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Am I having fun yet..?

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 8
Date: November 19, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Ah! Need For Speed in all its glory. Spend 3 minutes racing, spend 3 hours running from the police. At first glance it appears to be another gasp for air while the NFS series drowns in its sea of failure. However its much much more!

Finally! The art of ricing out cars is no longer limited to Honda's and Toyota's! No sir, now you get to deface once proud muscle cars with parking bench sized wings. Owning a 2001 Camaro SS myself, I was excited about seeing muscle cars in the game. However, they seemed to put no thought into what cars to add. Some of the cars, yes, were the best year to add. However, others, such as the 1969 Roadrunner were a bad choice. When people think of the Roadrunner, the one that comes to mind is the 1970, just like the 1969 model comes to mind when one thinks of a Charger. I wish EA did more research into what people like.

However, the flaws don't stop there. The accessories for these cars are a real issue. They don't have a sleek feel that muscle enthusiasts enjoy. They all have a riceboy feel to them, which is exactly what we don't like.

Now, for my REAL issue with this game: Police chases.

They are too difficult. You will find yourself racing all over the town trying to escape. When you finally evade, another car appears out of nowhere. It gets old very fast, and most likely, you wont even want to play anymore after the first 2 chases. It's very repetitive aswell, which really cant be avoided, but still, it gets very frustrating when you cant escape, no matter what you try. The best thing to do when you start getting chased? Give up. Just stop. You cant get away, no matter what you do, so give up.

I miss the good old days when NFS was fun. High Stakes was, and in my opinion, will always be, a legend among the NFS series. You can pick it up very cheap these days, and I highly recommend it over this game. The chases are more fun, the cars are better, the races more fun, everything.

The bottom line is that this game just isn't worth the money. Its not at all realistic, fun, and lacks replay value. Go with a better game, please.

Still not good!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 5
Date: December 12, 2006
Author: Amazon User

NFS hasn't changed at all. Even this game. The only changes to this game is a few new cars, and a new city.

But still, I don't like the new version of NFS.

You have GOT to be kidding???!!!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 6
Date: December 12, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Please do NOT waste your time on this game. I have long believed that EA is all about the mighty dollar, and this game is the pinnacle of this thinking. I played it for about 3 days to give it a chance (and finish the game). It was placed on eBay soon after. I went back and played Need for Speed-Most Wanted again. That game was head and shoulders above this game. Please save your money and get something else. This game is horrible!!

Bad News

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 8
Date: April 10, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I haven't been able to run this game and I've tried on 3 different consoles.

NFS hasen't changed a bit!

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 3
Date: December 11, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This video game is o.k., but it hasen't changed much!

Like the some of the same cars, some of the same customization, some of the same street race action and some of the same police action!

I wouldn't recommend this video game!

Backward Evolution

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: November 08, 2006
Author: Amazon User

My NFS background: I was never a big fan of NFS. Underground 1 reused tracks too often, and the "short cuts" were a joke... NFS:MW sucked me in. The tracks were decent, the car models well done, good pursuits and a crisp UI - really, the game had a durable feel that made it worth investing time in past beating the storyline. As of today, my Most Wanted bounty slightly exceeds 113 million with 100% game completion.

Fast forward to NFS Carbon and you basically forfeit every decent aspect of Most Wanted. If you heavily enjoyed Underground 2, you should like Carbon, as it will give you a consistent feeling of deja vu.

Music - Horrible. They don't even bother to tell you who made it - mostly because you wouldn't care.

Graphics - I have to agree, it's either equivalent to Most Wanted (they even kept some of the same trucks, modified in minor ways), or slightly below. On the off chance it's equal, the feel is a bit more cartoon-like. I must say, however, the city itself is pretty detailed - though you are driving at night, so that may impact the difference.

"Take it to the Canyon" - Okay, I expected a lot from this hyped up concept... What I found was a narrow road, the loss of both speed breaker AND nitrous, and basically it works in 2 phases, 1) you tailgate him, 2) he tailgates you. Whoever earns more tailgating points wins. Of course, he always does a better job - which one would think gives him a win - yet some how, it doesn't. This is not to say you can not lose, but at the end, I think you will agree, you too, didn't deserve to win.

Short Cuts - Think NFS:Underground 1. "Oh look, a sharp turn I can cut through, weee!" That's about it. Everything you thought they learned from Midnight Club, which they implemented in MW, is now gone. Out of about 15 or so that I've used personally, only one was more complex than cutting through a simple parking lot, or walk way - nothing impressive.

Unlocking - Personally I preferred the MW way: beat a boss, unlock a bunch of stuff. Here, each race unlocks something - paint, wheel covers, tranny, etc. The advantage is that you can choose what to unlock, the disadvantage is more often than not, it's simply a paint color.

