The career mode is a big improvement. Having to struggle with repairs, buying upgrades for cars, buying new cars.
And in the High Stakes mode you can win/lose cars.
The Pursuit modes are improved with helicopters for tracking felons, "wingmen" and roadblocks besides the spikes from NFS3.
There is a total time mode for Most Wanted where you try to elude police for as long as possible.
There is a full 3D***pit view which does "body lean" on curves and bumps. The side mirrors work too. I usually drive in full
screen mode though for better visibility.
The usual chrome and shading is there, but the fog effect is great. The damage is visually apparent (from dings, busted lights right
through to smashed glass and wobbly tires. The suspension even lets the car sag in corners or if damaged, drag. I have hit trees,
gone airborne, and landed with dent running from front bumper up the hood across roof, with flames from engine.
Actually, you don't even notice NFS3 stuff in the game until you complete 3 Cups.
European Cup
High Stakes Cup
World Cup
Memory Lane Cup and Chevrolet Cup (unlocked at same time)
Don't know what comes next but there are about 6/7 more Cups to go.
Each Cup has from 2-6 Circuits with individual Lap#/Difficulty/Car Class requirements. Some require Class A, some A and below, some
B only, most are Open to all. Some are 2 laps, some are 4 or 8. Most are Pro Diff.
I haven't got to the AA class yet (Porsche,etc).
Before you think "All I have to do is get a Jaguar or Porche and enter a Amateur race and I'll win", the AI will select appropriate
cars for competitors. They do make mistakes, but they can sure drive with blocking logic too.
Overall, I own every NFS game made and I'm very impressed with NFS4. No longer am I just scraping through every corner using
walls, etc for help, or doing bumper cars. I have to pay for those repairs and the damage could cause me to lose the race.
(Although I have fluked out and won a 4 lap race with 65% damage on suspension, 50+% damage on rest of car.)
P.S. System K6 233 Monster Fusion 16Mb, 64Mb RAM. Frame rate is great single player, but split screen is choppy.
HTH,
Rick
