Need For Speed: Underground



BUILD AND RACE THE FASTEST URBAN EXOTIC
Hit the streets in the world's most elite tuner cars, and take down the ultimate racers in your own customized machine. To own the streets, you'll have to risk it all in a variety of high-styling, high-speed events -- including Drift, Drag, and Circuit. Tune your car to perfection by winning hundreds of upgrade parts, then go underground for the most intense, addictive driving experience of your life. When it comes to speed, no other game comes close to delivering this kind of action. And while the need for speed is what keeps you coming back for more, custom looks are your ticket to scoring big with the crowds. You are what you drive in Need for Speed Underground.

KEY FEATURES
# Feel speed like never before. Graphics that obliterate the envelope and turbocharged physics make this the fastest gameplay experience ever.
# Choose from 20 elite licensed tuner cars from Mitsubishi, Toyota, Subaru, and more.
# Fully customize your car with hundreds of aftermarket parts from top-name manufacturers. Change your car's appearance to fit your personality, change its performance to fit your driving style.
# Huge, highly detailed environments push your gaming hardware to the absolute limit as you battle to own the streets in your urban street machine.
# Race hard and win upgrades, including weight reduction kits, turbo, suspension kits, tires, wheels, and nitrous.
# Set the asphalt ablaze in a variety of game modes including Drift, Drag, and Circuit.
# Go underground and become the ultimate street racer in the epic Story mode.
# Build your ideal car, take it online, and take on the world's fastest competition. (PS2 only)
As for the beginning of the underground series of this racing game, I felt it was truly a great game of its time. Not only were we presented with cool cars, but with the beginning of the aftermarket/visual upgrades we could perform, it marked the beginning of an addicting, adrenaline rushing, competitive racing game. Although you couldn't skip around races, unlocking cars, parts, and other goodies as you went along made it all the more fun to want to go and be number 1 in the world. The game was long at first, but you soon got accustomed to winning races, and pretty soon you knew how and when to shift at the right time, and all the shortcuts to take. The AI wasn't the hardest but it did give a little competition at times. I liked the feature that when you were going to trade in your car, that you got to see how it was going to look with the current setup of your visual and performance upgrades. Biggest downfall I thought was the music at times, the NOS running out to quickly, the limited auto customizations and the small parts selection made available. The focus of the tuner culture racing made this game a great play.

Overall, I would give this game an 8 out of 10 because it was good, but still needed work...granted it was the benchmark for the series.

Need For Speed: Underground 2



UNCOVER THE UNDERGROUND

Discover the living, breathing world of tuner culture in Need for Speed™ Underground 2, the sequel to the best-selling racing game of 2003, and the latest blockbuster installment in the legendary Need for Speed franchise.

Taking place in a massive, free-roaming city featuring five distinct interconnected neighborhoods, Need for Speed Underground 2 delivers an immersive game world where the streets are your menus. As players explore the city, they?ll encounter rival racers who will school them in the ways of the underground and tip them off to the hottest racing spots in town.

Deep new performance tuning allows gamers to fine-tune every aspect of their ride?s handling and performance, while hundreds of new visual customizations guarantee players can create their own personalized, totally unique car.

All-new game modes join Circuit, Drift, and Drag events to add depth and variety, pushing car and driver to the limit, while more than a dozen new cars and hundreds of aftermarket parts from the biggest names in the business make Need for Speed Underground 2 the deepest, most authentic tuner experience ever.

Key Features

# Free-Roaming City: Explore a massive city divided into five distinct, interconnected neighborhoods, ranging from serpentine suburban hills to an intense downtown grid. A complex series of drivable freeways connect the neighborhoods together.
# Emergent Gameplay: Want to make a name for yourself in the underground? You?ll need to find it first. Races can happen anywhere and at any time and as players encounter rivals on the street they?ll be clued into where they can buy the hottest upgrades or enter the most elite events.
# New Gameplay Modes: Three new gameplay modes are added to last year?s circuit, drift and drag competitions, challenging gamers to hone their skills in a number of driving disciplines.
# Performance Tuning: Tune every aspect of your car?s performance with hundreds of licensed aftermarket performance upgrades and then fine-tune everything from the gear ratio to the suspension for the ultimate ride.
# The Hottest Cars: More than thirty of the most sought-after tuner cars are available from the hottest manufacturers--from Mitsubishi Motors, Nissan, and Toyota to Ford and Volkswagen, if they?re hot on the street, they?re in the game.
# Visual Customization: With more than twice the visual customizations of last year?s game, there are literally billions of car combinations available to gamers. Featuring audio upgrades, scissor doors, spoilers, headlights, side skirts, roof scoops, hoods, rims, wide body kits, neon and more, if you can trick it out in real life, you can trick it out in Need for Speed Underground 2.
# Environmental Variety: Each of the five distinct neighborhoods in Need for Speed Underground 2 feature a unique look and feel, including varied driving conditions and track types. Road surfaces, real-time weather effects, and environmental hazards will keep gamers on their toes as they race from dusk till dawn.
# Online: Gamers can put their reputation on the line, challenging the world?s best racers online for the PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system.*.

