: NFS SE: a few words of reason.
< very nice and informative letter snipped >
There is also another side of the NFS vs NFS SE debate. That side is the
people that never owned NFS, but purchased NFS SE.
I am one of those people that did not own NFS, but decided to give NFS SE
a try. Why? Because it was 'different' and a break from the serious
racing games. I fully expected it to be an updated "Test Drive" and must
admit that that is just about what it is.
Since I did not own NFS I cannot comment on any of it's features.
However, from what I have seen of NFS SE it is not all bad.
First off - cheat codes. There are no cheat codes, per se, that you can
type in. That is because they are incorporated into a 'win and win'
scenario. That is, win the tournament once, and win some new tracks
(mirror of original) and a new car (warrior). Win the tournament a second
time, win some more tracks (rally version of original).
This to me is not a bad thing, in and of its self. I dislike 'cheating'
to get things. I hold that much like 'cheating' in Duke3D or Doom to get
more bullets or can't die, etc. You win, you EARN something.
And, after all, the tournament is not THAT hard that you can't win. I
mean, I have NEVER driven these tracks, yet my VERY first time through the
tournament, I won. Ok, I won by 1 point and 0.5s!!, but I won. You just
have to be smart on your car selection. Faster is not necessarily better.
I surely got my ass kicked on Apline and Transtropolis, but made up for it
by smoking them on other courses. Got enough points when it counted.
Secondly, the modem play. Well, again I have not seen NFS, but NFS SE
simply sucks over the modem. The FR is ok for me, but the controls have a
lag in them that make it 'difficult' to drive well. You turn the wheel
and a few 1/10ths of a second later, the car finally turns. The shifting
was about the same delay.
This does not make it impossible to play over the modem, but it certainly
makes the experience less than pleasing. It's not quite the 3 second
delay that some people have reported, but yes, there is some considerable
delay.
I have not had experience with any EA games, so I am unaware if there will
ever be a patch for this or not. I can only hope.
I have also not tried the network option and will not comment on it other
than it IS in the game (unlike OTHER driving games :).
Thirdly, the music rules! Yes, it is hard to hear while driving, but you
can turn down the engine sounds and turn up the music so that helps a bit.
Fourthly, the game plays very well in single player mode, whether it's
head-to-head or tournament race or time trials. It plays very well for
me. I also find the AI to be pretty aggressive. That's fine by me
because the modem play sucks so bad I will not be trying it again.
So 3 out of 4 things are OK by me. I find the game enjoyable. I play it
fairly regularly. It just depends on what you find to be the most
important things in a game that will make it ok for you or make it suck
for you.
I do not work for EA and these are just my opinions of an ok game. I
won't say "Go and buy it immediately", but I will say that I don't find it
to be as bad as it is being made out to be. At least from a 'new' driver
that has never seen the original NFS and therefore cannot compare the two
to see if I have gotten ripped off or not.
Another problem with NFS SE is that even the Win95 version won't work on
an SB card if it using IRQ 10. It is the only IRQ left on my computer (5
is used by a tape backup card, 7 by the printer, and I get all sorts of
problems if I try to make the SB share IRQ7 with the printer.)
[good post deleted]
The network play is *brilliant*! I love it.
We've been playing with two players at work and intend to try three or
four players tomorrow. Just playing with two players has definitely
increased my enjoyment of the game. There's something awfully cool
about watching your mate's car crash and driving under his airborne
spinning wreck-to-be and making a clean get away!
--
Thomas Beagle Standard corporate disclaimer applies.
