Need for Speed III new demo 'review': it's much better!!!

The new NFS III demo, in which you drive a Corvette in a normal race or hot pursuit under different weather conditions (all randomly assigned everytime you start the demo) is much, much, much better than the old demo (and all previous NFS full versions)! 1. The car handling is far more realistic. The car now really seems to weigh something, imo due to the fact that it reacts a bit slower to the controller movement and because the in-car view (or bumper view) doesn't shake that much anymore. The car doesn't move over sensitive and itchy as in the old demo. Big improvement. Very realistic. And by adjusting the sensitivity (you actually see percentages, very handy), I now can slide through corners without the handbrake, just by pulling *** the wheel at the right time. This way taking corners feels better now. Even better than in previous NFS version (imo): in contrary to other driving games I could never 'feel' I was going too fast too take a certain corner. Now I can. 2. The opponents AI seems to be improved a lot. They won't let you pass easily: (at last) they really try to cut you off! Great! They also don't seem to wait for you anymore, like in previous NFS versions. Don't know about any catch-up, though. I hated it in the previous version that, even when catch-up was disabled, winning or losing a race always depended on your last half lap... The opponents don't drive perfect lines. During a rainy hot pursuit race a car spinned 360 degrees in the first corner. And that wasn't because he was pushed or something: it was a hot pursuit race and he clearly was 'surprised' by the wet track (and I was still standing still at the start, amazed by the beatifull weather effects)! Talking about weather...; 3. Graphics are incredible. Very realistic. (Why do all other arcade racing games have those eye-hurting flashy 'arcade colours'?! I like these atmosperic colours much more!) The weather effects are really awesome (on my Celeron 266 OC to 333 and a Helios Voodoo2 12 MB: FPS is smooth). The water that comes up behind the cars when it rains is great. And the effects on the surroundings are just perfect. The mist between the trees. The horizon... everything changes when you drive under different weather conditions. You really can't compare this with the simple effects you got using the hack in the old demo. 4. There are some very nice new (interface) options! - You can change the position of ALL the info on the in-game screen!!! GREAT! You can put the rear view mirror, the speed indicator, the laptime, whatever, (almost) anywhere you like! Really nice idea: you can make the game look anyway YOU want to! - By left-clicking with your mouse on the name of an opponent (in the 'gradings box') you are transported to that car! Right-clicking anywhere brings you back to your car. So if you hear the other car is caught by the cops, left-click and watch him getting booked. :-) - You can 'program' a maximum of 4 different cam views (out of 6) which you can change in-game with the appropriate button. Very nice: now you don't have to 'scroll' through views you never use. (BTW It took me a few minutes before I discovered this option: I got the dashboard view, while I wanted the bumper view (although the dashboard looks great). You don't get that by default, but it is there: you just have to 'program' it.) ONE BIG BUT...: the biggest disappointment is still the (lack of) of speed... And that's what this game is all about. Too often it all looks like a family ride on a lazy sunday afternoon... Maybe this is due to the fact you can't change gear manually (in this demo anyway): I seldom reach gear 4, I'm mostly stuck in gear 3. And when I personally would like to change gear to 2 (to speed up faster) the automatic keeps on humming in 3... (ANYBODY KNOWS IF YOU CAN CHANGE THIS IN THE DEMO??? I WANT MANUAL GEARS!) Another small 'but' regarding the demo: settings aren't saved Maybe I've forgotten to say something, but I really have to get back into my Corvette now... This demo is great. It's only 17 Mb, so download it NOW! And even though the speed is not what I'd like it to be, I'm going to buy it the day i hits the shelves! Happy driving! Jeroen van Engelenhoven

Why did they make the automatics only have 4 gears? I hate the automatic they put in this game. Is this for realism? I guess I'll have to learn to drive the manual. On the graphics side, check out the rear view mirrors on the out side of the car, they are texture mapped like the rear window. It is so cool. It's a small thing, but it's awesome that they put that in. The glow around the lights in the tunnel, and on the street lights are cool also. For me, there's never been a question of weather or not I'll buy it. I plan on getting it the day it comes out. Over all, I think this demo is much improved from the beta we tested. I just wish it felt faster, I guess it will feel faster with some of the faster cars.

