Need for Speed: Carbon

Need for Speed: Carbon, also known as NFS Carbon or NFSC is an Electronic Arts video game belonging to the Need for Speed series. It is the tenth installment, preceded by Need for Speed: Most Wanted and succeeded by Need for Speed: ProStreet.

Background
Need for Speed: Carbon was first shown in EA's montage at Nintendo's E³2006 conference and booth and was the cover story in the Game Informer magazine issue of July 2006. Carbon is the first in the Need for Speed series to be released for all seventh generation consoles. Carbon features some of cars of its predecessors; namely Need for Speed Underground 2 and Need for Speed Most Wanted, but also incorporates many new additions including the Audi R8 Road Car (called Le Mans Quattro in-game), the Chrysler 300C SRT 8, Chevrolet's Chevelle SS and the Toyota MR2 Spyder. Carbon features the Canadian actress and model Emmanuelle Vaugier as Nikki, the player's main source of help and ally in the Career storyline. The game is now available for use with Mac OS X. Need for Speed: Carbon debuted at number one on the UK All Format Gaming Chart on its first week of release, beating Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer.

Collector's Edition
The Need for Speed: Carbon Collector's Edition features 4 exclusive cars, 10 pre-tuned cars (out of the box), 6 new races, 3 unique challenge events, 10 unique vinyls and a Bonus DVD showing the making of Carbon and showcasing all the cars used in the game. The Collector's Edition also features alternate box art and metallic finish packaging. Although the Mac edition doesn't display the Collector's Edition title, it contains all Collector's Edition features.

EA Download version
The downloaded version of the game features the Ultimate Performance Kit, 2006 Pagani Zonda F and the 1971 Dodge Challenger.

Own the City
The PSP, Nintendo DS, and Game Boy Advance versions of the game are called Need For Speed Carbon: Own the City, and is set in a fictional city named Coast City with a different storyline. This version features different AI abilities and also features the Audi TT and the Chevrolet Cobalt SS.

Plot
As it is a sequel, Need for Speed: Carbon picks up where the player left off in Most Wanted, driving out of Rockport in his recently-retrieved BMW M3 GTR.

Driving through Carbon Canyon in route to Palmont City, a flashback of what seems to be a race against Kenji, Angie, and Wolf comes to the player's mind. A police incident at the end of the race forces the player to make a hasty escape from Palmont. In present day, former Police Sergeant now turned bounty hunter Cross in his Chevrolet Corvette chases the player down the canyon leading to his BMW M3 GTR being totaled. Darius then compensates Cross, and the player meets up with Nikki his ex girlfriend on bad terms.

Darius tells the player with the help of Nikki to clean up his image by beating the rival racing crews to gain territory and to reclaim his reputation as a respected street racer in Palmont. Winning races one by one, the player acquires territories and ultimately districts from Kenji, Angie, and Wolf. As beating one by one, the player meets up with racers who want to join the player's crew, several of the defecting crew members slowly reveal their side of the story, regarding the night the player took off from Palmont.

Owning all three districts, Darius asks the player to meet up with him, where he reveals he was just using the player all along to get more territory. When Darius leaves,the player in brink of being arrested gets saved by Nikki who tells him that she now realizes everything that happened months ago.

Realizing that Darius was ultimately liable for the player's fall, the Player attempts to conquer Silverton, and oust Darius and his "Stacked Deck" crew, to clean up the player's reputation once and for all.

Winning races against "Stacked Deck", the player gets his chance to meet Darius in the canyon. But he tells the player that he will again have beat the previous three bosses in the canyons to battle him. Beating them, the player ultimately fights Darius and defeats him. Knowing the rules,Darius hands over his Audi Le Mans Quattro to the player and leaves from Palmont but not without warning the player to "enjoy it while it lasts, there's always someone out there who's a little faster than you are, and sooner or later they're gonna catch up..."

Gameplay
The gameplay is based upon rival street racing crews.

Players run a crew and can hire specific street racers to be in their crew. Each hirable street racer has two skills, one which is a racing skill (scout, blocker, and drafter) and a non-race skill (fixer, mechanic, and fabricator). Each skill has different properties from finding hidden alleys/back streets to reducing police attention.

In career mode, players have to race tracks to conquer territories and face off against bosses to conquer districts. The game also features the return of drift racing by popular demand, a mode that had been included in two previous installments Need For Speed: Underground and Need For Speed: Underground 2, but omitted from Carbon's predecessor, Most Wanted; and new style of race, Canyon Racing, based on Japanese Touge races. There are 4 types of Canyon Races: Canyon Duel, Canyon Race (essentially a sprint or "Canyon race"), Canyon Checkpoint and Canyon Drift. Canyon Duels consists of two stages. In the first stage the follower gains points contingent on how tight and aggressive he/she can follow the leader. In the second stage the follower takes the lead and loses points depending on how good the first stage leader follows the follower. The follower wins the duel by reaching the finish line with the most points. The leader loses the race if the follower passes the leader for 10 seconds. The follower loses the race if he/she falls behind for 10 seconds. Either car will lose the race if one falls off the cliff. Checkpoint races works the same way Tollbooth races worked in Most Wanted&mdash;players must get from one point to another within the alloted time. The Drag race mode has been omitted from Carbon, previously featured in Underground, Underground 2, and Most Wanted.

