Gaming Trend

Gaming Trend Review

by Michael Tarlow

Need For Speed is a constantly evolving racing series. It began as just simple track racing, but evolved from that, to a game with daring police chases, to an amazing dive into the world of street racing. Since its turn to street racing it has been constantly becoming more and more refined, and every year the game does not fail to impress.

Carbon is a further expansion of Need For Speed’s turn to street racing. It is set in a sort of sprawling urban metropolis as most of the more recent Need For Speed games are. What many might notice in Carbon, is that it takes after the movie Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift in a huge way. With that, be ready to dive into a world filled with street racing crews battling for territory and respect as you begin to explore Carbon. Carbon has a special edge in the graphics department. The city comes to life as the lights shine across the skyline of the city. The cars you own become intricately woven masterpieces of art with the amazing car graphics and aftermarket modifications. Online when you’re racing, you can be sure you won’t ever see the exact same car twice.

With a nice beautiful high resolution (whatever your computer can handle, that is) you can see all the beauty and glory of the night as you race around a city lit up by thousands of neon lights. Your car will leave just the slightest light trail as you blast around a corner and the screen blurs for effect of speed. You’ll skid across the ground and the ground will show the marks of your car’s recent brush with it. Overall, the graphics do not fail to impress, but I did expect a bit more from them. There isn’t a ton to say about the sound. It is what you’ve come to expect from the Need For Speed series. There are plenty of realistic sounding engines, skidding tires, gears changing and the like. You’ll also hear the click of the nitrous switch and the blast of nitrous that follows. The sound does not disappoint.

The music on the other hand, while good, feels like somewhat of a letdown. It is a good soundtrack but it just does not seem to fit the game. It contains many artists that I do enjoy listening to and as much as I like the soundtrack itself, it does not seem to go well with the atmosphere around it. The controls are tight and since this is a computer game, changeable. There is nothing to dislike about controls that you set yourself button for button. But even with the control scheme being changeable, the cars handle extremely well and with their own unique style.

With that said, veterans of the need for speed series should be comfortable jumping right back into the newest installment of the series, while newcomers to the series should have no trouble learning the controls. They are easy to use, and very intuitive for a computer game. The pinnacle of this game is it’s gameplay. It’s enthralling races are amazing to behold and more amazing to play. Your palms sweat as every turn means life or death. In the back of your mind you fear plummeting off a cliff into the oblivion of the night and losing the race. Of course, I am reffering to the new type of race incorporated into this title, the canyon duels. In a cayon duel you must stay as close to your opponent as possible the first round, and keep him as far away as possible the second. Both rounds you are barreling down a mountain highway at breakneck speeds, much like the final scene of Tokyo Drift. The two exceptions to the rules of this race are, if one racer passes another, and holds the lead for a short period of time, they win, or if either racer plummets off a cliff, he immediately loses. That of course, is a no-brainer. You try winning races when you’re dead. The single player mode is slightly watered down on the story, but when you’re sliding around corners you honestly wouldn’t care less if the story were about you racing to charge up a super weapon and blast aliens away.

The online also makes up a large part of the fun. The two main modes are Pursuit Knockout and Pursuit Tag. Pursuit Knockout is a lap race where the last racer to lap becomes a cop, until there is only one. This is fun because by the last lap every cop is blitzing the last car left. Pursuit Tag is a game where one player is a civilian racer and the other racers are all cops, the person who ends up with the most time as the civilian racer wins this race. Both of these races are some of the most fun this series has brought into the multiplayer aspect since they had online drag racing. Gamers will fall in love with the simplicity and adrenaline rush of the gameplay. Although the online play lasts for a significant amount of time, meaning you can basically play until your hands fall off, the single player is not exactly something you’d want to play again and again. It is short, and it is straight easy if you know what you’re doing. This is a solid racing game that has evolved the need for speed series and just tightened and improved upon many of the things that were left unfurnished in the last game. If you love racing games, pick this up. If you like The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift definitely pick this up. If you’re not sure, rent it for a current or next-gen system and give it a try. In my humble opinion, it is worth a buy.

Gaming Trend Score

90

1. Graphics: 90
2. Audio: 80
3. Controls: 98
4. Gameplay: 97
5. Value/Replay: 79
6. OVERALL:90