Game Review: Need For Speed Prostreet

Phil McKenzie - The News-Press

Jan 18, 2008

Need for Speed: Prostreet

From: EA Black Box

For: PS3, PSP, PC, PS2, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, Wii

Rating:* * * *

The Need for Speed series has been the front-runner of video- game racing titles since it began in 1992. Since the release of Underground the focus had been all about illegal street racing, but now ProStreet turns the focus to the professional street-racing scene and reinvents it as a modern racing tournament.

The main layout of the game this year is totally different from the previous. Rather than cruising around town looking for races, the game is divided up into race days that collect a handful of individual races and combines them into one main event.

The typical line-up comprises of straight-up circuit events, drag races, drifting events and wheelie competitions. The goal is to gain enough points to boost your reputation and advance to the next race day. Drift racing is still present but takes a backseat and is a little more user-friendly this year.

The graphics are superb, as always, ranging from the impressive vehicle damage to the smoke effects from the tires while doing burnouts.

The customisation features are still present and because you can have different car set-ups you can also have multiple visuals for the same car as well.

The sound is handled well, but the race-day announcers can be a bit repetitious.

The cars sound OK with a whole lot of variety to the engine noise and the music has some nice recognisable tunes to race to.

It can't be easy to be a game developer in charge of releasing a new game in a series every year.

People don't want the same game over and over, yet they're unhappy if the game strays too far from the established formula.

Because ProStreet has no cop chases or the open world exploring of the last two Need for Speed games it may put off a few of the die- hard fans, but to those of us that have been enjoying the Need for Speed series from day one it's a nice return to the way racing should be.

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