Need for Speed: Carbon Review

Adverts on the tele, the weather taking a dive, Need for Speed on the shop shelves; it seems that Christmas is well and truly on the way. Frequenting the Christmas No.1 or the Runner-Up spot in the last three years, it seems that there's nothing more that UK gamers enjoy than a bout of Need for Speed after Christmas dinner. Having struck upon such a formula the release of the latest in the illustrious series, Need for Speed: Carbon, should surely match the seasonal cheer that its predecessors have enjoyed.

Taking the illegal street racing theme prevalent throughout the series, Need for Speed: Carbon promises to increase the excitement by taking the action to the canyons; as the game's motto declares "What starts in the city, ends in the canyon" - it's just a shame that the end, wherever it occurs, appears a little too quickly.

Assuming the role of an unnamed character with a past in the City of Palmont, NFS: Carbon follows a storyline loosely tied to last year's NFS: Most Wanted, with the appearance of Sergeant Cross providing some sense of continuity. No longer under the employment of Rockport's Police Department, Cross is now working as a bounty hunter with a price on the player's head. Canadian actress Emmanuelle Vaugier (Saw II) provides the character female interest this time around, in a storyline that concerns the player's previous history in the town and the reasons behind his abrupt departure.

Given the formulaic release pattern of the Need for Speed series it would be easy to criticise EA for a lack of creativity (something that's never going to seem surprising); however, that's something that would be hard to argue given the sprinkling of new ideas and concepts to be found in this year's title.

Unsurprisingly the player finds himself at the bottom to begin with and must move his way up the chain; only this time around there's no Blacklist, but the City of Palmont itself, divided into different territories, each owned by one of the four rival gangs. With each particular area of the city broken down into different territories, each of which contain a selection of challenges to complete on the racing track. Typically there are three challenges to a territory, with five territories to a region; gaining victory in at least two of the challenges is often enough to own the territory, until you've gained control of the entire region and ready to challenge the gang's leader to a race.

Consisting firstly of a race in the streets of Palmont, Carbon's name-provoking feature revolves around the final challenge being a two-stage race down the surrounding canyons. The first race requires you to play catch-up, chasing after the opponent in an attempt to squeeze the gap between you as small as possible by the finish; whilst the second swaps the roles around, as you attempt to get as much distance as possible. Overtaking results in an immediate victory and falling off the cliff brings obvious consequences. Allegedly inspired by the daredevils of Carbon Canyon, California (the title took a lot of imagination), It's a shame that Carbon fails to match the exhilaration of what you'd hope the actual sport of canyon racing to evoke. Admittedly without a driver's license it's hard to say exactly what this would be like in the real world, but then again that's exactly why I play videogames, who wants the risk of hurtling off a cliff when you can match the fun on your HD TV with 5.1 sound - the only problem is Carbon does fail to match the fun that I'd expect from it. Racing down narrow canyons should have been an edge-of-your-seats experience, particularly on the Xbox 360, but it's rarely anything different to what we've already seen and played before. The biggest problem is that it fails to convey the majestic finale that it seems EA were trying to achieve. It may be tough to convey the actual fear and excitement of doing something as ludicrous as hurtling down cliff edges at 100mph+ in the real world, but that doesn't excuse Carbon Racing in NFS: Carbon feeling a little flat for a series that has always been about excesses and ultimately a novelty addition to the series core gameplay.

Back onto the streets of Palmont, Need for Speed: Carbon plays as you'd expect, with the basics remaining essentially the same. What could be labelled as unremarkable and unrefined (and a lot of other words beginning with â??Un'), is an easily accessible handling system that portrays the player driving at immense speeds very well. EA has made some suggestions about a reworked physics system to distinguish the Muscle, Tuner and Export classes more effectively; but, because the handling lacks overall refinement and feels closer to ice-racing at times, these differences appear to affect seldom more then the turning arcs and crucial stats of the vehicle. The slow-mo feature introduced in Most Wanted makes a welcome return, providing the chance to make amends for a missed turn or performing a dramatic 180 to ditch the pursuing cops.

Standard Sprint, Speedtrap, Circuit and Checkpoint game types are joined by Drift and Race Wars. Returning to the series after a brief departure in Most Wanted, drifting needs little explanation; other then it being a shadow of the seminal Cone Challenge featured in the Project Gotham Racing series. Race Wars on the other hand intensifies the experience, ramping up the total amount of competitors to 20 in a fierce

Central to this year's title is the introduction of Crews, comprising of different drivers with varying skills that you can draw upon to assist in a race. Beginning with an unlikely group of misfits, hiring and firing as you progress through the game, drivers are grouped into three different classifications: Blocker, Scout and Drifter. As the title suggests, it's the Blocker that must slam into your opponents on the circuit when called to do so; the Scout indicates hidden shortcuts on the track, guiding you with the fluorescent trail of their lights; finally, the Drifter allows you to drop in behind them, trailing in their slipstream until you catapult past them with accelerated speed. A gauge restricts how often you can call upon their assistance, . Although it seems a tad too gimmicky, the concept does work as a gameplay feature and the constant chatter adds to the dramatic atmosphere that the Need for Speed series consistently achieves.

One of the game's biggest issues is the size, or the lack of it. Although the game encourages you to explore the free-roaming, open world of Palmont, the new territory structure does the opposite and instinctively encourages you to emerge victorious from all the different races and take over the town. If you do play like this, then it's entirely possible to stroll through Need for Speed: Carbon in a day's session, with only the latter chapter providing any real difficulties. Because the races are enjoyable and the structure of the game more engrossing then before, it seems there's little incentive in the open world to pull you away from the main structure; occasionally you'll pay a visit to the Safe House to check out a new car or some new parts - but asides from this, there's little worth exploring the admittedly well designed districts of Palmont. Skipping the free roam will also downplay one of the series characteristic features, the City of Palmont Police. Committing an offence in the view of the police and generating too much Heat in a territory or on a particular car, will quickly find the cops on your trail, escalating in full-scale pursuits that have become a firm favourite of the series. When such pursuits actually occur, Carbon gets things right with lengthy chases involving dozens of cop cars; thousands of dollars in damage and tend to take quite awhile to shake them off and enter the cool down period. With constant chatter and increasingly higher odds against you, missing out on Pursuits is a good enough reason to drive forget about the conquest of Palmont and enjoy some free roaming.

Featuring a line-up of vehicles from manufacturers including Chevrolet, Dodge, Lamborghini and Mitsubishi, together with an assortment of performance and after-market parts, Need for Speed: Carbon introduces the AutoSculpt feature - an achievement of such grand stature, to be defined "The New Face of Customisation". With a considerable degree of control over a limited amount of changeable aspects, regarding size, shape and angle, AutoSculpt provides a sufficient array of options to leave your own unique touch on the car's design. Exactly how detailed EA's simulation of the effect that performance parts have on a car's performance is questionable, but if you're into choosing vinyls, adjusting the angles of the rims or tuning performance parts then Carbon has what you need - naturally it's no Gran Turismo, but it is heavy on the customisation.