Published and Created by: Electronic Arts
Developer: EA
Genre: Racing
System Reviewed on:
Pentium Pro 200, 64 megs RAM, Voodoo2 w/ 12megs RAM, Montego A3DXtreme, MS Freestyle Pro
Need For Speed 3...wow, it certainly has been around for a while. I remember playing this years ago on my Playstation (the original, of course) when it was sponsored by Road and Track. Years later, and after reiterations and special editions, we finally get a good racing game for the PC. I'd have to say I was surprised at how good this game is, and that's coming from a big Gran Turismo fan. It has 14 cars available out of the box (actually 15 if you buy if from Walmart, because they have the 1998 Indy 500 Pace Car included), ranging from domestic sports cars to exotic sports cars, plus you can get on the internet and download more cars. It also has about 8-10 tracks on it, which can be played during the day or night, backwards or forwards, with or without weather, and all other sorts of optional settings, which is pretty much the setting for this whole game. Almost everything about this game is customizable, which I have to say is great. There are lots of different racing modes included from single races to tournaments, and even Hot Pursuit mode, which I'll get into later. You can even race your friends over the internet, which has to be one of the best reasons to purchase this game.
From what I've seen it has great 3D accelerated graphics, throwing in all the eye candy a hard-core gamer like myself enjoys. I think it's safe to say that if you saw it in games like Unreal, it'll be in there. All the cars can have reflective surfaces (I say can because it's not turned on at first, because it is a very hardware taxing option), lots of lens flares, and if you play with weather on, rain drops even form on your windshield. The game also supports the new EAX standard from Creative Labs which, I'm told, creates a submersive 3d sound environment, but since I don't have a card that can do that stuff...well, I don't know. It could rock, but try it yourself, and tell me.
Ok, so let's talk about all the racing modes this game gives ya. The regular old single race...you can choose one opponent, or a full lineup (5 I think) to race on a track that you pick out. You can choose to even have traffic running if you pick one opponent, making passing a more dangerous thing. Then you have the tournament and knockout modes...they're both pretty much the same thing; racing through all the tracks with a full lineup of opponents, but there is one difference. In knockout mode, the person who finishes last in the race gets knocked out of the game...meaning that by the time you reach the last race you'll probably have 2 guys left. The AI in these races is hard to say the least...they get very aggressive, even vindictive..if you sideswipe one racer, he'll make it his goal in life to run you into the wall. Finally, there is Hot Pursuit mode, which obviously is a big pushing point for this title. The idea is having cars race against each other, while in the backdrop having cops patrolling around aiming to make their quota for tickets. The cool thing is that you can play as either the racers or as the cops. As the racers you have to watch out for the cops, their roadblocks, and even spike strips. The police frequency is played through the game so you can brace yourself for them somewhat, but even still it's a challenge. You can get 3 tickets before the game is over, which makes it easier. As the cops, you can do pretty much anything the computer cops can do, except radio for help (as far as I can tell)...laying down roadspikes is very fun.
Finally, I guess I'll talk about the things I didn't like about this game. First off, unlike the downloadable cars, there are no new tracks available. While I know this isn't that big of a deal, and i'm not unhappy with the included ones, but if they can do it the cars, why not the tracks? I think that would definitely increase the longevity of this game. Also, I would have hoped there would have been more configuration for the enemy AI. As it stands, it can only be normal or aggressive, which is fine if you've been playing for a while, but when I first started it was hard unless you give them a piece of shit car and you get to drive a badass one. Perhaps an included easy mode would have been better suited to ease the learning curve of the game.
All in all, the pluses weigh out the minuses bigtime, so check it out, or at least download the demo from EA's website...it's very fun, especially if you have a joystick. Go get em.