Top Gear ! (Need For Speed Porsche 2000 (PC))

Member Name: jokoo

Product:	Need For Speed Porsche 2000 (PC)
Date:	25/06/04 (921 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Geat fun, Easy interface, Beginners to Expert

Disadvantages: Adictive, poor gaphics on slow computer

If your, like me , this is probably the only Porsche you are ever likely to own, partially because I don?t want a real one, and mostly because I can?t afford one. I don?t have a ?Need for Speed? in real life.

I?ve had this game for a few years now, and although I? m not a computer game afficionado, I do like this one. The graphics are lush and the cars rendered in spectacular 3D, in a very realistic way. There are all manner of Porsche models represented in this game, and they are catalogued in chorological order, on a little potted history of Porsche and its cars on the disk.

I?m no Jeremy Clarkson, and what I know about cars you can get on the back of a postage stamp, but I do like to watch the odd bit of F1 on a Sunday, so I?m a bit of a part time speed freak by proxy. This game gives you all the thrills AND spills of top speed motor racing.

I prefer ?Need for Speed? to other F1 type games because the cars have so much more character, than the clone like F1 cars. All the vintage models since the 1950's are faithfully portrayed in loving detail.

All the cars have realistic settings that relate to their actual performance in real life. The old soft top Porsche convertible 356, has a pretty puny performance, compared to the Boxter or 911, which is reflected in the game play , you will realise this in no time if you try racing against a 911, in this game in an old jalopy 356.

There are several types of race you can take part in which range from just a quick single race to a full length knockout tournament. The single race is what is says, and the tournaments can range over several knockout stages, on several different tracks. This game comes in several different versions, there are 5 or 6 to my knowledge, the one I have is ?Need for Speed , Porsche 2000".

The race tracks available on this version are, Cote d?Azur. Normandie, Monte Carlo and Pyrenees. They are all beautifully rendered, and maybe I?m just




an old duffer when it comes to computer games but the quality of the graphics never ceases to amaze me with this type of thing.

Basically what you have to do to begin with is to create your driver, this involves a multiple choice from 8 different pre-prepared drivers 5 male and 3 female which you can ascribe an identity to. The name you give the driver comes out on the number plate on you car when you go through to the 3d race model. The driver will be rendered in the car in the actual game.

Then you have to pick your car, at the beginning of a tournament you will only have the choice of one car, the Porsche 356 jalopy, I mentioned earlier. As you progress through the championship you will hopefully amass more and more prize money , with which to buy better, more high performance cars, in which case gives you a better chance of winning. So the more you win the more you can win. As I said each car has a realistic performance in relation to the street model of the car, so you can?t just pick a car for looks if you want to win this game. Why is it that the better high performance cars from Porsche are also the ugliest ones? I much prefer the look of the old 356, than some of the newer models represented, but it won?t win in a straight out race.

When you have your car and driver selected, you can choose which track you want select ?RACE? and your off.

Let?s say where going for a burn round Normandie, you start in a lush green forest, you?ll be at the back of the grid, unless you did some practice laps to get you up the grid, like they do in F1, and you get 3,2,1 on the screen, and also from the wacky commentator, starting the race. The other computer generated and controlled cars, are off, and you better be quick of they?ll be at the end before you into first gear! The race is pretty fast paced, and there is not a lot of room for error.

The one drawback with this game, is that you can NOT have two player
s at
the P
C, at
the
same time playing against each other! You can ONLY play the computer. The only way you can play against another human is to buy too copies of the game and play on a LAN network OR against someone over the Internet, also with someone else with a copy of the game. It?s a bit of a con if you want to play against someone else as the game isn?t that cheap at £9.99, from W.H.Smith , where I got mine from.

Back to the race and what you get is a scrolling screen which transports you through the countryside of Normandie at a frenetic pace, racing your fellow drivers, which is in fact just the computer. The quality of the rendering depends on the speed of your computer and what graphic options you have installed. The countryside will whiz past you as you speed your way down the track, all of which are open road tracks as opposed to actual purpose built racetracks like Silverstone etc, which are more F1 territory and I find pretty boring to race around.

There are many realistic features which I find particularly good about this game, like sound effects of engines, music, ambient sounds like birds chirping, chickens clucking ( part of a race passes through a farm), and as well as the sounds there is a feature records every bump and scrape you have with your car and deducts it from your cars performance, your car will also look suitably dishevelled on screen according to the amount of damaged it has sustained. You can cry in the comfort of your own living room , as you watch you beautiful new Porsche , gets knocked into an old banger by the other drivers.

