First a disclaimer....I am in NO WAY associated with EA or EA Sports. This is
just an average Joes (or Tom or Bob or Jeff or...etc) assesment of the game. I
dont hold anything against you if you disagree with my views. In fact i would
be interrested to see what others think of NFS 4.
Now the review...(bear with me...its my first one)
After picking up the latest of the NFS titles i have to give a definate 2
thumbs up. Its great fun especially after a tense race in [[fill in your fav
sim here]]. Good way to unwind. The AI is fairly good (though a little
lacking in speed....i almost always win). The tracks are fun and the Hot
Pursuit mode puts a premium on keeping just ahead of that car behind you (in
other words the cops). I get a kick out of outrunning cops and not having to
spend time in jail afterwards. There is an ample selection of cars (i love the
class A and B cars....just tromp the throttle and hold on) and the "supercars"
are all what you would expect from quater million dollar machines;
rocketships!!! The sense of speed is quite good especially when flying thru an
area with close proximity to the scenery (which causes considerable damage if
you arent careful) Physics are good for an arcade style racer but i was having
so much flat out fun that i didnt really notice half the time. However the
cars all seem to have different handiling charicterstics. Setup was a breeze
on my P2 300, 96 MB RAM w/ VooDoo3 200 PCI card. Graphics ran smoothly for the
most part except when there was alot of load on the CPU (ie when u start
flipping and whatnot).
Over all i give it these scores:
Gameplay: 7
Fun Factor: 10
Graphics: 9 (based off GPL being a 10)
Out-of-box playability: 8
Setup: 10
Compatibility: 6 (had problems setting up my wheel/pedal combo)
Overall: 8
If your expecting GPL level....forget it...its not that good. However it is
the best arcade racer ive tried. On a hadrcore sim scale it ranks about a 4 or
5. But on the overall game scale....its a solid 8 or maybe even a 9. My
final verdict is...If your looking for an enjoyable game...go ahead and spend
the money for NFS High Stakes. I liked it and ive been playing GPL (the best
sim/game ever IMO) since it came out almost a year ago.
Chris
