Porsche 2000 (Need for Speed 5 Porsche Unleashed (PC))

Member Name: slackjack

Product:	Need for Speed 5 Porsche Unleashed (PC)
Date:	29/06/00 (252 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very pretty, lots of cars, nice tracks

Disadvantages: Too many Porsches? Seems to need a pretty good PC.

Need for Speed has been a good little series, sensibly bringing out new versions when PC hardware had progressed far enough to make it worthwhile. So it seemed a bit soon to be bringing out a fifth instalment to the series so soon after Need For Speed 4 (NFS4), and I was half expecting that Porsche 2000 (P2K) would just be NFS4 with different cars and tracks.

The game engine is in fact similar, though in some ways not quite as polished as the engine in NFS4. NFS had some very nice after crash effects such as realistic transparent broken glass, where Porsche 2000 has replaced this with the altogether poorer effect of blanking out the screen and drawing cracks on it. Despite a couple of backwards steps like this, the in game graphics are much crisper with some lovely 3D effects in the lighting/fog area. Performance does seem to have suffered a bit though. NFS4 ran perfectly happily at 1024X768 on my system (PII 333, 96Mb RAM, 32Mb GeForce 256) I got some serious slowdown trying to run P2K at the same resolution. Some tracks would be OK, but larger track with buildings and lots of cars slowed the game down considerably, forcing me to run at 800x600 - a shame, especially as the graphics aren't improved all that much over NFS4. Sounds are good - each car sounding different, and the 911's having that distinctive air cooled noise. Car handling is good, and you can manage some pretty spectacular crashes if you either put your mind to it, or don't pay attention.

The game has three modes. A self explanatory quick race, evolution mode, and factory driver mode.
Evolution mode is a nice idea. You start off in the 1950's with a selection of frankly horrible slow old porkers. Winning races gets you cash to buy a new car or upgrade your old motor and opens up new races for you to compete in. Win enough races, an you'll move on to a more modern era, giving you a choice of much nicer cars at the same time. Damage your car in a race, an
d your car stays damaged. If you've really stuffed it, you'll have to get it repaired if you want it to be competitive in the next race, losing some of your hard earned cash. This can work in your advantage - the other computer players are likely to be mangling their cars too, and if they've bent them enough, they'll want rid of them, leaving you to pick up a fixer-upper-opportunity 911 at a bargain basement price. Fix up the essentials on the cheap for a quick way to get a faster motor, or restore to as new condition and sell it for a profit to soup up the wheels you already have.
Factory driver is another clever one. The story goes tat you have a job as a Porsche factory test driver. To get promoted, you must complete the tasks given to you by your boss. It could be getting a race spec car to do a 720 degree spin on the skidpan, weaving an 1950's car through a traffic cone slalom, or delivering and brand new 911 in double quick time leaving it without so much as a scratch. This lets you win special edition cars that you can use in the quick races, and is also food fun - though sometimes a bit of a challenge.

Quick race is a bit frustrating, as rather than letting you in on all the action, the cars and tracks that are available depend on how far you have made it through the evolution and factory driver modes - meaning that you can't get at the best cars and most fun tracks for quite some time. I really would recommend getting hold of a cheat to open up the tracks and cars - I found it to be much more fun once I could tear down the autobahn in a spanking 911, rather than being stuck on a dull track in some dodgy old 70's reject.

The complete Porsche nut is going to love this - absolutely heaps of cars to be going on with - even general car fans will love the attention to detail. It's a pity that some of the nicest cars (959, 928) have to be downloaded at a later date from the Electronic Arts website - especial
ly as they still haven't all been released.

Overall, it's a good game - the special modes make it more fun than NFS4 (although a dedicated police chase mode is missing). Definitely worth the cash if you're a Need For Speed fan - how about a game with these play modes with something other than Porsches, though?

Summary: