Gaming Signal: PREVIEW: Need For Speed: Carbon

PREVIEW: Need For Speed: Carbon

I recently picked up and played through a little of EA's recent incarnation of the venerable street racing series Need for Speed. As pretty much the only racing game I've been interested in playing lately, I was intrigued to see what has changed in this years model. Features like the canyon courses and wingmen had me excited about giving it a try.

First, the graphics are great - there is some fine use of lighting and mapping features here. The cars and road looks better than ever before. Surprisingly there is some product placement, but it worked to make the world more believable. For example, crashing into a car with the Progressive insurance logo on it was fun and ironic at the same time. On my PC with a dual core AMD 4600 and a single 7800GTX, I was able to run the game with all graphic options in 1280x1024 - sweet.

The audio is good - although the songs aren't the strongest I've heard in this series, and are a far cry from the music found in the Burnout series (and neither can hold a candle to GTA's.)

As for the gameplay - it doesn't seem a whole lot different from the last installment (Need for Speed Most Wanted.) The police chases seem far less intense than in that version, and so far I haven't found a mission oriented around the chases. That's too bad, because the police chases were the best part of Most Wanted and I miss the excitement they generated. The game introduces a turf battle - with you taking territory in the city with your crew based on races you have won. I find this a forced and relatively strange mechanic and slightly derivative of other games, but overall it works OK. I like being able to tackle different races at my own pace (although it is annoying that you are forced to rerun some races when rival crews try to take over your previously conquered turf.)

The actual race styles are similar to what was in the previous games (circuits, drifts, time trials, etc.) However the big new feature is the introduction of wingmen - races on your team that help you out on the race. This is what was most exciting about Carbon and what I was looking forward to the most. There are 3 different types of wingmen - one who scouts out shortcuts (taking them first so you can follow), one who lets you draft off him for a burst of speed, and one who crashes into a designated opponent to hold him back. While those sound cool, in practice the wingman acts more like a powerup instead of a partner, and that is disappointing. I guess I'd like to have seen him actively trying to block opponents and allowing you to draft, rather than having a single roll and doing nothing else. Having a partner that has the ability to just blow by you (to scout ahead) is just disconcerting - if he can do that, why not just win the race?

And the most frustrating for me are the new Canyon races. When you go to take out a boss, you first have to defeat him in a straight up street race, then take him on in the Canyon. This is a 'boss race' mode that has you running the course first with him in front and you following, then racing it a second time with you in front. You gain points by staying on his tail in the first part, and lose points based on how close he can stay to you in the second. It's frustrating because if you lose, you have to start it all over. And the courses are tough - with technical difficulty and the fact that you can go over the edge of the canyon and instantly lose. Ouch.

Overall, I'd have to say that if you aren't a fan of the series, you should give this one a pass. But if you love the series, I think you'll find a lot to like here.

No what I mean is:
Lets say you are on a course and there is an obstacle in your way ahead so you move to avoid the obstacle and as far as you can tell you will miss it, but for some reason the side edge of your car hangs on an invisible part of the obstacle and you crash although nothing is really there.

Technical version: The wireframe size of the obstacle is larger than the texture used and that makes it look like you could pass the obstacle but the invisible part that extends past the texture is what you are getting stuck on.

Pretty much every racing game I have ever played has invisible walls. Need for Speed and PGR and GT seem to be the worst about it. The Burnout series is not as bad because if you hit an invisible wall (and they are there) the physics engine of Burnout will crash you still but you'll rebound off it a little and damage the side of the car but that unsticks you.

Posted by Trent on Thursday November 16, 2006 at 10:38 AM

Ah! OK, I know what you mean. Interestingly, I've never noticed that in PC versions of NFS - but certainly did in the XBox versions of Burnout. Not sure what that means - are console more likely to run into that problem?

In general, I am not annoyed by that with the PC version of NFS:Carbon - that doesn't mean it isn't there. The game is overall quite forgiving about crashes.

I neglected to mention a feature of NFS:Carbon that is viewed as innovative. You can customize pieces of your car (add on cosmetic parts) in some interesting ways by stretching them based on specific constrained points. Generally, it allows for somewhat unique looks (if you want a narrower or wider grill on a front bumper, for example.) Given the huge number of parts in the database, I can't see why you would need it. It adds a level of micromanagement that starts to beceom tedious.

However, sometimes the system allows you to create crazy parts that simply wouldn't be practical in the real world (hood scoopes that block vision, tails that extend over a foot behind the car, etc.) Frankly, this would be a cool if the level of customization it offered was really into the bizarre. So while I applaud the effort, the restrictions make it less than it could be. I know the developers feared allowing crazy things would break you out of the real world the game tries to recreate - a totally impossible car with wild protrusions isn't what the series is known for.

Posted by Scott on Thursday November 16, 2006 at 12:33 PM