Got Soul?
By PaulEMoz

This Christmas holiday season has again seen the traditional gaming glut, designed to make children happy and high street tills sing with joy. One such festive tradition is the Need For Speed series and, sure enough, the newest version turned up just in time for turkey. Or is it, in fact, the turkey? Let's take a look...

Lately, the Need For Speed games have been hit-or-miss in terms of quality. Going back a few years, Hot Pursuit 2 and Underground were excellent. Underground 2 and Carbon, not so much. Getting the balance right appears to be difficult. ProStreet is as polished as you like, and contains umpteen hours of solid enough racing, but it just feels like it exists purely because it's supposed to. It's the Slade of videogames, making an appearance at Christmas just because it's expected to. But in putting together this slick Christmas package, all shiny and gleaming and with the loveliest of decals and vinyls, EA has forgotten to put in the engine. Or, rather, they've forgotten to give it a soul.

"So here it iiiis, Need For Spee-eed, and nobody's having fun..."

So, what exactly do you get in this version of Need For Speed?

You get the cheesy story. It's kind of like Need For Speed Most Wanted, diluted. Some huffy, top-notch driver is annoyed because you're on the scene to put a thorn in his side. And so you get much moody posturing and gesturing, and you've seen it all before.

You get the shouty race announcers, who you'll all turn off in the options after just one race. Listen, EA, nobody wants that in their racing games. Not even the kids. Do away with the in-game announcers and DJs. Please. You'll save yourselves some money.

See, now if Stewpot was announcing, you wouldn't get half as annoyed.

You get the removal of the sandbox environment, replaced with simple racing. And, actually, that's a good thing. It provides a bit of focus. A sandbox environment is OK for the likes of Grand Theft Auto, but for a racing game, it doesn't really work that well. So that's a plus.

You get speed. Yep, this is a fast game. And yet, for all that, most of the time it doesn't feel particularly thrilling. There's not that much actual racing. Often, you'll pull away from your opponents at the beginning of the race, and never see them again (unless you do something stupid).

What don't you get?

You don't get the return of cops. And, let's face it, cop chases are one of the best parts of Need For Speed games. They provide the biggest adrenalin rush, and it's a shame that they're not here to give this a shot in the arm.

The balloon bursting mini-game is, sadly, not included in the finished game.

You don't get any real sense of excitement. You really feel as though you're completing each race just for the sake of it, not because you're dying to see what comes next or because the last race was such a thrill.

Of course, there's no point changing a game just for the sake of it. Games don't necessarily have to bring anything new to be fun. And in a racing game, just how much "new" can there be? But if you're not going to have anything new, at least make the old stuff right. Give us what works best. And give us your soul. If you do that, we'll give you our heart.

February 2008

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