Cracking Carbon
 May 28th, 2007
Advantages:
Great Graphics, Excellent car selection
Disadvantages:
Very similar to previous ones, simple storyline
Recommendable:
Yes
Detailed rating:
Gameplay/Playability
Graphics
Sound
Value for Money
more
  rhyrhy1
About me:
It's exam time agian, probably won't get round to any reviews till July
Member since:26.11.2005
Reviews:37
Members who trust:3
Review rated by 19 Ciao members on average: very helpful 
This review received a counterstatement by a party concerned
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There have so far been 14 Need for Speed installments over the last 13 years. Need for Speed (NFS) is a series of racing video games by Electronic Arts, released on most platforms The games consist mainly of racing with various cars on various tracks, and to some extent, include police pursuits in races. One of the most important parts of the game is now customization of your car Need for Speed: Carbon is the latest title for the Need for Speed series. Nighttime racing and drift races have returned. The types of cars are varied now and are mainly sorted into the groups that follow, compact cars and sports cars associated with import culture, American muscle cars, and supercars. Carbon now has the ability to form your own crew of wingmen who you use in races.
The prologue to the beginning of the Career Mode, starts out with the player driving down Carbon Canyon in their BMW M3 GTR being chased by cross, you theh come to a truck and you stop the car.Supra, in Palmont City (with Kenji, Angie, and Wolf racing against him). Carbon allows for a considerably larger number of car customization options than the previous game in Most Wanted. The new AutoSculpt feature allows you to take stock after market parts such as spoilers and rims, and shape and mould them to your liking, adding and defining little touches, such as shape, contours, size, etc. It also allows you to layer as many vinyls as you like, which was previously not possible in Most Wanted; and pick from an enormous amount of colors, different paint types
for your car, vinyls, rims and other various accessories. There is also the option to tune the performance for your cars by tweaking performance parts like Turbochargers for example, to have more or less Torque or Horsepower; or choosing between Wheels that have very good grip or very good drift characteristics. All the performance tuning options have their advantages and disadvantages however; i.e. Nitrous Oxide systems that have a high velocity provide a quick surge of high power but have much less capacity. This allows for a much greater variation in performance among the same or similar cars.
Race Types
Standard
Sprint: A simple race from point A to point B.
Circuit: A track that loops on itself; requires a set number of laps.
Drift: Players race around a track, similar to a circuit. Points are earned by drifting. The faster you are drifting, the more points earnt. Multipliers are earnt by linking drifts. The player with the most points wins. Crew members cannot be used in Drift races. Also players earn more drift points for drifting closer to the wall it's called a zone bonus.
Checkpoint: A sprint-type race where players have a certain amount of time to cross a checkpoint. After crossing a checkpoint, a time bonus is awarded. This is a 1-player only race, no opponents or crew members are present.
Speedtrap: Players must drive as fast as possible through a set number of speedtraps. The winner is the one with the highest clocked speed at the end of the race wins.
Race Wars: A circuit-type race, but with more laps and opponents. Crew members cannot be used in Race Wars.
Canyon
Carbon also features races that take place on Canyons. Canyon roads have sharper, more winding tracks when compared to the city. Certain barriers in canyons will also give way if the player's car hits them, leading to them coming off the canyon and losing the race. Crew members cannot be used in Canyon races.
Canyon Sprint: A race from the top of a canyon to the bottom.
Canyon Checkpoint: Same as a checkpoint, but on a canyon.
Canyon Drift: Players drive down the canyon similar to a Canyon Sprint. Points are earnt by drifting - the faster you drift, the more points you get. Multipliers are earnt by maintaining clean sections. The player with the most points wins.
Canyon Duel: A Canyon Duel consists of two stages. In the first, the player follows h points you earn. In the second stage, the opponent follows the player along the same route. The closer the opponent follows, the more points that are lost. To win, the player must finish with more than zero points, lose the opponent for more than 10 seconds or overtake the opponent for more than 10 seconds.
Cars
There is now a great selection of cars varying from the modern Aston Martin DB9 to the 1964 ford Mustang. Here is the full list but if cars mean nothing to you it’s probably not worth reading it. 2003 Infiniti G35
2001 Lexus IS300 (bonus car)
2007 Mazda3 MPS
1999 Mazda RX-7
2003 Mazda RX-8
1999 Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX (bonus car)
2006 Mitsubishi Eclipse GT
2006 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX MR Edition
1992 Nissan 240SX
2006 Nissan 350Z
1999 Nissan Skyline R34 GT-R (Tuner Career Only)
2005 Renault Clio V6
2006 Subaru Impreza WRX STi
1986 Toyota Corolla GT-S (bonus car)
1993 Toyota MR2 (bonus car)
1998 Toyota Supra
2006 Volkswagen Golf R32 (Tuner Career Only)
2006 Chevrolet Camaro Concept (bonus car)
1967 Chevrolet Camaro SS
1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS (bonus car)
2006 Chevrolet Corvette Z06
2006 Chrysler 300C SRT8
1971 Dodge Challenger R/T
2006 Dodge Challenger Concept
1969 Dodge Charger R/T
2006 Dodge Charger SRT-8(Muscle Career Only) -
2006 Dodge Viper SRT-10 Coupe
2006 Ford Mustang GT
1970 Plymouth Hemi Cuda
1969 Plymouth Road Runner
2006 Pontiac GTO
1967 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500
2007 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500
2005 Vauxhall Monaro VXR
2006 Alfa Romeo Brera
2004 Aston Martin DB9
2003 Audi Le Mans Quattro
2003 BMW M3 GTR
2005 Ford GT -
2007 Jaguar XK
2006 Koenigsegg CCX
2004 Lamborghini Gallardo
2004 Lamborghini Murcielago
2007 Lamborghini Murcielago LP640
2004 Lotus Elise - Image
2006 Lotus Europa S
2005 Mercedes-Benz CLK500
2005 Mercedes-Benz SL65 AMG
2004 Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren
2006 Pagani Zonda F
2004 Porsche Carrera GT
2006 Porsche Cayman S
2007 Porsche 911 Turbo
2006 Porsche 911 GT3 RS
Compared to the other need for speeds, I think this is my favourite, I’m not a great fan of driving games but I’m really hooked on this and its really good being able to customize the cars and I also like the cars that can be unlocked. Many magazines reviewed the game well. PC Format gave it a score of 78%, saying that it was "engaging enough," but lacked innovation. IGN gave it a 7.9 and 8.2 for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 versions respectively, out of 10 possible points. I think that on the Xbox 360 it deserves at least 9/10. The graphics are brilliant and the even though the storyline is very predictable it is still fin to play. The game will probably last me about 2 months so for the price that I paid for it, £15 from the market, it’s very good value. I think that this game has now persuaded me to buy some more racing games and possibly a racing wheel, if anyone has any game suggestions please let me know. I also think that the drive quality is very advanced and is easy to get the hang of, even with a controller, and you can really feel the difference between the cars. Although, I think this is quite an easy game and it may get a bit boring after a while but for now, I'm addicted. Many thanks and I hope this has helped you make a buying decision
Rhys
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by (11%):
18.10.2007 15:34
Great review - excellant use of detail!! xx
25.09.2007 14:57
Great review, honestly, does give quite good insight to the game, and unfortunately Brucey, the list of cars is not "unnecessary", it's just a good plause to make car lovers, or people who actually know about cars, cream for the game!
01.06.2007 17:17
I'm afraid I have to agree with Bruce. I appreciate your reasons for including them, but that huge list breaks up the review and people might want to find out what cars they can get for themselves.