Need for Speed Carbon
Rating:  -
My NFS background: I was never a big fan of NFS. Underground 1 reused tracks too often, and the "short cuts" were a joke... NFS:MW sucked me in. The tracks were decent, the car models well done, good pursuits and a crisp UI - really, the game had a durable feel that made it worth investing time in past beating the storyline. As of today, my Most Wanted bounty slightly exceeds 113 million with 100% game completion.
Fast forward to NFS Carbon and you basically forfeit every decent aspect of Most Wanted. If you heavily enjoyed Underground 2, you should like Carbon, as it will give you a consistent feeling of deja vu.
Music - Horrible. They don't even bother to tell you who made it - mostly because you wouldn't care.
Graphics - I have to agree, it's either equivalent to Most Wanted (they even kept some of the same trucks, modified in minor ways), or slightly below. On the off chance it's equal, the feel is a bit more cartoon-like. I must say, however, the city itself is pretty detailed - though you are driving at night, so that may impact the difference.
"Take it to the Canyon" - Okay, I expected a lot from this hyped up concept... What I found was a narrow road, the loss of both speed breaker AND nitrous, and basically it works in 2 phases, 1) you tailgate him, 2) he tailgates you. Whoever earns more tailgating points wins. Of course, he always does a better job - which one would think gives him a win - yet some how, it doesn't. This is not to say you can not lose, but at the end, I think you will agree, you too, didn't deserve to win.
Short Cuts - Think NFS:Underground 1. "Oh look, a sharp turn I can cut through, weee!" That's about it. Everything you thought they learned from Midnight Club, which they implemented in MW, is now gone. Out of about 15 or so that I've used personally, only one was more complex than cutting through a simple parking lot, or walk way - nothing impressive.
Unlocking - Personally I preferred the MW way: beat a boss, unlock a bunch of stuff. Here, each race unlocks something - paint, wheel covers, tranny, etc. The advantage is that you can choose what to unlock, the disadvantage is more often than not, it's simply a paint color.
Upgrading your car - This has a funny feel to it for me. Cars come in three categories: Tuner, Muscle and Exotic. Each category has three tiers. Each upgrade fits only the specified car type and tier. So if your riding an exotic, and unlock a muscle mod, you get nada for your exotic. This raises a bit of confusion when it comes time to buy a new car, as it's hard to tell what you unlocked the most of (though your choice will probably reflect your opinion of the cars brand, not the options available for the car).
Feel of your ride - Most of the handling seems equivalent to MW standard. Out of about 20 races I lost 2, for one very distinct reason. Picture a tractor trailer with the size and speed of a race car... This is how it will feel when you hit them, or they hit you - mainly, that you go flying. While this isn't a big deal, it does feel like a slap in the face when one of them (and you can have over 7 of them) loses control on a turn and blocks you from turning at all.
Police Pursuits - I've only engaged in two pursuits but I've noticed 2 things: 1) the streets aren't set up to make quick turns to lose cops (most are long curvy roads with few streets intersecting), 2) the police "smell" you - that is, they stop if they can't find you, then head directly for you. As a veteran of MW, commonly getting 3mil or more per pursuit, I'll be sticking with MW for cop chases.
Wingmen/Scouts/etc - This sounds great on paper but executes like flat tire. Wingmen are supposed to hit other cars (I think?) and knock them out for you - they don't do it well, and commonly say "Uh oops, couldn't get that one..." or something similar. Over all, they seem more distracting than helpful, but I may be using them improperly. Scouts on the other hand, help, some what... They pick out short cuts for you (because in the blinding darkness it's hard to spot debris littered parking lot entrances) and highlight them in green on your minimap - they also talk to you, which is helpful. The one confusing part about scouts, though, is they generally finish before you. So if they're so good, why work for you?
Your territory is under attack!! - Prepare for a long race that pays next to nothing. Aside from that, there's little to tell about this. The last one I encountered took me 7 minutes to complete, with 2nd place about a minute behind me and last place closer to 2 minutes. Normal races yield $15,000... Territory wars yield $700... Don't spend it all in one place.
Rubber-band - This is the one (possibly only, *cough*) improvement over MW. Rubber-banding, for those who don't know, is this: When you are far ahead of them, they speed up, don't get into accidents and arrive some where shortly behind you. If you get way behind, they sort of slow down, you try not to hit everything in sight, and probably still don't catch up (depending on why you were so far behind in the first place). The presence of rubber-banding means there is no reason to distract them, just race, they'll catch up anyway. A reviewer on NFS MW had inquired something to the effect of, "why distract them? or hit log trucks? they just catch up anyway!" Apparently his 8 second lead wasn't worth much when they rubber-band over. This, I believe, also plays a role when playing against friends, I believe the cars were scaled to properly direct a similar outcome.
Overall - If you liked Underground 2, buy this, it's Underground 3. If you preferred MW, I'd wait a month for the price to drop another $10.
Personally, I have two theories why this game is the way it is:
1) Rockstar didn't make a Midnight Club sequel. Midnight club rules the road, NFS has the licensed car names, MW is a fusion of both, Carbon is what you get when EA has no one to copy off of.
2) No competition. Outside of Midnight club and NFS, most racing games are for the birds (unless you like the excitement of driving in circles, in which case you own NASCAR). I could only imagine the lack of quality reflects their opinion of your purchasing choices for racing games (by that I mean Carbon or nothing) and their value of us as customers. Honestly, I think they'd have been better off making an expansion for MW, which is what this feels like, but instead, they made it into half it's own game.
Backward evolution at its finest - Enjoy!
Rating:  -
This game is good, I loved every minute of career mode. Only problem was, I wished for more minutes of career mode. I bought it wednesday, started playing thursday, by sunday, the career mode was over.Oh, yeah, I barely played at all friday.....For the upside, some of the races were really challenging, having to play them numerous times to win. Especially some of the later races. Even with the SLR McLaren completely modded out, i still had to race Darius way too many times. They certainly give you a challenge racing the main man. But then again, if they didnt, it wouldnt have been as fun. I love cursing out games for nearly an hour to beat one race. Fun game overall, buy it if you are a die hard fan or want something to learn on. If you want something more challenging though, go with NFS: Most Wanted if you havent already. It is way more challenging and difficult. No bounty requirements in career mode in Carbon. Also, crewmembers can get in the way if you arent paying attention and even if you are, they will still slam on their brakes on the slightest of corners.
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