Product description
-------------------
Drive cool cars and experience the ultimate racing
excitement on your PC! Cars include the
Aston Martin DB7,
Ferrari 550 Maranello, and the Lamborghini Diablo SV, and more!
Review
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I don't usually play racing games on the PC. Either
they're pale imitations of the arcade and console racers, or
they're boring 50-lap simulations. I mean, why play Need for
Speed II and Test Drive 4 on the PC when I can play Super GT in
the arcade and Gran Turismo on the PlayStation? For ages, I told
friends that the PC had nothing on the arcade, even venerable
classics like Daytona and Sega Rally. Well, I think I'm going to
be eating crow for the next few weeks... and loving it. Not only
is the latest Need for Speed miles ahead of the last NFS game,
but it approaches (and dare I say surpasses?), the best of the
consoles in terms of sheer fun and speed.
Need for Speed III is a great game. It has an exhilarating sense
of speed, clean and beautiful graphics, polished production
values, and trackloads of unadulterated fun. In many ways, Need
for Speed III has that same addictive quality I found in Quake
II, Starcraft, and Heroes of Might and Magic. That's pretty
celebrated company, but I don't think it's an unfounded
categorization. Need for Speed III has that same "just one more
turn or just one more deathmatch" quality that the other games
have. And just like in those games, the action in Need for Speed
III is so engrossing and rewarding that the next time you come up
for air, you'll find that two hours have whizzed by.
While Need for Speed III shares an addictive quality with those
games, it has something of its own: pure speed. This game is fast
and fun. The frame rate is fast and incredibly clean. I've played
my fair share of PC and console racers where the pop-up was
horrible, as cliffs and buildings would suddenly appear out of
thin air, many seconds after you should have seen them on the
horizon. Whether it's the smart track design or the beautiful
engine, the bottom line is that I only saw one or two instances
of minor pop-up. And multiplayer is as fast and fun as the
single-player experience. The sound of your revving engine and
the fast frame rate both combined to create the illusion of
breakneck speeds, although the replays didn't look quite as fast
I would have liked.
Aside from the speed and addictive quality, Need for Speed III
has the requisite list of features that marketers like to put on
boxes, journalists like to list, and consumers always look for.
There are many cars, with subtle differences, and the ability to
tweak more than a few car qualities, such as steering speed,
aerodynamics, and suspension. And, surprisingly, the tweaks will
affect your car noticeably.
In classic Need for Speed fashion, there are more than a dozen
supercars to race, including several bonus cars that open up with
sustained excellent race results or cheat codes. The range of
cars is a fascinating gallery of every car enthusiast's dream
vehicles: Corvettes, Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Porsches, Jaguars,
Mercedes, and an Italdesign prototype car. There are also roughly
ten tracks, including the bonus track, encompassing several
different environments and difficulty levels. You'll race through
a canyon, snowy ain caps, urban utopia, and forests. You can
race during nighttime and in rain to add further to the track
variety. Visibility takes a huge hit in either condition, making
races on the harder courses incredibly treacherous.
Unfortunately, I didn't experience any noticeable difference in
driving under rain; the road didn't appear any slicker and
handling was pretty much consistent with perfect weapon. If there
was a difference, it was too subtle for me to notice.
The single-player game modes include a single race, knockoff
(where you eliminate the last place of each race), tournament
(where you race through the entire circuit for points), and hot
pursuit. Hot pursuit is EA's answer to all the critics who
lamented the loss of the cops in Need for Speed II. You aren't
only trying to outrace an nent, but also escape the pursuing
cops. Three tickets, and you're out. Or alternatively, you can
play the cop in pursuit. The radio chatter alerting you to the
cops' presence and their strategies (pursuit or roadblock) are
nice touches.
The graphics in the game are pretty amazing. The reflection on
the cars is outstanding, as is the rain, and the leaves and dust
that follow in your wake. The lighting is especially impressive
during the night and rain races. Best of all, everything,
including the up to seven competitors, animating background
objects, and your rearview mirror, can be packed on screen with
barely a hint of a performance hit (OK, sometimes, it will slow
down slightly, but not by much). The production values on the
track briefings and the car gallery are also first-rate.
There are a few problems. For one, the dashboard doesn't light
up at night, and there are no windshield wipers at your disposal
during rain. It's disappointing that there's no damage to your
cars. I understand that none of the car companies want to see
their poor little vehicles hurt in this game, but what's the
excuse for not being able to dent the nonsupercars you c
into? And unlike in the latest Sega arcade racers, the cars in
Need for Speed III, while maintaining an effective illusion of
high-speed driving, sometimes appear too much like they are
gliding on the road rather than actually driving and hugging the
road. And why not just open all the regular cars (not the bonus
cars) in hot pursuit, knockoff, and tournament mode? Still, it's
a testament to the game's addictive fun factor that when I was
racing, none of these shortcomings ever bothered me. While the
arcades still have the edge in racing games, Need for Speed III
goes a long way toward giving PC gamers a real taste of
exhilarating arcade speed and action. --Elliott Chin
--Copyright ©1998 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction
in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written
permission of GameSpot is prohibited. -- GameSpot Review
