Developer: EA Black Box
I begin this review, such as it is, with a caveat: I've never played Underground nor its sequel, and personally never went for the whole ricer thing, never subscribed to the tuner culture. I had, however, purchased NFS Most Wanted and fell hopelessly in love with it. This isn't to say that it doesn't come with its bag of drawbacks or that I would ever, ever, ever let myself be seen driving a VW Golf pretending to be cool...but it does mean that I have an unhealthy obsession with Supras (and yeah, I painted mine orange, sue me), even bought 19" rims for the thing, and still have my Cobalt in the garage since it was my 'first car.'
Point is I took everything with a grain of salt, expecting to accept. I never expected to embrace and enjoy my ass off. Thus when I saw the trailer for Carbon—with musclecars—I was practically salivating.
The trailer was focused on canyon racing, a la Tokyo Drift of the Fast and the Furious franchise. Of which the NFS series has been quick to jump on and borrow from, usually at benefit. The race appeared to be between a tuner and one of the neo-classic concept muscle cars, and it appeared that muscle won out at the end, so that made me happy.
I put down the green for the collector's ed DVD-ROM, because I like the extras when they're applied well in-game, and NFS Most Wanted Black Edition did that for me, so the extra sawbuck was not a sacrifice. Speaking of NFSMW, expect a lot of comparison, because this pair of titles is closely related. Most Wanted was a remove from the Underground series, which was NFS' true reentry into the front-row shelves next to Battlefield and the other big dogs of the time. Most Wanted took it a step further by introducing something entirely new to NFS gaming: open city. Real-time free roam, with an engagement system that let you drive to or jump to races and events, quit said events back to roam, and to engage in the most far-reaching epic mother effing chases known to Hollywood.
Ladies n' Gents, there is a God.
Because Carbon is the next installment (and, in fact, the direct sequel) of Most Wanted, expect heavy comparison between the two. While it might help if I'd posted a review of MW prior to Carbon, NFSC is what's out now, and MW is yesterday's news. I'd still like to opine about it, but for timeliness' sake, just roll with it.
The initial run was made on maxed-out settings, i.e. world detail, reflections, etcetera, at a comfy 1280 x 1024 because I don't have a fancy widescreen LCD. The recent NFS titles don't have in-game options for antialiasing or other such graphical tweaks, though you can choose the basics in terms of texture filtering and...well, texture filtering, for which I think trilinear is the max for Most Wanted. I think Carbon has an option for anisotropic, though what the hell aniso is outside of the next step up from linear I couldn't tell you.
The game ran smooth as a baby's bootie, and initial impression was very pretty.
The city scenery alone was something to appreciate, and for a racing game that's saying a lot. It's important to point out that racing games have come a long way, especially the Need for Speed series. Used to be the scenery was given enough effort that you'd maybe notice it as you went by at the speed of sound, but even since NFS Hot Pursuit (waaay back in the day) the background was given some treatment, especially if you'd be seeing it eight times on a closed track race.
Carbon outdoes itself. There are parts that look like you could leave the road and drive into, they're so detailed and integrated. In fact, aside from shortcuts and hideyholes ranging from the obvious to ingenious, these drivable-looking parts are disappointing because you can't drive into them. Still, it adds to the whole experience. So after pretty comes immersion. For which you go through the six-minute set of various cutscenes and semi-interactive short bursts. The cutscenes were, as in MW, kind of silly, but generally well done and quite stylistic, in their combination of effects, in-game CG and live actors. The plot picks up right after MW, so that's another interesting bit.
Random Cool Shit
Reflectors One of the coolest of the random cool bits in Carbon have to be the reflectors. They exist in-game, placed in logical areas, like alongside a retaining wall, on guardrails, or any of the sensible places you'd see 'em in real life, including along the road surface. Of course, the fact they exist isn't the cool part. What blows my mind is their reactiveness to your headlights. They react in a very lifelike manner, and it's just one of those things that makes you say "Ooh, neato" as you're ripping along at one-twenty in slomo and thus have a chance to appreciate the subtle touch. I say subtle because they're integrated; they belong, just like real life, and that's the other part of the cool. They're not leaping out at you; you just happen to notice them at some point because they've blended so well, and then you can grin like an idiot every time you do donuts next to the curve in 21st Street's turf by Morgan Beach because it makes 'em flicker.
