have about three hours of time on it.
This year's version is more of a sim. The driving model is very good, close
to even that of Gran Turismo. NFS4 has an elaborate tournament and special
events system which is very good. Most of these require an entry fee, along
with a required vehicle. All finishers receive prize money, but your repair
bill will be deducted from that. (At one point I was "in the hole") The
damage does not deform the body, but rather the graphics make it appear that
way. BTW, you can now see the driver inside, turning the wheel!
Car upgrades are limited to three broad categories, so it doesn't take much
to max out your car.
There are 19 vehicles available and about a dozen tracks. Track design is
good. They are fast, with broad curves, so you can "haul ass" most of the
time, but remain challenging at the same=e time.
Graphics are the same as NFS3; the engine sounds are MUCH better. Ambient
sounds= are also improved.
So why is this post entitled "What have they done?" Let me tell you. Gone
from NFS4 are many of the terrific options, a few which are unforgivable!
There is no custom controller option, only three preset choices! If you
have a dual analog controller you cannot have steering on the left stick,
and gas/brake like practically every other analog-compatible game! One
bizarre preset is steering and gas/brake both on the left stick, and shift
up/down on the right stick. That would definitely take some getting use to.
Luckily, I have a MadCatz Dual Force, which has a steering wheel mode, so I
can use the right stick for gas/brake.
The other thing that pissed me off is not being able to assign the default
driving view. NFS4 has the bumper cam as the default, so you must press
triangle very time to get to the near chase cam. NFS3, of course, allowed
the player to choose four view from a choice of six, and have them cycle in
any order.
What else is missing? Here's a list off the top of my head:
no rear view mirror!
no 8-lap races
no practice mode
no separate arcade and sim modes
no rock music (the techno they do have sucks really bad)
no vehicle setups!!!
no detailed track information or descriptions
the vehicle showcase is strictly a spinning rendering with a voiceover. No
FMV or slide show.
Track records can only be accessed from the track menu. Once there you
cannot cycle thru the tracks.
Once the race is finished you see you lap time and race time. After a few
seconds, you'll see you individual lap times. That's it! NFS3 had many
categories you could cycle through.
I'm sure there's more, but that's all I can think of.
A few complaints:
In a 2-player race, you can only choose the cars you own. You can choose
nay car in test drive mode, but it's only a one lap race!
The menus are quick, but very dark; so dark it's hard to read the text at
times.
In the vehicle selection screen, the car fades from black, so you can't see
it right away, which makes it difficult when scrolling.
I'd give NFS4 a nine out of ten, subtracting two points for all of the
missing options=7.
--
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Remember the good old 1980's,
when things were so uncomplicated?
I wish I could go back there again,
and everything could be the same".
from "Ticket To The Moon" by the Electric Light
Orchestra
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Galley