Need for Speed Carbon PC review - Page 5

The Cars !

The game boasts a larger variety of cars which pass 50 in number. There are three categories which are tuner, exotics and muscle cars and they range from tier 1 (lowest) to tier 3 (highest). You can fabricate your own body parts with the game's auto sculpt system as well as the usual modifications in terms of performance, visual and so forth

Tuner cars include:

Mazda Speed 3, RX 7 and RX 8, Mitsubshi Eclipse GSX, Eclipse GT, Lancer Evolution IV, Nissan 240SX, 350Z, Skyline GT-R R34, Renault Clio V6, Subaru Impreza WRX STI, Toyota Supra, Volkswagon Golf R32.

Exotic cars are as follows:

Alfa Romeo Brera, Aston Martin DB9, Audi Le Mans Quattro, BMW M3 GTR, Ford GT, Jaguar XK, Koenigsegg CCX, Lamborghini Gallardo, Murcielago and Murcielago LP640, Lotus Elise, McLaren SLR, Mercedes Benz CLK500 and SL64 AMG, Porsche Carrera GT and Cayman S.

Muscle cars included are:

Chevrolet Camaro Concept, Camaro SS, Chevelle SS and Corvette Z06, Chrysler 300C SRT8, Dodge Challenger Concept, Charger RT, Charger SRT8 and Viper SRT-10, Ford Mustang GT, Shelby GT500 (07), Shelby GT500 (67), Plymouth Hemi Cuda, Vauxhall Monaro VXR.

Special Vehicles are down to three and they are the Police Civic Cruiser, Police Interceptor, Police Rhino.

If your goal is just to finish in the fastest way, you can probably finish Carbon's career mode in about 10 hours. But if you are like me and want to beat every event, as well as unlock every last car and upgrade, you can just as easily spend 20 to 25 hours. Next to that there's even more racing to be done outside the career mode. There are 45 increasingly difficult races to take on in the challenge series, and the quick-race option lets you jump into something--no strings attached.

Like some of the other versions, Carbon on the PC provides a pretty solid online multiplayer component, where a number of players can participate in all of the race types found in the career mode, as well as multiplayer-exclusive modes, where players get to play as both cops and street racers. The rules in some of these modes aren't explained very well, which can make for some pretty confusing moments. But once you get past the learning curve, you can have some good, team-based fun.

Unfortunately, the sun never comes out in this game, which brings back the feeling of the Need for Speed Underground games, though the scenery changes in Carbon are much more varied. It is somewhat disappointing that many elements from MW are recycled here. I guess there is no need to change a winning formula.

Vehicles, environmental objects, textures, and a lot of the sound elements have been cut and pasted into Carbon, making for some odd déjà vu. This is good in some cases because the squeal of the tires and the growl of various car engines still sound great. However, hearing the same police radio chatter in Palmont City that you did in Rockport just seems weird and was a distraction for me.