XBox Solution

EA’s racing series Need for Speed has seen a lot of changes since the first one hit store shelves. The first few games were all about exotic cars and high speed races. Over the years the story has changed, but the attitude has been the same. For the most part it’s about speed and street racing. Underground took us though the tuner series for two games and while fun, it took a step back from what the series used to offer.

When Most Wanted hit, it was a perfect blend of the Hot Pursuit title and the tuning of cars gamers were now used to. It also offered a great single-player story mode and many thought this was the best of the series. Carbon tried to add to the success of Most Wanted. While decent, it just didn’t offer the same excitement. Jason and I both enjoy the series and when Chris got the chance to interview the team for this game, we knew big changes were going to be made. It also seemed like the team was asked to create more than one title for the series. While we have not confirmed this, it sure seems that the series has been broken up. Read the full review of Need for Speed ProStreet to find out why this may not be such a great idea.

Gameplay

ProStreet is a huge departure from Most Wanted and Carbon. Gone are the cop chases and the free roaming element. In fact Pro Street is all about Legal Street racing on closed courses. Even though I knew this was the angle of the game when I started to play it, I was asking myself “where are the cops?” and “why am I on a closed course?” It will take awhile for fans of the series to adjust to this especially if they liked Hot Pursuit or the last two games. The game just looses something when no cops are there to chase you. The closed courses are a really huge change from what I was used to.

The cops are gone and so are racing on real streets with traffic. Instead the story is about a young racer named Ryan Cooper. He is on the circuit trying to build his reputation up as a real street racer. To be honest, that is as deep as the story gets except for the fact he is called out by another racer. So the story isn’t deep and now racing is done on closed courses. It’s sort of like they took the last underground and took the scoring from the drift and drag and added that to Pro Street. You earn points for wins and cash so you can buy parts and upgrade your cars. They added the drag races but they also added a new aspect where you need to burn rubber before the drag. Burning at the right level will and grip to your car and increase speed. It’s fun but feels too much like a mini-game thrown in for the sake of adding something more.

You’ll go to a ton of race day events which will feature drifting, drag and grip races. The drifting has been revamped and is better than the events found in the Underground series. As Cooper gets up in rank, he can than go after Ryo’s records. Ryo is the guy who called him out and insulted him. It’s an alright concept, but it will take a long time to even reach one of Ryo’s records. Perhaps I was spoiled by Hot Pursuit and Most Wanted, but I liked the cop chases. Without that element ProStreet seems a bit bare and a little boring. Even with the new damage effects, it just doesn’t have that same fun-factor.

ProStreet does have some good things. I like the domination angle trying to win as many events as possible. It has so many events and the tracks change, but you know the tracks are just extended or new turns added. There is no surprise element. Gamers will also notice a great deal of advertising in the game. They went a little overboard and it will get on some gamers nerves. Overall the single player mode is okay, but it’s missing something the other games had and that’s excitement.

Control

The controls are tight and solid. You can choose to use manual or automatic transmission. Although in drag races you will need to shift. I would recommend trying the races with a manual transmission. I think the controls are well suited for the game although I still don’t get the whole burnout mode or heating up the tires before a drag race. In real life I understand this and know why it’s done, but in the game it feels like a gimmick. No real complaints in the controls of the game.

Xbox Live

ProStreet offers a better online mode than past games in the series, but it’s still more of the same races just now with real opponents. I will say EA tried to offer a few new things to the online mode and have listened to a point at what gamers were asking for with the online modes. The fact you can create a race day event and have others use it is cool. There were issues with lag and some slowdown online. They have been trying to fix this. The last time I played online it seemed better. The navigation online takes time to get used to, but also offers some cool options. I will say the online mode in not just who knows the track the best anymore. While EA is trying to build a solid online mode for NFS, I think the legal racing angle makes this difficult. At least it shows improvement over the past few games.

Graphics

The crashes and damage look more realistic and add something to the game. I was a bit surprised the game didn’t really standout and at times looks rather bland and to be honest dull. The cars look okay and the courses are decent, but they need to add something to make the game really stand out.

Audio

The race day announcers are awful. I am not sure if this was something EA wanted or not but they sound either untrained or tried too hard to be convincing. The tire sounds and race sounds are okay but like the graphics the game is missing that special thing to make it stand out.

Replay Value

Need for Speed ProStreet has plenty of events and options to make the replay value high. The problem is the lack of an interesting story or angle to keep gamers wanting to play. They added a ton of events and that’s great. I just think most will play for a while then move on. It really doesn’t have that addictive gameplay Most Wanted or Hot Pursuit offered.

Bottom Line

Overall Score: 6.5/10.0

Additional Comments

I see what EA is trying to do and they pulled it off in a decent way. It needs something added though. When you take out two main things of a game, it’s going to need something huge to balance the gameplay out. As it is now, it’s enjoyable for a while but needs something else added to keep gamers attention for longer periods of time.

Links

• Need for Speed ProStreet Official Website

You may be interested in these articles as well:

• EA Shifts Gears With Need for Speed ProStreet
• Xbox Live Need for Speed ProStreet Race Weekend Details
• Need For Speed Underground 2 Xbox Review
• Need for Speed ProStreet’s Energizer Lithium Race Day Event May 2-4
• Need For Speed ProSteet Interview
• Need for Speed: Undercover Hits North America Stores November 18th
• EA’s Need for Speed Most Wanted Races onto Mobile
• Need for Speed: Undercover Announced
• Need For Speed Most Wanted Xbox 360 Review
• Need For Speed Most Wanted Details and First Screen