Need for Speed Underground (PS2)

...moving very fast yet again. Need for speed underground is also displayed at the top. The picture of the car begins at one of the front wheels and is looking diagonally onto the car, which makes it look more interesting. I think the car also looks like one out of Fast and the Furious, which attracts those car lovers even more.

This game has a slight ‘Fast and the Furious’ feel about it. All the races take place late at night under ...
...to give you that real need for speed feeling. I absolutely love all of these tracks and often find myself walking along singing them (if you can call it singing!)

At the start you have to build a new driver profile. This is done by selecting DRIVER PROFILE from the main menu and the driver profile then appears. You then select CREATE PROFILE from the driver profile menu. A keyboard appears. You then enter a name for your new driver ... more

When I first saw this game round my friends, El’s, I thought I’d like it as he had already told me what it I was like. But I didn’t think I’d like it this much.

He paid 37.99 for this, which I think, is a bit too much! But I’m sure if you want to buy this game you will be able to find it a lot cheaper now.

It comes in a case, like any other PS2 game, in a DVD like case. The front has a picture of a car displayed and it is drawn to look like it is moving extremely fast so you begin to know what the game must be about. It is bright orange with a few visual modifications on it so you begin to also see what kind of things you can buy for the car. The background is a dark sky blue colour and there are white streaks behind the wheels that makes it seem as if it is moving very fast yet again. Need for speed underground is also displayed at the top. The picture of the car begins at one of the front wheels and is looking diagonally onto the car, which makes it look more interesting. I think the car also looks like one out of Fast and the Furious, which attracts those car lovers even more.

This game has a slight ‘Fast and the Furious’ feel about it. All the races take place late at night under the cover of darkness on public streets but away from the public eye. In other words they happen underground.

You have to build up your own reputation by modifying your car to a high quality and beating the best drivers. You can play as one player, multiplayer or online.

You have to win races to earn money to use to change different aspects of your car. You can then view it, then race it again. This is good as you get to play around with what your car looks like, smash it up and it still looks good lol.

The main menus options are displayed on the right hand side in a list in big capital letters so that it is easy to read. There is a car displayed in the background that appears to be driving in what I take it as to be an underground car park.

The music begins right at the start. The game has many songs played throughout the game that have actually been released. A sign appears at the bottom of the screen in blue at the beginning of each track to inform you of the song and the artist. These songs are what I would call “garrying music” (pardon the expression) to give you that real need for speed feeling. I absolutely love all of these tracks and often find myself walking along singing them (if you can call it singing!)

At the start you have to build a new driver profile. This is done by selecting DRIVER PROFILE from the main menu and the driver profile then appears. You then select CREATE PROFILE from the driver profile menu. A keyboard appears. You then enter a name for your new driver profile. You select DONE and then the new driver profile is then loaded and the driver profile menu appears.

All the menus on this game are very easy to use. All the options are set in a list so it is easy to manoeuvre around the menu. The options are easy to read to it is even easier to understand where you have to go.

If you already have a driver profile you just have to load up the one you wish to use. This is done by going to DRIVER PROFILE then LOAD PROFILE. You then select the profile from the list that you wish to load.

When you load a profile the car that is currently displayed in the background drives off and your own personalised car comes onto the screen.

To start a new game you can then decide to race in a quick race or to go underground. This is all found under the driver profile menu.

You then have to select a car. You have to make sure it drives well along with looking good.

You can browse through the available cars keeping into consideration that you will be able to make great improvements to it as you go through.

When picking a car you can look at the acceleration, top speed and handling ratings at the bottom of the screen. Performance modifications can improve these later on but you need to win races and earn money before this is possible.

When you wish to customise your underground car you go to UNDERGROUND from the main menu. The underground menu will then appear. You then select CUSTOMISE RIDE. You can then start customising.

Your car can also contribute to your style points if it looks good. The more you modify the car visually the higher your reputation becomes. Each yellow star in the reputation meter is a multiplier for style points. E.g. two yellow stars doubles your style points score. Reputation is required to enter Underground Mode tournaments. Cars have to be accepted as ‘cool’ before they can enter.

When customising your car you can select from a range of styles of bonnets, rims, bumpers, exhaust tips, spoilers, side skirts and more. You can even give the car neons! Woo!

While you are customising your car, it is shown on the screen so that you can see what things look like before you decide to buy them. There is a menu at the top that you scroll through to select the products and also displays the cost of the products.

This was good as you can again see what the car will look like before you make any decisions.

You can select many different vinyls, which are graphics that stick to the cars bodywork. You are able to layer them up to four times to achieve a collage effect. You can even customise the colours of them.

Decals are also available to choose from. These are the manufacturers stickers that come with the products you purchase. These can be placed in a number of places like windows, doors, the bonnet etc.
You can also upgrade the cars performance adding things such as nitrous oxide and weight reduction kits. Adding all of this to your car can make controlling it a challenge.

-Options Menu-

Here is where you can customise your settings for the entire game as described in the instructions:

Audio: adjust volume and sound
Camera: switch your favourite view and adjust jump camera sensitivity
Car: adjust transmission type and stability control
Controller: choose from preset controller configurations and toggle controller vibration
Display: customise map, gauges, heads-up display and colour calibration
EA trax: customise the games tune
Save/Load: save your current game, load a saved game or toggle auto save
Credits: see who created the game
Trailers: preview upcoming EA products.

This menu can be accessed by selecting OPTIONS in the main menu. Once again this menu is laid out in a way that is easy to find what you want and move around in.

