This was a number one on a lot of peoples Christmas list. Most good presents last you a long time. Unfortunately this doesn't. Don't get me wrong, it's a very good game , but it is also one that is too repetitive, and, only for the excellent customisable features it would be a total flop.
Graphics: They vary from good to bad all over the place. The city has some very nice buildings and looks beautiful from up high in the hills, but on closer inspection we have a game that relies heavily on blurring to cover up the imperfections. All the cars are great and have a lot polygons. And when you mod them they become simply eye candy. The wet streets at night look nice and there are some nice effects but there is nothing that haven't been seen before. Mostly its fine though. I'm not a firm believer in downing a game for its graphics, and, they aren't bad enough to do that anyway.
Overall: 8.7
Presentation: The menus are nice enough. Nothing too outrageous here. But you don't see many menus in this game at all apart from when your modding your car. You progress through the game by driving around and finding different races and racers. This was a nice touch even though Diddy Kong racing on the n64 started it so many years ago. All cut scenes are based on a comic book feel. I think it was a good choice by EA as if they had done CGI or another familiar type of cut scene they could have messed up. With the comic book idea it was simple and effective
Overall: 8.9
Gameplay: The cars do not handle realistically, but this was never intended to be a driving simulator. Its very much an arcade game. With no damage the player has no worries about slamming his car into walls or other cars. I feel its best played with manual transmission but that's up to you. In most races you race against 3 other computer controlled cars, but that is increased to 5 on certain races that take place on tracks. These take place in an organised underground league. There are a lot of modes here. The ones that stand out in actually being different to each other are drift, drag and out run. All the rest are fit into those categories. What else can be said really?. Well you drive around, find races, win races, earn cash and mod your car. That is what this game is in a nutshell. Yet there is something about it that keeps you coming back and blends the gap between repetition and a lot of fun.
Overall: 8.8
Sound: The sound track is fine. But I felt there were not enough songs. The songs that were chosen however were great. The music you hear when modding your car is nicely selected and overall give a good feel. There are some songs that will not suite everyone and that is obvious, but in general everything is fine. The sounds of car engines is more less the same for all cars once you modd them. Every time you crash you hear some nice collision sounds even though there is no physical damage taking place. Nothing special here either, but it gets by.
Overall: 8.5
Lifespan: 3 - 5 weeks and you'll be fed up with this. That is what I, and most of the other people I know felt. The customisation provides a nice distraction from the repetitive races but it cant hide that forever. If you are going for 100% you will do over 200 races but in honesty the average gamer couldn't be bothered.
For the gamer that wants 100% they may be disappointed and very angry when they find that they cant achieve it unless they did a certain 2 races at the very start which many people over looked. That was a real sickener for me and anyone else It happened to. But like I said at the start of this paragraph, three to five weeks and your done.
Overall: 8.5
The verdict: Great for the casual gamer. It can fool you into thinking it will last forever but you will soon realise that that is not happening. Its almost good enough to get for the customisation feature but this feature wears out eventually too. With titles like midnight club 3 on the horizon I would not recommend this. I would recommend renting it and using a cheat to unlock all parts and just messing around with the customisation. In the end a let down but not terrible
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