There is also the ability now to upload one's in game screenshots to the Need for Speed website, complete with stats and modifications. Also, the PC, Xbox 360, and PS3 versions features an online only, "Be the Cop" racing mode, wherein the fastest player has to try and evade the others who are all police; once someone overtakes the fastest player they then become the hunted car.

In the PS2 edition of the game, some of the aftermarket wheels cannot be unlocked, only can be seen on other racers.

Controls
Control of the actual game play varies on among the different consoles. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 control steering through the use of their joysticks, while acceleration and braking as well as other controls can be configured and mapped to the different buttons on the controllers. On Windows, joysticks and wheel controllers are supported, as well as those that support force feedback.

The Wii lacks online game play, but fully supports the use of the Wii Remote.

Car customization


Carbon features a new car revoulationary customization option called "Autosculpt", enabling players to utilize aftermarket car parts and shape/mould the parts to their liking. Players can also have multiple customed vinyls as well. Performance tuning has been redone so that players, as upgrades are purchased, can tune the car for a number of different properties, such as higher top speed or higher acceleration. Unlike Most Wanted, all of Carbon's performance tuning/enhancing and car customizing is done inside the safe house.

Characters
As with Need for Speed: Most Wanted, players will interact with key storyline characters (i.e. Darius, Nikki, Angie, Wolf, and Kenji) ranging from antagonists, and selectable "crew members" in which some claim to be connected to the player's central plot.

Because players will run a crew in the game, throughout career mode players will run into several major crews, minor crews, and "hirable" crew members as career mode progresses. Below are the list of Need For Speed: Carbon characters.

Name            Casted By                        Role

Darius         Tahmoh Penikett          “Stacked Deck” Leader

Nikki        Emmanuelle Vaugier           Drafter\Mechanic Cross         Dean McKenzie                   Bounty Hunter Kenji         Ken Kirby                    Bushido” Leader

Angie           Danielle Kremeniuk         “21st Street” Leader Wolf         Shaw Madson                  “tFk” Leader Neville         Chris Gauthier                   Blocker\Fixer

Sal             Elias Toufexis                   Scout\Fabricator Yumi         Melody                   Scout\Mechanic Samson         Noah Danby                       Blocker\Fixer

Colin           Steve Lawlor                  Drafter\Fabricator

Race types
Need for Speed: Carbon features about 10 race types as follows: sprint, circuit, drift, checkpoint, race wars, canyon duel, canyon sprint, canyon drift, canyon checkpoint, and speedtrap. Some race types are accessible only through the game's challenge series set.

Most of Carbon's focus lies through various canyon races, which the game's theme is based on. Players have to race against other racers, drift through canyons, or even face off against an opponent in a one-on-one competition known as a "canyon duel", borrowed from Japanese Touge races.

Pursuit system
As with Most Wanted, cops are everywhere in Carbon. Police chases can break out at any time, including when in Free Roam mode, when racing, or just after a race is completed. Some races do not have a chance of a police pursuit, such as Canyon races, and Checkpoint races. As with Need for Speed: Most Wanted, there are 5 conditions. Players have to be careful to avoid getting pursued by state or federal authorities.

Although the pursuit system is similar to Most Wanted, this feature has been reprogrammed in Carbon to ensure that police were not too dominant in arrest tactics in high pursuit levels. Some of the police tactics (such as the spike strips) while at the same time to make pursuits much harder to escape once a pursuit initiates.

Cars
Players can choose from many licensed cars divided into three classes as follows: Tuners, Muscle cars, and Exotic cars. Each car has its own characteristic ranging from easy cornering to well-balanced road performance. Players have to learn how to master each car class in order to play the game well. Players can choose a class to start career mode on which the set of unlocks will be different.

There are 3 types of cars featured in the game
 * Tuner Cars - Their strongest point is handling, with decent acceleration but a low top speed. They consist of Japanese cars and mainstream European models. Like: Mazda RX-7, Mazdaspeed3, Toyota Supra.
 * Exotic Cars - Their strongest point is their top speed, but they also have decent acceleration and handling. Most of the cars in this class are from European companies. Many players of the game choose this class because it is the most balanced car type in the game. Like: Lamborghini Gallardo,Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren,Porsche Carrera GT.
 * Muscle Cars - Their strongest point is acceleration and a decent top speed. Their handling is poor though, and such cars are prone to sliding. Most cars are from companies of the United States. Like:Shelby GT500 (1967),Chevrolet Corvette Z06,Dodge Charger SRT8.

The official site only lists 46 vehicles, 3 of those being special police cars.

Players can also unlock cars that are reserved for quick races as the players progress throughout the game and earn reward cards.

Location
The game is set inside the fictional city of Palmont which exists alongside of Rockport, which was used in Need for Speed: Most Wanted, Bayview, which was used in Need for Speed: Underground 2, and Olympic City, which was used in Need for Speed Underground. On the "Eternity Pass" canyon course (the track in which the player faces off against Darius), you can see all of Palmont and, in the shadows, Rockport, the island to the left; and Bayview, the island to the right, by breaking the first barrier you come across.

