced more high end exotics. Then after the highly acclaimed NFS:HP2, ea apparently fell in love with the Fast an Furious movie an decided to create NFS Underground, which completely went in a different direction than the more traditional NFS series: You could now customize in detail how your car looks an performs. After NFSU2, EA seemingly thought what if you threw in higher end cars an a few exotics into the mix? They then created NFS:MW. Now apparently they loved the Fast n Furious Tokyo drift movie, because that's what Carbon is all about: Drifting.

GraphX

THe game doesn't look bad, but it does look a bit... off, I just can't put my finger on it, but something doesn't really quite look right. Also unlike Most Wanted, everything is now back to night time. The cars themselves are modeled pretty good an allow for crazy variations (more on that later). The Cut-scenes also look good for what their worth.

Soundz

Ah yes, one area that the NFS series has always been #1 in is car sounds. I've yet to play another racing game that makes the cars sound so good, especially when shifting gears! However Music isn't that great, but hey let's all hear it for custom soundtrack feature that the 360 offers!

Gameplay

When 1st playing, something about it just feels... off, I know tuners have the best handling, but sometimes it felt TOO good. I was taking sharp corners at a 100+mph without any sliding whatsoever. Now in an F1 car, fine, but your dad's stock RX8? This time around EA decided to try an please everyone by actually making different car classes: Exotics, Tuners an Muscle. Tuners have the best handling but are the weakest of the bunch, Muscles have crazy power, but it's pretty much like driving a train when it comes to corners, an exotics are the intermediate of the bunch offering good handling an good power.

One thing I don't understand this time around though: Why get rid of drag races!? The race that caters most to a muscle car is now gone. Tuners are of course the best when it comes to drift an even exotics are ok, but muscles? Good luck. It can be done, but it's tedious. Now if you've played NFSUG2 an MW, you come in with a pre-conceived notion of how drifting works. Well forget it as the system has been dumbed down an made much easier to get into. Wether that's a good thing or bad thing, I'll let you decide, as for me; I like the drift races in the canyon, but when it comes to the drift circuit, I preffer the drift system of old.

NFS:MW re-introduced cops to the NFS series, an it fit the game last time because the game was based around them. This time however the game isn't, so after the 1st few cop chases they tend to get real annoying real quick. Like before you can customize your ride in numerous ways, but a new feature that has been added is the bodysculpting: these are parts in which you can actually mold to your liking, IE make a vent bigger/smaller. Really neat addition. Also there are now challanges to do to unlock more items/cars in the game. Online may lag at times, but from my experience it wasn't too unbearable.

Another new feature to the game are crew members. Now you don't have to ride alone anymore! There are 3 kinds of crew: blocking- these guys will purposely knock out a target for you. Scout- want to know where that super cool shortcut is? Then you roll with these guys, as they'll radio you an tell you where the hidden routes are. Finally there's the drifters- they'll drive ahead of you so you can get in their stream an build up speed. The crew members aren't worthless either as sometimes they'll even win the race for you an plus they keep up convo during races to let you know what's going on around you, some will find it annoying, but I found it help immerse you into the game a bit more.

Presentation

EA once again included a cheesy storyline which we've come to love as part of the series, you can tell the production values were pretty high an really looks pretty good in how it's done. Menu's are easy to navigate an you can jump to events as opposed to driving to them an potentially being pursued by cops.

In The End

EA tries to please everyone, however the game falls a bit on the shortside an the difficulty gets ramped up in the last leg of things unexpectedly. It's a great weekend rental as that's how long you can go through career mode in. The challenges an online will help extend the life of the game, but not by too much. So in the end it's a short but sweet ride.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 12/06/06