Game Preview

Electronic Arts continues to push the envelope - each new game in the Need For Speed series sets a new standard for racing simulators. After all, NFS games long ago stopped being purely arcade and moved into a more professional category. All that remains arcade about them is the short length of the races. In terms of the detail of the car models and the physics of their movement, NFS can give other simulators a run for their money. The new game Need For Speed - Porsche Unleashed worthily continues the traditions of its predecessors. From the title it is clear that the game simulates competitions in "Porsche" cars. The player is invited to create a virtual double of themselves by entering a name and choosing one of the offered faces (four for each gender). Depending on this, the driver of the car will look accordingly.

Single player)
In this mode, three types of play are available - quick race, quick knockout and knockout. While fans of arcade racing have long been familiar with the first and last modes, quick knockout appears for the first time. Its essence is as follows. The competitions are held on a circuit track. After each lap, the last one is eliminated.

Evolution)
In this mode, very similar to the career mode from High Stakes, the player will live through the half-century history of the "Porsche" car, starting from 1950 and ending in 2000. These fifty years are divided into three eras - Classic, Golden and Modern. Each of them has its own cars, and I think it's not worth saying that the cars differ not only in appearance but also in the physics of movement - that has long been taken for granted in NFS games. Each era is divided into tournaments, to participate in which you need to acquire a car of the corresponding class. The money to buy such a car must be earned in the lower tournaments. To achieve victory, it is not enough to simply buy a car; you need to upgrade it by replacing the standard components with ones adapted specifically for racing. As you approach the end of an era, more and more new cars and tracks become available. The transition from era to era is accompanied by a competition whose prize is not money but a car. Moreover, the race takes place in the same cars as the prize car, so all participants in the competition are on equal footing, and the truly strongest one wins.

Factory driver)
The most interesting and diverse mode, at least that's how it seemed to me. And not only because in this mode there are neutral cars and police on the roads, but also because the tasks do not consist of driving the track for the hundredth time and winning. Of course, driving between cones also looks monotonous, but firstly, it allows you to better learn the driving characteristics of the car, secondly, there are far more cone combinations than tracks, and thirdly, the competition is against a person, even if that person is the player themselves.

Besides the game itself, Porsche Unleashed contains an illustrated reference guide to cars of the "Porsche" brand. The information is divided by year, and access to it is available in chronological order or by sections - racing models, 911 series, 356 line, 924/944/968 models and 914/928/Boxster.

The tracks and everything connected with them are made with the highest quality traditional for the NFS series. On each of them there are moving characters unrelated to road traffic - welders and loaders in the Industrial Zone, peasants in the Black Forest or, for example, a sailor in Côte d'Azur. In connection with the beauty of the landscapes, I want to say that for maximum enjoyment it is better to use an accelerator with 32-bit color support. In lower color depth it is also beautiful and mesmerizing, but the green smoke from under the wheels looks a little strange. The only flaw in the rendering of the tracks that I found is related to the mirrored display of the track. In this mode, everything is mirrored, even the road signs, the numbers on which also become mirrored.

The virtual driver I mentioned above deserves a separate discussion. He looks like a living person! Now the driver is always present in the car, and not only when viewed from the external camera. He shifts gears and honks the horn. Overall, watching the driver's actions during a replay is very interesting - how he shifts gears, turns the "steering wheel" and tilts his head when turning.

Car damage looks more realistic - dented sides on which the polish disappears, broken headlights... Damage to the glass is still not visible. Neither from the cockpit nor from outside. Only after returning to the garage after a race can you discover that the glass has become covered with a spiderweb of cracks.

Summing up all of the above, I want to say that NFS: Porsche Unleashed is a worthwhile game, worth immersing yourself in the world of Porsche for more than a day... Enjoy the game!