Need for Speed: Carbon

The Good
Only two elements came in my favor in CARBON. The first one being the addition of American muscle cars to the playable fleet. Now you have the chance to drive a '69 Dodge Charger R/T, a Plymouth Hemi Cuda, a Chevrolet Camaro SS, a '67 (I think) Ford Mustang and if I count their modernized concepts that come in too, you have the modern Dodge Challenger concept and the fabulous Camaro 2009 concept. Of course the 2005 Ford Mustang is here too.

The second and last thing that CARBON is good at is that they brought back the drift kind of races. Now you are not only able to drift by doing laps in closed circuits but on public roads as well. And when I'm talking about drifting it's the good old drifting you used to do in NFS I and II titles of the series. Thankfully they didn't touch or 'develop' anything on drifting. And I say thankfully because evolution in EA's book means ruining.

The Bad
I could write endless pages about how bad this game is, but in simple terms it really sucks!!!

First of all it seems to me that the whole game is an NFS Underground II redux, only now with the addition of racing crews, cops and American muscle cars plus the exotics. Aside from these, the game looks exactly the same as NFSU II. The same graphics, the same game play, almost the same story (which remains the same in all the titles in the series), in the end CARBON seems like a refined version of NFSU II. But, that title got released back in 2004!

The car handling is a total miss, as many cars handle pretty crappy. Of course you can fix that in the tune-up shop, but in the end the desired result is not there! I remember how the Lamborghini Galliardo handled in Most Wanted and see now how bad it handles in CARBON.

The racing crew members addition is not only a simple gimmick, but the damned bastards always get in your way and instead of helping you really slow you down. Maybe drafters can prove a bit useful, but if they are not being used for their abilities they tend to get in front of you which prove disastrous in corners.

Another annoying fact is when you're moving from a certain map area to another the name of the area you enter displays in the middle of the screen which happens to be the just a tiny bit above the horizon of the road. The title is huge and surely distracting from driving, and to be honest the last thing you care about when you race is what is the name of the area you're in and who's controlling it! I wonder who thought of this idea and if he still has a position in EA.

The same 'indestructible car' principle applies to this game as well. No matter how hard you crash, your car is made out of super alloys! Oh yeah one thing though: keep that kryptonite crystal out of your car...

Finally the rivals AI programming is foul at least: rivals don't do mistakes, their wheels are stuck on the road and police cars are so fast no matter if you're having a meaty 400bhp engine under your hood, the every day police car will be on your tail in seconds even if you're doing 280 klm per hour! Gimme a break...

Finally the playable fleet selection is the same as NFS Most Wanted, with the addition of say 8-10 cars, and in the end of the day experiencing their bad handling on the game it's nothing much really

The Bottom Line
What happens when you're going the right way in terms of developing a successful series of games and just because you're out of fresh ideas you release Carbon just to keep the series alive as a product?

I mean what is the point of CARBON, since they have released the NFS Most Wanted which seemed to be getting things on the right track? Certainly Most Wanted was much better than CARBON in many aspects, for one its graphics were very realistic and the car handling was way smoother. In many ways NFS CARBON is a degradation of the series not an evolution; you have already played it, you have already paid for it and certainly the new elements don't make up for a proper full release. In the end, CARBON seems like you've paid for a bad joke on yourself.

On my opinion buying this game was a total waste of money! I've played so many better racing titles for less. Avoid it at all costs!

The Good
Some great fun
New control system is a frankly good addition
Lots of customization options
A surprisingly good story for a racing game

The Bad
Too similar to its predecessors
No intense cop chases from "Most Wanted"


The Bottom Line
The Playstation 3 has finally arrived to stores, with several titles for it already out in stores. This unoriginal but addictive street racer is only one of those titles. This well executed racer still hasn't lost its long-lasting fun and its numerous customization options since the previous two or three Need For Speed games. There are a few welcome additions too, like a compelling story, along with a Playstation 3 exclusive extra: revolutionary, new controls. With this control system in this game, you do feel like you're really behind the wheel. Well, Carbon also has its shortcomings. Although it has done a good job of living up to the success of Most Wanted, it hasn't improved much. The game is basically quite familiar if you've played previous Need For Speed games. Another bad thing about Carbon is that all the intense cop chases from Most Wanted have faded away. That was one of the massive reasons for its high amount of success. There is one word to describe Need For Speed Carbon: continuity. However, most people will have tons of fun with this consistently entertaining game.