I was e***d to pick up Need For Speed: High Stakes yesterday, and so far
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.
--
Yahoo! pager ID=Galley_SimRacer ICQ=29356568
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"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
Remove "spam-jammer" to reply
Peace, love and Monkeemobiles,
Galley
And the holy hosts all joined in as "Galley_SimRacer"
Instead there is a look behind feature..not the same but..
Hmm I haven't checked this but I noticed you can adjust the lap count
in Hot Pursuit mode.
Isn't that what Test Drive mode is?
not a concern for me.
not a concern for me.
wasn't this a hidden code in NFS3?
This one is a big so what to me, but I understand.
THIS PISSED ME THE HELL OFF! The drop off from each series has been
the result of losing the Road & Track license from the first title.
The license is the reason I recently went out and track down NFS to
add to my library permanently. At least I can still watch beautiful
cars slide through water, and watch a diablo do donuts....
Again this one isn't a major concern for me.
Ditto above.
Since the whole focus on this NFS is about owning and maintaining your
cars...thi sis a given.
Haven't had that problem.
This is a weird nitpick. The name of the vehicle is above the image
in yellow. If anything you can scroll quickly through to the vehicle
you want to see.
YMMV.
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> >no practice mode
> Isn't that what Test Drive mode is?
Yes, but you're limited to a single lap. Poor judgement
of making it this way...IMHO.
Me neither.
I found some of it OK but usually turn it off to listen
to enine and ambient.
Yeah, it was unfortunate, but if they use the additional space
for better rendering and/or more tracks/cars, fine by me!
Me neither. Found it well done overall.
Agreed. Still don't know what the deal with the fade-in tho.
I'll give it an 8/8.5
Happy racing,
Rich
So what makes yout hink the rock wouldn't have sucked just as bad?
--
http://listen.to/these - Trading MP3s through ICQ.
"It says 'Spinach' on the outside, but we all know it's whoop-ass!"
-Me, on Popeye
{My spell checker is broken. OK?}
snip
snip
Because, by definition, the best techno song is still not as good as the
worst rock song!
--
Yahoo! pager ID=Galley_SimRacer ICQ=29356568
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"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
Remove "spam-jammer" to reply
Peace, love and Monkeemobiles,
Galley
NFS1 is still my favourite. It has the best FMV's and handles pretty well.
NFS2 cones a close second. The only thing I ask for is that with the next
one, I hope they put the FMV's back in and put in all the cars from the
other Need For Speeds. I personally wouldn't mind forking out the extra
to get two or three CD's with all the cars and decent Cinematics...
I agree there too.
It's all a matter of taste. I am equally happy throwing in a CD of Pearl
Jam, Rusty or CCR as I am listening to a soundtrack by Moby or something
from Prodigy. I always liked the games (like Screamer2, for example) that
let you put in your own music CD. Anyway, I found with the original NFS,
the Viper was just asking for the rock tracks, while the 911 went best
with techno!
Stephen
:> So what makes you think the rock wouldn't have sucked just as bad?
:>
: Because, by definition, the best techno song is still not as good as the
: worst rock song!
: --
: Yahoo! pager ID=Galley_SimRacer ICQ=29356568
: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
: "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
: Remove "spam-jammer" to reply
: Peace, love and Monkeemobiles,
: Galley
You're, what, 13? You have the delusion that your opinion is fact?
--
http://listen.to/these - Trading MP3s through ICQ.
"It says 'Spinach' on the outside, but we all know it's whoop-ass!"
-Me, on Popeye
{My spell checker is broken. OK?}
> > So what makes you think the rock wouldn't have sucked just as bad?
> Because, by definition, the best techno song is still not as good as the
> worst rock song!
snip
What _is_ it with this, anyway?
First, NasRev. Then, SCGT. Now NFS4?
Don't these people think we would like the game to remember our
preferences for views?
-Larry
> 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.
YEAH
ROCK RULEZ :)
Let them use some Pantera stuff or somethin like that!
