Need For Speed Underground... Is it THAT Good?

[A2600]

Im aware of the good sports background EA has im also aware of the great line of Need For Speed Games, but my friends are hyping this game up too much!! They say its awsome and thats its the best and this and that!! Also they say that you cant rent it because once you rent ti you would want to keep the game!!

 

I ask you AtariAge members is this game THAT Good?

 

I have intentions of renting it this weekend to what all the hype is about!!

[Raijin Z]

If you're a wannabe ricer without mommy and daddy to fund your fartcan-fueled azn-escapades... get it. On the positive, tt's beautiful, it's multiplayer, it's solid NFS racing. You can't go too far wrong, no matter the venue.

[PuddWakkr]

I didn't care for it that much. The first thing I do when I try a new racing game is to go head on into another car and see what kind of damage results. I didn't see a fucking scratch on my car so I turned the game off. I'm not asking for the hood to fly off or the front tires to explode but come on NO DAMAGE... that sucks at least make the headlights go out. Really takes away from the feeling of a speeding car when there is no need to worry about blowing up your ride.

[Brad2600]

I think a racing game cannot be considered REALISTIC until the car sustains some sort of damage.There's no such thing as an intact car body after colliding with another car at 160 mph.

[Video]

I havent found anybody who can varify weather the thing has cops on it or not. Considering that's the driving force behind the NFS series (at least for me) i just said feck it. If it doesn't have cops, it might as well be any other racer out there.

 

Oh, and Need For Speed has never been about realism. But I think from 4 on they were doing damage to the cars though. Shame they made it almost nonexistant in HP2, and took it out of this one entirely.

[PaulEMoz]

If you're renting it, you can't really go wrong. It's a very good ARCADE racer. Take it as such and you'll enjoy it. If you're too concerned about the lack of realistic damage, or the fact that you don't get punished too harshly for crashing, then you might not enjoy it. By the way, the cops aren't in it, as it's not a Hot Pursuit game. It's like a video game version of The Fast and the Furious (which I've never seen, so that's not why I like the game).

 

I've reviewed the game on Way of the Rodent, here: http://www.wayoftherodent.com/revneedforsp...underground.htm

[Kenshi]

First of all, they didn't take damage out completely. On certain modes, it is possible to total your car with a major crash. But the damage doesn't show visibly on the car. And as far as I know, you can't do anything less than totalling it. It's either driving fine or not at all. You can blow your engine too if that counts.

 

I personally think it's an ok game, but not great. There are 3 things holding it back for me. First is the way the car handles. It's not horrible, but it's certainly no Gran Turismo. You can steer sharper at 150 mph than my Thunderbird will at 30. I know these cars are supposed to handle well and all, but that's ridiculous.

 

Second is the car selection. You'll find nothing but ricey cars on this game. I've seen two American cars, and they're both ricey (Escort and Neon). Some of the cars wouldn't be so bad stock-looking, but one of your goals is to fix them up to look ricey. And there are big ass wings and roof scoops that magically make the car perform better without causing any aerodynamic drag. And I was humored to see that you could buy a performance camshaft for the RX-7. (RX-7's and their rotary engines don't have camshafts, for those who don't know.)

 

The last thing I can think of for now is the music sucks. It's almost totally rap music. There are two good rock songs, but even if you could turn off all the other songs off, those two would get old. I guess this is the kind of pseudo-music to be expected from such a ricey game.

 

In conclusion, the game can be fun, but unless you think a Honda Civic is better than a Viper, you should just rent it.

[ultravi0let]

its one of the best arcade racers i've played in a long long while, the best being Rage Racer.

on race 91 of 111 at the moment, and things are getting very fast and difficult

[Mr.FoodMonster]

The ONE reason I wont be picking this up, when you drive, the whole backround blurs. I HATE HATE HATE IT!!! Its VERY distracting and just looks like they didnt want to render the graphics pretty and fast, so they decided to 'blur' them. ARG!!

[PaulEMoz]

The ONE reason I wont be picking this up, when you drive, the whole backround blurs. I HATE HATE HATE IT!!! Its VERY distracting and just looks like they didnt want to render the graphics pretty and fast, so they decided to 'blur' them. ARG!!

