Need for Speed II

[Kin]

I was surfin on Gamespot and I've noticed that NFS underground 2 is going to be a free world.

I played NFS underground 1 but then uninstalled it afterwards because I was restricted into the path of the racetrack. I hated that because it's like playing an old racing game but with better graphics.

Now you can drive where ever you want in the city with a help of a radarmap.

After playing Vice city too much I think this will definetly help to get rid of the restricted feeling within a world.

I can't wait to see the action. It's planned to be out in november.

[zeo-mare]

sounds cool, i will have to try and keep myself updated with this

[Max Jenius]

Yay...

I've been scared to buy the "Underground" series because the idea of Ricers isn't appealing to me. Are there the NFS assortment of European/American muscle cars? You know, the ones without NO2 stickers etc?

[areaseven]

Hopefully, it will be better than NAMCO's snoozefest SRS: Street Racing Syndicate.

[Retracting Head Ter Ter]

Yay...

I've been scared to buy the "Underground" series because the idea of Ricers isn't appealing to me. Are there the NFS assortment of European/American muscle cars? You know, the ones without NO2 stickers etc?

Its not the cars that put me off (ideally it should have both imports and yank musclecars.)

I hate the lousy arcadish lack-of-physics engine. The old NFS (esp 2) had a much better driving engine.

[Kin]

hubba hubba drivin around like in vice city!

[Mellow Yellow]

Need for Speed Underground sucked. I found Midnight Club II far more enjoyable.

[~Duo~Trenten]

Someone finaly brings this up. When i hear someone say NFSU is a good game but then I see who it is coming from and can tell why. This is a game for the ricer wannabe who knows barely nothing technical about the cars that are in the game.

The cars in NFSU show hardly any real characteristics of how they act on real life.

Like how a 400 hp frontdrive four banger has absolutely no torque steer but a allwheel drive will, kind of funny really. I really love how they did the acceleration scale, what joke. I tested some of the 0-60 times on my friends game-squared and they are not even pulling the times they do in real life and this is with the cars modified in the game. well im just going to stop now becuase i could go on for ever.

I have heard rumors of that muscle cars maybe in NFSU2 and Euro cars.

The best racer game in my opinion is sega GT online.

Edited October 20, 2004 by ~Duo~Trenten

[Kin]

I agree on all points. But I just only want to have fun driving around that's all.

Can u name a game that has all the features you want in the same enviroment?

[areaseven]

The best racer game in my opinion is sage GT online.

Never heard of it. I only know of Sega GT Online, which is merely a reissue of Sega GT 2002, only with more cars and XBOX Live support.

[areaseven]

And for the record, Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune is more fun.

[~Duo~Trenten]

Never heard of it. I only know of Sega GT Online, which is merely a reissue of Sega GT 2002, only with more cars and XBOX Live support

Yeah I never heard of sage GT online till now to. stupid typos

I only like sega GT online becuase of its huge amount of cars and that it was 20 bucks.

Im waiting for Forza Motorsport, maybe even trade SRS at gamestop or something. I knew there was going to be a catch to that 45 plus cars to choose from, but do they tell you they are just different models of the same car no.

like i really want 4 different Celicas or all five models of the 350Z to choose from.

[ComicKaze]

It took a lot of work to make any of the cars in NFS:U look acceptable and not totally rice/loser mobiles.

That said, I did make some great cars I was very proud of and FYI, there are some limited European models in NFS:U. I loved the Peugeot.

Anyway, the worst part of the game, wasn't it's physics which I found thrilling because it really is an arcade game...It was the fact that there was the catch-up feature that let a computer catch up to you by insane margins at the end of race. You'd literally be miles ahead and see the time gauge separating you and the other cars drop really fast like they were racing perfectly at 200mph or something.

So basically you had to be an almost perfect driver to ever win the game. That said, that made for some very thrilling and heart-pounding races. I had a lot fun and sweat-filled hours spent in that game.

I also especially loved the drag racing and drifting courses mainly for the fact that they had that quality that made you play them over and over again to succeed.

[yellowlightman]

And for the record, Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune is more fun.

Nothing like ANOTHER repackaged version of Tokyo Xtreme Racer/Shutoku Battle.

But if it ever comes out on PS2, I might grab a copy to balance out the Kaido Battle I've been playing somuch.

[RFT]

Kaido Battle is top-drawer stuff.

I've got KB2: chain reaction and love it- My AE86 Levin is feared across the passes as the quickest way down a mountain short of jumping off the side.

and for going up, I've got my Impreza station wagon.