I would say it's *slightly* more realistic. You can sort of steer, but otherwise it still feels all wrong. LIke floating on air. You're kidding, right? To me it feels like the car is make of balsa wood, or mayby that thin transparent kitchen-wrap plastic. Absolutely no weight whatsoever. Wierd, mine won't slide at all. Agreed. I found the sense of speed of. my biggest disappointment is the horrible/hacked physics of cars hitting each other. The tiniest bump from behind sends you into a random, wild spin. I will probably buy it as well, but ONLY becase there are editable cars, so I have some hope a semi-realistic driving feel can be created, even though it seems like it won't be there out of the box. Joe

When I first tried it I thought the bumper cam had gone, but it is selectable. The dashboard view is nice, and the handling seems "lighter" but this may just be the difference between the Corvette and Lambo. The coronas from the tunnel lights and streetlights are nice and the frramerate seems better/gameplay smoother. I will buy this on release day!

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>>1. The car handling is far more realistic. >I would say it's *slightly* more realistic. You can sort of steer, but >otherwise it still feels all wrong. LIke floating on air. >>The car now really seems to weigh >>something, >You're kidding, right? To me it feels like the car is make of balsa >wood, or mayby that thin transparent kitchen-wrap plastic. Absolutely >no weight whatsoever. >>And by adjusting the sensitivity (you >>actually see percentages, very handy), I now can slide through corners >>without the handbrake, just by pulling *** the wheel at the right

time.

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>Wierd, mine won't slide at all. >>3. Graphics are incredible. Very realistic. >Agreed. >>ONE BIG BUT...: the biggest disappointment is still the (lack of) of >>speed... >I found the sense of speed of. my biggest disappointment is the >horrible/hacked physics of cars hitting each other. The tiniest bump >from behind sends you into a random, wild spin. >>Corvette now... This demo is great. It's only 17 Mb, so download it NOW!

And >>even though the speed is not what I'd like it to be, I'm going to buy it the

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>>day i hits the shelves! >I will probably buy it as well, but ONLY becase there are editable >cars, so I have some hope a semi-realistic driving feel can be >created, even though it seems like it won't be there out of the box. >Joe

Thats good. I just picked up Test Drive 4 yesterday in the bargain bin for $10 bucks, and I doubt I"ll get $10 worth of enjoyment out of the game. I tried it briefly in the demo many moons ago and remembered that the cars were large, the roads were narrow, and the graphics were.."eh". Now that I got the whole game, my opinion hasn't changed much......its also terrible with joystick control, you gotta have a wheel for this game I'm thinking... Well, I for one like a slower game, that forces you to pay more attention to driving your car as opposed to *** around and bouncing off of "invisible barriers" like you were playing a game of Ridge Racer or some other 100% arcadish racer.. Or...for that matter...Test Drive 4. :) Brant

you know..i saw this too...right at the start we got a few feet and he did a 360... thouh I almost ran into him when I saw some of his reflectiono on the wet road in doing so :O The lightening man! how could you forget that! ;D The forks where cool and no blinding full screen flashes, even better... a delayd real sounding clap of thunder follows.. no cheesy low sampled static here... btw change the headlights from projected to vortex and watch how you can se "fog" pass through them Yea i noticed this too. I couldnt get past 3rd unless I went down a steep hill. It could be all part of the realistic physics engine simulating the fact you arnt gona get far going up steep hills and around hairpin corners in 5th gear what so ever... theres also more then one car in the full version... also..I really thing its either the track or the demo. No one can *** up that bad and make a game like this w/o allowing you to go as fast as the cars TRUE life top speed :D Also another change from the last demo. the cops are no longer Expert race drivers!! hehe...nothing pissed me off so bad then having my pimped out car benig outruned by a ***en chevy. Now they will actually hang behind you and will catch up if you make to many mistakes or go to slow. also they will set up road blocks and spike strips though... the only time I saw a spike strip..the police car was infront of it... so it wasnt really effective. Another thing too... before you where like ignored if they where persuing the other guy. Now while the main persute car will ignore you...other cars..called to help or not will see you speed if you do and go after you as well. But damn...i couldnt help but scream out "OJ!!!!" when I had 4 cars behind me and you could hear each one :D also last note..the demo has kic kass software support. I was surpised when going through all my video cards i saw software mode had lots of colors... had the chrome teaxture on the cars... lights.. rain... though didnt have the rolling clouds or lightening...

