Need For Speed: Pro Street
Pro Street is the latest instalment of the highly popular, cross-platform racing series which has seen popularity amongst all gamers for its high speed police chases, wide variety of game modes and near limitless potential for customization. Following the success ... Read review
Compete at the Highest Level of Street Racing.Raw, Adrenaline-Fuelled Racing: A brand-new ... more
physics engine and refined AI deliver the power of authentic street racing.Dominate Across All Racing Disciplines: Prove yourself in four distinct racing styles: ...
Advantages: Tons of cars, vast amount of upgrades and customisation Disadvantages: Excessive advertising, Demanding, Unrealistic
== Need For Speed: Pro Street ==
Pro Street is the latest instalment of the highly popular, cross-platform racing series which has seen popularity amongst all gamers for its high speed police chases, wide variety of game modes and near limitless potential for customization. Following the success of Most Wanted and Carbon, which both flew off the shelves when they were released in 2005 and 2006 respectively, when the time came for EA ... ...it looks as though the Need For Speed series is going to be 100% legal street racing on closed tracks. Even though it appears as though the merits that made it so famous all those years ago have failed to make it through to 2008, what has the game got to offer?
You play the game as Ryan Cooper, an ex-street racer that is hinted to be the elusive character you play as in previous games. You try to make your mark in the legal racing ... more
Need For Speed: Pro Street
Pro Street is the latest instalment of the highly popular, cross-platform racing series which has seen popularity amongst all gamers for its high speed police chases, wide variety of game modes and near limitless potential for customization. Following the success of Most Wanted and Carbon, which both flew off the shelves when they were released in 2005 and 2006 respectively, when the time came for EA Games to announce the latest in the series I was expecting them to sit tight and work with their tried and tested algorithm to produce another classic to stand proudly on my shelf. To say they've failed would be an understatement.
Gameplay
Perhaps the most distinctive change is that no longer are you expected to dodge traffic at 200mph whilst going the wrong way down the highway with a sea of blue lights in your mirror. That's right, as of Pro Street, it looks as though the Need For Speed series is going to be 100% legal street racing on closed tracks. Even though it appears as though the merits that made it so famous all those years ago have failed to make it through to 2008, what has the game got to offer?
You play the game as Ryan Cooper, an ex-street racer that is hinted to be the elusive character you play as in previous games. You try to make your mark in the legal racing scene by beating a series of race days each with progressing levels of rewards eventually working the way to race the Showdown King, Ryo Watanabe. Little is said about Ryan Cooper, other than the odd remark by commentators who fail to do anything but remind you about your history of illegal racing. It goes without saying that this does very little short of leave me longing for the old gameplay back.
Unfortunately, EA seems to be on the frontline of a trend that seems to be all too popular in the games recently. Advertising appears throughout most of EA's games, but it's gone beyond excessive in Pro Street. There's advertising on the track, off the track, at the race days and throughout the menus, which is a shame as I'm sure it probably hits the system resources as much as it does the eyes.
Above all, the biggest disappointment is without a doubt the car handling. Unfortunately, it's hard to say a good thing about it when you're driving a Bugatti Veyron that manoeuvres corners like a Big Rig. Even with driving assistants enabled, such as traction control and ABS, the control just doesn't seem to feel right and it considering the increase in realism in other areas such as graphically and damage, it was a great disappointment. I think to get the most out of this game, you're going to want to use a steering wheel, and even then, there are better games out there offering a more realistic driving experience.
Race Types
As expected, the game has a variety of different race types, each having a different objective and requiring a different skill as a driver and each demanding different things from your choice of car.
Grip: A grip race is your standard race: first one to the finish line wins. There are a few variations within this category of race to spice things up a bit, namely Time Attack, where you have to beat your own individual lap time, and Sector Shootout where the track is divided into four equal sectors for you to dominate.
Drag: Drag races are straight line races over a distance of quarter mile or half mile. It relies heavily on careful timing to shift gears at the correct moment and takes a fair bit of practice to perfect.