With the addition of new game modes, and the free-roam world, we were introduced to a real life, real time environment. This new release brought three new worlds with different cars and a seemingly limitless amount of races that one could partake in. The switch over to what you saw of trucks in the racing world, and the music shift to rap music was a major change in the series. We saw some new rides, and got new street-challenge races, but the truth is, this game was just so long, that even today I haven't got 100 percent completion. The visual and performance upgrades weren't that much more integrated or worked on, and the graphics didn't seem to increase drastically. The whole idea of driving an SUV on the road seemed pointless too. The main story was ok at least but the game seemed to have dragged on a little more than anticipated and expected.

While the second game in this series didn't come out as an all-time epic sequel, it did introduce us to the free-roam world, with a more independent approach on the game. overall, I'd give it a mere 7 out of 10 due to it's extensive length leading me to become very bored, very fast and because it changed to a rap type, "Wip" game. Downside as well had to be the lack of control at times causing your ride to flip, spin, ad go flying in all directions. A good thing however, was the new Online option we never saw.

Need For Speed: Most Wanted



Wake up to the smell of burnt asphalt as the thrill of illicit street racing permeates the air. From the makers of the hit Need for Speed? Underground series, Need for Speed? Most Wanted challenges players to become the most notorious and elusive street racer.

Combining illicit street racing and tuner customization with the intensity of strategic police pursuit that surpasses any Hollywood-style chase scene, Need for Speed Most Wanted will be on every gamer's 'must-have' list this holiday season. Out-race rivals, evade cops and exploit hundreds of miles of open road as gamers make their way up the Blacklist.

To become the most wanted racer, players must build up their street cred and Rap Sheet with gripping, white knuckle, head-to-head races with the top drivers on the streets, as well as pull daring, evasive moves to out-run and out-fox the cops that patrol the open road. Players can manage their heat or utilize a number of strategic tactics to keep the cops off their tails as they leave their rivals behind to suck their exhaust fumes.

Need for Speed Most Wanted also features a variety of the hottest cars that range from tuners to super cars. You can customize your ride to race against any class of vehicles. The streets will be your playground this Fall.

Key Features

* Open Road, Open World: Rule the streets as the most notorious street racer in various regions that include edgy industrial and urban environments. In the game, the environment can be a friend for a foe. Players will master short-cuts as well as use the traffic and destructible environments to their advantage.

* All-New Gameplay: Need for Speed Most Wanted features new and exciting gameplay that incorporates strategic cop pursuit and skill-based evasion techniques with illicit street racing.

* Visual Customization: Whether gamers are trying to lose the cops or they just want to pimp their ride, Need for Speed Most Wanted offers extensive visual customizations.

* Blacklist: As players enter the world of illicit street racing, they must go up against the best street racers on the scene to earn respect and rise to the top of the Blacklist.

* Rap Sheet: Players will build up their Rap Sheet with record breaking times, street challenges and out-foxing an escalation of police vehicles, tactics and technology.

* Performance Tuning: Can't compete against a sports car? Head to the safehouse and tune up your ride to race against any class of vehicles.

* Next-Gen Graphical Features: Need for Speed Most Wanted for the next generation console delivers the next level of graphical excellence in video games. Utilizing graphical techniques including normal mapping and real-time lighting, the graphical experience is incomparable to any racing game on the market.

* Race Online* Need For Speed Most Wanted features online play for Xbox 360, Xbox, the PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system and the PC.

Probably the most anticipated game in the series, Most Wanted brought to us the illegal side to racing. The chance to go all out and evade the feds had us at the edge of our seats. And after so many races, you could build your wanted level to level 5 and hope for the best in evading the corvette cops, and your worst nightmare, Cross. This was a new and exciting feature that had us playing all night.