Upgrading your car - This has a funny feel to it for me. Cars come in three categories: Tuner, Muscle and Exotic. Each category has three tiers. Each upgrade fits only the specified car type and tier. So if your riding an exotic, and unlock a muscle mod, you get nada for your exotic. This raises a bit of confusion when it comes time to buy a new car, as it's hard to tell what you unlocked the most of (though your choice will probably reflect your opinion of the cars brand, not the options available for the car).

Feel of your ride - Most of the handling seems equivalent to MW standard. Out of about 20 races I lost 2, for one very distinct reason. Picture a tractor trailer with the size and speed of a race car... This is how it will feel when you hit them, or they hit you - mainly, that you go flying. While this isn't a big deal, it does feel like a slap in the face when one of them (and you can have over 7 of them) loses control on a turn and blocks you from turning at all.

Police Pursuits - I've only engaged in two pursuits but I've noticed 2 things: 1) the streets aren't set up to make quick turns to lose cops (most are long curvy roads with few streets intersecting), 2) the police "smell" you - that is, they stop if they can't find you, then head directly for you. As a veteran of MW, commonly getting 3mil or more per pursuit, I'll be sticking with MW for cop chases.

Wingmen/Scouts/etc - This sounds great on paper but executes like flat tire. Wingmen are supposed to hit other cars (I think?) and knock them out for you - they don't do it well, and commonly say "Uh oops, couldn't get that one..." or something similar. Over all, they seem more distracting than helpful, but I may be using them improperly. Scouts on the other hand, help, some what... They pick out short cuts for you (because in the blinding darkness it's hard to spot debris littered parking lot entrances) and highlight them in green on your minimap - they also talk to you, which is helpful. The one confusing part about scouts, though, is they generally finish before you. So if they're so good, why work for you?

Your territory is under attack!! - Prepare for a long race that pays next to nothing. Aside from that, there's little to tell about this. The last one I encountered took me 7 minutes to complete, with 2nd place about a minute behind me and last place closer to 2 minutes. Normal races yield $15,000... Territory wars yield $700... Don't spend it all in one place.

Rubber-band - This is the one (possibly only, *cough*) improvement over MW. Rubber-banding, for those who don't know, is this: When you are far ahead of them, they speed up, don't get into accidents and arrive some where shortly behind you. If you get way behind, they sort of slow down, you try not to hit everything in sight, and probably still don't catch up (depending on why you were so far behind in the first place). The presence of rubber-banding means there is no reason to distract them, just race, they'll catch up anyway. A reviewer on NFS MW had inquired something to the effect of, "why distract them? or hit log trucks? they just catch up anyway!" Apparently his 8 second lead wasn't worth much when they rubber-band over. This, I believe, also plays a role when playing against friends, I believe the cars were scaled to properly direct a similar outcome.

Overall - If you liked Underground 2, buy this, it's Underground 3. If you preferred MW, I'd wait a month for the price to drop another $10.

Personally, I have two theories why this game is the way it is:
1) Rockstar didn't make a Midnight Club sequel. Midnight club rules the road, NFS has the licensed car names, MW is a fusion of both, Carbon is what you get when EA has no one to copy off of.

2) No competition. Outside of Midnight club and NFS, most racing games are for the birds (unless you like the excitement of driving in circles, in which case you own NASCAR). I could only imagine the lack of quality reflects their opinion of your purchasing choices for racing games (by that I mean Carbon or nothing) and their value of us as customers. Honestly, I think they'd have been better off making an expansion for MW, which is what this feels like, but instead, they made it into half it's own game.

Backward evolution at its finest - Enjoy!

Disappointing

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 6
Date: December 06, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I am very disappointed in this game. I loved the others in the Need for Speed series, but I find this game lacking.

Where's the speed???

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: January 06, 2007
Author: Amazon User

A new NFS game! YAY! A new city to explore! YAY! New cars to unlock and car classes!!! YAY! Canyon racing where you can go off the edge!!! YAY!

Then why do I give this a mediocre rating? I've played NFS games in one fashion or another since the PSX days. Back then, it was Gran Turismo or NFS. I didn't really get into this series until Underground. I enjoyed Underground 2. I had fun with Most Wanted. Carbon's fun but it's just not as fun as Underground 2 or MW. For sure, this game should be rented since it can be beaten in a very short amount of time.

The hype over this game was canyon racing. Sounds great on paper but in reality, you do MORE driving in the city and work your way up to canyon races. The boss 'fights' are in the canyon, yes. There are single sprint races in the canyon every now and then and I think there are a total of (maybe) 5 drift races in the canyon. Just 5. There are far more sprints and speed trap races than drifts and in the end, they are just races. They don't do anything for you except unlock items. Compare that to Underground 2 or Most Wanted, at least you were working for something.

The graphics are the same as MW and Underground 2. They definitely aren't next-gen (I have no idea how this looks on the PS3 or XBox but does it matter?) BUT at least they are consistent. EA created a new physics engines for the cars. That's nice (sarcasm). The driving engine between Underground 2 and Most Wanted was different too. And once again, EA changes things up and it's neither of the previous. Which is a bummer cuz I loved the video game-y control of Underground 2, tho I did get used to MW's driving.

