NFS has left the streets? (Need For Speed Pro Street (PC))

Member Name: 6heads

Product:	Need For Speed Pro Street (PC)
Date:	03/01/08 (311 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good Gameplay, Great Sound fx, Great gfx, Realistic

Disadvantages: Not on the streets, too much in-game advertising

Another trip into the dark, underground world of street racing has arrived, well apparently not and it looks like EA may have just shot themselves in the foot or should I say run over their foot. As far back as the first "Need for Speed" some kind of street races or cop chases have been included in the game however EA have made a big change this time. Instead of racing the streets you now have an official racing career on tracks spread far and wide all over the globe.

Although some of the races are on public roads they are closed down so there is no longer high speed collision with oncoming cars or the enthralling sound of missing a flat bed truck by millimetres. As some of you may have guessed this also means that the game no longer contains cop chases which have been a major part of the previous games. On the other hand this has made the race experience more realistic as now there is a set track when you overthrow a corner there is a nice wall for you to bounce off and you slide a long way across gravel which seriously damages your race position and your car. Yes that's right EA have introduced damage, there are three levels of damage Light Damage, this is relatively cheap to repair and doesn't damage the performance of your car too badly. Heavy Damage, Can seriously damage you chances of winning a race due to the drop in performance of your car. Finally you can total, this is basically the American way of saying your car is a write off and you automatically lose the race and it costs extortionate amounts of money to fix the car. There is another option though, at the beginning of each race day you are given repair markers and insurance markers. Repair markers can be used to repair light and heavily damaged cars and insurance markers to replace the totalled car, don't worry it will still have all your performance and visual upgrades.

One feature that EA weren't stupid enough to take out is car modifications, you can still max out your ride with performance upgrades ranging from new engines to NOS. Also on the visual side they have brought back the autosculpt feature from NFS: Carbon. This allows you take say a spoiler and stretch and mould it into the perfect shape for your ride. This auto sculpting can also be used to change the aerodynamics of your car so it grips the road better or less if your building a drift car. An additional change to gameplay is the fact that you can't use one car for all types of races and have to have four cars for each separate race type grip races, speed races, drift competitions and drag races.

*Grip Races*
These are your basic out and out race against a number of other cars around a track for a set number of laps, first one to finish wins simple as that. For this type of race you want to build a car that's fast and handy in corners. The game also includes a few variations on grip races, these are:
Time Attack - you're on your own around the track and have to set the fastest lap out of the four cars competing.
Sector Shootout- On your own again you must set the fastest time though each quarter of the lap, you get points for setting the quickest sector. Racer with the most points wins.

*Drag Races*
Just a straight line race over a set distance, you against one other car. In this event you have to use manual shift. The best type of car for this event is an all American muscle car.

*Drift Competitions*
In this event you race around a circuit and get points for sliding(drifting) your car sideways around corners, the more sideways and faster you go the more points you get. The new drift feature removes one of the most frustrating things about drifts in the previous games, if you hit one of the walls you don't lose all your points. Just make sure your cars not for wheel drive.

*Speed Race*
A long race not around a circuit but along a large stretch of generally closed public roads. To win you travel at very high speeds and don't often have to take your foot of the accelerator. Although since its public roads it's not always smooth, hit a bump and 250mph that's the end of your ride. An all American muscle or something aerodynamic like a Porsche is good for this.

Since this game is based all over the world you no longer have the free drive part where you would drive to your races, instead you go to race days which range from China to the Nevada Desert. At each race days there will be a number of the different races mentioned above. Furthermore this game features a very extensive online mode and as well as racing other people online you can share your car blueprints and have it save up all your career data for an online leader board.

Advertising, this is a major downer for this game as it incorporates lots of it. At each race day there is loads of advertising boards and baloons that the game could of done without. Even at the race menu where you view your cars theres lots of background advertising.

Don't buy this game if you're expecting the street racing your used to from the previous games, and for some reason I feel EA are covering this up in their advertising and the name pro STREET. If you want a perfectly refined and accurate driving experience with all the adrenaline and excitement of real racing this game is for you especially if you have a USB wheel like my Logitech Momo Force Feedback which maps exquisitely to the game. With the wheel it feels almost like driving a real car. I am also using an Xrocker gaming chair which works perfectly with the game and you feel all the knocks and bumps as well as the V8 engine of a mustang wurring into life. On a final note i would comment on the amazing graphics that come from this came from the sun blinding your view when your driving in to it as well as the shimmering cars beautifully drawn by my mid range gfx card.

System requirements for Windows:
* Windows XP / Vista
* 2.8 GHz CPU (3.0 GHz for Vista)
* 512 MB RAM (1 GB for Vista)
* 8.1 GB hard disk space
* DirectX 9.0 with Shader 2.0 support compatible 128 MB graphics card with one of these chipsets GeForce FX 5950; Radeon 9500
* DirectX 9.0 compatible sound card
* 8X DVD-ROM
* 512 Kbps Internet connection for online play
Input methods PC: Keyboard, Mouse, or USB Steering Wheel/Gamepad

As system requirements can not always be trusted heres my setup:
- Windows Vista
- 3GHz Dual Core
- 2GB of Ram
- Nvidia 8500gt gfx car has 256mb onboard memory
- Logitech Momo Force Feedback Racing Wheel
- Onboard motherboard
- Xrocker chair, adds that air of realism when couple with a wheel

Summary: Exhilirating, what you have come to expect from NFS minus the street racing