 

Well, that's a speed effect. It's extremely effective at making it look like you're going fast. Check out the street lights as you go by. I think it's a great effect, personally.

[Kenshi]

I take back what I said about the music. It turns out that the crap music is turned on during the menus, when you notice it the most. Most of the songs are good and you can configure only them to play. After fixing that, I actually like the game, but only a little.

[Agent X]

Oh, and Need For Speed has never been about realism.

 

I disagree. The first Need for Speed game (which carried the Road & Track license) was praised by many people as being one of the most realistic driving simulations at that time.

 

The introduction of Gran Turismo really raised the bar, and redefined what constitutes a driving simulation. Even so, the early NFS games definitely had more of a realistic slant when compared to the arcade-style gameplay of other contemporary racing games like Ridge Racer or Daytona USA.

[holy_fluck]

If you're a wannabe ricer without mommy and daddy to fund your fartcan-fueled azn-escapades... get it. On the positive, tt's beautiful, it's multiplayer, it's solid NFS racing. You can't go too far wrong, no matter the venue.

 

 

Dont make those silly comments about "ricers", some people like to do that to their own cars and not mommy and daddys car. Would you rather have a Need for Speed: Redneck or something and have races between chevy and ford trucks that are insanely annoying when they remove they cats and have their exahust. Its just as damn annoying, if not more than the "fart cans"

[GrizzLee]

Dont make those silly comments about "ricers", some people like to do that to their own cars and not mommy and daddys car. Would you rather have a Need for Speed: Redneck or something and have races between chevy and ford trucks that are insanely annoying when they remove they cats and have their exahust. Its just as damn annoying, if not more than the "fart cans"

 

I disagree.. or perhaps maybe it depends where you live. When was the last time you were sitting down to a nice quiet family dinner and heard a redneck drive his big ass Dogde truck by your house? Or when was the last time you were sitting at a light in traffic and heard one of these redneck rigs. Contrast this with the fact that I can hear these annoying rice racers 2 blocks away, not because of there car, because of the "goddamn" thumper they have in it. I swear the entire car is a frickin' speaker. I agree though, not all these cars are rice burners, some of these punks actually take nice Beamers and Subuarus and trim them out. I'm not sure where they get the money though. Then again, maybe I'm just too old to understand these kids with their nose pericings, pink hair and pants hanging around there ankles

 

 

-Lee

[Scooterb23]

When was the last time you were sitting down to a nice quiet family dinner and heard a redneck drive his big ass Dogde truck by your house?

 

About 3 minutes ago...check that...5 seconds ago...

 

Of course we have a couple of Fast & Furious wannabes at the end of our road as well...

 

This game annoys me...I think it's mainly the whole motion blur thing. I think it makes the game look horrible.

 

I played the demo for about 5 minutes, and just wondered what the big deal was...and went back to Burnout 2.

[nashnooga]

eww no hot pursuit... that sucks.

[ultravi0let]

i'm on race 101 of 111 and i have no complaits about the game only the crashes.

[Video]

If you're renting it, you can't really go wrong.  It's a very good ARCADE racer.  Take it as such and you'll enjoy it.  If you're too concerned about the lack of realistic damage, or the fact that you don't get punished too harshly for crashing, then you might not enjoy it.  By the way, the cops aren't in it, as it's not a Hot Pursuit game.  It's like a video game version of The Fast and the Furious (which I've never seen, so that's not why I like the game).

 

I've reviewed the game on Way of the Rodent, here:  http://www.wayoftherodent.com/revneedforsp...underground.htm

 

Of the first 6 games, only 1 didn't have cops in it (which is probably why it's overlooked)

 

Need for Speed: Road and Track, had cops, albeit only on two point tracks

Need for Speed 2, didn't have cops (though being able to race as all cars, and other BS made up for it)

Need for Speed 3: Hot persuit, had cops, actually centering as a main point.

Need for Speed: High steaks, also had cops as one of it's major points

Need for Speed: Porshe, had cops, but they sucked as you were stopped if they simply touched you. And of course

Need for Speed: Hot persuit 2, has cops, again, as a main point of the game.

