Need for Speed ProStreet Review (Xbox 360) part 2

As many fans of Underground had hoped, Need for Speed ProStreet is a tweaker’s gooey dream, for sure. But the spot-on car customization is surprisingly matched by the level of intricacy worked into the new physics and handling system. We’re not talking Forza here, but Need for Speed ProStreet

can now be made more realistic with the ability to change the level of CPU assist. There are three levels of difficulty, with the easiest being very similar to the past Underground games. The King level is still not a true lesson in racing, but it does make it more difficult without braking help and with the absence of line markers. A manual clutch (good for inducing drifts) and car damage that affects performance adds additional difficulty, as does the Most Wanted style competitor A.I. which can be downright brutal on the higher difficulties and later on in the career mode.

Need for Speed ProStreet’s modes have been created to blur the line between offline and online functionality. The career is all about becoming the proverbial king of the streets, which is tied into a storyline that is somewhat like Most Wanted. You’ll have to compete and win in Race Day events, which are also available in a separate tab from the main menu. The Race Day concept is essentially a unique way to offer up events to both online and offline users in a variety of racing disciplines. There might be grip, drift or drag events featured in a particular race day, depending on the organizing body holding the event. There are also pre-selected Race Day competitions that take place on one of the game’s several (real) racing venues, such as Willow Springs of the streets of Tokyo. A slick feature of Need for Speed ProStreet is that the user can become the governing body and set up events for localized or remote play, too. It’s also possible to set up a virtual multiplayer event, whereby competitors can compete in your created Race Day (up to eight events per competition) at their leisure.

Good luck seeing this match-up in real life…

When it comes time to actually throw down in Need for Speed ProStreet, you’ll probably be a bit exhausted with just how much can be done in the car tuning/customization and event set-up areas. But despite the game’s distracting robustness, it only takes a few laps to realize that the main shortcoming of Need for Speed ProStreet is the fact that the frame rate isn’t quite up to the task of processing the massive amounts of data. There are instances in the first-person view that it feels like the car is being held back by some sort of magnetic force, but it’s really just the frame rate dropping. You’ll also notice that cars get somewhat herky-jerky in the turns, especially when there are cluster-f’s of vehicles all trying to do the same thing. We like how EA went out of its way to capture the street-racing vibe with extras (gratuitous wheel smoke, flashy, animated background items, big damage), but realize that this has sacrificed general gameplay smoothness in the process. It’s not as bad on the solo-style events (time attack, drag, drift), but it still has at least some presence throughout the entire in-game experience.

Once you start to overlook the frame rate, you can finally realize just how good EA did with designing the racing action of Need for Speed ProStreet. The drag mode is a much more technical experience (heating up the tires is actually a fun mini-game) and has been made more visually stimulating than before. The drifting also gets a bump up in technical difficulty with the presence of competitor smoke (thus creating the decision of going first and fast, or fighting through the haze and going technical), via the enhanced physics and with the ability to clutch-cut. Even the wheel-to-wheel events are far superior to the Underground games, due to the increased A.I. awareness, gameplay-affecting damage model and the fact that the racing can now be a daytime affair. Yeah, the constantly zooming in/out camera can be a bit of a nuisance at times (especially in the tight corners), but other than this small quirk, Need for Speed ProStreet holds it down nicely on its various pieces of tarmac.

Need for Speed ProStreet easily emerges from the shadow of Underground, bettering everything that the former “king of the streets” did. But the better news for tuner-style game fans is that EA went beyond merely creating “Need for Speed Underground 3 with a different title.

Truly innovative in the areas of user interface, art direction, online integration and vehicle damage, Need for Speed ProStreet is the most complete hardcore tuner-style game ever conceived, and is only a framerate fix away from being the best street racer ever for the Xbox 360.