Need for Speed: Pro Street is quite different to what i imagined it would be. Having played most of the older N4S games, and having become accustomed to the classic free roam, street racing, cop avoiding scensrios that hardcore fans of the series (or pretty much anyone who had played the originals too) would know about all to well, i was suprised that the latest and (apparently) greatest version in the series had been turned in an entirely new direction.
The first suprise was when i found out that there was no free roam. Alas, all the days gone by where i spent my time playing N4S Carbon, on a hellbent path of destruction of everything around me. But, unfortunately, in Pro Street the main storyline is set in the world of professional track racing, all legal and no cops ramming you into the walls. This was one of the small disadvantages of the game.
Another major difference in it (for the good this time) is the benefit that is being able to re-do races over and over again, and still receive the same outrageously high sum of cash for winning each time. Also, admittantly i thought is was a great idea to gather the races and put 5-8 of them each in groups, or "race days". this seems to make it neater, easier to sort out the raced from the un-raced.
Perhaps one of the biggest downfalls of the game is the fact that your car takes damage if you run into anything, including the sidewalls, trees, polls or other cars. It doesnt really make a difference if its a light scratch, but if you ram heavily into an object then you're in serious trouble. A meter indicates how much damage is aquired by a car in any race, with "light damage", "heavy damage" and "totaled!", as the 3 sections. "Light damage" and "heavy damage" pretty much speak for themselves. If you receive light damage, then your car's power/acceleration will be slightly reduced. If you receive a heavy damage warning, then your car's pwr/accel. will be heavily reduced. "Totaled!", on the other hand, simply means that your car is destroyed, and need to be fixed before you can race again, and thos can be quite costly. Luckily, also available to buy or win are "repair cards", which repair some or all of your car free of charge.
The actual gameplay is awesome, despite lack of free roam. You and a certain amount of cars are set up on a track, and basically you just have to out-race them in standard racea, out-score them in drift races, overpower them in drag races.....and just go bloody fast in speed races!
Of course, the main reason why anybody buys racing games these days is because of the powerful and exotic list of cars purchasable in the game. And when it comes to exotic, Pro Street certainly delivers. Just some of the mean machines you can find in the game carlot are:
Pagani Zonda F1
Lamborghini Murceilago
Ford GT
Audi TT 3.4 Quattro
Audi R8 (extender pack)
BMW Z4 coupe
Bugatti Veyron 16.4 (Extender pack)
2007 Chevrolet Camaro Z06
2008 Porsche 911 GT2
And many more, from Acura, mitsubishi, Pontiac, dogde, aston martin and lexus.
One thing that has remained the same is the relatively eady way to upgrade your car. with 4 tiers in each category; engine, nitrous, wheels, body kits, vinyls/decals, torque, supercharger, forced induction and transmission. Like the old N4S games, all you do is save up enough dough and go on an upgrading spree (much easier than Carbon, thanks to the big cash flow for each race day). But after that, it gets more complex. Your car can now be upgraded further by fine-tuning it for max. performance. You can adjust the gears, acceleration, brake bias, nitrous flow rate and pressure, cam timing, gear shifts, ride height, pretty much everything, except the car manufacturer logo at the front and back, and even taht can be removed sometimes with certain body kits.
Graphics are reasonably stable on the wii, great on the 360 and unbeleivable on the PS3. apart from the occaisional car part sticking out the side of a barrier, or my car getting itself stuck in the road graphics, there isn't much to complain about. that is on my wii, of course, the 360 and PS3 versions would be mich better at handling that area of gameplay.
Now, no racing game would be complete without a soundtrack and the effects of a car revving its 916 HP engine on the track. So the good people at EA gathered a list of real songs from various artists, and a few composed tracks by EA themselves. The gama plays random soundtracks at any given time, so just when you thought you'd heard them all, you're bound to be suprised.
In short, Need for Speed: Pro Street is a fantastic car racing game with a solid car list, solid graphics, a good soundtrack and a load of awesome features.
Who owns this game?
.:Abdule:.
Foster
Agul