Need For Speed: High Stakes

by Electronic Arts

Product Features

• 18 incredible dream cars to drive, collect and customize.
• Real road racing on British, German, French and American roads complete with local police.
• Customize your cars for maximum performance and style.
• New real car damage that affects both looks and performance of your car.
• Stunning fully 3D cockpits puts you in driver's seat like never before.

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00000K2Y6
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: June 1, 1999
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (43 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #23,966 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Platform: PC | Edition: Standard

Amazon.com Review

Electronic Arts' Need for Speed series continues to lead the exotic car-racing pack in its latest incarnation, Need for Speed: High Stakes. Though graphically similar to the previous version (Need for Speed III), High Stakes innovates with new race tracks, visible car damage, and a career mode that should please racing fans.

Diverse play modes separate Need for Speed: High Stakes from standard driving computer games. Though single races and tournaments across several tracks are readily available, players can also participate in the inventive Hot Pursuit mode, where you flee from police or try to catch speeders, as well as a career game.

In the career game, drivers begin with enough cash to buy a low-end sports car. Prize money earned in races can be spent on repairs, performance upgrades, or a hotter car. High Stakes contains over twenty exotic cars, including the BMW Z3, Lamborghini Diablo SV, Porsche 911 Turbo, and Ferrari F50. Additional dream machines are available at Electronic Arts' Web site. If you don't have the patience to save up for a new car, you can choose the ultimate high stakes race: winner takes all, including the opponent's car.

With cutting-edge graphics and sound, Need for Speed: High Stakes reigns as the current leader in arcade racing. Whether you're a NFS veteran or new to the series, Need for Speed: High Stakes's polished gameplay, sleek design, and plentiful play options should keep you on the open road for quite awhile. --Doug Radcliffe

Pros:

• Incredible graphics and lightning-fast engine provide true sense of speed
• New career mode offers role-playing-like experience
• Additional cars and tracks can be downloaded from Electronic Arts
• Damage modeling lets you bang up that beautiful Lamborghini

Cons:

• Not a revolutionary upgrade to Need for Speed III

Product Description

18 Realistic Courses. Take the Uliimate high stake challenges. Deep Career play with full economy - earn money to repair and upgrade your ride. Race to your own music.

See all Product Description

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a racing game miles ahead of the pack, November 16, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Need For Speed: High Stakes (CD-ROM)

before the need for speed series, i wasn't a fan of computer racing games. after getting nfs 3 i became a fan big time. need for speed 4: high stakes takes the title further into greatness by improving already amazing graphics. in fact, if you're not careful, you'll crash 'cause you'll be more focused on the scenery than the road ahead of you. try playing with the weather effects on for an even more beautiful game. the music and general sound effects are great too. controls are as easy as using the arrrow keys. the number of available cars is great, but some aren't available until your beat certain courses (same goes for some levels). you can't go wrong with this one, and if you have a home lan, you'll love the multiplayer option (which works over the internet as well).

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars NFS HS : In a class by itself, December 29, 1999

By 

"my1vice" (Vermont) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Need For Speed: High Stakes (CD-ROM)

As an avid driving sim gamer, I love the NFS series. The latest in this series, High Stakes, has great tracks, good special effects, and a killer Hot Pursuit mode that lets you chase or be chased. But, I have to say, the cars could look better. I guess I have been spoiled by Need for Speed 3. Don't get me wrong, any of the NFS games are better than any sim out there, but I still find myself playing NFS3 more than this one.

As with 3, you can download cars, or even build your own! And a great plus about High Stakes is that all the tracks that are in 3, are in this game. All in all, it's still a must have!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A bargain in my opinion, March 14, 2000

By 

Richard A. Rossi (Duluth, MN United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Need For Speed: High Stakes (CD-ROM)

I don't know what the problem is for the other people. I have a 266 Mhz PII w/64 Megs of RAM and a Voodoo 2 12 MB graphics card. The thing runs great. The framerates are excellent at 640x480. If I run it in 1024X768 then it gets choppy if it is raining or snowing. Nothing new there. Too much oversteer on the cars? I don't think so. I have slid my real car on dry pavement and it's about the same. ('98 Contour ... (0.82 G skidpad)) I personally think the game kicks some butt. I think that there is a hardware compatibility problem for the other people. You need the most up to date glide drivers you can get. Just an opinion. By the way, I have NFS1,2, and 3, so this is old news for me. You have to have a proportional input device for steering or you will do very poor, however, you can use the keyboard for the accelerator. (you just have to be more careful, because it's either on or off)

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