Pimp my PS2 (Need For Speed Underground 2 (PS2))

Member Name: triplecthegame

Product:	Need For Speed Underground 2 (PS2)
Date:	02/10/05 (715 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: So easy to pick-up

Disadvantages: Can be a bit samey

A long long time ago - there was an evil landlord who demanded that he get his rent by 5pm on the same day he'd demanded it. This led to your intrepid writer having to sell his beloved Sony Playstation 2 just so that he had a roof over his head, he had planned on living in the box it came in, but it was too small and also had no power-sockets to plug his computer into so....... with much regret the Playstation 2 had to go.

But fear not faithful reader for every tale has a silver lining and in this case it came in the form of the second greatest thing you can get at work (after pay-day)........ a promotion! So naturally the first thing on my shopping list with my big fat pay-rise was a replacement Playstation 2, and then a decent 'non-realistic' driving game, its all good and well playing Gran Turismo but at times you just need the outlandish a bit more and that's where after a lot of deliberating my hard-earned £30 was spent on a copy of Need for Speed Underground 2, and lades and gentlewomen, let the crazy racing begin.

The premise of the game is simple - in some ongoing story from Need for Speed Underground 1 you've run away from your home-town and all the underground street racing you was doing there, but ended up in a different city to do some more underground street racing and this city handily happens to be slightly locked up a bit (until you win a certain amount of races), has stores that don't get stock in till a different store gets it first, and has lots of opportunity for boy-racing fun.

You start out getting off the plane and being loaned a friend of a friend's 'ride' (for us normal people - thats their car) until you find one of your own - now this car is souped up to the ying-yang and drives extremely quickly but don't get yourself excited too quickly as this car isn't yours for long, in fact you're getting messages almost instantly demanding that you give it back, which leads you to your first car which as in most racing games - it ain't the greatest (hint time for you all - get a Peugeot 106) and that'll be your home for a long time to come, after this - here comes the real gaming.

To start with you have to drive round the city aimlessly trying to find somewhere that a race is going down - doing this AND winning will build up your reputation, which eventually in turn will lead to a sponsor noticing you and offering you big cash to sign up with them and win races under their name, but this also comes at a price - you'll have to participate in certain 'types' of races, all at the sponsors behest, so the one type of race you're really bad at - you may be forced to win at least 3 of those whether you like it or not, but what are those types I don't hear you cry (well I wouldn't - I'm sat here typing on my computer, not sat next to you), well they are:

Street-X: Simply a 'who can drive better on this really tight course' kind of race - expect really tight corners, tough to navigate hairpin bends and general close-touch driving with your computerized opponents, this happens to be my least favourite type of racing as the AI seems to be extremely cranked up and you can bet every last penny that your opponents will always be on your tail no matter what.

Drag: Exactly what it sounds like - simply you're driving alongside each other, and you need to time the rev's on your start just right, then your gear changes and also your lane changes as well - in these races you could end up blowing your engine out if you over-rev it or just 'totalling' your car if you happen to pull out in front of one of many obstacles on the course, its fun, but very very tough to perfect all the timings on.

Drift: A-haaaa this is more like it, you don't need to finish first or do any nasty jostling for position with you opponents, just make your car drift as much as possible and earn points for how fast you're going, how long you can maintain the drift, and how close you drive to opponents/obstacles - this is hella-fun, you simply go out there and slope around the track as best as you can, it doesn't take much talent to do it - its just one of those parts in a game that is fun with a capital F! There's also downhill drifting which is the same except for no opponents cars on the road with you, you just do the best you can and hope that it beats that which your opponents have already scored.

Circuit: Drive around a track for a few laps but you'll have the added opportunity of using your nitrous oxide (if you've installed it - more on this later on), to give you that edge when you just need it - basically one tap of a button and whoosh - you're off and away, but use it sparingly as you don't get that much, but can get some more by performing tricks such as narrowly avoiding accidents or drifting (yay!) round a corner, all in all its good fun, and quite quick to get into as well so it isn't actually a bad addition.

Sprint: Exactly the same as Circuit except instead of going round and round in laps its one long course.

URL: Almost the same as circuit again except there's no chance to use your Nitrous Oxide and you may find yourself playing 2 or 3 races in a league style event.

One-offs - you may find yourself driving around town and other street-racers may notice you and challenge you to one-off quick races where basicaally youneed to get a certain distance away from your opponent and stop him from doing the same thing to you, I'd reccomend against it as they're almost impossible to win and only stand to earn you a little more cash and you can always get that from all the other styles of racing.

But racing isn't the only thing you need to do in this game - you need to also 'Pimp your ride' for those of you who don't watch MTV you need to make your car more aesthetically beautiful - differnt shops will give you everything, better rims, hoods, paint jobs, spoilers, vinyl's, tinted windows headlights, tinted headlights, carbon body-parts, even better audio sections - literally anything you could think of, all of these will add to your star rating which will help you get DVD covers and Magazine covers, which get you more money to buy better things.

Quick explanation of the star-rating - simply for each better part that you get your stae-rating goes up and the star-rating is something you will need to get through the game as sponsors demand that you get those Magazine and DVD covers that I mentioned earlier.

The last thing that you can get in the shops is parts to upgrade your cars performance, which would include turbo's, better tyre's, better brakes and parts to all round bring your cars speed and handling even higher.

Right that's all the things that you can do in the game covered, what about all the parts that makes a game good or bad?

Gameplay: The most important part of any game, and IF you like driving games then yep - you'll love this but you really need to be a driving game enthusiast otherwise you'll end up with a game that's ok for a couple of goes here and there but definitely not something that you're going to want to pay full-price for, however if like me you love your driving games then you've got perfection - its the type of game that you can pick up for a quick 5 minute go or if you have a couple of free hours you'll find that this takes them up as well - it just eats you whole when you're playing it and sometimes that's exactly what you want from a game.

Controls: Again a very important part of any game - too hard and you've lost em, too easy and you'll be accused of being aimed at kids - and this one has it just right - theres no confusing button presses and it doesn't feel like its been wrote for just any little kid to pick up.

Storyline: It trys, heck they signed up Kelly Brook (phwoooooooooooarrwrrrr - but she's no Katie-Jane Garside, if you don't know who she is, tut!) but its cheesy, its driving for chris-sake! Just let us drive our cars.

Graphics: As with most big name ganes - they look slick but the backgrounds bother me to a degree, they're not as interactive as I'd liked to have seen, and most things just stand there no matter how hard you drive into them - tres disappointing, but a worthy effort.

Soundtrack: It's Gangster-rap, I don't like Gangster-rap so I'm just going to say 'meh!' If you like that kind of thing then great but if you don't - mute is your friend. But one innovation they have is that you can pick which songs you want to hear whilst you're playing via the 'EAtrac' system where you can pick which of the pre-loaded tracks you play and also in which order you hear them - its nice but still, the choices aren't exactly great in MY musical taste.

Overall would I reccomend buying this game? yes and no - it all depends what style of game you're in to amd what you're wanting out of your next purchase - if you love driving games then go for it, if you don't but want something you can quickly pick up and play - again go for it, but if you don't like driving games and want to have something to change your opinion - forget it, but hey I like it, and its worth at least a renting.

Summary: A driving game for those that don't want Gran Turismo