More of the same, but better. Still the game that sets the standard for all other racing games, and the bar has been rai
While you certainly can gamble within the game, EA has done anything but gamble. They've packed this package with a whole lot of the punch you expect from the NFS series. It may be a predictable whollop, but it's as solid as if it had come from a Tyson fist, without the bizarre sharp teeth on your ear. Okay, so it isn't shaking any trees ala Driver, but the draw-in is on the horizon like it should be and the roads have curves dammit. Some of us don't like to feel like we're driving around Sim City.
Speaking of roads, the curves are pretty extreme at times and these roads are a lot more narrow than previous NFS incarnations. I've complained bitterly about the track loops of NFS 2 & 3 after being spoiled with the meandering highways of the original NFS, but even on this prior annoyance I've loosened up a bit and find myself going with the status quo. The loops make a whole lot of sense when it comes to the cop chases, especially when you've fallen behind on your prey and realise you can just do a 180 and catch them the other way.
Visual Treat not a Polygon Hog?
NFS: High Stakes is a sight to see. On my first game I had to deal with my wife making comments over my shoulder about the beauty of the scenery and the realism of the effects. I personally prefer a racer with the slickness of Daytona or Ultimate Race, but I couldn't help but admit that this latest and greatest from EA looked pretty good. Speedwise, it ran very smoothly on my PII-266 / Voodoo 3 combo and it looked even better on a PII-450 / Riva TNT-2 equipped machine. In my opinion however, those are still pretty hefty specs, but the game was still moderately playable on a P200MMX / Voodoo. I would have appreciated a little more scalability, but I didn't expect that from this series.
The different weather environments slowed down all of the machines, but they certainly add to the wow factor. Flying dust quickly becomes mud that sticks to your windshield and snow is just hard to see through. Even without the weather, dustballs have a tendency to kick up as a car spins out at the side of the road. Very stunning.
The sound, again didn't thrill me, but I appreciated the "play your own music" option. I've played all of the previous NFS games with the sound OFF. Not only is the grating power-chord music very irritating, but the crunches and screeches of the cars still have that fingernails-on-chalkboard feel. Apparently the folks at EA get these sounds from actual vehicles, but they still sound horridly canned to me. And after swapping discs a few times back and forth I once again gave up and plunked my music CD in my walkman, like I usually do.