Need for Speed: Carbon review

[Dalamari]

I know that with all the "**** EA" stuff going on it's almost pointless to review one of their games, but I took the time to download it and I must say, not too shabby. Yes, the game is full of ads (like a giant PROGRESSIVE logo on every SUV and a cell phone advert on the side of the sedans) but thankfully, you'll be going too fast to notice. In this game, they've done away with the drag mode and replaced it with a duel mode that involves one player racing down the canyon fast (more on the canyon later) and the other person following, then they switch sides and do it again, the best follower wins (it's more fun than it sounds) Autosculpt is pretty awesome, instead of having to buy pre-made bodykits, you can sculpt each peice you put on, so your car can look a bit different than everyone else online, you can also place decals where you want Forza Motorsport style. The cars don't have warp drive anymore which is nice. , you can now weigh your performance upgrades now so instead of dropping a new engine in and it magically makes the car go faster, you can choose to have it put out more torque or horsepower, or have your suspension oversteer/understeer more. Another nice thing is that you can't upgrade a RX-8 to be faster than a Porsche, you can only upgrade a car to a certain point, then you need to buy a new one to get any better

The graphics are pretty solid once you shut off the car reflections that make any vehicle look like it's radioactive, but the best part of all is the sounds. The engine sounds alone should make this an AO game and list it as "Automotive pornography" I have a cheapo 5 peice surround sound system, and it still blew my mind how brilliant the sounds were.

Oh, online play is laggy, story is boring with bad acting, that's all

8/10

Oh, and here's my Jaguar XK

 

[Unfocused]

So it's not that bad after all? Better than Most Wanted?

 

[Lucid]

Wait wait, so they brought Need for Speed back to its roots?

No more lame-ass Fast & the Furious cars?

 

[Dalamari]

Wait wait, so they brought Need for Speed back to its roots?

No more lame-ass Fast & the Furious cars?

I would say they toned it down more than brought it back to its roots, the cars don't corner like an Elise just because you bought some stuff, you need to get the right car for the right job, like a muscle car (300C, Mustang, Challenger) will accelerate like crazy, but the car weighs so much that it'll slide like crazy in corners/understeer like a bitch, tuners like an Evo 8, Supra, RX-8, corner really good, but have a shit top speed, and exotics (Porsche, Lambo, Jaguar, Aston) can vary on stats, the lambo is great at cornering cause it has 4wd, but has a low top speed

It makes more sense in game, but basically the cars are a bit more realistic now

 

[Lucid]

I would say they toned it down more than brought it back to its roots, the cars don't corner like an Elise just because you bought some stuff, you need to get the right car for the right job, like a muscle car (300C, Mustang, Challenger) will accelerate like crazy, but the car weighs so much that it'll slide like crazy in corners/understeer like a bitch, tuners like an Evo 8, Supra, RX-8, corner really good, but have a shit top speed, and exotics (Porsche, Lambo, Jaguar, Aston) can vary on stats, the lambo is great at cornering cause it has 4wd, but has a low top speed

It makes more sense in game, but basically the cars are a bit more realistic now

Awesome, I was tired of Underground's arcadey-garbage.

 

[Qonfused]

I'm buying this right now with 13 hours to go. I can't wait.

I bought Underground for the PS2 a long time ago and I loved it. I just love racing around in normal, albeit "suped-up", cars. It's really enjoyable for me. I am going to miss the Drag mode though.

 

[Lucid]

I'll give the demo a whirl... although it's a bit big for a demo.

 

[Loke]

Does it run well or is it as poorly optimized as Underground?

 

[Dalamari]

I can max it out on my comp if I shut reflections off (which you should do anyways)

 

[xombine]

Specs?

 

[Dalamari]

Athlon XP 2800+
1 gig of DDR
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 256MB

 

[Beerdude26]

Underground 1 was fine, Underground 2 was shite tbh. Most Wanted seemed like you just had to slam as much as upgrades as possible and outrun the cops at 400 KPH.

 

[Qonfused]

My purchase of this game needs to go faster.

 

[Lucid]

My purchase of this game needs to go faster.

:|

 

[Dalamari]

Haha Qonfused Just Got Pwnt By The Internets

 

[Qonfused]

My purchase just got corrupted.

:|

 

[Baal]

My purchase just got corrupted.

:|

That's a shame

 

[Asuka]

My brother got this for the 360. Looks like a fun game. At least he is loving it.

 

[Naudian]

I tried to DL a demo for this but the installer was screwed up.
Maybe I'll try again later on...

 

[X-FacToR]

I think it was way too damn blurry for me to review it fairly. (PC demo) I don't know if I can bring myself to play it agian, but maybe on a friends 360 or something.

 

[Dalamari]

Too damn blurry? Not quite sure I understand...

 

[Lucid]

Just got done playing the demo, really fun.

I like the drifting, although the sounds of tires screeching for 10/15 minutes would give me a headache.
I'm considering picking it up, the Autosculpt is pretty spiffy too.