I just drove the all but full version at one of the shops here and it is incredible, the driving model is better that the second demo, and in pursuit mode as the cops it is great fun. the in car view gives a much better impression of speed than the exterior views, I have no idea why but that's the way it felt. Anyway 1 Week to wait and I can finally get to drive a HSV Commodore :) Peter >The new NFS III demo, in which you drive a Corvette in a normal race or hot >pursuit under different weather conditions (all randomly assigned everytime >you start the demo) is much, much, much better than the old demo (and all >previous NFS full versions)! >1. The car handling is far more realistic. The car now really seems to weigh >something, imo due to the fact that it reacts a bit slower to the controller >movement and because the in-car view (or bumper view) doesn't shake that >much anymore. The car doesn't move over sensitive and itchy as in the old >demo. Big improvement. Very realistic. And by adjusting the sensitivity (you >actually see percentages, very handy), I now can slide through corners >without the handbrake, just by pulling *** the wheel at the right time. >This way taking corners feels better now. Even better than in previous NFS >version (imo): in contrary to other driving games I could never 'feel' I was

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>going too fast too take a certain corner. Now I can. >2. The opponents AI seems to be improved a lot. They won't let you pass >easily: (at last) they really try to cut you off! Great! They also don't >seem to wait for you anymore, like in previous NFS versions. Don't know >about any catch-up, though. I hated it in the previous version that, even >when catch-up was disabled, winning or losing a race always depended on

your >last half lap... The opponents don't drive perfect lines. During a rainy hot >pursuit race a car spinned 360 degrees in the first corner. And that wasn't >because he was pushed or something: it was a hot pursuit race and he clearly >was 'surprised' by the wet track (and I was still standing still at the >start, amazed by the beatifull weather effects)! Talking about weather...; >3. Graphics are incredible. Very realistic. (Why do all other arcade racing >games have those eye-hurting flashy 'arcade colours'?! I like these >atmosperic colours much more!) The weather effects are really awesome (on my >Celeron 266 OC to 333 and a Helios Voodoo2 12 MB: FPS is smooth). The water >that comes up behind the cars when it rains is great. And the effects on the

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>surroundings are just perfect. The mist between the trees. The horizon... >everything changes when you drive under different weather conditions. You >really can't compare this with the simple effects you got using the hack in >the old demo. >4. There are some very nice new (interface) options! >- You can change the position of ALL the info on the in-game screen!!! >GREAT! You can put the rear view mirror, the speed indicator, the laptime, >whatever, (almost) anywhere you like! Really nice idea: you can make the >game look anyway YOU want to! >- By left-clicking with your mouse on the name of an opponent (in the >'gradings box') you are transported to that car! Right-clicking anywhere >brings you back to your car. So if you hear the other car is caught by the >cops, left-click and watch him getting booked. :-) >- You can 'program' a maximum of 4 different cam views (out of 6) which you >can change in-game with the appropriate button. Very nice: now you don't >have to 'scroll' through views you never use. (BTW It took me a few minutes >before I discovered this option: I got the dashboard view, while I wanted >the bumper view (although the dashboard looks great). You don't get that by >default, but it is there: you just have to 'program' it.) >ONE BIG BUT...: the biggest disappointment is still the (lack of) of >speed... And that's what this game is all about. Too often it all looks

like >a family ride on a lazy sunday afternoon... Maybe this is due to the fact >you can't change gear manually (in this demo anyway): I seldom reach gear 4,

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>I'm mostly stuck in gear 3. And when I personally would like to change gear >to 2 (to speed up faster) the automatic keeps on humming in 3... (ANYBODY >KNOWS IF YOU CAN CHANGE THIS IN THE DEMO??? I WANT MANUAL GEARS!) >Another small 'but' regarding the demo: settings aren't saved >Maybe I've forgotten to say something, but I really have to get back into

my >Corvette now... This demo is great. It's only 17 Mb, so download it NOW! And >even though the speed is not what I'd like it to be, I'm going to buy it the >day i hits the shelves! >Happy driving! >Jeroen van Engelenhoven

>I just drove the all but full version at one of the shops here and it is >incredible, the driving model is better that the second demo, and in pursuit >mode as the cops it is great fun. the in car view gives a much better >impression of speed than the exterior views, I have no idea why but that's >the way it felt. I've noticed the frame rate is considerably higher in-car with the ***pit turned on (on a Voodoo2 12 MB). Joe