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Need for Speed is back on the road

For the avid, hardcore racing fanatics and veterans of the Need for Speed series the departure from the 1994 realistic simulation of car handling and physics to a more arcade style racer didn’t go down too well, but since Need for Speed II the franchise has continued to grow and gain a new following of gamers that seek the thrill of high speed driving, frantic police chases, and in their latest game, Need for Speed Carbon, EA are hoping that the fan's enthusiasm extends to the increasingly popular drift racing.

After playing the demo, which is now available on the Xbox live marketplace, I wasn’t expecting much, the controls seemed flimsy and I was experiencing plenty of slowdown during the race sequences. The demo actually dates back from E3, and after playing Need for Speed Carbon at a press event last week, I found it difficult to understand why EA released such a poor demo when the version I played ran smoothly, looked great and the cars handled well.

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Need for Speed Carbon caters for two types of gamer. The sort who enjoys pimping and tweaking their ride in order to maximise their car’s performance or look or those who enjoy the fast and furious arcade-style thrill of the ride. If you fit into both categories you’re in for a treat because Need for Speed Carbon has an abundance of customisation options, lightning quick races and a number of new features that make it the pluckiest racer of the series so far.

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Need for Speed: Carbon features tuners, exotics and muscle cars. Each car has its own strengths and weaknesses and your first difficult choice will be to pick the car that best suits you. Tuners have a decent tyre grip and are excellent at navigating any tricky corners, exotics are known got their high speeds and muscles are renowned for their straight-line acceleration. I’ve tested out each of these car types and all drive with the correct characteristics, although racing purists may be put off with how easier each of them are to drive.

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