There's quite a lot been going on around the upcoming Need for Speed sequel: NFS Underground.
> First of all we have 3 new screenshots available for you in our screenshots section.
> EA updated their official Need for Speed website - they added NFSU PC, PS2 and Gamecube sections. Also check out the official site here.
> IGN posted an article about NFS Underground. You can read it here.
> EAGames posted their first impression about NFSU from E3. You can read the impression in the comments under this news post, or visit this.
> Gamer's Pulse also wrote an E3 preview. Read it here.
NFS Underground news
First Look: Need for Speed Underground
By: The Editor at EAGAMES.com
On the first day of E3 the EA booth was loud and in charge of the Los Angeles Convention Center’s South Hall.
A majority of the games we’re showcasing here were playable by all booth attendees but only a few were able to witness the next Need for Speed behind closed doors. Need for Speed Underground, while still based on the engine behind Hot Pursuit 2 engine, looks absolutely amazing and while we can’t show you a movie of game we saw (we’re working on that though), we can give you an idea of what we experienced.
The Need for More Speed
The demo featured a heavily modified car tearing down the streets of a sprawling urban concrete jungle at 160-180mph. And while other racing games have featured racing in downtown scenes, Need for Speed Underground was built to showcase a sense of neck breaking speed. That sense of speed was completely planned as the team added designer Habib Zaragarpour, best known as the guy at ILM who created pod-racing scene in Star Wars Episode 1, to turn that goal into a reality. Right now, the game is only 25% complete but you’d never know it by seeing it run on a PlayStation 2. We were shown a night scene after a rainstorm; puddles reflected the lights of the avenue, as did the highly reflective sports car. The details are nice but Need for Speed Underground completely changes with acceleration. Streetlights, lampposts and anything else on the sides of the road take on a blurred high-speed feel as your focus narrows on the road as your speedometer climbs ever faster. It’s a great effect and after talking to a few show attendees, they can't wait to race the dark streets of Underground.
Different Wheels, Different Rides
The biggest change to the next Need for Speed is that it won’t feature the exotic cars from Ferrari, Lamborghini, and McLaren. Need for Speed Underground will instead feature "urban exotics", basically down to earth sports cars that anyone can buy and resculpt into their vision of perfection. Drivers can expect the latest wheels from the likes of Subaru, Toyota, and others major manufacturers. Undoubtedly, switching from exotics to urban exotics is a controversial decision that some purists may not enjoy. But the Need for Speed team says that it has not abandoned exotics for "urban exotics" and expects that future products will feature exotics once again.
Once racers have their wheels, they can start street racing for fast profits and all the best parts. Those parts will change the look of the car and how that car will handle. In many other racing games, you’re given a few options that change the suspension and the tires but in Need for Speed Underground, you’ll be able to change specific parts for just about anything. Change the hood, change the wheels, change the bumpers, ad some decals, tricks out the ground effects… this will make for an amazing amount of variation. Those parts will also change the way your car handles and the physics engine has been beefed up to better reflect those changes. In the real-time demo that we saw, our tricked out car spun our in an attempt to do a powerslide and we watched as the car lurched a little as the suspension kept the car in on the road. It’s an amazing effect that you just have to see.
Got Wheels?
With all the details, we had to ask who on staff had the most tricked out car and it appears that one of the artists easily wins that award. But since they began the project, there have been a few converts as the team considers possible upgrades for their favorite wheels.
For now, gamers will have to wait until early next year to experience Need for Speed Underground, but stay tuned to EAGAMES.com and needforspeed.com for more information about this upcoming game.
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SuperRacer
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