Need for Speed Underground (PS2) Electronic Arts ( 21 November, 2003 ) Video Games Our Price : £ 29.99 List Price : £ 39.99 You save £10 (25% off) Prices subject to change. usually dispatched within 24 hours.

Fantastic, amazing, brilliant, superb.....

This is the No. 1 racing game for the PC, in my opinion and the best Need for Speed game in the entire series. There are so many different visual and performance upgrades to add to your car that its playability value is pretty much limitless. The graphics are lovely and the game is obviously modelled on 2 Fast 2 Furious. However, this is a major plus! All racing is done at night (do not let this put you off because the atmosphere and exhilaration would not work if it was set during the day). The only minor (and I mean VERY minor) criticism is that I would have liked to see a few more non-Japanese cars in the game, since only 4 cars are not Japanese (Ford, Dodge, Peugeot and VW). Perhaps if they had added 10 European and American cars and 10 Japanese it would have been that little bit better. However, do not let this worry you, BUY the game as soon as possible!

Insane racing that keeps you hooked

The hype around this game was unreal, so much so that I just had to give it a try. The bare bones of this game is street racing at night in highly-modified cars. As you win you get cash to upgrade your car. Simple. At the start of the game, pick your car from a choice of about 6. You dont have enough money to modify so it starts out as standard. Enter the Underground where you must race through approx. 111 different challanges to complete the game. These challanges range from: racing around a circuit over so many laps, race from A to B, drag racing (straight-line, short-shifting race a la Fast & Furious), drifting (basically points for sliding around a track sideways), knockouts (last one around each lap is out) and tournaments (points for positions). The variety of race is definately there: circuits one minute, then drifting the next. As you get cash you purchase mods for your car. Ranging from performance: turbos, ECU, drivetrain, tyres, suspension, brakes, engine, nitrous and so on, to visual: spoilers, valances, alloys, paint jobs, vinyls, neons, exhausts, side skirts, etc. Or even trade in for a new car when youre fed up of this one. Theres plenty to keep you interested out-of-race, but what about when youre foots on the pedal? The graphics are very good, colourful, and smooth (except right at the start of the race it tends to slow down a tad). The speeds you travel at are insane - so much so that sometimes you find yourself rounding a corner at about 100mph (usually necessary to avoid losing) and going straight into the front of a lorry that you had no chance of avoiding. This is why I rated the game 4/5 not 5/5. The frustration factor sometimes gets quite high - you find yourself doing the same race over and over again because one small crash puts you from first place to last place. Thankfully you have the option to choose the difficulty level (easy, medium, hard) at the start of each race, with your cash reward being adjusted accordingly. All in all this game is fast-paced, looks good, sounds great, and has plenty to keep you hooked, even when you are losing your temper (like me!)

Highly polished and goes like a rocket!

The need for speed series has been progressively getting better and better. After last years hit NFS: hot pursuit 2 a completely different type of racing has been focused on. Before it was flash high performance sports cars from the likes of ferrari and lamborghini. Now your task is to obtain an everyday car, for example a volkswagen golf and to win races on underground mode in order to obtain money so that visual or performance related upgrades can be purchased. Eventually you unlock faster cars such as the toyota supra or mazda rx-7 by competeing in drift, circuit or sprint modes. The best however is drag racing due to the incredibly high sense of speed and choas as you change gears manually whilst avoiding hazards such as traffic or barriers. I rate underground very highly due to the glitzy, highly polished graphics however the soundtrack isnt to everyones tastes as it is mostly hip hop, also the main mode could have been longer. Overall i think its a great game and is well worthy of been bought.