Customer Reviews

Need for Speed: Prostreet

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

Instead of improving on a great formula, EA decided to go in a whole new direction by making the latest Need For Speed politically correct. Gone are the races through the city streets and the chases by the police. Instead, what EA has given us is an uninspired track racing game with a racing announcer whose voice and repetitiveness begins to grate on one's nerve like fingernails on a chalkboard. I found myself bored after only an hour of play and eventually lost all interest in playing this game.
Everyone makes mistakes, and EA is no exception. Hopefully they will return to what works and the next Need For Speed installment will make us all forget about the nightmare known as Need For Speed Pro Street.

First of all, I'm not a gamer. I haven't owned a console since the Sega Genesis. I bought the PS3 because I wanted Blu-ray but needed protection from the format war. My wife wanted Guitar Hero, so we purchased the PS3. Since I've never played any other version of NFS, I had no opinion of the franchise before making this purchase.

My PS3 came with Motorstorm, and I really enjoyed playing that game. So my wife brought home NFS Pro Street thinking I would enjoy this as well. I played it for about an hour and it sat for the better part of two months before I picked it up again. The reason? It's painfully slow to play and I wasn't up for having to go through the process of tuning.

I rediscovered it a week ago and have given it more of the attention it needs. I have to say that I kind of enjoy the game. The cars are cool, there are a million different combinations of cars and setups to use in different types of racing (grip, drag, and slide). There are different modes for racing and online play is available. You get a lot of game here. There is enough here to keep you busy for quite a while.

Annoyances such as the announcer in career mode, and the slow, redundant processes that take place between the action ruin the experience. The fact that you can't exit a race day until you have dominated it without losing all your progress in that race day confuses me. Some race days have six or seven events. Have trouble with one of them and decide to quit, and you'll have to go through the trouble of going through every race again.

Overall, the game isn't bad. I have a feeling we'll be seeing this one in the bargain bin once GT5 comes out. Until then, if you're a racing fan and the idea of designing your own tuner to race interests you, then give the game a try. Just don't expect perfection.

As other reviewers have said, this edition of Need For Speed left the old formula behind. I miss it. There were stories built into the game. There was the free roaming. (This lack of free roam is annoying because when I want to check out a new car or new tuning after I leave the garage, I have to go to a race day. Just more wasted tim.)

Here ... just racing. And it's not exactly zippy. Every event requires a lot of loading, and apparently, even when I'm just practicing, a lot of saving. It becomes annoying, actually. Especially the announcers at the events that keep talking about you (Ryan Cooper).

But ... that aside, the racing itself is enjoyable, so if you don't have any bias for or against the old formula, this could be fun. I'm not big on tuning, but I've had to learn to work with it to make the cars do what I need them to do. If nothing else, it's something to kill time while waiting for GT5.

Hopefully, they'll return to what made NFS so much fun in the past with the next release.

Everyone seems to be hating on this new Need For Speed, but I think it's finally evolved into a real game, and I'm glad for it.

Reviewers complain about removing the free-roam segment of the game. Frankly, the free-roam was overrated to begin with. Half the time I just skipped to the events anyway. It also sponsored and glamorized illegal street-racing, and (contrary to the opinions of many of the poseurs that play video games) that's not a good thing. The last thing the streets need are a gang of unskilled, overenthusiastic children behind the wheel of their daddy's car causing accidents. EA probably realized this (thank God) and decided to take a different tack for this edition.

The gameplay itself is great, the drivability of the cars is significantly improved, tuning the car plays a *huge* role in the success of your ride (and the mechanisms for doing so are nicely put together and intuitive to understand). Improving the cars is simplified but thorough and satisfying. Steering and acceleration, all the game mechanics are great and actually better than previous versions. Overall, it's true that this game is more of a simulation than previous versions, but it's definitely *not* a Gran Turismo or a Forza. It's closer to Project Gotham in its pseudo-realism, but still keeps a street edge to it that PG4 hasn't got (and isn't missing cuz it's not that kind of game).

The menu system is a *little* rough - I understand what they were attempting, and I'm not sure they fully succeeded, but it's usable.

The graphics are stunning. It's true that the game lost a little bit of the previous versions' sense of speed - this time around they decided to take a more 'real' approach to things rather than the pseudo cartoony approach in previous NFS. The fact that you can wreck - and wreck badly - is a significant improvement over previous versions. Now you gotta be able to drive the car, not just ram through the boards careening off stuff.

Things that disappoint are the lack of tracks and the audio. The lack of tracks isn't *too* terrible a situation, because there's tons of variety within the tracks. Besides, it's a track game. Why bother with lots of crazy cityscapes and whatnot? The audio is unforgivable, though. The announcers are ridiculously annoying. Granted, they're actually somewhat realistic, but holy crap it makes me want to break something after an hour. And they love to say "Ryan Cooper" about 9.6 billion times. Aside from that, in-game audio is good enough with blow-offs and engine noises that are pretty immersive. Surround sound helps this a lot. And like pretty much every EA game, the soundtrack gets repetitive pretty quick.

Among the racers for the PS3, this is the one I'm personally most satisfied with. The next Gran Turismo will no doubt be a gorgeous addition with really good simulator-style gameplay, but I still believe that NFS:ProStreet will be my primary racing game for some time. This game is all about racing, not juvenile drama and getting chased by cops, and it will capture the attention (and appreciation) of most experienced street enthusiasts out there.

4 races into this game and I was bored, I did not feel like playing it anymore. Free roam is missing where I could have gone an be lawless for a bit until I felt like playing again. Customization is great best of the series to me but that's the only good thing it has going for it.

