Ever Wanted a Porsche? (Need For Speed Porsche 2000 (PC))

Member Name: arav

Product:	Need For Speed Porsche 2000 (PC)
Date:	29/07/01 (488 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: graphics, gameplay

Disadvantages: no splitscreen, loading times

Electronic arts have really excelled themselves with this game. Nowadays many games have ‘official licenses’, but this one actually stands for something. There are and astounding eighty (that’s right 80) different cars from the first humble Porsche 356 to the present day GT1 GTS (it’s a beast, trust me). There are three modes to the game. The first is factory driver, where you play a test driver working for Porsche and you must do various errands for the company, such as delivering cars, rushing executives to the airport, filming adverts in industrial estates while dodging cement trucks, and doing daredevil stunts, like 180’s, 360’s and highly impossible (but very cool) reverse 360 slaloms. There are about 25 missions in all, and your aim is to be promoted from junior to chief test driver. Every time you get a promotion the company gives you a cool car that goes into your garage (more about this later). However the company chooses which car you use, which makes it a lot harder, but the missions are not too hard, yet still challenging. The second mode is called evolution, and I find not as interesting as factory driver. In this mode you begin in 1950, with the very first Porsche, the 356. You must then enter races and win money to buy the next car when it is released, and so on, until you get to the present day. This tends to get tiresome, as the old cars are just too slow, and I can’t be bothered to work my way up. The third mode is called single race, and you simply pick a car, track and opponents, and race! This is where you can use the cars given to you in factory driver mode. Also you can download the latest cars by going to the need for speed website. The actual driving is great – if you use the right car. You can choose manual or auto, roof up or down on the cabriolets, and choose the car colour with a custom colour picker like the one in paint, allowing you absolutely any colour. Damage effects are realistic, bu
t can be turned off, and the computer cars are clever enough to try and ram you onto the mud! On some of the factory driver levels there are also police cars to be dodged, and civilian cars to avoid crashing into. There is no splitscreen mode, only internet multiplayer. One major problem however, is the system requirements, as loading times are quite long, even on my 700mhz 128mb Ram PC. A major plus though, is the price – I bought it for £20 with two other games in an EA compilation, so it should be out there for a tenner somewhere.

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