Tradition (preview)

The annual release of another Need For Speed seems to have become a kind of tradition for EA, held under the slogan: "Not a single November without Need For Speed!" For more than ten years in a row, the world's largest gaming company has been churning out yet another trinket from under its pen, meant to represent a street racing simulator, but looking more like arcade racing mixed with a simulator of the "Barbie car world".

This November will be no exception - Need For Speed: Carbon is racing toward our hard drives at the huge speed, as always - another product off the Electronic Arts conveyor belt - the fourth NFS about street racing, and already the tenth (!) game in the series.

They'll give us back the night!

Well, what Need For Speed is (specifically: what it was and what it has become) needs no explanation to anyone - after all, it's the most famous racing series in the world. Moreover, the quality of each of the pieces of the classic can be disputed and discussed at length, but to disagree with the insane popularity of the series as a whole - that's simply impossible. And one could say that with each successive race EA tries to present us with something new and unusual (in Underground 2 it was a whole open city, but we remember the first Driver and Midtown Madness 1 and 2; and in Most Wanted - an unusual mix of several previous NFS games), as well as to learn from their mistakes, which doesn't turn out too well.

In this regard, Carbon also continues the traditions of the previous parts, that is, it fixes mistakes and improves in small ways.
The first thing that catches your eye is once again the dark time of day. And although so far we haven't discovered any neon (evidently, "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift" is having its effect), the decision is fundamentally correct, for street racers constantly racing during the day is absurd. Next - we'll still be left with the police, but this time they won't play the leading role as in Most Wanted, which is what we were waiting for. The ability to slow down time will also remain, and judging by the videos, nothing special has changed there - the same degraded handling, but the ability to enter a turn better. As for the refinement of the tuning system, I'll talk about that in more detail a bit later - EA are going to introduce a rather curious concept.

Considering that for some people the car's body kit is sometimes more important than the races themselves, that's also a more than correct decision, provided, of course, that the new system gets a worthy implementation (and it looks like it will - it looks very impressive). But the most important thing, of course, is the cars.

The fact that licensed cars will remain is natural, we didn't expect otherwise. There will be both American monsters à la Mustang and fully sports cars, for example, the Lamborghini Murcielago. Moreover, different classes of cars will quite be able to compete with each other (this isn't FlatOut 2), which can clearly be seen in some gameplay videos published by the developers. There you can also see that the cars themselves will look simply gorgeous (and when did they ever look bad in EA games?), and overall the graphics will be more or less (although we still haven't seen the cities so far).

But it seems we won't be allowed to dent the bodies of our iron monsters again, alas.
What the law enforcement service will be like is hard to say. On the one hand, if EA put the cops in what are almost rocket cars, then the reproaches will start again: they say, what nonsense, they're dumb anyway, etc. On the other hand, what kind of obstacle can inept policemen pose to ace drivers (and is there any doubt about their future "intelligence"?), if in addition to dumb AI they're also given sluggish cars? I believe it would be wiser to play in favor of gameplay and give the cops normal cars. So, by tradition, that's most likely what EA will do.
A dreary night these days...

So what else new will the gentlemen from EA present us with? More tuning details? Of course. A more convenient interface? Probably, though it's questionable. None of the recent NFS games had a normal control system - either the camera rotates too slowly, and you have to wait half an hour for the chance to pick a nicer-looking part, or you can't see anything at all because of the idiotic lighting. They'll probably fix this in Carbon - we've already been shown a video where you can partially assess what the future garage will be like. And it's already safe to say that tuning is gradually moving to a new level, giving more control to the player than to standard presets.

What the "Barbie" part will be like is quite hard to describe in words. In general terms: from now on there won't be a specific kind of bumpers, "skirts", spoilers, rims and so on. There will be certain "parts" with a certain number of zones. For example: we're customizing the front bumper.

Here we have a height characteristic for this bumper, a tilt angle characteristic, and so on. All of this in percentages - the higher the percentage, the lower the bumper hangs. And so it is for everything: for rims, for hoods, you can even adjust the roof height. A very successful solution. What will come of it - it's even scary to imagine. But clearly something truly new, good and original.

So what new will there be in the gameplay? Probably not much. Since the game is still about street racing, circuit races, sprint, and "drag" will remain. More attention will probably be given to "drifting", that is, sliding along the road in a controlled skid. It's quite possible they'll bring back the ability to decorate a couple of magazines with covers showing your handsome car against a backdrop of sexy models. By the way, about models: of course, there will also be a signature beauty. This time it's top model Emmanuelle Vaugier, who will play the main character's girlfriend.

Next, the small stuff: they'll add a new interface with a bunch of different characteristics (the number of feet to the nearest rival, for example), finally a human rear-view mirror, and not only in the "first"-person view. As already mentioned, the slo-mo effect will also remain. Various objects that can be knocked down and broken on the track will also be left in (after FlatOut 2, the implementation of this feature looks simply shameful). The physics won't get much better,
it was semi-arcade, and it will stay that way.

Video cutscenes aren't going anywhere either. Since we won't know how many there are until the game's release,
let's hope they'll be something more fitting and in greater quantity
than what we saw in Most Wanted. EA are also going to record several actors who took part in
Most Wanted, and whether these two games will be connected to each other in some way or not is hard to say for now.

Though, what difference does it make? There's no real plot anyway. Racing is racing wherever you go, whether the hero
is running from somewhere, or conquering territories with a crew. Oh yes, another curious innovation.
Now we'll be allowed to have our own crew of street racers. Initially you'll be its only
member, but as you build your reputation, more and more new characters will come to you.

Well, if this is handled well, it could turn out to be quite interesting gameplay.
Not Formula 1, of course, but... However, since the city is promised to be the same size as it was
before, will we have room to spread out with our crew? Time will tell.

Night in the near future

So, we see that the project is currently quite contradictory. There's no ambition whatsoever,
just another "hit" stamped out for the year. However, considering all the innovations that have already
been listed, plus what else we'll be given at the game's release, we can say with full confidence
that the game won't leave anyone indifferent. There will be dissatisfied critics, there will be delighted
fans. As usual, the game comes out in November (more precisely, in early November) of this year, on all major
gaming platforms. We wait.