Speed Challenge: These can be compared to the old style Sprint races. Not too dissimilar to grip races, these take place on long tracks with plenty of straights for building speed. They require good timing, reactions and skill to control a vehicle at high speed.
Top Speed Run: The Pro Street equivalent of the Speedtrap races. They involve you collecting the highest cumulative speed through checkpoints.
Drift: There's only ever one car on the track, which is just as well considering you'll be sliding your car down the track sideways at 100mph. Drifting involves flinging your car around a corner at the highest angle and speed in order to gain points.
Unlike previous games, Pro Street requires you to have different cars for each race type. Whilst a bit annoying at first, and very expensive to maintain, it does help you appreciate the way the cars favour particular race types and lets you customise your cars for their respective races far more than you ever could before. The garage lets you upgrade your cars in many different ways, usually by either purchasing packages, which is an all-in-one upgrade, saving time and money, or an upgrade of certain specific parts. As far as tweaking goes, Pro Street has taken it a step further with AutoSculpt, letting you shape your own body components to alter the aerodynamics of the whole car which can be tested in the all new 'Wind Tunnel'. This is on top of all the expected engine, suspension, brake, drive and N2O tweaks to get the car performing just right. The garage has a library of literally hundreds of parts, and the car lot boasts a collection of over 60 cars including the mystical Bugatti Veyron.
After competing in race day after race day, I started to miss the old free roaming of the city that you could in the previous games. Whilst in the Career mode there are plenty of race days to compete in, it's a bit of a shame to not have the option to go on a GTA-style rampage.
Graphics & Sound
If you've seen screenshots or video clips from the game, you'll probably think that the graphical quality appears to have improved ten-fold over its predecessor and I would have to agree entirely, however the toll on the system is also far greater than its predecessor. On my computer, which is slowly aging but nevertheless fits comfortably above the recommended system requirements, I had to turn the graphics details down to low in-game for the game to run at a playable speed, whereas Carbon didn't even push my machine. I suppose this has stopped me appreciating what the game has to offer graphically, but as they say, graphics don't make the game.
As far as sound goes, I find it hard to fault at all. As with most games now, Pro Street supports full surround sound which makes the engines sound superb and makes the game incredibly immersive from this respect. EA has the rights to an impressive soundtrack of just under 40 tracks which really seems to fit the game. The voice actors are surprisingly good and add a degree of authenticity, even their dialogue is a bit cheesy and annoying.
Multiplayer
Online play is a lot more integrated than previously, particularly in the Career Mode. You can share your best blueprints for others to use, whilst keeping credit for your work and your Career progress can be entered into an online leaderboard. You can make your own race days and compete in them with your friends from all over the world with the internet.
Conclusion
I think that Pro Street might be a good game for gamers new to the Need for Speed series but it was a real disappointment to me who has been a fan of the games for as long as I can remember. I can't help comparing it to the previous games in the series which I think were far greater. Graphically, the game is brilliant, and a lot of effort has gone into the sound effects, but the combination of excessive advertising, poor handling and no cops is really unexpected and disappointing.
Advantages: Good Gameplay, Great Sound fx, Great gfx, Realistic Disadvantages: Not on the streets, too much in-game advertising
Another trip into the dark, underground world of street racing has arrived, well apparently not and it looks like EA may have just shot themselves in the foot or should I say run over their foot. As far back as the first \"Need for Speed\" some kind of street races or cop chases have been included in the game however EA have made a big change this time. Instead of racing the streets you now have an official racing career on tracks spread far and ... ...races are on public roads they are closed down so there is no longer high speed collision with oncoming cars or the enthralling sound of missing a flat bed truck by millimetres. As some of you may have guessed this also means that the game no longer contains cop chases which have been a major part of the previous games. On the other hand this has made the race experience more realistic as now there is a set track when you overthrow a corner there ...
6heads 03.01.2008
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Need for Speed: ProStreet (PC)
Advantages: The game conceot itself. Disadvantages: somewhat off graphics.
