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This Game Is MADDDDD FAKE !!!!!!!!!!!!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 6
Date: April 16, 2004
Author: Amazon User

i love the idea about street racing and performance and visual tunning and all but nfs was too fake. i guess it's the physics engine or something but the performance bars like handling, acceleration, top speed for the individual cars are irrellevant. if you have the skline r34 and a miata tunned up with the max upgrades (level 3 upgrades) and go racing with them the performance difference is not that visible. and another thing the cpu opponents are cheaters, the game cheats for them for example you send them hitting into something solid and youre like 15 seconds ahead on the track with the trolley they just come outa no where and within a short space of time there behind you like whatup!. this is not possible unless they use all of their nos, even with all of your nos if you was to be the one in the back you will never catch up. i think the ea gave them unlimited nos or something becasue they be way behind then they catch up to you even if you're driving perfectly and they still have nos to use, only one word FAKE. get pgr2 when you drive dirty and spin someone out, if you drive perfectly they will NEVER catch you, that real! Drag and Drift and some Sprints is the only good this game has. the circuit and knockout they cheat in. this game is ok but pgr2 and gt3 gt4 etc just blow it away.

SUCKIE! SUCKIE!SUCKIE!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 8
Date: December 29, 2005
Author: Amazon User

THIS WAS ONE OF MY FIRST GAME, IT SUCKS, THE CARS HANDLE BAD, NOS JUST SUCKS. IF YOU WANT A GOOD CAR GAME MIDNIGHT CLUB 3, THATS GOOD, BUT BACK TO THE SUCKIE GAME, OH YEAH DID I SAY THAT IT SUCKS, BECAUSE IT SUCKS, FIRST IT'S FUN, THE GOES DOWNHILL. STAY AWAY FROM IT. OH YEAH DID I SAY IT SUCKS?

Fatally flawed, shamefully weak offering

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 7 / 14
Date: November 29, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I wanted so very much to like this game... and but for a couple of flaws it would be the amazing game that the fanboys have proclaimed it. But those flaws are show stoppers.

The ongoing feud with Microsoft over control of online play has kept EA from supporting XBOX Live with any of it's titles and the lack of online head to head is unforgivable. The lack of system link is baffling and no support for 480p HDTV shows a lack of respect for XBOX gamers.

The real killer though is the unoptimized port from the PS2 development design. All the eye candy and graphic panache is totaly negated when you corner and the frame rate stutters to a 5 FPS halt. The same problem killed the GameCube version of NFS2 Hot Pursuit. With a fast, twitchy control and physics engine a smooth, regular frame rate is a must and it's lack totally ruins the experience.

I had hoped it was only on a few tracks such as the starting Olympic square, but the frame rate problems pop up virtually everywhere except the ultra small Drift track.

The driving engine is neither arcade fun and easy nor a simulation ala Gran Turismo or Sega GT 2002. It falls into a kind of nether region inhabited only by the strange Auto Modellista. Neither fish nor fowl nor good red meat it fails to satisfy on either plane being too twitchy to be simple and fun like Burnout 2 or have the detail and feel of Sega GT.

The game design drips with quality and style in every other area. The people at Rock Star San Diego who made Midnight Club 2 have to be shaking their gourds in awe of this design. EA brought in a Hollywood cinematographer to help get the 'feel of Speed' into the game and they did that perfectly with a whole arsenal of field of view changes, motion blurs, and camera shaking. The effect is truly impressive and certainly groundbreaking. And it is totally wasted when the frame rate jerks and shakes it until it coughes up blood and dies. A sad, sad waste. I hope other developer take the good ideas here and put them to use.

I hope that the PS2 version at least runs smoothly enough to live up to the potential of this title. I am afraid to even rent the GameCube version. If the programmers on the XBOX conversion team couldn't manage making a 733mhz x086 machine run it smoothly one can't imagine the same muppets doing any better on the relatively slower Nintendo hardware.

For truly excellent racing try the nearly perfect Project Gotham Racing 2 instead. The folks at EA must have liked the PGR Kudo points idea since they saw fit to copy it and call it Style points. PGR2 supports Live! and runs at a silky smooth frame rate ALWAYS in HDTV resolution. If you are on a budget try the sleeper Ford Racing 2. For less than half what NFSU costs you will be very pleasantly surprised by the depth and quality.