The blacklist top list you had to beat was also a new idea introduced and you had to start from scratch to go from scrubs to superstar. You worked your way up unlocking rides, parts, and earning bounty. The bounty you earned over the course of your career was fun trying to build the most you could.

The new and improved physics engine and mapping/lighting made for a killer improvement in the overall excitement and adrenaline level in playing the game. Although there was online gameplay options available, the game itself provided much fun and enjoyment in itself.

I would rate the game a solid 10 out of 10 because the new bounty implementation, the new "evade the cops" gameplay, and because it had a great physics engine for driving, lighting, and mapping. I was a little disappointed at the loss of the all time favorite, Nissan Skyline.

Need For Speed: Carbon



Need for Speed Carbon
The Battle for the City Is Won in the Canyon

DESCRIPTION
What starts in the city is settled in the canyons as Need for Speed Carbon immerses you in the world’s most dangerous and adrenaline-filled form of street racing.

You and your crew must race in an all-out war for the city, risking everything to take over your rivals’ neighborhoods one block at a time.

As the police turn up the heat, the battle ultimately shifts to Carbon Canyon, where territories and reputations can be lost on every perilous curve.

With online racing and the most advanced graphics and car customization tools ever, Need for Speed Carbon is the ultimate next generation racing game.

FEATURES

* Survive the Canyon—All-new Canyon Duel and Drift race modes are the ultimate test of skill and nerve, where one wrong turn could cost you more than the race.
* The City Is Yours for the Taking—Race for control of the city block-by-block by taking down rival crews on their turf, then defeat their crew leaders in life-or-death races in Carbon Canyon.
* Customize Your Dream Cars—The revolutionary new Autosculpt™ car customization tool gives you the power to design and tweak your crew’s cars in ever way imaginable.
* Represent a Class—Affiliate with the Tuner, American Muscle, or Exotic car classes and prove once and for all who makes the best set of wheels. A new physics model makes each class handle and drive differently.
* Build Your Crew—Strategically choose your crew members and then use their skills on the road and in the garage to help you win races and customize your cars.

Carbon was epic in itself in the Autosculpt feature alone. Nothing had ever been done before and it marked a huge progression in the Need For Speed franchise. This new feature almost guaranteed that you wouldn't have a ride nearly as close as the next guy.

The fact that you had to constantly hold your own territory to become the dominator of the world was fascinating because at any given time you could be challenged to a race that would mean the difference between your property or it being overrun by some punk.

The free race non-career races that also allowed you to unlock cool things was a nice feature to get you away from the world for awhile. Evading the cops also returned and made the fun transcend into the new series. Although no online play was made and would have greatly wanted, the game itself stood to be a new and exciting addition with the all new canyon duels meaning you're literally on the edge to be the best. One wrong turn would cost you everything. Downhill drift and downhill sprints were just over the top as we git a chance to race never before in such a new fashion.

The option to build a crew to help take you to the top was another epic introduction that allowed a little help when you need it most. Continuous voice overs that repeated themselves, and your crew getting in your way was annoying as well.



The option to choose your car class at the very get go to affect the outcome of the game also presented us with a vast, limitless world of racing gameplay that made us unique. You chose what car represented you and you raced your heart out.

With the clean, crisp graphics, we saw how this game stepped it up to an all-time high, and we experienced never before tuner, exotic, and muscle cars in such great detail that it was indistinguishable from the real thing.

Overall this game gets a 10 out of 10 in the gameplay, graphic and fun factor.

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As of this time, I have not yet written a review of Need For Speed: Pro Street. I apologize as I don't currently have the game.

**Biggest downfall of all the series in my opinion was that we couldn't import music of our own into the game for our own racing experience.**

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Sources
www.ea.com/official/nfs/underground/us/f...res.jsp?skin=default
www.ea.com/official/nfs/underground2/us/features.jsp
www.ea.com/official/nfs/mostwanted/us/
www.ea.com/nfs/carbon/us/features.jsp



Releases:
2003 - Need For Speed Underground
2004 - Need For Speed Underground 2
2005 - Need For Speed Most Wanted
2006 - Need For Speed Carbon

A review I did a while back, I'll get Carbon and Undercover done in the future, as I'm still playing them.

Need for Speed hasn't been good since Most Wanted.