Carbon

I've been playing Need For Speed Carbon for the PS2 lately. Not really enjoying the game. The physics and handling are totally different from previous NFS games. Specially drifting.

Just push the controller a bit and the car spins wildly. I totally enjoyed the controls of NFS Underground 2 for drifting. And the way the car handles is better in the previous game. This new game is just too wild for my taste, even after tweaking the car's settings.

That's another thing that irks me. The tweaking of settings are simplified. So simplified that you can't win boss battles unless you choose max horsepower max speed settings. What?!? So what's the point of setting my car up to be high torque and fully maneuverable if all I have to do to win races is to make the car super fast? What happened to tweaking the settings and achieving perfect balance in the car?

All in all the best Need for Speed game I've played is Underground 2. Best controls, best dynamics, best options.

Although the new game is only a few days old in my house, so I may get used to the controls eventually. After all, I have beaten three bosses. Just one more sector to go and I'll have finished the game.

But the car I'm using is "only" an RX-7, and I'm up against Skylines and Murcielagos. The sad part is I haven't unlocked tier 3 cars yet. Damn. I think the only way to unlock those damn cars are to finish all races in the previous maps.

The unfinished races? Drift races. Go figure.

I've no patience to learn the drift. I've won some drift races but those were when the track was wide. Narrower tracks are harder to manage since the damn car totally slides back and forth.

Unless there's some special trick or setting to drift properly which I didn't get to read in the manual (because I don't have a manual).

Oh well. I've created a new alias anyway, and I started using an exotic car, the Alfa Romeo Braera or whatever. Last time I started with a tuner, the Mazda RX-8. We'll see.

Out.