The game map is broken into 4 cities, each with multiple regions. Take a majority of the races in the region, you and your crew own it. Pretty simple. There's a tiny bit of strategy involved cuz you want to unlock the engine upgrades over countless spoilers, wheels, and vinyls, right? Once you take over the regions in a city, it's a boss race (broken into 3 parts). Since there are only 4 cities, you only get 4 bosses. ONLY 4 bosses? Most Wanted had 15! Even Underground2 had more than that, didn't it?

The difficulty level seemed very odd to me. The 1st 3 cities were cake. By the time I got to the main boss's city (Darius, played by Tahmoh Pinkett (who plays Helo in BSG)), things suddenly got harder. No progression in difficulty, it just jumped. As well, the cop chases don't mean much and while Cross is in the game, the story doesn't wrap up!

There IS a story. It talks about why you left the city in Underground2 and why Cross is after you in Most Wanted. Neat, eh? It's all revealed when different crew members join up.

Here's the last tidbit that really bugged me about the game. When you play a racing game, you want the illusion of speed, yes??? If you don't want the feel of 110mph or 150 mph, go play Gran Turismo. The Undergrounds, Most Wanted, even Tokyo Extreme and Midnite Club(s), you get the feel of speed. You feel that 200+mph flying down the highways and whatnot. I NEVER got that sense of speed in the game nor do you ever get to experience it because there are literally no straight roads that the races take place on! (Ok, there's 1 track and it's the last boss race where you hit a highway and cruise for a few short seconds; my Evo and Skyline maxed out at 192mph but that's due to my tuning)

EA needs to come up with a better name for the last 4 NFS games. Find a way to make them all related because honestly, this CARBON game is just another chapter. It acts as a holdover to the next NFS game, I figure. I can recommend Underground2 and MW, but I can't easily recommend this. I suppose there are NO new Midnite Clubs or Tokyo Extremes to compete with and the GT series is for a different type of racer.

Rent it. Or wait till it's in the bargain bin. Or buy it cheap used.

Nothing new here

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: May 26, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Need For Speed Carbon picks up where the previous year's entry, the superior Need For Speed: Most Wanted, left off story wise. Now that you've gotten back your ride (only to lose it again), you're in a turf war with the other street racers in town. In terms of new features, Carbon offers canyon races as well as wingman modes. Other than that though, there's nothing new in Carbon whatsoever. If you've played any, and I mean any, Need For Speed or recent street racing game in recent memory, you'll know what to expect with Carbon. The game's deliberately cheesy FMV sequences are here to compel the story again (this time featuring hottie Emanuelle Vaugier), as well as a heaping amount of customization options, but Carbon has it's share of noticable flaws. Most notably is that there is no online capability at all. This in itself is disappointing considering the online play of past Need For Speed games on the PS2 has been surprisingly good. The police chases as well, one of the best features of Most Wanted, feel very lame here as well. Other than all that though, Carbon looks good, plays well, and despite another heaping amount of product placement from EA, is fun for a while. However, if you're expecting a whole new game here, you've come to the wrong place.

Speed Demons

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 9
Date: December 10, 2006
Author: Amazon User

For Sony, they are very close to ending all games for their Playstation 2 system, and place more work on the PS3 system. That note has also been shown with a lot of racing games that have either thrived, or fell flat on their feet. There have been plenty of them from Crash Tag Team Racing, and others lesser-known driven games. That has been at one time the case with Need For Speed. Although the franchise has recently thrived over the past few years with Underground 2, and last years Most Wanted, many gamers have wanted a bit more from their racing haven. Now, another one has risen, probably the last one for the Playstation 2. Can this Need For Speed thrust over new racers?

Need For Speed Carbon for the Playstation 2, tackles out all the hype from the Underground series, witn a bit of elements from Most Wanted. The gameplay is simple, you and your crew have to work your way towards the finish line, inorder to get back what was stolen from your credibility. The gameplay features tracks from sprints and checkpoints (similar to tollbooth tracks from Most Wanted), to the return of drift races from Underground 2. The game also features new tracks such as the infamous canyon duel, where you have to keep your duel meter flowing, and close to your opponent, inorder to take the prize. There are also returning cars from previous games like the Toyota Supra, Mazda RX-8, and others. The graphics for the game bring out the nightlife well, but the manuverability on some of the cars could definitely be improved with a bit of tweaking.

All in all, I am mostly satisfied with Need For Speed Carbon, but I was expecting a little more. Still, if you are a fan of the racing game series, you'll definitely love this game a whole lot, and that thrill is still with the need for speed.

Graphics: B+

Sound: B

Control: B 1/2-

Fun & Enjoyment: B

Overall: B 1/2+

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