So many great ideas and so much fabulous art and animation... but the RACING kills the fun for me. If you find more pleasure in NFSU than I did more power to you my friend. My copy is going to eBay.

Wheres Live? Wheres LAN? Wheres the fun?

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 6 / 9
Date: December 07, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I am very frustrated with Microsoft for even THINKING about releasing this title with NO ONLINE PLAY, and NO SYSTEM LINK. Yes the graphics are detailed and better than the other consoles, but we all knew that would be the case before it hit stores. The frame rate is horrible, and that basicly kills it. If you are playing a high speed racing game, you need a fast, steady frame rate...and NFS:U does not deliver. The AI really makes me mad. There is no possible way to outrun them, no matter how perfect you are racing and no matter how many times they crash. If you lessen your speed though, you catch right back up. Whats up with that? Yes you can customize nearly everything about your car, but why be excited about beating the game when all you get is a few decals?
Having no online play really depletes the value of this title, but thats not what matters the most, its partly EA's fault. The one thing that i just dont understand is: NO SYSTEM LINK.....it is totally up to Microsoft whether they want to include it or not, and they chose.....NO? What the heck! Why? Where is the value here, i just dont see it at all.

Fun but very frustrating!

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 5 / 9
Date: December 04, 2003
Author: Amazon User

The biggest problem with the game is the AI, especially in later races. You have to run flawless races in order to advance. The customization is excellent but if you can not get past a race then how do you get the next upgrades? Regardless of difficulty level the computer never seems to get easier, every race gets worse and worse. Every time you think you may have it won a car comes out of nowhere and causes a crash which takes much to long to recover from. I believe that computer AI has to make it extremely difficult to win with out tons of repition simply to keep you playing, after you have unlocked all the upgrades and cars what is left? It is only a two player game and has no online play (for the Xbox). Rent this game have some fun the move on to better games with more replay value.

Wonder why there's no Xbox live for this title

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 2 / 9
Date: November 22, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Need for speed Underground has no Xbox live, but it's available for PS2 online. The reason to this is because of a marketing fight between Microsoft and EA games. EA games wanted Microsoft to advertise their games to be the number 1 online games for xbox live. Microsoft refused and EA games was too stuck up just to allow this to have Xbox Live. I mean, if it is really the best game out there, than there's no reason to advertise heavilly. Halo is the number one reason to get Xbox, but it's not advertised heavily, but many people love it, and it advertises itself word by mouth.

EA games are trying to overhype the game so you'll buy it, and later you noticed it's not much of a game. I believe EA games blows more of their company money on advertising than making a wonderful game. And also, they have like so many expansion packs out for the Sims because they are too lazy to make a new Sims and just look for cheap ways to squeeze the most money out of the people. Need for Speed Underground is probably the last game EA games that's coming out for Xbox unless if EA games compromises with Microsoft.

No need for this

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 2 / 5
Date: December 27, 2003
Author: Amazon User

The graphics are decent but gameplay could use some more fine tuning. The driving is detached and the controls too sensitive. The cops don't do much other than slow down gameplay. Like another reviewer mentioned, it always feels like the same road. Project Gotham 2 gives you a more realistic driving experience and much better vehicle dynamics.

Not a bad racing game.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: January 07, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Need for Speed Underground is a pretty good racing game. Its not bad. I would reccomend renting it first before buying it. There are better racing games out, such as Project Gotham Racing 2, but this is not a real bad choice if you are looking for a street racing game. There are many different types of racing in this game though, like drag racing too. The "go underground" mode is the main mode and the best mode in this game. You can completely trick out your car to make it the most stylish and famous ride on the road. Plus, you can make magazine covers and gan respect and street cred. The graphics are pretty good, and there is a good framerate and sense of speed. There is a style points system, a little similar to the kudos system seen in Project Gotham Racing 1 & 2, but truthfully, its not as well done. It just seems tacked on. I don't like every song on the soundtrack either and some annoy me, but there are some decent songs, such as the ones by Rancid and Rob Zombie(two awesome bands). So, if this game is so good why only a 3 out of 5? Well, it just doesen't seem extremely fun and its not the most original game ever, and it is annoying sometimes. But, its still decent and at least worth renting. When will the never ending quest of gaining street cred ever end? Not any time soon, apparently.

