Need for Speed: Carbon

by Electronic Arts

Product Features

• NFS Carbon PS2
• ELECTRONIC ARTS

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000GPXS9Y
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches ; 4 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: October 31, 2006
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,608 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)

Product Description

Platform: PlayStation2 | Edition: Standard

PENDING

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pretty dang fun., November 18, 2006

By 

T. Lemelin "Electronic toy connoisseur." (California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Need for Speed Carbon (Video Game)

Alright, here's the deal. NFS: Carbon isn't the best racing game, and I'm not trying to say it is. But, on its own merits, it's a great game.

Canyon racing is a nice little aspect of the game. I almost wish there were more places that you could go off the edge at. All boss races are decided by a final race on the canyon. It's honestly not all that difficult. As long as you don't royally mess up, chances are you won't lose, but by no means let that detract from the fun factor. Canyon races are all skill. No NOS, no speed breaker (which I've personally only used once, and didn't like), and the control is a little more loose. After beating the boss you get to flip over "cards" and you win bonus prizes. My first boss coughed up his RX-7 to me. Needless to say, I was a happy camper and immediately switched over to it.

Drift events are fun, and frustrating. Basically, you either nail it, or you don't. My only piece of advice is floor it, and don't stop.

Speed trap - Tally the speed that you hit each trap at, and at the end the highest total wins. However, if someone crosses the finish before you, you end up losing points. If *you* want to win, your best bet is to bring a blocker, not a scout. If you want your *team* to win, bring a scout.

Wingmen - Blocker, Scout, Drafter. When you activate a blocker, they attempt to run into the person closest to them and put them into the wall, or just slow them down. You "activate" them to tell them when to go, so if they can't do their job, they're probably too far when you try to use them. Scouts have glowing trails that come off the back of their car to make it easier to tail them. They find shortcuts for you (which is good because many are hard to find yourself) and they almost always sprint ahead of you. (Which is where a scout should be.) Good for helping you win a race as they'll frequently finish before you, good for winning speed traps as well (as previously mentioned). As for drafters, when you activate them they get in front of you and attempt to allow you to stay close to them and draft them, and then when you deactivate them you shoot around the side of them. Honestly, I have no drafter wingman yet, but eventually I plan on it. Downside, wingmen do often get in the way. Especially the dang scout.

I enjoy unlocking single upgrades per race. There are some races that would otherwise be difficult if you didn't get upgrades along the way. And speaking of upgrades; being able to tune your car for acceleration versus top end, under-steer versus over-steer, NOS duration versus volatility... all very cool ideas. (I don't know if other NFS games do this or not.)

Also, speaking of unlocked, I like that there are (outside of career mode) "unlockables". Side challenges that you can do to get extra things in career mode. The first thing I went for was pearlescent paint... and holy cow was that difficult.

Anyhow, very addicting game. Granted, I haven't played it 7 hours a day for 4 days straight and beat it... but unfortunately the game does feel a little quick. Next thing I do after that will be to create a new alias with a different car type. (The car type you select determines the unlocks you get... which is explained to you at the beginning of the game.)

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Backward Evolution, November 7, 2006

By 

Pwning1By1 (New York Baby!) - See all my reviews

= Fun:3.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Need for Speed Carbon (Video Game)

My NFS background: I was never a big fan of NFS. Underground 1 reused tracks too often, and the "short cuts" were a joke... NFS:MW sucked me in. The tracks were decent, the car models well done, good pursuits and a crisp UI - really, the game had a durable feel that made it worth investing time in past beating the storyline. As of today, my Most Wanted bounty slightly exceeds 113 million with 100% game completion.

Fast forward to NFS Carbon and you basically forfeit every decent aspect of Most Wanted. If you heavily enjoyed Underground 2, you should like Carbon, as it will give you a consistent feeling of deja vu.

Music - Horrible. They don't even bother to tell you who made it - mostly because you wouldn't care.

Graphics - I have to agree, it's either equivalent to Most Wanted (they even kept some of the same trucks, modified in minor ways), or slightly below. On the off chance it's equal, the feel is a bit more cartoon-like. I must say, however, the city itself is pretty detailed - though you are driving at night, so that may impact the difference.

"Take it to the Canyon" - Okay, I expected a lot from this hyped up concept... What I found was a narrow road, the loss of both speed breaker AND nitrous, and basically it works in 2 phases, 1) you tailgate him, 2) he tailgates you. Whoever earns more tailgating points wins. Of course, he always does a better job - which one would think gives him a win - yet some how, it doesn't. This is not to say you can not lose, but at the end, I think you will agree, you too, didn't deserve to win.

Short Cuts - Think NFS:Underground 1. "Oh look, a sharp turn I can cut through, weee!" That's about it. Everything you thought they learned from Midnight Club, which they implemented in MW, is now gone. Out of about 15 or so that I've used personally, only one was more complex than cutting through a simple parking lot, or walk way - nothing impressive.

