Need For Speed Underground 2  Review for Playstation 2

Friday, July 28, 2006

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Title: Need For Speed Underground 2 .............................................. System: Playstation 2 .............................................. Genre: Racing .............................................. Publisher: Electronic Arts .............................................. Developer: EA Canada .............................................. Release: November 15th, 2004 .............................................. Online: Yes .............................................. ESRB: .............................................. As being in the import scene myself for sometime (check out my ex-ride), I was very excited when I first heard that Electronic Arts was going all out for the new Need for Speed series… so you can only imagine how stoked I was to learn that they were working on a sequel to Underground. Trust me – I was pretty excited. It’s been a long wait, but now the wait is over and the newest addition to the Need for Speed family is safely spinning in my Xbox... a good place for it if I say so myself! So with out further ado, let’s jump into Xbox Core’s official word on Need for Speed Underground 2 – sarcastically narrated by yours truly. Gameplay Underground 2’s gameplay now is based on the popular free-roaming world concept – made famous by the Grand Theft Auto series… that is awesome in my opinion. It gives you a lot more control with how you play the game. Littered through the fictional city of Bayview is a multitude of streets and highways that lead you to a slew of hot racing competitions. These can range anywhere from your common drag race, to intense downhill drift competitions. This road network connects the entire city of Bayview, a metropolis divided into five unique neighborhoods that are bustling with traffic & real life stores & businesses such as Best Buy, Burger King & more. Talk about in game advertising! The virtual city of Bayview is seriously big… with a capital B. All of the areas in the game are distinct with their own character and colors, giving you a different feeling with each street you turn down - from the glitzy shimmering lights of downtown to the cracked streets & rugged rundown warehouses of the city's port. You can squeeze through side streets with your boost engaged or haul some serious ass down the freeway to get to your destination. Either way, there's a lot to see during this one unforgettable journey. You'll definitely be discovering many shops that cater to your auto-tuning needs. Just like in the first Underground that E.A. Games blessed us with last year, you can shape your ride into one sweet vehicle by adding all types of licensed products, enhancing both the beauty & the beast in your machine. Electronic Arts figured – why only dub what we’ve done before if we could just make things better? That’s what Electronic Arts’ Canada team did. They’ve included a huge variety of new additions including different door and hood types, customized trunk spaces with audio accoutrements, spinner wheels, hydraulics & airbags and about twice as much of the old stuff. Can’t say no to that! As far as controls go... everything is much the same as the original... I mean hey, why fix what ain't broke, right? Putting all of the aesthetics aside, NFSU2 certainly maps out a challenging and crazy fun road course. Whenever you choose, you can pick and choose from a host of competitions that test your driving skills & reliability of your tuned ride. Past favorite drag racing serves up longer courses, while a variation on drifting takes you down a hill skidding as you try to avoid the almost unavoidable cars. I think it is the new modes E.A. added that really give NFSU2 its renowned street-creds. In the new ingenious outrun mode, your optic is to elude another racer until you've put enough distance between each other, this mode is kind of similar to the likes of Tokyo Extreme... if you are any kind of import racer fan, you should know exactly what I mean. The StreetX tournament a new unique mode, which is my personal favorite… definitely fast and addicting! Graphics This game is absolutely gorgeous; it sports some fantastic car models, dynamic lighting and very believable real-time weather effects (which change on occasion). Though some of the details in the scenery are distinctively low-poly like the regular street traffic & spectators, the E.A. team has used a few very clever tricks to make sure that everything that's in your focus while driving looks downright beautiful. The Xbox version is definitely superior to it’s Playstation 2 & GameCube little sisters. Sound No other racing game soundtrack comes even close to touching Underground 2s (besides the hardcore & punk mix on Burnout 3… one of my favorites). The choice of in-game tunes perfectly complements this game's urban culture theme – with a mix of a little rock & techno to change things up a bit at times. Your car's spinning tires, echoing blow off valve, whirling turbo & the rain hitting your windshield at high speeds really sets this game’s sound rating high above the rest of the marks. Very nice, however custom soundtracks would have been a welcomed feature (the only thing keeping this aspect from a perfect 10). Overall Overall, Need for Speed Underground 2 is an outstanding sequel on all four cylinders. It offers a lot of new and extremely fun features that should keep tuners of all walks of life busy for days on end – this game is not perfect – however what game is? I easily nominate this game for racing game of the year. All racing fans absolutely MUST experience Underground this time around - it's the only thing keeping me sane until I get back into the "scene" myself! Need for Speed Underground 2 is a definite must buy... for anyone.   The Core Score Overall 9.3 Fun 10 Gameplay 9.5 Graphics 9 Audio 9 Replay 10   How we score games