Friday, January 26, 2007

Need for Speed 4 - High Stakes



The biggest feature added to the game is car damage, which we’ve all been crying for since the inception of this fine arcade racing series. I’m happy to say that on this count, the game benefits greatly from damage modeling. All cars have ratings for body, engine, suspension, and handling. Too many bumps, scrapes, and crashes will bring those ratings down. At first, the damage is subtle, but once you start racking up the collisions, you’ll see the car’s body start to warp, the windshield and windows break, and the engine start to smoke. Tires will be off kilter, and you’ll notice the performance of your car suffering commensurately. There is no way to fix your car during a race, so you are in a bind should the damage be extensive. There is a status window on the top right corner of your screen, though, so you can monitor your damage and respond accordingly. You might want to be less reckless if you see the red damage-indicator bar overtaking the blue status bar. For Need for Speed purists who don’t want to play with damage, this option can be toggled off.
Part 1
part 2
Patch

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