Folks,
I've been playing NFS2 for about a day now and my initial impressions
are somewhat less than kind. In short, the game is both a whole lot
less than I expected as a rabid NFS/NFSSE fan and a whole lot more
than I expected in terms of "arcadish-ness."
For starters, in my opinion many of the new tracks suck pretty hard.
The near-reality and authentic feel of the original tracks has been
replaced with more arcade-like, improbable, and fantastical courses.
The Himalayan course, for example, has more in common with the
improbable but amusing tracks in Whiplash than with any realistic
depiction of driving. Crystal tunnels, snow covered dirt roads? This
feels more like Sega Rally or Test Drive: Off Road than a Need for
Speed game! Where the heck are the realistic, incredibly driveable
and FUN road courses of the past?
The cars, moreover, are almost all huge, lumbering over-powered
affairs. My favorite part of NFS/SE was that you could often beat the
large brutish cars with a smaller, more nimble vehicle, especially on
tight courses like Alpine. In my opinion, many of these smaller cars
(and some of the larger ones like the Viper) had great authentic
driving "feel", whereas the cars in NFS2 mostly drive like lumbering
oxen. Driving skill was at a premium in the original games, whereas
the new game seems to emphasize simple speed/power. Where are the
instantly recognizable, fun to drive cars that everybody wanted to own
as a child/***ager? Replaced by almost unknown concept cars. The
emphasis has clearly shifted from cars that are fun and driveable to
cars that are merely ***. Who cares that I get to drive cars I'll
never see much less own if they drive like ***in the first place?
My final big gripe, the performance! The frame-rate and graphic
requirements are clearly over the top for most of us. I've played the
game on both a Pentium 120 and a Pentium Pro 200. The Pentium sucks
almost too hard to play even with sound and graphics all turned down
to minimal levels. On the PPro 200 the game at least felt mostly
smooth, yet it still somehow failed to draw me in. Sure, the game
looks nice and the cars are now theoretically free of the invisible
walls (this is less true than would appear, as most tracks tightly
confine the area around the road anyways). Despite the looks,
however, the engine just doesn't impress me as the original did. In
my opinion the graphic engine and cars just feel sloppy and loose, a
more arcade-like and poor quality imitation of the original. What the
hell happened to the tight, white-knuckled e***ment of the original
games, folks?
Opinions?
-Diego Gallina-
I have not tried NFSS2, So I cannot comment on it until I get a hacked
version of it.
But I thought the original was a pile of shit and so was NFSSE.
( Thanks for the patch Electrontic Arts ) Never was one.
The worst thing about the game was the Complete SHIT control in multiplay,
as well
as the some of the undrivable Stupid Tracks, For me anyway.
I asked EA many times for help on the control thing and never once got a
***ing
response!! Just NFSSE for 69.00 bucks!! And the control still was the same.
So EA, *** you and Microprose and All these other monopolies who continue
to
pump out shitty UNTESTED (for the most part) games.
Hope you all go broke.
Mr Bill