There are three major canyons in Palmont, East, West and Carbon canyon. A major coastal area covers the southwestern part of the city. There are also some major rivers and a lake near Carbon Canyon.

The city is divided into four parts at the beginning of the game, one for each of the major crews. However, when you complete the career mode, Palmont is no longer divided, because all of the city is your territory. There is a highway system going around all of Palmont.

Also note that the location for Need for Speed Carbon: Own the City is not Palmont City but a fictional city named Coast City.

Soundtrack
By default, hip-hop songs are played when the player is driving an exotic car, electronic songs are played when the player is driving a tuner car, and rock music is played when the player is driving a muscle car. Though, this setting can be turned off. These songs were released by EA in very limited quantities on a special edition disc.

The songs played within the safe house and other game menus, as well as a small number of races were composed by Ekstrak, and was released widely by EA, and is available from online retailers such as iTunes, as well as hard copies.

Other music, most played in major races, such as Race Wars and Canyon Battles have been widely released akin to the Ekstrak release. This actual soundtrack consists of music composed by Trevor Morris, who has gone on to work with Steve Jablonsky for the 2007 EA RTS game, Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Dynamite MC - "After Party" 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Dynamite MC - "Bounce" 🇺🇸 Eagles of Death Metal - "Don't Speak (I Came To Make A BANG!)" 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Ekstrak ft. 🇺🇸 Know-1 - "Hard Drivers" 🇺🇸 Every Move a Picture - "Signs of Life" 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Gary Numan ft. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Tubeway Army - "Are 'Friends' Electric?" 🇺🇸 Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five - "Scorpio" 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Goldfrapp - "Ride a White Horse (🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Serge Santiago Remix)" 🇺🇸 Kyuss - "Hurricane" 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Lady Sovereign - "Love Me or Hate Me (Fuck You!!!!)" 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Ladytron - "Fighting In Built Up Areas" 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Ladytron - "Sugar (🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Jagz Kooner Remix)" 🇺🇸 melody. - "Feel The Rush 🇳🇱 Junkie XL Remix)" 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Metro Riots - "Thee Small Faces" 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Part 2 ft. Fallacy - "One Of Dem Days (Remix)"

🇺🇸 Pharrell ft. Lauren - "Show You How To Hustle" 🇨🇦 Priestess - "I Am The Night, Colour Me Black" 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Roots Manuva - "No Love" 🇺🇸 Spank Rock - "What It Look Like" 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Sway - "Hype Boys" 🇺🇸 The Bronx - "Around The Horn" 🇦🇺 The Presets - "Steamworks" 🇺🇸 The Vacation - "I'm No Good" 🇨🇦 Tiga - "Good As Gold" 🇯🇵 Tigarah - "Girl Fight (🇨🇦 Mr. D Hyphy Mix)" 🇸🇪 Tomas Andersson - "Washing Up (🇨🇦 Tiga Remix)" 🇺🇸 Valient Thorr - "Heatseeker" 🇫🇷 Vitalic - "My Friend Dario" 🇦🇺 Wolfmother - "Joker and the Thief" 🇭🇺 Yonderboi - "People Always Talk About The Weather (🇳🇱 Junkie XL Remix)"

Reception
Many magazines reviewed the game well. PC Format gave it a score of 7.8, saying that it was "engaging enough," but lacked innovation. IGN gave it a 7.9 and 8.2 for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 versions respectively, out of 10 possible points. "It's not revolutionary, it's not brilliant, but it's good, deep racing," said IGN.com. Gamespot gave praise for adding more movie clips, customization and solid gameplay but was critical about frustrating boss battles and under utilizing police chases. Wii is also praised for its motion controls but lacks online play.

Another major criticism of Need for Speed: Carbon was that with its release, many of the anticipated cars such as the Porsche 911 Turbo and Ford Shelby Mustang GT500 were inaccessible in game. After much criticism from common Need for Speed forums such as NFSUnlimited.net and NFScars.net, EA's representative later discussed this as a minor problem made during the late production of the game, and respectively, EA released packages of the locked cars available for download for $5.00 USD on the game's website.

Electronic Gaming Monthly gave the game an average score of 8.0.

Windows Vista issues
The unpatched PC version of the game has compatibility issues when playing under Windows Vista and crashes after the EA Logo screen, although most issues have been resolved in patch version 1.4.

According to EA's Website Support page, they have not released any games that are supported under Windows Vista and suggest changing the compatibility mode to play EA games if necessary.

In versions prior to 1.4, the game will load with both 32 bit and 64 bit editions of Windows Vista if the compatibility mode is changed to either Windows 98 or 95. However, the game still crashes frequently. Deleting or renaming the MOVIES folder, however, alleviates the problem. This has also been linked to the 1.3 upgrade patch. Some users have also successfully run the game out of the box on Vista 32-Bit RTM, suggesting that the issue may have been related to issues in Vista's pre-release code.

In version 1.4 of the game these conflicts with Windows Vista are solved, according to EA.