 

[<RJMC>]

the sculpting stuff atratcs me

however it still look like the undergrounds

 

[Qonfused]

Well, I decided to just go out and buy it (seriously...). It's really great game, and I'll post some screenshots tomorrow.

 

[B_MAN]

how people can like this game just boggles my mind
you call yourself gamers!?

 

[sinkoman]

Can somebody go into more detail as to what "autosculpt" is?

 

[Lucid]

Can somebody go into more detail as to what "autosculpt" is?

You can basically fully customize each body part of your car..

To the tire sizes, the hub cap shapes, on muscle cars, how far out you want the engine to stick out, etc.

Here's what autosculpting looks like.

 

[Dalamari]

The SP is pretty damn short, beat it in only two days, so maybe only 7-8 hours of playing

 

[Shodan]

Is the R34 Skyline in this game?

 

[phantomdesign]

You can basically fully customize each body part of your car..

To the tire sizes, the hub cap shapes, on muscle cars, how far out you want the engine to stick out, etc.

Here's what autosculpting looks like.

The auto-sculpt feature looks really cool. It kind of proves exactly how little creativity goes into 95% of bodykits available on the market.

 

[Dalamari]

Is the R34 Skyline in this game?

Yeah, along with (copied from wikipedia)

* 2006 Alfa Romeo Brera - Image
* 2004 Aston Martin DB9 - Image
* 2003 Audi Le Mans Quattro - Image
* 2003 BMW M3 GTR - Image
* 2006 Chevrolet Camaro Concept** - Image
* 1967 Chevrolet Camaro SS - Image
* 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS - Image
* 2006 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 - Image
* 2006 Chrysler 300C SRT8 - Image
* 1971 Dodge Challenger* - Image
* 2006 Dodge Challenger Concept - Image
* 1969 Dodge Charger R/T - Image
* 2006 Dodge Charger SRT-8 - Image
* 2006 Dodge Viper SRT-10 Coupe - Image
* 2005 Ford GT - Image
* 2006 Ford Mustang GT - Image
* 2007 Jaguar XK** - Image
* 2006 Koenigsegg CCX** - Image
* 2004 Lamborghini Gallardo - Image
* 2004 Lamborghini Murcielago - Image
* 2007 Lamborghini Murcielago LP640 - Image
* 2001 Lexus IS300 - Image
* 2004 Lotus Elise - Image
* 2006 Lotus Europa S - Image
* 2007 Mazda MAZDASPEED3 - Image
* 1999 Mazda RX-7 - Image
* 2003 Mazda RX-8 - Image
* 2005 Mercedes-Benz CLK500 - Image
* 2005 Mercedes-Benz SL65 AMG - Image
* 2004 Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren - Image
* 1999 Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX - Image
* 2006 Mitsubishi Eclipse GT - Image
* 2006 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX MR Edition - Image
* 1992 Nissan 240SX** - Image
* 2006 Nissan 350Z -
* 1999 Nissan Skyline R34 GT-R -
* 2006 Pagani Zonda F*
* 1970 Plymouth Barracuda -
* 2006 Pontiac GTO -
* 2004 Porsche Carrera GT -
* 2006 Porsche Cayman S -
* 2005 Renault Clio V6 -
* 1967 Shelby GT500 -
* 2007 Ford Shelby GT500 -
* 2006 Subaru Impreza WRX STi -
* 1993 Toyota MR2 -
* 1998 Toyota Supra -
* 2005 Vauxhall Monaro VXR -
* 2006 Volkswagen Golf R32 -

 

[phantomdesign]

Played it for about 90 minutes last night - it's fun so far, although the car I starteed out with (stock) seemed to drive like it was on rails aready. I like the NFS: Porsche physics a lot better than these driving physics - it seems so fake.

 

[Naudian]

^ Hell yes. Porsche Unleashed is, imo, the most interesting/worth-while NFS out there.

I got the NFS Carbon demo to work after changing the autorun.exe and nfs_inst.exe compatibility mode to windows 2000 (wtf) and played it for about 30 minutes.

In short, theres nothing at all that makes me want to buy this game. Autosculpt is cool. Thats about it.

 

[StardogChampion]

Just played the demo. It's average.

I'd rather play Ridge Racer or Wipeout or something.

 

[ríomhaire]

D:
I liked drag mode.

 

[phantomdesign]

Played the game some more - the game is just not nearly as much fun as it would be if there were some semi-realistic physics. I have a Toyota MR2 Spyder (mid-engine, RWD) and have driven a few high-performance mid-engine RWD cars & it's am absolutely amazing feel going around corners at high speed in those cars.

None of the cars in the game "feel" anything remotely close to that. If you have the gas floored while going around the corner in an Elise, you should feel the rear end slide out a little (not a lot) - but intseld the Elise in game suffers massive under-steer.

D:
I liked drag mode.

You would! (ha ha, just playing - couldn't resist!)