Re: Need For Speed: Carbon, next in the NFS Series
A Mini Review Of the Collector's Edition (***MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS ***)
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Got my hands on the the Collector's Edition and had been playing it for some time. I would like to share some of my views about the game.
1) First Noticeable thing in the game is the cause of the realization how buggy the demo was. I ran this full version @1024x768 with all details (including 2X AA and Shaders @ MAX) and still the framerate was above a very comfortable 32 fps average with no hitching whatsoever. Lowering the Shader details to medium increased the fps by 5 without sacrificing much on the game details.
2) Second is the redesigned streamlined and much better menu which feels a breeze to hover with.
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3) Graphics is really cool with lots of NEXT GEN effects with brilliant lighting noticeable in some places. Also the shaders are utilized to their full by generating excellent foggy effects and realistic shadows. Though at some places, the car reflection rendering is not very realistic.
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4) The Motion Blur is awesum here as well as the subsidiary rain effect. The Shaders really cook up some cool n realistic racing experience.
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5) The racing physics are much improved. The cars now feature quite decent damage modelling (if enabled in the menu) as well the hit objects behave much better than NFS:MW including the well cooked up blowing effects of gas-stations.
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6) The gameplay features new concepts like racing crews which can be employed as a "drafter", "blocker" or "scout". There will be a short video + gameplay tutorial on these new concepts. AUTOSCULPT is really cool and very well implemented.
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7) *SPOILER* The game will start with you driving in the city with ur fav NFS:MW BMW in a reminiscent mood thinking of how you betrayed your girlfriend and blah blah.. soon you will be chased by Ex Sgt. Cross who has now became a bounty hunter. he will hand you over to racing crews and after some flashy videos you will be able to choose your car in any one of the available 3 categories - Muscle, Tuner, exotic. I chose Mazda as exotic.
8) Then there will be Cops tutorial and blah blah blah.. see them when you play the game.
9) The acting is quite bad compared to what we had in MW.
10) The game also feature "Challenge Series" and "Quick Race". Some others modes require online participation.
11) Best Part, u get a KOENIGSSEGG CCX at the start in Quick race Mode. Its a beast. But this I think is only available in Collector's edn (not sure).
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12) The Drift races are quite difficult here and Canyon Chases need a bit of getting accustomed to. I tried to drift to a Koeniggsegg CCX in quick race but with utter failure. Initially, i broke the 500,000 drift points in the demo.
13) There are some Cop chases but not as interesting as in MW.
14) The gameplay gets a little boring after some time. Overall, this is an average game with many new concepts and cool gameplay but on the whole it seems and feels like a Carbon copy of NFSUG2 with some masala and some features of MW.
[15) My Rating: As a quite decent game: 8.0/10.
