17-Jul-2003 EA's latest street racer dissected: too fast, too furious... You could be forgiven for holding the opinion that the Need For Speed series wasn't holding up too well when compared to some of EA's other long running franchises. Despite a seemingly unbeatable games formula - drive as recklessly as possible - some of the titles in the series have left us more in need of resuscitation than anything else. But on seeing Need For Speed Underground in action, our defensive outlook soon dropped - NFSU looks beautiful.
Street racing in the dead of night, the reflective surface of the road throwing off shimmering cascades of light as the outline of the screen blurred around us; it was only a brief play, but we admit it, we were a little taken aback.
With oodles of car modifications and officially licensed vehicles to tinker with, the tech-heads are well served here, while those of a more fun-loving bent will be delighted to see mid-track stunts and aggressive rivals attempting to harsh on your mellow. There's even a four-player online mode. We asked Chris Lee, Product Manager, to tell us more about the title...
What's changed with this latest edition of Need For Speed?
Lee: The Need For Speed franchise has traditionally been about exotic supercars, Ferraris and Lamborginis and Porsches. With this version of the game we decided to hit the tuner culture, so there's a lot of imported vehicles, some domestic vehicles, and it's really about customising the car and then racing that car on the streets.
So instead of just having this fictional car that you get and you don't modify, you just take on the open road, we're putting you in an urban environment with a fully modifiable vehicle.
We understand you've gone large with the concept of modification...
Lee: Right. We got a lot of feedback from people saying: "We really want to customise these cars, personalise them, make them look like something that I would drive." So there's a ton of different areas of the car that you can customise, there's 15 different visual components, that includes 3D type customisation with the body panel, front bumper, rear bumper that kind of thing.
But it also includes the graphics on the car, the paintwork, you can also put vinyls and stripes on the car, and there's also more intricate kinds of decoration like flames and dragons and that sort of thing. In addition to that you can also add decals to your car.
There's 20 licensed cars, and over 50 licensed manufacturers [to provide accessories] so what you end up with is a very personalised and customised car. You could have two people start off with the same Ford Focus, and they could both end up with something completely and dramatically different, because there are so many potential combinations in there.
You can change the paintjob, there are a hundred different paint colours just for the coat, you can change the colours of the other stuff I mentioned earlier too - and that's just the visual side.
There's nine areas of performance upgrades that you can customise on the car - those effect the acceleration, the handling, the top speed, the weight of the car, the overall general feel of the vehicle, so you know in that area of the game there's a lot of depth as well. You work your way up, you unlock more and more parts, to improve the car further and further.
Playing the game we've noticed it's not just straight forward racing, there's other stuff going on - gaps in the track you need to jump, for instance...
Lee: Right. There's a variety of different things happening on the track - sometimes you'll see a train; it's not triggered necessarily by the position of your car, but it's just animated. There's a moment where there's a chance where a trolley car that might come out, and it's a random feature, it changes every lap you make.
There's a drawbridge there that you can jump, but sometimes it's going to be down so obviously you won't need to jump it. So there's a lot of stuff like that.
How do the different versions compare?
Lee: This version on display here is the PC version, which is a few weeks behind the development of the PS2 and Xbox versions, but you can see there's a pretty good sense of speed there - you can see a lot of the effects happening - but before we get to alpha we'll make up that time.
There's going to be some extra effects in there, some blurring going on when you reach really high speeds, and a streaking effect of the lights that will give you a really awesome sense of speed.
We started with the Hot Pursuit 2 engine, with the Canadian development team that created Hot Pursuit 2 on the PS2, Black Box, and it's now developing all four platforms. It's creating them simultaneously, so no one platform is going to be significantly different to the others, but having said that, the PS2 is the lead platform, obviously for installed base and those kinds of reasons.
But obviously the PS2 version isn't going to look as good as a PC version on a high spec PC because it's newer technology.
So how about single-player mode?
Lee: The single-player mode: there's two ways to play the game. One, the game offers you a storyline that's incorporated into the game as you play through, and we're really doing our best to make sure it's not cheesy or camp; we've had some writers in who have worked on Hollywood blockbusters, who are helping to write the storyline for the game, and we've acquired some top talent as far as the character models are concerned.
But that's not going to be a huge focus of the game because the real hero of the game is the car, not the characters - it's just something to keep the user interested in moving the story forward. Everything you unlock in the story mode, you'll be able to take and use in single race mode.
So let's say you chose the Dodge Neon, for example, and you're pretty deep into the story mode, and you're just wondering what it would have been like if you'd chosen the Nissan Cento or the Honda Civic. You can go back into the single race mode and take one of those cars, which gives you a break from the story mode if you need that.
You'll also be able to save your car on a memory card and let's say you don't have the online capabilities, you can take your card to a friend's house and race your souped up car against a buddy. If you play the game for like twenty or thirty hours, and you really master a particular vehicle, going to someone else's house and playing with a different vehicle is going to be a completely different experience.
How about handling?
Lee: The physics in the game are not what we consider simulation physics - we wanted to create a balance between simulation and fun. I think with a straight 100 percent simulation, if you're going a hundred and sixty miles an hour, I don't know about you but I've never driven that fast, and I wouldn't know how to go about handling a vehicle going that fast.
So while you get that sense of speed, and you are getting realistic attributes of the cars, you're helped out quite a bit by the driving physics.
And the multiplayer side of things?
Lee: There's going to be an online mode for PC and for PS2. You'll be able to race up to four players online, and there's also going to be split-screen head to head play on all the consoles as well. The game's out on Xbox and GameCube as well, and we'll be shipping the game before Christmas.
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