But hold it ?petrolheads?, don?t cry just yet, there is also a feature of the game where you can repair, and customise your pride and joy, and even change the set up like brake and gear ratios, buy custom parts for increased performance, which IS reflected in the performance of the car, during the race.. I don?t know wether this game is incredibly well detail
ed and eng
ineered in
itself, w
hich it is
, or just a bit too sad and nerdy for words. I think it all depends on wether you like it or not and how much a Porsche lover you are , and if you?re a Top Gear fan, or not.....urrgh, Jeremy Clarkson now there?s a clever chap....? I wonder what they would make of all this nerdy car simulation? I bet the bloke who design this game has a Porsche of his own by now because I gather it is pretty popular with ?petrolheads?, and computer nerds alike.

There is another feature which petrol nerds will like and that is the playback feature, which allows you to save and re run the race you have just taken part in ?before your very eyes?. The computer records the race like video, and you can watch it , and watch as many times as you like, from all different camera angles, inside the car, on top of the car, from the side, under the car, in font of the car looking backwards etc,etc. Nerds will see this as a way of assessing and contemplating and improving their racing skills, normal people will see it as a bit of a laugh, to see themselves careering off the road and tumbling into the realistically rendered undergrowth by the side of the road.

In terms of controller interface, if you?re a serious race junkie, you have to get one of those steering wheel joystick things to get the best out of this game. Having said that I?m not, and I don?t have one, but I get by perfectly well with just a game pad, and if your terribly poor you don?t even need that you can just use the up and down arrows on your keyboard for steering. The rest of the controls are also on the keyboard, these allow you to change the camera angle, the view as you are driving, inside the car behind the wheel, or outside the car, from above looking down on the race. You can have manual or automatic, and a host of customizable details.

A pound to a penny, that 99% of the people who play this game do not own, and will never own a Porsche
themselves, an
d there?s nothi
ng wrong with t
hat . After all
you don?t need to own a chieftain tank to have a go at blowing somebody to kingdom come, in one of the plethora, of war game simulations available on the market, and I would say that this is a bit more classy than that kind of genre. I don?t think there would be enough Porches in the world for everyone who wanted one to have one anyway, so I suppose this game satisfies the need for greed, as well as speed, and keeps all those, eco unfriendly petrol guzzling speed machines off the road.

The idea of being able to play it over the Internet is a good one, as is common with many of the new computer games, this opens up a whole new world of contestants available most of whom you will never actually meet! I think you need a pretty fast computer for this kind of thing as any one you want to play will get pretty brassed off if you trailing round the track at 5mph. I never went into it because I don?t think my computer is up to it.

There are some unusual features of this game, and if you key in certain code words before the start of the race, when you are choosing your driver, you can have some unusual effects. I don?t remember all of them, but you can make the cars appear like miniature remote controlled cars in a normal sized landscape, why?........I don?t know. Also you can have some police cars in the game chasing you as you go round the track. That?s a bit odd and I think that actually appears as a regular option in a later version of the game. There were some others , but I can?t remember what they were or all the pass words but I?m sure you can get them off the net.

I think there is something for everyone in this came, from the hard core Porsche fans, to just top quality race game junkies, and the Jeremy Clarkson devotees, it really is a collection of games, that appeals across the board. I don?t know why I?m talking it up so much I can?t even drive, well perhaps
that?s why, I can l
ive out my racing fa
ntasies in the safet
y of my own home, wi
thout running anyone over!

I haven?t seen it on the shelves recently, but with so many titles coming out every month it?s hardly surprising, I have seen it on Amazon, I dare say you can get it on ebay, and you must be able to order it at a multitude of game sites all over the web.

Min System requirements:

OS windows 95/ 98/ 2000
Processor 200mhz

Mem 32 Mb ram

HD 150mb

CD 4speed

Graphics 4 Mb

It says 3d accelerator required , I don?t have one and it works ok

Direct x 7.0 included

Multi player 1cd per person

Network IPX compliant

modem 56.6 kps

Internet 56.6 kps

Maybe they ought to give this game to people who steal cars for a laugh, and a bit of a thrill, keep them off the streets, I think they would like it, it?s pretty kickin?.

Jeremy Clarkson can keep his petrol burnin? speed machines, polluting the environment an? all, I?m off for a quick spin round Monte-Carlo, in me yellow Boxter, see yer later peeps, Vrruum, Vrruum!

Summary: