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Need for Speed: Carbon -- Own the City (Sony PSP, 2006)
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After rebooting the franchise with Need for Speed Underground, EA has continued to produce some solid street racers under the Need for Speed banner. Last year's Need for Speed Most Wanted, which featured hilariously over-the-top live-action cutscenes and seriously tense police pursuits, proved to be a high watermark for the franchise. Now it's being followed up by Need for Speed Carbon, which downplays the role of the police chases, introduces some simple team-racing mechanics, and occasionally takes the action off the city streets and into the outlying canyons. The new gameplay doesn't always improve the experience, but the racing can still be quite intense and still has a pronounced sense of style. Carbon continues the story where Most Wanted left off. For those just tuning in, Most Wanted ended with you recovering your stolen car and bailing out of the city of Rockport while the overzealous, anti-street-racing Sgt. Cross continued his pursuit. At the start of Carbon, you're making your way to Palmont City when Cross, now a bounty hunter, catches up with you and totals your car during the chase. Before he can collect his bounty on you, though, your old friend Darius steps in and pays off Cross. You are then put to work, taking over the turf of the other rival street-racing crews in Palmont City. It seems that you've got a history in this town that predates the events in Most Wanted. And during the course of the game, you'll learn more about that fateful night you skipped town. Different characters will give their takes on the night you supposedly ran off with a big red duffle bag full of cash. And by the end of the game, you'll not only find out what really happened, but you'll have taken over all of the street-racing territory in Palmont City. Outside of the actual gameplay, one of the more endearing aspects of Most Wanted was the way it used live actors in CG environments for its story sequences. These sequences invariably featured plenty of actor/model types, trying a little too hard to talk tough and failing spectacularly at it. The technique remains the same in Carbon, though there are more story sequences now and a slightly more self-aware tone. The heavy use of flashbacks is an interesting idea, but the story ends up being kind of muddled. And none of the villains come off as particularly menacing. Although it's hard to really qualify any of it as sincerely good, it's just over-the-top enough that folks who enjoy stuff like The Fast and the Furious, ironically or otherwise, should get some enjoyment out of it. Most Wanted had you racing to raise your visibility with the police and take on the most notorious street racers in Rockport. In Carbon, it's all about turf. Palmont City is divided into four major territories, each of which is predominantly controlled by a different street-racing crew. Each territory is then further divided into zones, and within each zone, you'll find starting points for a variety of different race events. Winning at least two events in a zone will put it under your control. And once you've taken over all the zones in a given territory, you can take on the head of that crew. As you continue to extend your reach across Palmont City, rival crews will come back and try to retake territory the same way you took it from them, forcing you to accept their challenge if you want to maintain control. Having to go back and rerace events that you've already won is kind of a pain, but the open-world structure is nRead full review
Carbon is an arcade-style racer that plays, in general, a lot like other Need for Speed games. It provides four camera perspectives (two in-car, two over-the-shoulder), a 10-14 hour single-player campaign, and a series of mini-challenges based on collecting racing cards. The Career mode is the meat and potatoes of the game, comprising a city split into four territories plus hilly canyon races outside the city. Players can pick from three different car classes, exotics, tuners, and muscles (the muscles being the new addition), which broadens the game's middle-of-the-road feel in a smart, controlled manner. The four new features offered in Carbon comprise a crew, a unique autosculpt customization, drifting races and additional car classes. One of the bigger additions is the online functionality. It enables from 1-8 players to vie online on Xbox 360, PS3, and PC, whereas the Xbox, PS2 and GameCube versions don't offer online compatibility. The Career mode follows last year's trippy FMV-based narrative. Because of the addition of crews or because EA wanted to go even heavier into its presentation (which it often does at the expense of improving gameplay), the game is filled with cutscenes and pasty, well-coiffed well-dressed gearheads. Last year's game was basic. Razor was your enemy, he was a first-class dick, and he rigged your car. You had to seek revenge and it felt good because he was a no-good bully. This year's narrative is watered down, with more forced mystery behind a rather simple premise. The novelty of the specialized FMV cutscenes is still moderately entertaining, but because of EA's excesses it comes across as strained, and there are simply too many dudes with perfect eyebrows and mullets for my tastes. Clearly Emmanuelle Vaugier needs a little more direction and some more meat to reach her potential. Meanwhile Josie Maran had far more fun and showed far more skin in her role in Most Wanted.Read full review
My biggest reason for buying a psp is for the portable multiplayer aspect. NFSC is a very good racer and has a solid single player mode with with several different race types and events. One nice feature is that you are able to use you own mp3s in the game using the EA media center. The story line was a little cliche but gave the game purpose. The multiplayer felt a little unfinished however. They are only two race option, circuit and sprint and you can only customize the race options if it is not ranked and you can't limit that kind of cars used which means every one uses the same car (Lamborghini Murcielago). So, if you don't own it don't even bother playing multiplayer. One other thing I didn't like about it was if you are racing other people and only one person loses connection every one in the race gets kicked off. Over all the game is solid and very enjoyable but do be wary of the multiplayer if that is you main reason of getting it.Read full review
App'x 2 gb of information on the PSP disc is enough for this game, to have great graphics, even when connected to a 42" plasma! Control is great and gameplay is rather exciting for a racing game. There are less options than on the Gamecube version, but that is fine, who needs identical games for different formats? Bought used off of Ebay, complete. My 13 yrs old loves it. I prefer the standard console games instead of the portable games due to control comfort and graphics Still this one is a keeper. I am sure there are better racing games, so I give it only 4 out of 5. It really is one to add to the collection.
This is another one of those Electronic Arts Need for Speed Releases. This game has nice story, the videos in there are excellent quality. The only thing is that the graphics are not as good as expected. It is actually less graphic then the previous release. The cars in there are nice and hooked up. Races and handling are great. Great Game, Recommended!
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