[Kin]

I;ve played Midnight Club II, the gameplay is good but the graphics are a little minor. Undeground II is going to have that same gameplay.

Nevertheless I'm still playing MCII.

[Kin]

NFS2 demo was out! It's very cool you can drive any where you want.

Only downside, my radeon does not support light glow.. or is it a bug?

There are glow missing from the lampposts.. I hope they let them glow in the future. As for the textures, it's still the same, no bump mapping. Not much traffic on the road.. compared to Midnight Club II.

But the sound effects are definately a big +! The way the engine sounds and responds stepping on the gas is cool, you could almost make the engine sing/speak.

Edited October 29, 2004 by Kin

[Tico0001]

Oh... i thought that this topic was really about NFS2... not underground.

NFS series used to be my favorite games EVER... Sadly, IMO the last good NFS was Porsche unleashed... after that it all went downhill when they turned the game in just another arcade racing game... so sad. I'm still hoping that they'll release something like in the old days.

That said... underground 2 looks very interesting.

~Tico

[Kin]

Today I finally got my videocard set optimum for NFSU2 at 1024 x 768.

I got a Radeon 9600 pro and an AMD XP1600 processor... and only 512mb ram.

Everything in NFS video options is turned on except antialiasing... that's controlled by ATI tray profile.

I'm convinced this is the ultimate beauty my computer can ever render in good playable fps!

Here's some shots:

[Kin]

and here

The graphics n renderings are so friggin good... it's even better than the movie trailer itself! I hope they will make a GTA game based on their engine!

Edited November 1, 2004 by Kin

[Hikuro]

I diffenetly need to get that game 0_o I had no dislikes on Underground, and this looks like it had been much improved.

[areaseven]

I bought NFSU2 before Christmas, but didn't get a chance to play it until early this week. I must say that I'm very impressed with the overall quality of the game. The ability to drive anywhere in the city is a major plus, whether it's to hunt down other ricers or look for car specialty shops. There's also a better selection of cars in the game as well, despite the fact that SUVs (namely the Hummer H2, Lincoln Navigator and Cadillac Escalade) seem out of place.

My only complaint is that it's night time throughout the entire game. Since Bayview City is modeled after L.A. and Miami, you gotta have at least some daytime backgrounds.

If you dig import tuners, you have to buy this game. If you hate ricer cars, you still might want to check this game out, as it has muscle cars like the 2005 Ford Mustang GT and the 2004 Pontiac GTO. Besides, how can you say no to a game with Brooke Burke in it?

(Tested on an AMD Athlon XP 2200+ with 512MB PC-133 SDRAM, GeForce4 Ti4200 64MB graphics card and SoundBlaster Live! Gamer 5.1 sound card.)

[Hikuro]

The game is rather good. however moving from a full 3D cinema story to a comic book like structure really pissed me off, that's what ruined it the most for me, loosing the realism of the whole undergrund series.

However I do enjoy the fact there are more cars to choose from and I must have stuck with the 86 for a good portion of the game.

I do enjoy the free moving enviorment and racing others when ever you want on that open enviorment.

I also loved the down hill drift racing, espically fun with a 350Z modded out specifically for downhill.

[areaseven]

Currently, I have a Nissan 240SX as my drift car and a Hyundai Tiburon GT V6 as my dragster. I'm also working on modding out a Toyota Supra for URL races.

[Chewie]

Yeah, it REALLY sucks when a linear racing game doesn't let you explore the world.

Damn...I hate that...

[Nightbat]

The Nissan 240 is a damned good drifter, once it comes into it's powerband it's hell

to keep under control, set everything concerning rear-wheel grip to 0 and you're

raking in points

The RWD cars are imo superior to the AWD's and FWD's, the AWD's are great for

Drags but have bad cornering, the FWD's have the bad habit of going into a drift

when taking corners at too high speed (which RWD's would handle and AWD's could

scrape the barrier)

My Favorite is the MX5 Miata, it's a bad dragger (used the Suzuki Mitsubishi* 3000GT for that)

but perfect on circuits and good on drifts

I for one didn't care about the "story" and found the End-boss easier to beat

(on the 1st try) than the 2 races before that

*Edit: My Mistake Mike

Edited February 25, 2005 by Nightbat®

[mikeszekely]

There's also a better selection of cars in the game as well, despite the fact that SUVs (namely the Hummer H2, Lincoln Navigator and Cadillac Escalade) seem out of place.

