GameCube

Need for Speed: Carbon

Need for Speed Carbon is as solid a racing title as there is out there. It may not be reinventing the proverbial wheel here, but by introducing new racing modes and a completely new way to drive in muscle cars, Carbon is easily worth the 60 dollar price tag.

Alors que l'on pensait la série en perte de vitesse, NFS trouve une seconde jeunesse et a fait les bons choix pour nous tenir en haleine, sans aucune lassitude malgré une durée de vie un peu juste. Un bilan très positif pour un titre possédant une véritable identité.

Need For Speed Carbon isn't a revolutionary game and it's far from a stinker. Instead, it's what EA does best: It creates pretty good games with lots of features. Carbon switches out drag racing and Pacific North West backgrounds for drift racing and inner city urban streets. The freaky FMV filtered stuff is back and there seems to be more than ever (too much?). The drifting is an acquired taste (but it's good), the canyon duals are decent changes (though not great), and the crews...well, they suck. Of the myriad new features, the addition of muscle cars and the online functionality are the best. The muscle cars bring real challenge and change to the races and the online games (when lag isn't hampering you) are great cop-chase endeavors.

Auch wenn der neueste NfS-Ableger vieles falsch macht, kommt aufgrund der coolen Präsentation Freude auf. Besonders gelungen sind die Drift-Events und Bosskämpfe in den Canyons. Leider scheint der Cube für EA nur noch eine Nebenrolle zu spielen. Deutsche Sprachausgabe und eine Limited Edition sind leider anderen Konsolenbesitzern vorbehalten.

It’s one thing for the current-gen versions of this game to be not as visually compelling (such as the sense of speed not being as good), but it’s unfortunate that you only race against three other cars during typical challenges. Plus, one of those three is a teammate, so you’re really only got two other competitors out there. Add on the fact that these versions have no online at all, and the differences aren’t minor.

Previous Need for Speeds have dramatically changed the way we look at racing games. Most recently Underground moved the needle on presentation, and Most Wanted revived the gameplay ideas that made Hot Pursuit 2 so beloved. While Carbon is peppered with clever little ideas, ultimately it falls victim to EA's insistence on annually iterating the franchise. It refines previous ideas but lacks that big "wow" factor we've seen in the past. It's thoroughly, thoroughly competent and shouldn't be overlooked, but it really is "Need for Speed Again."

After rebooting the franchise with Need for Speed Underground, EA has continued to produce some solid street racers under the Need for Speed banner. Last year's Need for Speed Most Wanted, which featured hilariously over-the-top live-action cutscenes and seriously tense police pursuits, proved to be a high watermark for the franchise. Now it's being followed up by Need for Speed Carbon, which downplays the role of the police chases, introduces some simple team-racing mechanics, and occasionally takes the action off the city streets and into the outlying canyons. The new gameplay doesn't always improve the experience, but the racing can still be quite intense and still has a pronounced sense of style.

It's still not meaty enough but Carbon throws some interesting new ideas at the series, adding breadth to a simple, easy but enjoyable racing experience.

If you haven't been able to land a Wii yet -- or just aren't into the idea of trying to drive using a nunchuk -- Need for Speed Carbon isn't a bad way to get your adrenaline pumping. While not all of the new additions to the series work completely -- the wingman concept is interesting, but could use some tweaking -- there are enough new ideas here to make the game feel fresh and show why NFS remains one of the top racing franchises for the system.

Overall it’s a great addition to the series for fans and probably a decent rental for most. While things have been upgraded and new elements added on, it’s still NFS and it still gets repetitive and boring after awhile. It’s like EA’s Madden of racing.

While it’s far from a complete failure – it’s still easily this year’s finest street racing game, and damn good fun for a few hours – it’s disappointing that its content is a mixed bag of outstanding fun and bad ideas. What the series needs is not useless gimmicks and badly rehashed game mechanics, but good, old-fashioned racing fun. We don’t need customisable bells and whistles; what gamers really want is a Need for Speed that uses its strengths, and doesn’t try to shoe-horn in its weaknesses for the sake of bullet points on a press release.

Need For Speed Carbon is a solid racing game. It might have a few rough edges and frustrating spots, but overall it’s a fun game. With a nice single player career mode and a good multiplayer mode on the Xbox 360 and PC, NFS Carbon has enough to keep you going for a long time.