Review: Need for Speed Most Wanted: Black Edition (PC)

Whew, writing that title out was tiring! I'm not much into games, but racing games sometimes light my fire. I'm still a big fan of Need for Speed Porsche Unleashed, and the original NFS that was created in conjunction with Road and Track magazine. I was looking forward to this new title because the promos seemed impressive and this time around there is quite a variety of cars to choose from. I absolutely despise the previous two or three installments where underground "rice boy" racing is the name of the day. Elaborating on that, I'm very much against this "rice boy" culture that's emerged in many parts of the world, but is enormous in North America. Teenaged kids love getting their hands on Hondas (usually, after which come other brands) and "souping" them up. Most of the time, they end up with something that has a lot of show, and no go. This is because they're not real car enthusiasts (like me and a select few I know). They like to add body kits, giant exhausts and dancing lights, spinning surfaces on their wheels and/or anything that will get them seen or heard easily. Being a very good manual transmission driver myself, I find that exactly none of these rice boys I've ever seen in the Toronto area knows how to clutch properly. Strangely enough, they continue buying manual transmissioned cars. When you talk to them about cars (a conversation that will invariably come up amongst guys) they love telling you how they can build a Civic that will smoke an M3 or 911 for half the price. They have no respect for engineering, and their life is a quarter mile. And it stops right there, quite often. Awareness is building up that these rice boys kill themselves and others all the time, because they know nothing about the physics of a car, or how to drive. Moreover, they miss the point that to-the-limit driving is only safe in controlled circumstances, i.e. a track. Much of the world (even 2nd-world countries) have quite a few of these, so there's really no excuse for going crazy on the streets. I hate how in the movies they show people zipping in and around traffic and then going through red lights (miraculously THROUGH a perfectly timed break in traffic in both directions) and somehow make it look like its a result of being a good driver. Nobody in the world, not even our talented friend Michael Schumacher could pull that off. There's a scene in Fast and the Furious 2 where the main guy (whatever his name is) gets into some kind of staring contest while driving, like its a test of courage or something. Movies and games like this are having ill effects on society, because these teenaged kids are actually trying these things out! I know, I've been there! Anyways, back to the game (you're thinking "Finally!" eh?), it fails miserably in my eyes, because it misses the mark in realism. The game is pure eye candy, and on the graphics front it really is spectacular, especially on my 24" widescreen LCD. The lighting from the sun, the reflections on the road when its wet and the 3D houses and buildings really give one the illusion of being there. The sky is done better than many movies (but thats not saying much, really, as I'm sure a child with the ability to hold a crayon to paper could do better). For me, a real car enthusiast, a game should effectively recreate the feel of driving the particular automobile simulated. I've had the pleasure of enthusiastically driving a new Porsche 911, as well as a few other Porsches (minus Tiff Needle-style drifting and power oversteer) and its very important that when I'm playing NFS with manual transmission mode, that the car rev and sound exactly the way the real thing does. When I get to the twistys, it should turn like the real thing, calculated with the correct polar moments of inertia and all. When I brake, it should take the correct time and distance on the type of surface and the weight transfer should be very evident. Strangely enough, only two NFS games have had these remarkable features. The first one, and NFS:PU. The first NFS was a huge feat, because its an old game designed to be run on old systems. While it may not look as good as today's racers, the handling, interior and sounds was totally up to par because Road and Track magazine (an enthusiast's magazine) contributed to that portion of the game. And in PU, a new Boxster will rev exactly the same as in real life. Put it in 2nd and rev it slowly, and you'll hear the turbine-like whine accompanied with the bassy undertones you only find when you rev it that particular way. I can't blame Electronic Arts much for making the game this way, because its intended for those very same rice boys who wouldn't know how the sound of the inline-6 in the Lexus IS300 is, or at what point exactly the 911 has a 50/50 weight distribution (during maximum deceleration when the 911 can bring to a halt in 2.4 seconds from 100 km/h). Ah, the dissapointments of knowing more.