Ok, I just rented this game today just to give it a shot. I played the demo on the PS Store, found it rather bland. Therefore, I wanted to try the game just for kicks and giggles. Customization is fun, almost mind-boggling the different layers and colors you can lay on these cars. The cars look fantastic. The damage modeling superb (not as crazy as Burnout Paradise, but still fun to "feel" the effects and imperative nature of trying NOT to hit walls as it negatively effects your driving ablilities WHILE you race).

Career mode, even with the stupid menus, is amazingly dense and full of races. I played the game for a total of 2.5 hours maybe more, and I saw at the end of my session that I was only 3% through the career. AND that's AFTER I had beaten about three race days (roughly 15-20 individual races). Having to constantly upgrade your rides and tweak the effects of body parts to maximize your experience and performance is fun (especially the "wind tunnel" idea).

As a previous owner and fan of Carbon.. I really miss the Free-Roam ability to just drive for the fun of it around an expansive city. That I would say is my ONLY gripe with this game.

The Sounds are AMAZING. Especially if you have a decent speaker system setup to hear the roar of your NEW engine that you just modded into your "piece-of-junk" car. About 60 cars, numerous tracks, good soundtrack, and an ANNOYING announcer (seriously, its nice to make it sound "live" but please -- "*cough cough* excuse me folks, hold on.... uh, oh ok.. nice well ladies and gentlemen sorry I just had to grab my phone from ringing.." um, ok? Give me a break.)

All in all, a solid FOUR stars this game merits in my opinion. Doing away with the Free-Roam hurt the game.. People get a taste of freedom, then you take it away from them and bring back a menu-system.. You are going to have some angry fans, and HORRIBLE reviews.. as you, the reader, have already witnessed.. But seriously, if you haven't already, give the game a try.. if you enjoy cars at all, it is worth your time.

P.S. The Logitech Driving Force Pro wheel makes the game garner a "FIVE STAR" rating in my opinion just for being able to "feel" the tires grip the track as you race against and rub paint with your opponents. I'm off to buy one tomorrow to try it out with the game, and I'm sure I will not be disappointed.

Good -
Graphics, sound effects, crash damage & ability to "total" your ride.

Bad -
Complicated menus and settings induce anger and frustration. The graphic background resembling modern graffiti tags for boy racers is just stupid and confusing to the eye. No discernable difference between the 2 difficulty modes - Casual & Racer. Haven't tried the hardest yet, as I'm too bored with the game already. Car choices early in the game allow for cars in different leagues to race each other, giving one player a huge advantage. Why would anyone race a 2 ton supercharged Chevelle SS against a 2500 lb. 177hp Corolla, ever? Anywhere?? Dumb. Some would argue that having such a choice actually enhances the game, but limiting the choices to just 2 cars at that early stage defeats the purpose.

Overall, as others have posted, there's just no sense to this game. Other than some smack-talking from competitors after certain races, there's no believable storyline, and no motivation to try and finish all the levels. It's almost as if EA just rushed an unfinished product out the door. Too bad...

Need For Speed used to be one of the greatest racing series back in the day of the PSone, I could spend hours at a time with a single track. Fast forward to 2007 and the release of NFS ProStreet, there isn't a single enjoyable moment in this game. Sure it looks kinda pretty, except for the hundreds of in-game adds everywhere.
I give this game 1 star because of the fact that the game has been brought back to the outdoors and away from the cities, its such a breath of fresh air to be driving in the desert. The different modes are interesting for a few minutes until you play them for the umpteenth time, there is a constant feeling of deja vu about this game and i never felt as though this was a next generation installment of NFS.
This could have been any racing game, definitely not one worthy of the Need For Speed title.

Need for speed has been dependable for a long long time. Sure it was generic and we got one every year. This time, it took a big U turn. Every thing we liked in the past games are gone. Just after 15 min the game get so boring you will never touch the controller again. Probably it is a Wii port up. Cars looks good. Environment all look like a Wii/PS2 game. Stay with Carbon for now.

Need for Speed took a very different direction with this particular installment. There were no police chases, no city streets, and the cover for all of this (that Ryan Cooper is trying to go legit) is rubbed in your face at every race day. Does that make this a terrible game? No! It is however called, "Pro-Street" which should indicate that it isn't about canyon battles, outrunning the police, or re: later in the series - going undercover.

The mechanics of the game are fine, so long as you set yourself on King and do not use the assists. This is probably one of the best games to play with a steering wheel and foot pedals as opposed to the controller which can be very trying later in the game. This is a more finesse game than the previous, and it can be incredibly frustrating at first when your stage one car responds exactly like one should. That doesn't take away from the game; it just pisses you off, which should be a motivating factor in a competitive game.

The story isn't really there, but let's face it these games were never huge on plot. They're mostly about fast cars, fast tracks, and hard turns. I loved many of the different events and I enjoyed trying to dominate and squeeze out that slightly higher score to break records on tracks. There were also entire events that I despised and couldn't wait to be through, that made me want to scream and tear out my hair or better yet throw my controller at the television.

In comparison to the other games in the series thus far and those that came after it, this isn't one of the best but it certainly isn't one of the worst. It's a "middle" game and shows that they were attempting to take a more family friendly approach, or possibly got some heat (judging by the disclaimer at the beginning of the game about not street racing) that they were trying to make up for. Still, it's a must have in the series.

Pro: Plays like a car should, they suck at stage one and they're ridiculous at stage three without proper tuning. Great game for a wheel (many games are painful if you use one ala Dirt). Wonderful party game that you can walk away from and check the grill without missing anything.

Con: Poor plot, huge step away from the actual progression of the series, handicaps do more harm than good for new players.