 

Take out the cops, and what do you got? Gran Turismo.

 

Sorry, I meant, Gran turismo with decent controlls.

[eldunko]

Ferrari 355 is a simulator, Sega GT is a simulator, Gran Turismo is again a simulator, NFS is not a simulator.

 

Need For Speed has always been an arcade racer based around real cars, and in no way resembles a game that resembles how a real car handles or drives. Go play the full Ferrari 355 arcade game with the clutch and 6 speed, and then go and play need for speed, please for the love of god tell me you see a difference.

[Video]

Actually, I've driven several of those Real cars, and I know for a fact, Those Sims don't accurately show how they handle (especially at high speed) Ahh, the days of working at the garage, course, that was the only thing I missed about it. Now, neither does Need for Speed, which doesn't handle like much anything (except maybe a cheap ass mini) at any speed.

 

My complaint isn't how it controlls though. It's the removal of cops, which as I said, were in all the games except 2 (does that actually have a real name? Oh, and maybe the Ralley games, but I don't count those cause I like road racers (or maybe it's I don't suck at road racers LOL )

[KaineMaxwell]

I miss Hot Pursuit modes myself.

[Malix]

Check out my topic on the new racing game coming out for the xbox. They have cops in it!

[Mr.FoodMonster]

The ONE reason I wont be picking this up, when you drive, the whole backround blurs. I HATE HATE HATE IT!!! Its VERY distracting and just looks like they didnt want to render the graphics pretty and fast, so they decided to 'blur' them. ARG!!

Well, I hate to admit it, but I have been playing this game. My brother bought it, and I was looking thru the options, and you can turn the annoying speed blur off! YIPEE!! This IS a pretty damn good game. The music is fine to whoever was explaining, if you can take a couple rap songs every here and there. There are only like 5 rap songs on the whole thing, and one of them isnt that bad, but the others are HORRIBLE. I do wish it had more damage though, its always fun to beat the hell out of your car if you get bored =D. I think the reason there arent any cops is because the cops could NEVER find you, and even if they did, they couldnt be able to catch you, so whats the point? The sheer level of upgradibilty is incredible, there are SOOO many things you can do to your car its insane. It can be an ad banner, or it can be a kickass tribal car. 7/10

[Scooterb23]

My brother bought it, and I was looking thru the options, and you can turn the annoying speed blur off!

 

Second chance coming up

[video game addict]

What version FoodMonster? I've PS2, I didn't see an option for teh blur

 

I called myself looking but didn't find it. I honestly don't mind it that much, it's really not that big a deal when you're actually trying to keep focused on the road, a few street lights being blurred didn't effect me to much. It's more noticable when watching other people play.

 

And yes the rap music is mainly in the menus, I turned it all off. There are some good tracks for the in game music I thought anyway. The music is pretty cool in surround as well.

 

I personally haven't played it too much yet, only on 13 of 111 or whatever, just have level 1 upgrades at this point. I also didn't see a cam listed for the RX-7, maybe I missed that. There's not suppose to be one thou, so there is one listed as an upgrade somewhere?

 

I don't mind the lack of cops, this is underground, a branchoff of NFS, can be without cops I think. The grafx for the most part seem quite good. I don't mind rice burners, I've used them in the Gran Turismo series. Although I would prefer a fox body Mustang

 

I'm wondering about the upgrades right now, most menus bring up a selection of 3 or 4 packages for each listing, different makes & manufacturers of speed parts, I wonder if there is any difference between them, since they are the same price, and if there is a rhyme or reason to the different combos you could use it there is any differences anywhere, or it's mostly for show. You know just name off lots of different companies, and all upgrade to the same specs in the game. Same with tires, is there a difference??

 

GT had more I think in way of this, for really setting up the cars. This seems more like an arcade game, not that there's anything wrong with that, but I don't think half the crap in it, neon lights, etc, is really worth anything.

 

But I've been having fun with it! I love car games thou!

 

If nothing else, this gets me pumped up for GT4! I'm thinking of importing teh white PS2 w/GT4 right now!