Eye candy The tuner culture of cars, in as far as the Need for Speed series concerns itself, is about eye candy. Most Wanted Black really capitalized on the 'mood' in its interface and menus. Carbon is the same, the loading screens, transitions, minimenus and what have you inundated with an X logo and infused style that carries over consistently. Whoopee doo for menus, you say, but it is kinda neat to be sitting in the garage, watching free-flying streaks of neon light trail about the shiny car, something straight out of a 2F2F title sequence but made unique to Carbon.
The Man As with Most Wanted, my absolute favorite part of this game are the police chases. Hell, the cops themselves. While I was largely disappointed that much of the dialogue and radio chatter was taken directly out of MW and barely changed if at all before being stuck into Carbon, it retained the realism and dynamity (is that a word?) of it's predecessor. While the thrill has admittedly gone a little stale after hours upon hours of Most Wanted, the first time I was screaming along a high-stakes boss race and heard my vehicle's description go out over the scanner, my spine got a little tingly.
There's just something undeniably cool about hearing "I'm on that racer, he's in an orange Supra" as opposed to "I am following a speeder." And the smoothness of the radio chatter is not to be glossed over; again, it is integrated much the way of the reflectors—it's not necessarily jaw-dropping at first because it's simply real. Simple things like the flow of the words alone just add to immersion, which is, to me, the paramount factor in gaming. For example: instead of that odd, canned and disjointed "you have...THREE[link to audio of chatter]...new messages" voice, there are at least three different voice actors for police, one dispatcher, one helicopter pilot, and all should have been paid damn well for their performance. I kid you not when I call this the best voice acting for second-string cast in a game, because these guys shine like they're the stars.
It's one of those moments that you love the AI and the effort as you're hurtling down Highway 99 and slam into a cop midway through a radio call. Said incident was entirely an accident, and it was amazing to hear his call interrupted by a burst of static, our cars crunching, and then him screaming that he'd just been rammed as we careened against the concrete barriers.
Sound Speaking of, that's something that is both a random cool shit and a not-so-cool shit, because in Most Wanted the car engines were loud, throaty, unique. In Carbon, the vehicle classes play too much into this, because a tuner sounds like a tuner sounds like a tuner, and a musclecar sounds like a musclecar, and an exotic...you get the idea. More on this under gripes. As for what they did well, there's still the real visceral chunky crashes and scrapes and burning rubber. It's aurally satisfying to hear the tinkle-crack-smash when you cream the d—khead who cut you off, and it's heart-stopping to feel the ear-shattering head-on with a semi. So the SFX lives up to Most Wanted standards, except in the most important area, for which the uncoolness is unforgivable.
Gripes
Sound part deux As stated, the engines. There isn't near as much variation, which is sorely disappointing. There'll be a difference between, say, your Camaro and your Charger, but that's because one is a tier one and the other a two. A Chevelle sounds identical to a Camaro, and ladies and gentleman, that isn't just not right—it's simply wrong.
The engine volume is also on the uncool side, because it's set so low relative to all else that even at max it gets drowned out by tire screech or worse, crewmember chatter. I mean, a tuner should sound like the rice is on fire, an exotic should scream, and a frigging Plymouth 'Cuda should make your teeth ache.
This does not happen. Well, it can. You have to lower all other sound settings so that you can make the levels more realistic. It's not like it's a huge failing, but it's a bit of a pain in the ass. And for the engines to sound alike—there are no words. It just seems like the developers skimped on the most important aspect of audio in a racing game, and it's so strange when every other area of the game excels (with the exception of the AI, which can get a bit wonky but has its saving graces), especially after Most Wanted.
