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Need For Speed: Porsche Unleashed
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Graphics & Sound:
As the manual says, the graphics is this new title in the Need for Speed family are impeccable. Race through some of the finest countrysides in Europe and even race through the streets of Monte Carlo. You might never get a chance to visit some of the locations, but this game will make you feel like you have. Hip, up-to-date music and sound effects encourage you to drive faster, but it will also cause you to crash harder. There are even environment sounds so you can here the world around you while you speed by. You have four different camera views to choose from, but take my word for it, don't use the one where you are looking at the front of the car. I can't even drive a real car backwards very good.
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Gameplay:
Not too many racing games out there can offer you over 80 different cars to choose from. You can choose from the 1950 Classic Coupe Ferdinand or you can try out the new 2000 911 Turbo. One thing you might want to remember is that the newer the car, the faster it is. If you are racing a track full of 911 Coupes and you are in a Ferdinand, guess who is going to lose. After setting all the options, one thing you might want to start with is the Factory Driver mode. You are asked to test drive various Porsches in increasingly difficult missions, which consist of driving through orange pylons on a test track in various patterns and in various driving conditions. Successfully complete the missions to become a factory driver! You also have Evolution Mode where you get to compete in three different eras of Porsches. Winning races allows you to buy new cars and to advance from the classic era to the new cars. You also have a Quick Race Mode for the arcade style game fan. Not all of the cars are available to you - to be able to drive some of them, you have to win a few races. There is also a Quick Knockout Mode. During the race, after each lap, the last position driver is taken out the race until only one driver is left driving. You also have the Knockout Mode, which is the same as the Quick Knockout Mode, except that the last place driver is not replaced after each lap, but after each race in a series of races. For those of you with a fast Internet or network connection, multi-player is also available. For the historian, you can also learn about the history of Porsche in the Porsche Chronicle section.
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Difficulty:
After playing a few of these racing games, Need for Speed: Porsche Unleashed is one of the easiest in regards to controlling the car. Because of this, you can concentrate on enjoying yourself, which you will definitely do with this game.
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Game Mechanics:
Need for Speed: Porsche Unleashed is one of the easiest games that I have found in regards to control. If you are playing with a gamepad, the controls are not so sensitive so that every little movement is a big movement with your car. A neat thing with this game is that after a race is finished, you can watch a replay of the race and see your driving performance from many different angles. Playing with the keyboard is a pain to get used too, but it will help you with your finite coordination skills. As with most racing games, the best controller is, of course, a racing wheel. If you can afford one, get one with force feedback so that you can feel the hum of the engines, and if you crash, it almost vibrates out of your hands. If you are a driver that tends to crash more often than not, you might want to turn this feature off until you get better at driving.
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-Wickserv, GameVortex Communications AKA Eric Wickwire |
Minimum System Requirements:
200 Mhz Pentium or faster running 95/98, 32 MB RAM, 4x CD_ROM drive (600x/second transfer rate) using 32-bit Windows 95/98 CD-ROM driver 8 MB 3D video card that supports Direct 3D, DirectX and Soundblaster compatible sound card, DirectX 7.0a or later, 150-MB free hard drive space plus space for saved games (additional space required for DirectX 7.0a installation) |
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Test System:
GX-450xl running Windows 98, 256 RAM, Creative Sound Blaster 64CPCI with Boston Acoustic Digital Media Theatre, STB Velocity 4400 with RIVA TNT chip, DirectX 7.0a, 32 MB RAM, 6X24 DVD-ROM. |
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