Actually, if you're driving an SUV, you can race in some SUV only events. That's useful for someone like me who loves the sprints, circuits, and URLs, but really doesn't care for drift and drag.

Anyway, regular NFS, NFSU, and GT all have their own merits. The arcade-style of racing in NFS and NFSU might not be realistic (according to the in-game stats in NFSU2, even after I put all the available mods on it, my Celica still outperformed the Supra), but it allows for straight-up fun regardless of the car you've chosen. NFS lets you play as cars you're not likely to see outside of SoCal or an autoshow, and NFSU lets you play with a car you might actually own. Meanwhile, GT has that ultra realism that forces me to play with my brake balance and VCS until I can get my 900HP 3000GT to turn the way I want... GT isn't just about the competition, but the sheer pleasure of test driving different cars and then working on the ones you want to keep.

I think (and I'm looking at you, ~Duo~Trenten) that if you ignore games like NFS(U) just because the car stats and physics aren't perfectly realistic, you're doing yourself a disservice. Hell, if you overlook any solid racing game just because you like a different one, you're doing yourself a disservice. There's no law that says that you can't have fun with NFSU just because you liked Midnight Club II. Only time you really ought to pass on a game is if it's just plain boring, ala SRS.

[mikeszekely]

My Favorite is the MX5 Miata, it's a bad dragger (used the Suzuki 3000GT for that)

but perfect on circuits and good on drifts

If you're talking about the 3000GT in NFSU2, that's a Mitsubishi, not a Suzuki.

[Hiriyu]

Last NFS game I played was II, years ago, and the original before that. Having since done numerous real-life track events, autocross and timetrials, the arcade racing genre just doesn't do it for me anymore, though they can be good for just some plain fun with friends. Word to the wise, kids, real cars don't handle anything like the ones in these games

Fans of simulation racing games should look out for Simbin's GTR FIA GT sim coming out stateside in the next few months

[areaseven]

The Nissan 240SX is a damned good drifter, but once it comes into its powerband it's hell to keep under control. Set everything concerning rear-wheel grip to 0 and you're raking in points.

I'll try that. Back in NFSU1, my preferred drift machine was the Mazda RX-7, but last night, I got mad drifting points with my Supra.

Speaking of which, my Supra currently tops out at 427.3 bhp @ 7550 rpm and 334.6 ft-lbs @5650 rpm.

[ComicKaze]

I haven't played much since I switched to an LCD monitor and the game is hard to play (dark + response time ghosting motion blur).

I might bring my CRT back out and hook up my Logitech Momo wheel and give her another go. Can I get some tips on how to make my car good at drifting? I can't seem to compete in these events really well. I have a 240 but I'm not sure what to do with tuning options.

And for an overall impression of the game, I find most of the times when you challenge racers on the street, it's a very tough contest because you have to have a real lead on them and with the world so chaotic, it's just too easy to screw up even if you have a huge lead and then I'll just have to cheat by driving in circles so the computer gets confused.

Tokyo Extreme Racer was so much better, so much more fun than this. There was actual a thrill to the street challenges and finding secret racer characters from different racing teams. The characters in NFS are all nameless trash talkin' losers. TXR also had a much better racing system where you build up your bar whenever you're in the lead so it's more of a health meter rather than a distance meter. I found that in NFSU2, I basically stuck to the events because I hated the street racing setup.

[Kin]

I'm fed up with it anyway... it gets boring without pedestrians and freedom of walking/flying around (damn rockstar )

[areaseven]

I might bring my CRT back out and hook up my Logitech Momo wheel and give her another go. Can I get some tips on how to make my car good at drifting? I can't seem to compete in these events really well. I have a 240 but I'm not sure what to do with tuning options.

Under Suspension, max out everything except steering and lower your car all the way down. Under Aerodynamics, set your front downforce to MAX and your rear downforce to 0. Under Tires & Brakes, set your rear tire grip to 0. No rear grip and zero rear downforce means absolute mad drifting. I managed to score over 100,000 drift points (Drift King) in one turn alone with these settings.

Edited March 1, 2005 by areaseven

[areaseven]

I finished the game last night using a Ford Mustang GT with all performance mods maxed out (except brakes) and zero visual mods. The final boss (a maxed-out black Pontiac GTO) is a major letdown, as he is absolutely no challenge (smoked him by over 15 seconds at the finish line). I've unlocked just about everything and I'll post some of my customized creations later this week.