Solid racer that falls short of living up to its hype

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 8 / 9
Date: December 16, 2003
Author: Amazon User

The games graphics are nothing but stellar as most games now a days are. Though the xbox version could look a lot better than the ps2, but it doesn't. Take the game wreckless for example. Look at the ps2 version as compared to the xbox. Now look at the two copies of underground. I rest my case. If you own a ps2 get the game for that, there is no need to upgrade to an xbox.

The sound in the game is probably my favorite part and the reason I gave the game a 3. The soundtrack is pretty tight with tracks from Lil John, to a more harder sound from Rob Zombie. I also enjoy the tracks that were specifically made for the game (the Petey Pablo song needs played on the radio!! lol)

The games fun factor is what luster's. Yea sure the races are fun, fast and give a sense of speed. But i felt this in the last need for speed game. The urban city idea is cool, but not for every single track. No matter what the marketing information for this game claims, there is only like 3 or 4 main tracks not 20. All the others are just mirror, reversed or in drag situations just straight always pulled from the main 3. Sometimes they'll even take a track and add in a different turn, and call it a new track. It just gets boring; I mean how many times can you jump over the same stupid bridge! The weather is set to be clear and at night in EVERY race. Mourning never comes in this game. It seems as almost Ea focused too much on putting enough body kits and vinyls in the game than it did on track design. One more quick note the drifting tracks are just plain out stupid and become more of a hassle and annoyance than they are fun. I found myself saying, damn not another one of these, or arr I wish this stupid race would be over. Drifting is something you during a RACE and is boring if singled out. If they wanted to be realistic anyways, a real car would have no tires left after one of those objectives.

Overall the game fails to be better than the previous installment (High Stakes 2). The short incomplete list why is as follows:

1. There is no police in this game, none at all (a Big BIG part of the street racing scene is cops, which do not exist in this game). You guys at Ea are getting lazy.

2. There are no damage modeling as was in High Stakes 2

3. The physics are a lot worse than H.S.2; I find my car flying through the air as if it had wings when only hitting a silly mph sign.

4. How can Ea leave out Xbox Live support but yet put online play for the ps2 version. Xbox already has an online community set up that is much stronger than the ps2.

5. There is no "real" tuning in this game. The only tuning there is, is the ability to layer vinyl's using a downgraded version of Photoshop. Real tuning would involve being able to say adjust the points on an Apexi SAFC, that they're of is not in this game.

6. The shortcuts are as boring as watching my grandma knit!! In H.S.2 the shortcuts were exciting, filled with large jumps, and giving a major cut in times. The shortcuts in this game just suck and most of the time I find myself just staying on the main course. They give hardly any time cut and are just about as long as the main way. Some shortcuts even just slow you down! And are not worth taking (for example on one track you can jump down into a subway, in the subway though there are barrels, and water. If you decide to miss the barrels you have to drive through water (which SLOWS your cars speed) if you decide to go through the barrels (it SLOWS your cars speed Dramatically) and thus when you come out of the shortcut you are not going slower than you were when you entered. Just silly isn't it? Oh yeah and there is no excitement in them either, their just simple turns or roads (the most exciting one is being able to jump a very small dirt hill which gives you hardly any air).

The list goes on. To sum it all up. The game is good right now because it's all we have. There are no other import games out there, thus it has no competition. If you were thinking about buying this game, as you are a fan of the NFS series, I would skip this one and get High Stakes 2. If you already have H.S. 2 then rent this game. If you're an import fan than you're going to have to shell out the $40+ for this one. I hope the new upcoming Fast and Furious game (which is based on the 2 movies) is done right!!

Interesting take on arcade style racer

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: January 22, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I have thoroughly enjoyed the depth that this game has to offer. The arcade style racer has always been a rather safe venue for publishers, but the creative lighting and style of this game make it stand out. This is not a new title by any means, but is well worth the reduced price. The games is deep enough to keep you entertained for hours and doesn't seem to stale as quickly as other arcade racer titles.

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