...The 10 game in the Need for Speed series. In the previous series of underground and underground 2, the gameplay was rated as the innovation of its time. Then came Most wanted and reintroduced police in the tuner style high speed gameplay. Carbon was like Vista. A lot of eyecandy and needed alot of muscle for running. And did not shine with nothing. Then there was Prostreet. Prostreet introduced the tuner style arcade professional gameplay. Prostreet ... ...blows your mind.
The first feature is the full customization of cars. And that each level of it affects the real physics. Just like in the real world. The second is the handling. Many gamers say, that it is slow and laggy. I say, that it introduces a new level of skill to the gamerworld. You have to think corners ahead, because cornering is never the same twice. And the competition is quite smart also. There are many assistance modes in the game. ...
tartupets 23.05.2008
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Need for Speed: ProStreet (PC)
Advantages: Amazing visual and sound quality! Disadvantages: Difficult to pick up and totalling your car will get frustrating!
...edition of the ever popular Need for Speed series takes us in a slightly different direction to the recent titles and feels like a hybrid of Gran Turismo and Project Gotham Racing mainly due to the courses you find yourself racing on and the pure amount of detail that has been included, This ones going for realism and really hits the spot. As in all Need for Speed games there are a variety of different game modes to choose from these include:
* ... ...in most of the newer Need for Speed titles and basically involves controlled slides round corners at as high speed as possible to gain points!
* Drag - Another old favourite of Need for Speed fans drag involves racing down relatively straight roads with a manual gearbox pushing your car to its limits.
Loads of new vinyls and bodykits have also been included which will help you customise your car the way YOU want to see it! ===Gameplay:===
The ...
Gangsta-ash 13.12.2007
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Need for Speed: ProStreet (PC)
Advantages: Good graphics . Dynamic gampeplay and damage Disadvantages: Many
...quite a huge fan of Need for speed since the first game tat was out which used to run in dos mode. Lol. And by far, Need for speed has been the best racing evolving series ever played. Its been ages since the Need for speed series has gone back to track racing. All series have been mostly till date street racing, but pro street goes back to track racing and thats where things seem to go wrong. The concept of the game is that you own a car, trick ... ...There is not excitement as like running and evading police which happened in Need for speed most wanted.
3. The story could have been a little exciting by adding a few secret races and rivals and friends.
4. Chopping cop chases off the list was the biggest mistake EA did. ...
anurag440044 16.11.2008
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Need for Speed: ProStreet (PC)
Gameplay/Playability
Graphics
Sound
Value for Money
Longevity
Quick review of Need for Speed: ProStreet (PC)
need for speed pro street the latest development from EA is the best,the graphics are oustanding,the damage on cars are so real.there can be anything better than it.the user interface is also good.As a fan of need for speed its my favourite of all the need for speeds ...
zaia 14.06.2008
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Need for Speed: ProStreet (PC)
Product Information for "Need for Speed: ProStreet (PC)" »
Product details
Age
3+
Publisher
Electronic Arts (EA)
Genre
Racing/Driving
Release Date
23rd November 2007
EAN
5030930059347
Operating System
Windows XP
Manufacturer's product description
Need for Speed ProStreet boasts impeccable precision and impressively detailed photo-realistic graphics, effectively transporting you to the center of the action. It pushes the â??Autosculptâ?? technology to a new level, allowing you to directly impact your carâ?tms performance for the first time as well as personalize its appearance. Need for Speed ProStreet is a true taste of raw adrenaline and racing with consequences. Every dent, every scratch and every crumpled body panel is a battle scar, proof of your commitment and competitive mettle. With an aggressive and skilled AI system, you become immersed in an unmatched believable race experience. Add in a revolutionary online mode that will redefine the meaning of competitive social play, and Need for Speed ProStreet is the ultimate formula for an emotionally charged street racing showdown.
![Need For Speed: Pro Street [PC DVD] PC](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/103207089.jpg)