Shininess Is that asphalt glowing?? Okay. You get a car, say a Dodge Charger. You paint her jet black, with chrome coat. She looks like hot liquid f**k on the line. Streetlights and neon and realtime reflections cause NC-17 reactions. Yet on an exterior shot, the bottom of the car reflects the road in mirror-detail—bright detail. I mean, yeah, with that paint the car has a mirrored finish, but the effect looks like the road surface is lit up from underneath and shining like it is the light source itself—when there is no such source. While it looks sort of cool, it detracts from the realism and can make a car look like it's not quite attached to the road surface, which again takes away the visceral and brings in the unreal in-a-game feeling. Small gripe, sure, in light of the coolness, but it's there.
All-nighter One thing Most Wanted did that was sorely missed with the recent NFS titles (arguably, since underground racing does tend to have the whole midnight vibe thing) was daylight. As in you raced during the day, in full view of daytime traffic, police, a living, working city that was so very opposite of a midnight-run vibe.
It was this feeling of exposure that added more thrill to a police chase, or a race through twisty crowded streets. In Carbon, we're back to the Underground-style endless night, and while MW was a strange Alaskan loop of a sun that never set and never really rose, I wonder if the next NFS title could apply transitions. If you go on a forty-five-minute police chase at oh-dark-thirty and achieve heat level four while racing against a sunrise, I think it'd impart more of an urgency to the whole affair. But that's just me.
This is running a bit long (I'm sure nobody's noticed), so I'll save the rest for later. In a quick and dirty conclusion, Carbon hits all the right buttons and aside from one horrifyingly unacceptable nitpick (which I contest is not a nitpick, because this is a racing game about cars, damn it) is a crazy-assed thrill ride that really delivers on the satisfaction. The bad guys are annoying enough, the cops good enough, the plot set up well enough that winning never felt so good.
I begin this review, such as it is, with a caveat: I've never played Underground nor its sequel, and personally never went for the whole ricer thing, never subscribed to the tuner culture. I had, however, purchased NFS Most Wanted and fell hopelessly in love with it. This isn't to say that it doesn't come with its bag of drawbacks or that I would ever, ever, ever let myself be seen driving a VW Golf pretending to be cool...but it does mean that I have an unhealthy obsession with Supras (and yeah, I painted mine orange, sue me), even bought 19" rims for the thing, and still have my Cobalt in the garage since it was my 'first car.'
Point is I took everything with a grain of salt, expecting to accept. I never expected to embrace and enjoy my ass off. Thus when I saw the trailer for Carbon—with musclecars—I was practically salivating.
Somebody hand me a bib…
The trailer was focused on canyon racing, a la Tokyo Drift of the Fast and the Furious franchise. Of which the NFS series has been quick to jump on and borrow from, usually at benefit. The race appeared to be between a tuner and one of the neo-classic concept muscle cars, and it appeared that muscle won out at the end, so that made me happy.
I put down the green for the collector's ed DVD-ROM, because I like the extras when they're applied well in-game, and NFS Most Wanted Black Edition did that for me, so the extra sawbuck was not a sacrifice. Speaking of NFSMW, expect a lot of comparison, because this pair of titles is closely related. Most Wanted was a remove from the Underground series, which was NFS' true reentry into the front-row shelves next to Battlefield and the other big dogs of the time. Most Wanted took it a step further by introducing something entirely new to NFS gaming: open city. Real-time free roam, with an engagement system that let you drive to or jump to races and events, quit said events back to roam, and to engage in the most far-reaching epic mother effing chases known to Hollywood.
All the stuff you wanna do in real life but are too chickenshit to try
Ladies n' Gents, there is a God.
Because Carbon is the next installment (and, in fact, the direct sequel) of Most Wanted, expect heavy comparison between the two. While it might help if I'd posted a review of MW prior to Carbon, NFSC is what's out now, and MW is yesterday's news. I'd still like to opine about it, but for timeliness' sake, just roll with it.
