EA's latest entry in the Need for Speed series, ProStreet, will almost
certainly split the NFS audience. The series is moving away from the
open-world, story-driven, cops-at-every-corner style to a more
focused--and slightly more realistic--style of gameplay that is drawing
no small amount of influence from what's happening in today's real-life
tuner scene. And while that might raise the hackles of the NFS purists,
for those new to the series or those looking to return to Need for
Speed after skipping the last few incarnations, ProStreet could be a
welcome change. We had a chance to spend some extended time with an
updated build of the game to see how the new approach is working out.
Grab the hottest car in your collection and hit the asphalt in ProStreet.
Instead of driving around in a fictional city looking for trouble,
ProStreet will place you in the driving shoes of one Ryan Cooper, an
up-and-coming race driver. Cooper is looking to make a name on the
tuner and street racing circuit, so you'll need to steer him through a
number of race events that cover a big swath of racing disciplines as
you go. Race events in ProStreet will be organized into either grip,
drift, drag, or speed challenges, and each of these disciplines has a
"king" associated with it, which is a boss you'll be
looking to take down to prove your supremacy in that particular style
of racing. Then there's Ryo; he's the final boss you'll face in the
game and also a master of every discipline in the bunch. Your goal is
to make your way through all of the different race events--besting each
of the kings until the final showdown with Ryo.
Grip races are perhaps the most straightforward of the four race
events. You'll take on a number of cars in various circuits, and the
first one to cross the finish line is the winner. In drift races, style
counts more than speed; the idea is to rack up as many points as you
can slipping and sliding your car through the curvy drift circuits.
Drag events are quick, straight-ahead sprints to the finish line, while
speed challenge events will test the upper limits of you car's speed by
challenging you to maintain incredibly high speeds through long,
increasingly challenging point-to-point circuits.
As we discovered in our hands-on time with the game, each of the event
types in ProStreet has its own charm and its own challenges. With grip
races, the challenge is dealing with the heavier feel of the cars. We
tried a couple of different grip challenge races with cars, such as a
Mitsubishi Lancer, which--while not the hottest car in the lineup--is
certainly no slouch. The more realistic feel in ProStreet is most
evident in weight transfer, which plays a big role in achieving quick
times around the circuits. If you can manage to roll your momentum
through the tracks, you'll be that much quicker each lap.
Interestingly, some grip events will feature two classes of cars, and
your goal will be to win the race in you current class.
Drag events are the shortest to be found in ProStreet race weekends,
but thanks to some interesting mechanics, they have a challenge all
their own. If you've ever seen a real drag race, you know that tire
temperature plays a big role in how quickly your car will get off the
line. As a result, just as in the real thing, you'll want to burn your
tires out before the race begins (which, coincidentally, is a fine way
of showing of ProStreet's amazing smoke effects). To do so, you'll need
to take part in a brief minigame that will challenge you to keep your
engine revs at a certain level (indicated by a constantly shifting
green zone on a rev meter) to put maximum heat into the tires. Once
you've built up heat, you've got to launch your car off the line, first
by revving the engine and then dropping the car into gear by pushing
forward with the right stick.
MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:
Windows XP and VISTA with latest service pack installed
Intel Pentium 4 (or equivalent) CPU running at 2.8GHz or higher (3.0GHz if running Windows Vista)
128Mb DirectX compliant video card with Pixel shader 2.0 or above (AGP and PCIe only) using a
