Fast cars, girls, and customizations galore may make you proud to be a ricer.

In the game, that is.

GAMEPLAY:

Have you ever dreamed of taking a car and customizing it any way you want? Well, your dream may come true, without having to spend thousands of dollars! Or… at least on your television it will come true. NFSU has you take a mid-range, not-quite-a-sports-car vehicle and take to the streets. With this car, you race against people in the streets to gain a little bit of respect. With respect and a little bit of cash you can begin to make your car look cool and perform better. Making performance upgrades does exactly what you would think it would do—make your car a fast, racing beast. Fast cars have better times… I guess.

But, there is a reason to make your car look better, however. The better your car looks, the bigger the multiplier for the after-race rewards. The bigger the multiplier, the more “stuff” you can unlock. The more stuff you unlock… well, the cooler your car will look. And you may unlock some secrets too.

What events will you be taking your finely tuned beast to? Well, a variety of modes through the 111 mission “Go Underground” mode. There are your basic races. These include sprint (go from one point to the other, either against a clock or against racers), circuit (do laps), and the NFS usual Lap Knockout (you start with four cars, each car that finishes last in the lap is eliminated). There are also some other types of modes, such as drift and drag. The drift mode is not racing at all. The point of drift mode is to rack up as many style points as possible by sliding your car around turns. Drag mode is a completely different racing experience all together.

Drag mode really shines in this game. It is completely different all together. The RPM-meter is on the side of the screen and enlarged so it is easier to see. Precision is key in this mode, because if you want to win you must shift well. Drag mode is the only mode that the game forces you to use manual transmission. The sensation of speed in this mode is insane. The screen starts to shake, lines blur and the controller rumbles (if you turn vibration on). The drag mode is very well done.

The physics engine is a mix between simulation and arcade. You can still make a turn very fast, but don’t expect to just tap the handbrake and slide completely around the turn unscratched. Well, I take that back. Don’t expect to tap the handbrake slide around the turn without crashing. You will be unscratched, because there is no damage model in the game.

One of my peeves in a game is very apparent in this game. Rubber band AI. It makes for a better street-racing experience, really forcing you to be smart and not crash, but if I race a perfect race for six laps and crash on the final turn of the seventh, there is no excuse to finish in third place. I hate rubber band AI for just that reason. But, in a game like this, it keeps the game exciting and you can never be too sure of a win. Still, if there is rubber band AI, it should be less extreme.

Another small gripe I have are the tracks. There are many of them in this one city, but it would be nice to have a couple of different cities that you can go to in order to become the best on the streets, a la Midnight Club II. The tracks are good, but at times they seem a bit repetitive.

And don’t expect to watch your amazing races over again. The game lacks an instant replay. You would think that a game of this caliber would have an instant replay (like many previous NFS games), but it doesn’t.

GAMEPLAY: 9/10

CARS AND GRAPHICS:

The cars are rather middle-of-the-road cars. No Porches or Aston Martins or Ferraris, but Nissans, Mazdas, Hondas, and Toyotas. There aren’t a ton of cars in the game, so those of you looking for a Gran Turismo-esque selection… there is no selection like that in any other series. But you will find Miatas, Celicas, S2000s, Supras, Golfs, Neons and Imprezas. They are not the best, most exotic rides, but they aren’t bad cars. These cars can be upgraded with both visual and performance upgrades. The performance upgrades are in three parts that you unlock as you go through the game. The only major complaint is that you cannot change the gear ratios. Other than that, the performance enhancements are good.

Now, it is up to you to make the car look good. There are many after-market options that you can put on the cars. You can put front bumpers, rear bumpers, side skirts, hoods, spoilers, window tints, muffler tips, rims, different paint jobs (glossy, metallic or pearlescent), neons, roof scoops, headlights, tail lights, over 50 different decals that can go on 30 different parts of the car and many, many, many different vinyls to put on the car. There game brags about—get this—72 billion different combinations. Yeah, billion, with a B. So don’t expect to find others with your exact same car. The only thing that you can't customize is the license plate. I’m a little sour about that, but it’s no big deal. Everything else can be customized to your heart’s content.

When you are done messing around with your car and want to hit the streets, you will be impressed with the visuals. Moving traffic, many streetlights, and sparks flying, it just seems somewhat real. The game uses many nice camera tricks for the sensation of speed, such as blurring. When you are flying down a stretch of road at 150, the streetlights will have a blurred look, leaving somewhat of a trail. A small touch, but it makes you feel like you are going really fast.

Speaking of going really fast, the effect when you use nitrous oxide (nos) is really good. Lines start to blur a bit more and the screen shakes, making you feel as if you are really pushing your car to the limit. There is no greater sensation of speed than when you use nos to make your car speed up to 200+ mph (320 Km/h, for anyone using the metric system)

The game is always at night, and it looks like it has always just finished raining, so there are many shiny surfaces on the road. The reflections are beautiful and the ground will glow at the lit-up parts of the map (Chinatown looks especially nice) and it will just be wet at other parts. The way EA created the night atmosphere was well done. Instead of making everything black, there are buildings that are lit up and streetlights, so you are never really in pitch-black darkness. It really does look like night falling on some city.

The reflections on the car, however, are the only major flaw in the graphics. The reflections on the car refresh significantly lower than the frame rate. It is rather noticeable if you have the time to look at your car during the race. But, while storming down a street at high speeds with oncoming traffic, you don’t notice it all too much.

There is no damage model in the game, unfortunately. But I think the no damage model was a good trade-off to be allowed to use the licensed cars.

CARS AND GRAPHICS: 9/10

SOUND:

The sounds of the cars are very nice. There are subtle sounds that have been picked up on in the game. The engines sound especially good when shifting gears. The tires squealing and the metal crunching are all very well done.

The soundtrack in this game is mostly rap. You might find yourself singing a little bit of that song “Get Low” after playing. Sometimes you may just have the urge to scream out “TO THE WINDOW! TO THE WALL!” The musical selection is very well done and fits the game.

SOUND: 9/10

REPLAY VALUE:

The underground mode takes about 15 hours to complete, depending on the difficulty setting. But, this is a game that you will want to pick up over and over again. You can also battle it out against a friend split-screen. No friends? No problem! Just use your network adapter and play others on-line. You are able to take your customized beast on-line and see how others customized their ride. On-line is only for to PS2 and PC, but the PS2 racers can battle it out with the PC racers. The on-line play adds a lot to the game.

REPLAY VALUE: 9.5/10

OVERALL:

Racing fan? Buy this game, or ask for it for Christmas. Not much of a racing fan? At least go to your local video store and rent it. This game is worth playing, and it really is fun to watch your car transform from a regular car to a highly tuned racing beast. This game is definitely worth playing, and will be the standard for customizing cars in a game.

OVERALL: 9/10