Unlocking - Personally I preferred the MW way: beat a boss, unlock a bunch of stuff. Here, each race unlocks something - paint, wheel covers, tranny, etc. The advantage is that you can choose what to unlock, the disadvantage is more often than not, it's simply a paint color.

Upgrading your car - This has a funny feel to it for me. Cars come in three categories: Tuner, Muscle and Exotic. Each category has three tiers. Each upgrade fits only the specified car type and tier. So if your riding an exotic, and unlock a muscle mod, you get nada for your exotic. This raises a bit of confusion when it comes time to buy a new car, as it's hard to tell what you unlocked the most of (though your choice will probably reflect your opinion of the cars brand, not the options available for the car).

Feel of your ride - Most of the handling seems equivalent to MW standard. Out of about 20 races I lost 2, for one very distinct reason. Picture a tractor trailer with the size and speed of a race car... This is how it will feel when you hit them, or they hit you - mainly, that you go flying. While this isn't a big deal, it does feel like a slap in the face when one of them (and you can have over 7 of them) loses control on a turn and blocks you from turning at all.

Police Pursuits - I've only engaged in two pursuits but I've noticed 2 things: 1) the streets aren't set up to make quick turns to lose cops (most are long curvy roads with few streets intersecting), 2) the police "smell" you - that is, they stop if they can't find you, then head directly for you. As a veteran of MW, commonly getting 3mil or more per pursuit, I'll be sticking with MW for cop chases.

Wingmen/Scouts/etc - This sounds great on paper but executes like flat tire. Wingmen are supposed to hit other cars (I think?) and knock them out for you - they don't do it well, and commonly say "Uh oops, couldn't get that one..." or something similar. Over all, they seem more distracting than helpful, but I may be using them improperly. Scouts on the other hand, help, some what... They pick out short cuts for you (because in the blinding darkness it's hard to spot debris littered parking lot entrances) and highlight them in green on your minimap - they also talk to you, which is helpful. The one confusing part about scouts, though, is they generally finish before you. So if they're so good, why work for you?

Your territory is under attack!! - Prepare for a long race that pays next to nothing. Aside from that, there's little to tell about this. The last one I encountered took me 7 minutes to complete, with 2nd place about a minute behind me and last place closer to 2 minutes. Normal races yield $15,000... Territory wars yield $700... Don't spend it all in one place.

Rubber-band - This is the one (possibly only, *cough*) improvement over MW. Rubber-banding, for those who don't know, is this: When you are far ahead of them, they speed up, don't get into accidents and arrive some where shortly behind you. If you get way behind, they sort of slow down, you try not to hit everything in sight, and probably still don't catch up (depending on why you were so far behind in the first place). The presence of rubber-banding means there is no reason to distract them, just race, they'll catch up anyway. A reviewer on NFS MW had inquired something to the effect of, "why distract them? or hit log trucks? they just catch up anyway!" Apparently his 8 second lead wasn't worth much when they rubber-band over. This, I believe, also plays a role when playing against friends, I believe the cars were scaled to properly direct a similar outcome.

Overall - If you liked Underground 2, buy this, it's Underground 3. If you preferred MW, I'd wait a month for the price to drop another $10.

Personally, I have two theories why this game is the way it is:
1) Rockstar didn't make a Midnight Club sequel. Midnight club rules the road, NFS has the licensed car names, MW is a fusion of both, Carbon is what you get when EA has no one to copy off of.

2) No competition. Outside of Midnight club and NFS, most racing games are for the birds (unless you like the excitement of driving in circles, in which case you own NASCAR). I could only imagine the lack of quality reflects their opinion of your purchasing choices for racing games (by that I mean Carbon or nothing) and their value of us as customers. Honestly, I think they'd have been better off making an expansion for MW, which is what this feels like, but instead, they made it into half it's own game.

Backward evolution at its finest - Enjoy!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pretty Stinkin Good, May 3, 2007

By 

K. Born "BornK89" (Ohio) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Need for Speed Carbon (Video Game)

Before I get started, I do have to say that I know this game isn't flawless. The cars could be a little easier to attain, the career could be a little more long, the basic races could be a little more challenging, and the car customizations could have a few more options. However, the game overall was a great play. I had so much fun playing the career that I had a hard time ever putting the controller down. I also like the amount of options you have towards what kind of racing you want to do (i.e. career, quick race, etc.). I also thought that the graphics were pretty much amazing for the PS2. I really liked the music and actually have bought two CD's by artists featured on the game. I like the different classes and types of cars. Also, I found the "partner" racing style to be pretty fun (although at times ineffective). Canyon races are always fun, and I play the game all the time even though I've already beaten it. Also, I LIKE THE NIGHT RACING! If there was one thing I hated about Most Wanted, it was that you race in broad freakin daylight. I have to admit, you do have to be a Need for Speed fan to fully enjoy the game. If you don't like racing games, don't play it! But this is seriously a step up for the Need for Speed line.

2115|RZJAT0FPKLGGH;2115|RUCL36JRY4RV8;2115|R38YK7GI354XEZ;