Whether you like it or hate it, it's coming! :dance: One of my favourite games of last year comes packing new features;

Screens:







I'm loving the new look interface when modding your car. No more driving-at- 20km/h-in-the-back-alley interface. ;)






These are early screens, and while they look nice, I have a feeling we might be racing on wet, night-time only tracks again. I hope not....
Oh, and for the love of gawd EA, include a replay option this time around. <_<

I care not for all this anti-EA sentiment. Bias aside, the original game kicks exhumerable amounts of ass. Put together in such a short space of time, it's amazing what a difference is made from the monotonous Hot Pursuit 2.

And by the looks of it, they've nailed everything right for Part 2 - the new features look to add even more addictive gameplay, and three new game modes? If Drag and Drift are anything to go by, tasty!

Of course there is the fact that Street racing is illegal, so racing during the day wouldn't make any sense, but taking a leaf out of The Fast and the Furious ( and let's face it, we might as go all the way ), races at dusk, or out in the desert are no far cry.

All specualtion though. I bet you're already taking it with a grain of salt.

Haha yeh, when I played the first one all I could think about was "why are the roads always so fucking shiny?" :P

O....M....G.... I *need* this game. The original out-classed any other racing game I've played, and this one looks like it is about to steal my heart yet again :wub:

Well hey, if it rakes in money the first time around, do it again! And add more crap, I love it!

I'd love it if they included a "Race Wars" mode, like in The fast and the furious. Basically you drag for either money or your opponents cars! Now imagine this mode online where you can bet your ride against other racers. :D

And sure street races take place at night, but like you pointed out, races at dusk would be a nice change.

According to the interview with someone on the team in the latest Hyper, the majority of races will be at night (just like in real life), although there will be some dawn/dusk races too. Apparently the weather is going to be always changing in real time, so not all races will be in the rain now.

The game does indeed look like it's getting a big push forward on all fronts, mostly the gameplay and the cars. Regarding the latter, some older models have been included too (can we have an AE86, pleeeeease? ), as well as some cars new to the street racing scene. I've already seen screens of the RX-8, that's all the convincing I need!

I just hope they do a decent port of it this time...at least give us 60hz mode!!

I agree. We need to hold a "Include a 60hz option" petition for EA. I'm sick of them ignoring the feature - and not just on GameCube.

whilst i was impressed with the first one, the gameplay did not enthrall me.

--------------------------------
factors why:

- after i completed it, there didn't seem much else to do. no cheats, no flashy FMV - nothing

- after you complete underground mode, you can't enter your bonus cars into it, you couldn't even keep your previous save unless you had another memory car.

- the night time races got bored rather quickly. sure they're meant to be drag&sprint races but without the realtime weather effects, the tracks left the word "samey" in the dust. thus being more of a chore to drive through

- car modifications are a nice addition but it's a pity you never actually see more than the back of your car 99% of the time

- no control of replays
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okay so it looks like some of these factors will be improved upon when the sequel comes out but i'm not going to tempt myself. i'll take Burnout 3 instead thanks

How soon of a release are they going for?

Looks bloody awesome!

Nov again I believe

I'm quite impressed. The new layout looks really nice, too. But any idea on why they're including those hoods that open up like double doors?

Well, the real question is, does the free roam mode extend to online play or is it only for single player mode?

Audio Layout, nice. :dance:

NFS: U wasn't too bad. I'm hoping they improve on it though, and include a lot more stuff to do and unlock. Some different challenges would be good too. Those powerslides and drag races were fun.

Something I'd like to see is an improvement of the drifting competition physics. At the end of the game I was driving a phooly seek RX-7 that was lightning quick, but it was difficult to control a decent drift in the drifting comps as it just had too much power. All the other FR cars were the same. The FF cars however, were piss easy to drift. :blink: All you had to do was approach a turn at speed, pull the handbrake til you were sideways then keep turning into the corner with your foot planted. *TADA!* One awesome drift score. The only limit to the score you could achieve was how much speed you could build up before you reached the corner. Of course in real life the same method would shred your front tires to the rim after a lap or two, but that didn't matter in the game. :rolleyes: They need to do something about it, either make FF cars ineligible for drifting competitions or make them understeer like they should.

Couldn't agree more. I was all like, "WTF? FF cars drift better then FR cars? And since when can FF cars drift like that?"
But to defend EA, the game isn't trying to be a racing sim so this oversight can be forgiven.

I presume you mean these; (look at the top left selection image)



I actually missed that before. And personally I don't like them. They look weird for my liking.

And I presume the free-roaming city will be offline play only.

Awesome.

Most of you guys know how much I loved this game, and I can't wait for the sequel.

I love the "showroom" where you can make modifications. Much easier to see what your changing as opposed to that dark street tunnel.

A street roaming mode was something I really liked in Midnight Club II and wished they had ported over to NFS:U. Good to see they've included it into the sequel.

OMG! Did I see an Audio Setup option!! Sweet!

I'll have my new super PC by the time this comes out, so whoever want's their car re-created in full screen Anti-aliasing, can come to me.

I have read all about this one, and it sounds amazing! This will be one of the best games of 2004 for me. I simply loved the original, I can't even begin to imagine how much I'm going to love this one!

