 |
|
Jan 28th, 2008 at 13:45:14 - Need For Speed-Most Wanted (PC) |
GAMELOG ENTRY#2
As I was racing through the game, after crossing few levels, the game started to become complex and demanded more concentration. I was in need of some relaxation, a kind of small break when I discovered this special feature to roam around the city. Yes, this came as a surprise package to me. I could roam in the city and buy upgrades for my car. I could also challenge local racers for a small practice session. This also helped me have social interaction with the bay standers. I realized that there are lots of things to explore in this game other than the race itself.
Game play:
My second session in the game started with selecting a proper customized car for me. I have 3 broad options of cars to choose from; Muscle car (used for more acceleration), Tuned car or exotic cars. I also upgraded my car’s graphics by using various vinyl stickers, enhancing its looks. This is really a cool feature and gives certain level of flexibility to players to put his creative skills to work. There are various types of races involved like drift, mountain drift, drag, circuit, single lap and time limit races.
As I proceeded through the levels, I got lots of upgrades as reward but handling upgrades are the ones which were really powerful. High end suspensions, turbo chargers and nitride boosters are just few to name. Once a player reaches 13th level of the game and compete with the 3rd ranked racer, special cops are incorporated in the game. Player needs to develop very strong controls to escape these cops. I must say there is a great flow of storyline throughout the game webbing one level to the other. The designer has definitely blended a sports game with storyline to create more thrill and adventure into it. The thrill I got to drive those high performance cars with changeable vinyl graphics is unmatched.
The police chase is made very realistic by the use of special sound and light effects. There are several levels of police chase: general police chase, under cover chase, cops with SUVs and even helicopters. The final levels of the game are really tough and sometimes frustrating. At the end there are 60 police cars, 10 SUVs, 2 helicopters and the special cop Alex Cross to chase this one player. Then there are spiked strips on the road to escape from. Since I was using manual control, I felt that I really developed a lot over my control skills and I could now take sharp turns even at a high speed of 40 mph.
Design:
Whenever there is a coalition between 2 cars or the car with the building, the effects are superb. Great use of physics engine I guess. And these coalition or big jumps of the car are shown in slow motion with various camera angles to create a nice special effect. The navigation bar and speedometers are perfectly placed ergonomically to give the player the exact feel of driving an actual racing car. Even for the game I am designing now, I plan to put the scorecard in a similar fashion, so that it is easily visible/accessible without actually distracting the player from the game scene.
One of the faults in design which I would have liked to change in the game is related to the selection of cars. If you select a normal car/tuned car and upgrade it to its best, still it cannot perform as good as even a half upgraded exotic car. So this becomes really frustrating if someone choose a tuned car in the first place.
This high end graphic game requires good graphic card. Radeon cards, nvidia or geforce card are must to see this game run smoothly in its full gloss.
As a summary I can conclude that this is really a fun game and can be compared to test drive 6. It has amazing shadow effect which I admired the most, though I didn’t like the concept for some social issues.
read comments (1)  - add a comment  - read this GameLog  |
|
Jan 28th, 2008 at 11:27:23 - Need For Speed-Most Wanted (PC) |
GAMELOG ENTRY#1
Storyline:
In this version of NFS, the story begins with a racer (you/player) entering a city Rockford. The player’s goal is to defeat all the existing top 15 notorious racers of the city to become the most wanted .He needs to go step by step and defeat the 15th ranked racer before he can go further to challenge the 14th.the player needs to accumulate race wins and bounty points to go to the next level and challenge the next racer. While competing with these notorious racers, he also needs to escape from cops.
Game play:
So just after the intro cut scene (which is really well designed and streamlined) the player is ready to go in the game. I must admit the game is designed in a very realistic manner. You just cannot challenge any of the top 15 notorious racers but you need to 1st defeat some of the local racers and earn some reputation before you can get in contact of these back listed racers.
The major car controls are acceleration, brakes and handling. The levels are embedded into the story in such a way that, one never gets distracted from the game or its goal for example, If you succeed to defeat the 15th ranked racer you move ahead to challenge the 14th ranked racer which is the next level of the game. Each level will challenge you with more competition and also you will get upgraded cars to accept those challenges. You need to score points to get better cars unlocked. I think this idea to have a better car as reward is very tempting to the players.
Design:
The main character of the game is the player/you. Razor is the ranked one, notorious car racer. He is being given a stud look with lot of attitude to suite his numero uno position. Alex Cross is the chief sergeant whom the player always needs to escape. Sergeant Cross is very aggressive and hates the lawbreakers. Mia is a sensual young lady who helps the player with tips to win the races. All these characters together make the NFS-MW a realistic story.
This game has a very good narrative progression which is created by using high quality story based cut scenes. Very high end graphics is used with lot of pixel shading effect. One of the special effect which is used for the 1st time in a NFS games is the high gloss reflection. This effect indulges the players totally into the game. This effect throws a glossy reflection on the players face giving him a feel that he is actually facing those places in real. Though due to this glossy effect, longer tenure of play strains eyes a lot. Thanks to the damage control option for car, it’s practically impossible to win the race keeping the damage option switched on and would have made the game frustrating. The major concentration is given to car details and the roads/pathways. Customizations of cars are one of the most interesting parts of the game. The music scores are too good throughout and it gets a sudden boost whenever the player is chased by the cops.
There has been controversy with the game because of the crude elements in the game. You are able to kill cops and destroy public properties all over this game. You can break the law as many times as you would like in this game and get away with it, which is by no means realistic. I personally believe that this game may have some negative vibes in the society. Nonetheless, this Xbox game is fun because of its good and simple storyline.
add a comment - read this GameLog |
|
|
 |
| speed_master's GameLogs |
|
speed_master has been with GameLog for 16 years, 2 months, and 23 days |
view feed xml
|
| Entries written to date: 2 |
|
