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Sunday, December 25, 2005Flashing Lights and Loud Noises |
| Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you are all doing well this Christmas season. These past few days I've been playing Need for Speed: Most Wanted on my PC. For those of you who have played the NFS: Underground series, Most Wanted more or less takes over where Underground 2 left off. This time, however, you do your racing during the daytime, which puts the police hot on your trail. But don't think that's the only change. Most Wanted has several differences when compared to Underground. Those expecting more of the same might end up disappointed, but don't let that dissuade you from playing this game. While Underground put more emphasis on tricking out your ride to make it look cooler, Most Wanted requires you to embrace the "dark side" of street racing. The more notorious you are, the more "Bounty Points" you get. This is done by breaking as many traffic laws as you can. Ram police and civilian vehicles, destroy property, overspeed, whatever. This will help you climb the Blacklist, the list of the top 15 most notorious racers. No matter how good a racer you are, you can't continue unless you increase your bounty. The game's graphics are intense, but that doesn't mean those with lesser video cards can't enjoy Most Wanted. I'm running the game with my crappy GeForce FX 5200. No offense, I'm just used to my old faithful GeForce FX 5600 (you are dearly missed). Anyway, despite how much I dislike the 5200, Most Wanted runs quite well on it. You'll just need to lower the detail settings a bit. Take note that even with all settings at low, the game still looks great! With every setting on high, you can see how photo-realistic the game is, but you'd need a more powerful video card to achieve decent framerates at those settings. The soundtrack has the same attitude as Underground 2 and sounds ok, but I think most will agree that the original Underground's was the best. The game's sound is great, the engine sounds are top notch and the police chatter sounds authentic. You get to choose from a great variety of cars to customize and upgrade, including some exotics like Porsches and Lamborghinis. On a personal note, my favorite, the Mazda Miata, is gone! *sobs* There are lots of great cars available, so it's not a huge loss. I'm looking forward to getting behind the wheel of a Porsche 911 and customizing it. On the subject of customizing, it's not as detailed as Underground is. Gone are the neon lights, exhaust pipes, hydraulics and other little things. Body kits are sold by the set, no longer by piece, but you still get to add roof scoops, hood mods, rims and spoilers. I'm a stickler for details myself and loved being able to customize every single part, so this is a minus to me. For the most part, it doesn't affect the gameplay too much, so most of you probably won't even care. The racing itself is pretty straightforward compared in Most Wanted, Drift and Street X modes have been scrapped. The AI drivers are pretty much what you'd expect. Earlier levels, it's easy to catch up to them even when they have huge leads, but in later levels, you pay for every mistake you make. The police chases are the icing on Most Wanted's cake. In the beginning of the game, it's fun to toy around with them, but once you get to the later levels of the game, you take a pounding. The measly squad cars are magically transformed into specialized corvettes and heavy SUVs. They become insanely aggresive and travel in packs. In the higher levels, they deploy spike strips, helicopters and roadblocks to stop you. You should never underestimate the boys in blue, they're fierce and don't give up easily. In order to get rid of them, you can either ram them until you take them out or you'll have to make use of the Pursuit breakers. These are parts of the environment marked on the map (like water towers, gas stations, yachts) that can be destroyed that will either delay or take out the cops long enough for you to make your escape. Once you're out of visual range, you have to stay hidden until a cooldown meter fills up. If a cop sees you in before this meter is filled, the chase starts all over again. The Verdict? Need for Speed: Most Wanted is huge fun, one police chase and you'll be hooked. listening to: Gorillaz - Dare |
by 
@ 3:48 PM 
@ 3:48 PM  |
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| I dare you to finish the Black Edition Challenge, the last chase on the Challenge Series. My game crashed after 4 minutes, trying to evade souped up SUVs. Damnit. T_T | ||
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December 26, 2005 3:00 PM |  |
© Timothy James Tupas 2005 All rights reserved
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