the grunter

Spent a good few weeks wrestling with this one, started off casual and eventually I found myself needing more than my one hour of lunch time to play on everyday. Not because it’s too much fun, sadly, but because I had to restart races so many times. At the end I gave up on “winning” the game and settled for reaching level 50. I don’t plan on winning the game anytime in the future. Here are some details:

• Great to see the NFS series taking a shot at realism instead of going for more street racing/drifting/modding/running away from cops.
• Great visuals and detailed car models, whenever I used a new car I always made sure to switch to the interior view to check out the details first (I normally stick to the behind-the-car view).
• Good supply of race tracks and events.
• The combination of collecting badges (when you perform certain certain actions), stars (obtained by performing race-specific requirements) and level-up system (from gaining racing experience) make the game richer than a typical race->win->money routine.
• Rim upgrades are free!
• Easy-to-learn car upgrade system as well as an in-depth tuning settings.
• Mastering corners and comparing track time with your friends in a real-time manner in game makes the game more approachable.

Boo:

1. Cars in races once Tier 4 is reached are barely drive-able, as the slightest touch with other cars or driving off track will result in infinite spinning unless you floor the brakes to a near complete stop. To a non-hardcore racing gamer like me this brought frustration since I had to keep pausing the game and select “Restart Race”.
2. The so-called “supercars” are one-million helicopter blades except for the Lambo Gallardo.
3. Upgrade system not making gamers feel flexible. More specifically, no upgrade decisions needed to be made (e.g. choosing between sacrificing higher acceleration or max speed). Keep pouring money on getting each and every single upgrade and all the attributes will be high, making it less of a big deal which car you pick to start with (within a same tier).
4. Balancing: You simply can’t win in the final head-to-head battles with any other car than the one that is the highest rated (in most cases the most expensive) in the tier. What’s the point of upgrading and tuning, or even buying my Audi R8 if it would just get its ass kicked by the head-to-head battle unless I also use a Lamborghini Gallardo? Fortunately the regular races with multiple opponents are more fair because your enemy cars types are dependent on your model and the installed upgrades.

And finally:

? Do drift cars have their own tier simply because you can’t even drive a straight line with them?

? For the love of Christ, is it an industry requirement that racing games have to have lame soundtracks? It’s not the first time I had to mute a racing game after the fifth time playing it.

This car can’t race for shite, but man is it gorgeous.