It's finally here! And boy was it worth the wait. I got a copy the other day and have been playing it like mad. In NFS U2 things are done a little bit differently to the 1st game. The game is set 6 months after the end of the first game. Basically some "bad dude" in a SUV takes you out, because you didn't want to join his racing crew. You then try to make a new life for yourself in Bayview (LA, basically). You start off in a green 350Z which you borrow from Rachael (who is voiced by Brooke Burke ), she does a quick intro to the game, and guides you through the first few races. You have to buy your first car from a Pug 206, Ford Focus, Toyota Corrella (1980's), Nissan 240XS, Mazda MX-5 & Honda Civic. Once you've brought yourself a ride you can drive around the city looking for other races to take part in. Not all of the city has been unlocked yet, so you'll see large red barriers blocking your way on occasions. The idea of driving around the open city looking for races is fresh approach, and one that does seem to work very well. But maybe after doing this for a couple of weeks, you might get bored of it, so EA have given you the option to select your races from your garage as well. Along with the races, you will be able to visit the different kinds of shops, associated with car modifying. The car lot, body shop, performance shop, audio shop and spray shop. To start with you can only visit the car showroom, but over time you will find the rest when driving about, or youll get told about them. Modding - Modding your car is the major aspect of the game with the exception of the racing. In NFS U1, you just brought stage 1, stage 2 parts for a certain thing. But now you can select each part on its own, and select the maker of that part. This goes for all the performance and audio parts. There are a lot more parts on offer including the addition of a boot audio set up. Racing This is what its all about. There are now more types of racing. Drifting, drag, sprint, circuit all make a welcome return. But add onto that list Underground Racing League (URL), you get to race on, off street circuits in a full racing series. Downhill drifting, does what it says on the tin. Street X, close racing on a dirt track. Tight technical tracks where control is the order of the day. There has been a slightly change to the original drifting. You now can see your opponents on the course at the same time. And its not about who crosses the line first either. The Car Here is a list of all of the cars you can own in the game. However some of these only appear in certain regional versions. Acura RSX AM General Hummer H2 Audi A3 Audi TT Cadillac Escalade Honda Civic Si Coupe Ford Focus Ford Mustang GT 2005 Hyundai Tiburon GT Infiniti G35 Coupe Lincoln Navigator Lexus IS 300 Mazda RX7 Mazda RX8 Mazda Miata MX5 Mitsubishi 3000GT Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX Mitsubishi Lancer Nissan 240SX Nissan 350Z Nissan Sentra SE-R Spec V Nissan Skyline R34 Opel/Vauxhall Corsa Peugeot 106 Peugeot 206 Pontiac GTO 2004 Subaru Impreza Toyota Celica Toyota Supra Toyota Trueno (Corolla) Volkswagen Golf Tunning - You can now tune your ride to suit your driving style. Ive not done much of this so far, but it looks like you can change the ride height, suspension stiffness and gear ratios, to name a few tweaks. There are loads of other options as well, for example you can set your car for a certain type of racing, and then practise with it to see how it handles. Its great to see your car on the rollers and watching the power figures appear on the screen. Sponsorship You can now get sponsored by car parts makers. Basically they want you to win a certain number of races, and then they give you some cash. On top of that they want you to get your car featured on a magazine or DVD cover. The nice part about this, is that you get to play photographer. You position the car, and select the camera angle, and you can even open the car up to show off your interior, or ICE install. Visuals/Audio - It doesn't look much better than the first game, but there does seem to be a fair few more fancy lighting effects this time round. The cars you can drive all look spot on, only shame the traffic is still so badly modelled. The city (Bayview) looks nice and has loads of types of roads, from fast following freeways to tight mountain bends. Only shame there aren't many (if any massive jumps). All the sounds are spot on, but your car does sound to nice to begin with. However the songs EA have used this time round are very poor by their high standards. All in all its much better than the first Underground game, with my biggest complaint being the poor music. Happy racing. Pros 1. You can own more than one car at a time. 2. You can avoid a certain type of racing and focus on the others. 3. Glad to see you can now tune your car. 4. More types of racing are more than welcome. Cons 1.The music is a massive let down from the first game. Lets hope you can replace this like you could in NFS U1. 2.Free roaming might start to get a bit boring after a while. 3.Weather effects are a little poor Overall Rating 90/100
Yeah i love it. My sponser have offered me a free car but i dont want to take it untill i find the golf as i want that free. It has the best engine sounds ever!
a little birdie ( my 4 year old ) told me santa was bringing it to replace the now delayed gt4 so i have to wait till xmas day
Anyone got the golf yet? Im trying to find it. Im still due a free car too. Also when the guy phones me any says theres some action at the stadium. How do you get into it!? I cant find it! [:^(]
Ive ordered my copy, along with Pro Evo 4 for a bargain price of 45 for the both of them!! Just gotta wait for lxdirect to send it out now!!
Mat - I got the Golf the other day. Just after I got the Supra But I can't remember what race I had to win to get it. The thing is that you can play the game in prett much any order, so it's just a case of keep on racing and you'll get it. I also got the Audi A3 last night Cheers Jamie
EA's need for speed have always had fantastic maps with fantastic realism i think the new underground series has strayed a little form the origional 5 games way of working altho introduced some more features. id like to see need for speed 6 on the shelves with less bling and more racing i wish they would bring out need for speed complete or something like that and copy all the old maps from all there old games and update them with the new graphics etc i would love to race on a new version of the alpine track, or rusty springs from need for speed one in my muchialargo if they do make any deacent track editors id create some of them old maps myself as they were quality