Yeah the Audio Setup option looks cool, but you have to wonder what purpose it'll serve in the game. Imagine an "Audio dB" mode? ;)

And I'll hold you to that. I want to show off my rides again. :thumbsup:

Wow, pictures have been released for this game already? Top stuff!
This game will surely be brilliant, and I'm already liking the new "garage" layout for the customisation aspect of the game. Very nice indeed. :)

While not as much as Civ, I totally loved NFSU, and defended it so many times against certain people. If they can improve on NFSU, then already, they're doing good in my opinion.

Can't wait to drive that Rx8 either. ;)

Like Civ, I'm also holding you to that, as I think my car creation skills have improved since you last did my cars. Everyone will have to wait and see though.. ;)

Hey, no problems, i'm also holding myself to that :D

It was actually fun re-creating some of the stuff you guys made, so this time round it'll be even better...although when it comes to underground car designs, you all know who's King.... :cheese:

Yeah, me! :cheese: :P :lol:

...I was waiting for that

:evilwink:

Have you designed any new cars since we stopped doing it on Hyper? We'd like to see 'em. ;)

Not really.

I pretty much stopped playing it once I finished it (around the time the NFS:U thread was one busy mofo).

I tried to get back into it using different cars, got to about half way through again and got caught up with newer games. :D

Not to worry though, i've still got all those pics uploaded on my webspace, so if you want any re-posted here, just let me know.

Can't wait to start designing some new cars in the sequel, and they'll look sweeter than ever.

I liked Need for Speed: Underground alot. I sold it though. The reason why you ask me? Because knowing EA they'd release another one this year. I don't care much seeing as i can pick NFS: U2 for $50 when it comes out. :D

Damn, this is starting to look interesting. One of the things I wish they'd fix up is the ability to change your plates. Having to look at UNDRGRND all the time irritated me.

Other than that, just hoping they fix the numerous faults of the first game.

So that's your biggest complaint? That the car's plates only read "UNDRGRND"? :lol:
Although I like the idea of having custom plates, it's the last thing on the "to do" list for this game.

What about having replays? Steady framerate? Varied track design? Etc. ;)

Apart from every other thing that frustrated me about the game (ie drag races, traffic, etc), yes.

I'm not a big-picture kind of guy.

I definately want the option to own more than one car at a time.

Cops is a must.

Ability to set bet amount.

Racing for Pink Slips.

Customize your driver.

Place Vinyls, and Decals anywhere you want.

Convertables.

After thinking about it - this whole scissor door/stereo system thing is going to be kinda useless apart from gaining rep points. A different reputation meter is needed too. Seriously, how many people were forced to slap on body kits because their style points wouldn't add up in races? Some people would like to race sleepers.

Nice ideas Mach.

And I agree that having custom audio set-ups do nothing to the car when it comes to racing or visual style. Unless there's some sort of "show off mode" or "dB Drags" I don't know what having a big stereo in the car will do.

I'm definitely looking forward to this title despite missing the first underground game altogether. *ducks Civ's fist*

Going by the screens, it looks like it'll be a fantastic arcade-style street racing title with a fair bit of customisation. I do prefer the GT series as far as accuracy (car models, handling etc.) goes, but it has never quite reached the visual customisation level I want. This game looks great in that respect, I just hope the cars remain accurate to the real version and don't become too futuristic. The rims on that RX8 is about as far as I'd want them to go.

I really liked the first one (still waiting for it to got platinum to buy) and this one looks even better. I am really looking forward to seeing what new cars there are and what new mods you will be able to do to the cars "scissor doors" and "stero system" are a good touch just for fun :thumbsup:

this game is going to be THA BEST GAME!!!

What sort of details are available for customisation at this point? Do we know how far you'll be able to tweak engines, stereos etc.?

You're in luck as new information was released today.
Tweaking will be more in-depth this time around. For the casual gamer or non-car savvy players, the upgrade packages will be available for an easy upgrade, but you'll also be able to tweak individual areas and parts of the car. So lets say you want to set the car up for drifting, you'll be able to adjust the necessary parts. Same goes for drag and whatever else. No details about what purpose stereos play in the game.

A new mode was also announced. Named OutRun;

Sounds good to me. :D

Also, style points play a bigger rolse this time around;

So it looks like NOS can be replenished during races. Unrealistic, yes, but it should encourage driving with style. :)

And that's it for now. Check out Gamespot's and IGN's impressions.

New screens:

Bah, nitrous oxide (I refuse to call a chemical by the name of a company that bottles it :rolleyes: ) should definately not be refilled during races. I think they should give you more though, or at least get rid of the terrible catch-up that's applied to your opponents. There wasn't much point in using nitrous oxide in anything but drags, as the insane CPU catch-up soon got rid of whatever lead you had gained. The catch-up was the worst part about the game, don't know why I didn't mention it sooner. The racing should be about who has better skills, not just randomly decided by the game.

That outrun mode sounds like fun! :D

Naturally when I jumped online tonight I was suprised to see a video of the game so soon but excited nonetheless. I downloaded the video only to be rather disappointed. Not because the video sucked, it was an alright video actually but purely because what IGN had wrote in their article was much more interesting then the video.
Reading about Outrun mode and stuff made me happy and drifting on those mountains is one of the first things I plan to do when I have the game. (Initial D fever strikes again)
The game is sounding good and my eagerness for these game has grown.
Oh, and this NOS thing is just to satisfy those Import retards out there who think NOS is the only good thing in an import vehicle... ;)

Werd up, dawg.

Personally, I think it's a heap of shit: I played the original once, thought "meh".