Now it’s to drive yourself crazy! You often don’t get a chance to drive like this in real life, so make the most of it!

While racing there are a number of things displayed on the screen. In the top left hand corner there is the lap number that you are on and how many more there are to go. Under this is the lap time and below this is the map.

The map shows your position in the race alongside the other racers. You are shown by an orange arrow, the others are blue. It also shows where you have to go and where all the short cuts are. It’s just up to you to find them.

During each race you gain or lose points for you’re driving moves. You gain points by sliding sideways, getting airborne, avoiding traffic, slipstreaming and so on. You lose points for hitting traffic or not making a big jump. I must say I have done this a number of times. I tend to like to smash as many things up as possible; I’m starting to worry lol.

One of the problems that I encountered with the game that is while racing it is sometimes hard to see, as it is quite dark. You may have to adjust the contrast of your TV to see better. I had to do this. But, it still gets quite confusing as to where you have to turn next due to all the lights. Especially when you use nos as everything becomes a blur. But as long as you concentrate and perhaps use the map on the left you should be ok.

After each event the style points are added to a growing total and as this total increases you unlock new cars and new vinyl's etc.

Some of the events are based purely on style. For instance drift races. You win by scoring more points than your opponents.

The game also has jump cameras. These are special cameras that pull back to capture the action when you do things such as catching air or pile into another car (another thing that happens quite a lot when I play lol).

Underground racing is a series of races that requires dedication and skill. Completing these unlocks visual and performance car modifications. As well as the decals that go with them of course.

You can review your career status in underground mode by selecting one of the following options from the underground menu as described in the instructions:

Statistics: your stats in each race mode
Rankings: player rankings in each race mode
Magazines: see magazine covers that feature your car.

You car appears on the front of magazines quite rarely (or this may be just down to my bad driving hehe) and they are nothing spectacular when they do happen. It is just a picture of your car as it is at that time and the magazine title and maybe a headline or so. Nothing to wet your knickers over.

It takes a lot of money to improve your car up but you earn plenty by winning races. Each win will add to your bank. This can be used to spend on visual and performance mods for your car.

For some races you can choose whether to race in easy, medium or hard. The harder the level th emore money you will earn.

To move onto the next race after a win you select GO TO RACE MAP from the end of the race menu.

If you lose, which I tend to do quite frequently, you can choose to restart the race and try again at whooping the other drivers asses!

I find this option great as you can then try the same race again without having to lose and start all over again. This really annoys me when I have to start from the complete beginning so I just give up lol.

If you get bored of your car you can trade it in for a new one. You can swap it for a new car and customise it all over again from scratch. All of the previously unlocked modifications will remain.

To trade in your car you select TRADE IN from the customise menu. I haven't got round to trading in my car yet. It needs a few more smash-ups I think hehe.

You can also race split screen with another player. I never do this, as I look too bad against someone who can actually play well lol. Multiplayer racing means you can play against your friends and their custom rides on a variety of tracks in any race mode.

When the screen is split, player 1 is displayed at the top and player 2 on the bottom.

To begin a multiplayer game you select split screen from the main menu. The quick race screen then appears. You select a race mode and the car select screen appears. You then select each player’s cars. The location screen then appears. You select a location then set the mode options and then race away!

During any point in a race you can access the pause menu, by well, pressing pause, which is the start button. In this menu you can find as described in the instructions:

Resume race: get back into the race
Restart: do this race over
Options: adjust game settings
Quit: end the race and return to main menu

There are 7 different race modes. These are as follows.

Circuit

You race on a continuous circuit that is looped together and contains 1 or more laps..

Sprint

Simple racing. You go from one point to another point and have to get there first. (Simple yet even I can not do this either lol)

Drag

A classic drag race. Classic drags test the acceleration limits of your car. But it is not as easy at it seems. You have to change the gears, but if you change up to early you waste your cars power and changing up too late leads to over revving and can fry out the engine. I think I managed to win one of these though lol.

Drift

Slide to the side on the track to gain respect from other racers. Drift racing gives you a chance to win big style points by sliding around turns. Sliding sideways on these courses gains points. But try not to smash into the walls, as it is hard to stop. Yes, I would know! You tap your hand brake to initiate a slide, then steer with the skid and feather the throttle to keep it going.

Lap knockout

The racer in last place at the end of each lap is knocked out. So don't use your nos too late!

Free Run

There is no competition or time limit or rules. (Thank god, my favourite! lol). This is a great mode to check out each track. This is good as you can then get used to where all the bends are and short cuts etc, so you have more chance of winning later on.

Tournament (underground mode only)

In the underground mode you must race in tournaments. These are multi-race events where each race gives you points depending on where you finish. The winner is the driver who ends up with the most points at the end of the tournament.

However, you have to meet a tournaments reputation requirement (yellow stars) to enter. If you don’t have a very good reputation then you won’t be able to race. You need to then buy more visual modifications to boost your reputation.

At the end of each race a the screen displays the finish position of the cars on the right hand side. The winners overall race time is displayed and each losing car displays its time behind the leader of the finish line.

Also the winners car is displayed with a load of groupies cheering them etc while your own car drives slowly by in shame (altogether now... awwwwwww). But when you win your car is displayed with all the groupies cheering for you. As you know, I don’t get to see this all that often lol.

You can also race against anyone by racing online. For this you need an internet connection (duh! lol), a network adapter and memory card. You also need to have a broadband connection otherwise it is useless.

Well, from reading this I am sure you understand how not very able I am at computer games lol but I really love this game as I love my cars and I would recommend this to other car lovers out there.
 

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