Nothing looks better in the Need for Speed series than a Porsche.
User Rating: 8.7 | Need for Speed: Porsche Unleashed PC
Porsche Unleashed was a game I purchased again, from the bargain bin. I have to say no other Need for Speed game gave me chills when picked it up, but this one did. Finally, a return to true driving, just like the original NFS games!! This game follows a different style of progressing through levels. You start out with the original Porsche cars and as you progress you can gain the later Porsche models. The tracks themselves are beautifully rendered and have a very strong European theme. You can race upon the Cote D'Azur, through the Autobahn, and through some neighborhoods that look a lot like Holland. A strong departure from other games in the series, this incarnation features crash physics. That is, if you crash the car on the left side, your car will pull left and common engine components on that side will start to function pretty poorly if you repeatedly crash. It's a slight departure away from true arcade styling, but a welcome one. There are also some "side quests" that take you through lessons and challenges as a Porsche test driver. You learn how to do 360's, hard spins, braking maneuvers, etc. It seems like an add-in, not something designed from the get go. Graphics themselves utilize recent hardware, specular lighting, reflections, and average weather generation effects. Prior to the NFS: Underground/ U2 versions this was the NFS game that I spent the most time on. Granted, its now 5 years old, but at the time it was worth it.