The initial run was made on maxed-out settings, i.e. world detail, reflections, etcetera, at a comfy 1280 x 1024 because I don't have a fancy widescreen LCD. The recent NFS titles don't have in-game options for antialiasing or other such graphical tweaks, though you can choose the basics in terms of texture filtering and...well, texture filtering, for which I think trilinear is the max for Most Wanted. I think Carbon has an option for anisotropic, though what the hell aniso is outside of the next step up from linear I couldn't tell you.
The game ran smooth as a baby's bootie, and initial impression was very pretty.
Fig 2a - Sex on four wheels
The city scenery alone was something to appreciate, and for a racing game that's saying a lot. It's important to point out that racing games have come a long way, especially the Need for Speed series. Used to be the scenery was given enough effort that you'd maybe notice it as you went by at the speed of sound, but even since NFS Hot Pursuit (waaay back in the day) the background was given some treatment, especially if you'd be seeing it eight times on a closed track race.
Carbon outdoes itself. There are parts that look like you could leave the road and drive into, they're so detailed and integrated. In fact, aside from shortcuts and hideyholes ranging from the obvious to ingenious, these drivable-looking parts are disappointing because you can't drive into them. Still, it adds to the whole experience. So after pretty comes immersion. For which you go through the six-minute set of various cutscenes and semi-interactive short bursts. The cutscenes were, as in MW, kind of silly, but generally well done and quite stylistic, in their combination of effects, in-game CG and live actors. The plot picks up right after MW, so that's another interesting bit.
Random Cool Shit
Reflectors One of the coolest of the random cool bits in Carbon have to be the reflectors. They exist in-game, placed in logical areas, like alongside a retaining wall, on guardrails, or any of the sensible places you'd see 'em in real life, including along the road surface. Of course, the fact they exist isn't the cool part. What blows my mind is their reactiveness to your headlights. They react in a very lifelike manner, and it's just one of those things that makes you say "Ooh, neato" as you're ripping along at one-twenty in slomo and thus have a chance to appreciate the subtle touch. I say subtle because they're integrated; they belong, just like real life, and that's the other part of the cool. They're not leaping out at you; you just happen to notice them at some point because they've blended so well, and then you can grin like an idiot every time you do donuts next to the curve in 21st Street's turf by Morgan Beach because it makes 'em flicker.
Eye candy The tuner culture of cars, in as far as the Need for Speed series concerns itself, is about eye candy. Most Wanted Black really capitalized on the 'mood' in its interface and menus. Carbon is the same, the loading screens, transitions, minimenus and what have you inundated with an X logo and infused style that carries over consistently. Whoopee doo for menus, you say, but it is kinda neat to be sitting in the garage, watching free-flying streaks of neon light trail about the shiny car, something straight out of a 2F2F title sequence but made unique to Carbon.
The ability to do crazy-assed shit—and look so cool doing it
The Man As with Most Wanted, my absolute favorite part of this game are the police chases. Hell, the cops themselves. While I was largely disappointed that much of the dialogue and radio chatter was taken directly out of MW and barely changed if at all before being stuck into Carbon, it retained the realism and dynamity (is that a word?) of it's predecessor. While the thrill has admittedly gone a little stale after hours upon hours of Most Wanted, the first time I was screaming along a high-stakes boss race and heard my vehicle's description go out over the scanner, my spine got a little tingly.
There's just something undeniably cool about hearing "I'm on that racer, he's in an orange Supra" as opposed to "I am following a speeder." And the smoothness of the radio chatter is not to be glossed over; again, it is integrated much the way of the reflectors—it's not necessarily jaw-dropping at first because it's simply real. Simple things like the flow of the words alone just add to immersion, which is, to me, the paramount factor in gaming. For example: instead of that odd, canned and disjointed "you have...THREE[link to audio of chatter]...new messages" voice, there are at least three different voice actors for police, one dispatcher, one helicopter pilot, and all should have been paid damn well for their performance. I kid you not when I call this the best voice acting for second-string cast in a game, because these guys shine like they're the stars.
It's one of those moments that you love the AI and the effort as you're hurtling down Highway 99 and slam into a cop midway through a radio call. Said incident was entirely an accident, and it was amazing to hear his call interrupted by a burst of static, our cars crunching, and then him screaming that he'd just been rammed as we careened against the concrete barriers.
Sound Speaking of, that's something that is both a random cool shit and a not-so-cool shit, because in Most Wanted the car engines were loud, throaty, unique. In Carbon, the vehicle classes play too much into this, because a tuner sounds like a tuner sounds like a tuner, and a musclecar sounds like a musclecar, and an exotic...you get the idea. More on this under gripes. As for what they did well, there's still the real visceral chunky crashes and scrapes and burning rubber. It's aurally satisfying to hear the tinkle-crack-smash when you cream the d—khead who cut you off, and it's heart-stopping to feel the ear-shattering head-on with a semi. So the SFX lives up to Most Wanted standards, except in the most important area, for which the uncoolness is unforgivable.
Gripes
Sound part deux As stated, the engines. There isn't near as much variation, which is sorely disappointing. There'll be a difference between, say, your Camaro and your Charger, but that's because one is a tier one and the other a two. A Chevelle sounds identical to a Camaro, and ladies and gentleman, that isn't just not right—it's simply wrong.
The engine volume is also on the uncool side, because it's set so low relative to all else that even at max it gets drowned out by tire screech or worse, crewmember chatter. I mean, a tuner should sound like the rice is on fire, an exotic should scream, and a frigging Plymouth 'Cuda should make your teeth ache.
This does not happen. Well, it can. You have to lower all other sound settings so that you can make the levels more realistic. It's not like it's a huge failing, but it's a bit of a pain in the ass. And for the engines to sound alike—there are no words. It just seems like the developers skimped on the most important aspect of audio in a racing game, and it's so strange when every other area of the game excels (with the exception of the AI, which can get a bit wonky but has its saving graces), especially after Most Wanted.
Shininess Is that asphalt glowing?? Okay. You get a car, say a Dodge Charger. You paint her jet black, with chrome coat. She looks like hot liquid f**k on the line. Streetlights and neon and realtime reflections cause NC-17 reactions. Yet on an exterior shot, the bottom of the car reflects the road in mirror-detail—bright detail. I mean, yeah, with that paint the car has a mirrored finish, but the effect looks like the road surface is lit up from underneath and shining like it is the light source itself—when there is no such source. While it looks sort of cool, it detracts from the realism and can make a car look like it's not quite attached to the road surface, which again takes away the visceral and brings in the unreal in-a-game feeling. Small gripe, sure, in light of the coolness, but it's there.
All-nighter One thing Most Wanted did that was sorely missed with the recent NFS titles (arguably, since underground racing does tend to have the whole midnight vibe thing) was daylight. As in you raced during the day, in full view of daytime traffic, police, a living, working city that was so very opposite of a midnight-run vibe.
It was this feeling of exposure that added more thrill to a police chase, or a race through twisty crowded streets. In Carbon, we're back to the Underground-style endless night, and while MW was a strange Alaskan loop of a sun that never set and never really rose, I wonder if the next NFS title could apply transitions. If you go on a forty-five-minute police chase at oh-dark-thirty and achieve heat level four while racing against a sunrise, I think it'd impart more of an urgency to the whole affair. But that's just me.
This is running a bit long (I'm sure nobody's noticed), so I'll save the rest for later. In a quick and dirty conclusion, Carbon hits all the right buttons and aside from one horrifyingly unacceptable nitpick (which I contest is not a nitpick, because this is a racing game about cars, damn it) is a crazy-assed thrill ride that really delivers on the satisfaction. The bad guys are annoying enough, the cops good enough, the plot set up well enough that winning never felt so good.
