Need for Speed Underground

EA's Need for Speed series has been breaking speed limits since 1994. From then until now, you've been behind the wheel of exotic supercars, racing to beat buddies or staying one step ahead of the law. Not this time, friend. Turning to the increasingly popular and now slightly less "underground" world of street racing, this Need For Speed has you driving tricked-out imports--and the cops are nowhere to be found.
THE FAST AND...OH, YOU KNOW
Surprisingly, Vin Diesel said it best: "I live my life a quarter mile at a time. For those 10 seconds or less, I'm free." That's the mantra behind Need for Speed: Underground as you blaze through rain-soaked city streets looking to earn street cred and money through drag racing, circuit racing, and high-octane street sprints in more than 100 different events. And there's still one mode yet to be announced.

True to the Need for Speed series, Underground has you driving real cars, real fast. You'll find 20 licensed sets of wheels including Mitsubishis, Subarus, and Toyotas. Of course, a big part of the street racing culture is modding said cars until they're barely recognizable, and you'll find all that customization available here. In fact, executive producer Chuck Osieja promises billions of ways to pimp out your ride. Audiobahn, HKS, MOMO, Neuspeed, Nitrous Express Inc., StreetGlow, Turbonetics--the list of modding-related manufacturers with gear here goes on and on. You can also get a custom paint and decal job done on your car. At last count, there were more than 71 billion different looks available for each car in the game.

AT THE MOVIES
While you'll be quick to notice the amazing eye candy that laces Underground, it's the cameras and the motion-blurring effects that'll leave your head spinning. For this, they drafted a movie special-effects wiz, Habib Zargarpour, onto the team. "As our visual effects director, he's achieved a frightening sensation of speed," says Osieja. How? Simply by adding camera shake to driving. "Other driving games have had camera shakes in them, but there is actually a technique to implement it that allows the human brain to be 'convinced' by the effect," he continues. If it's implemented correctly (which, coincidentally, it appears it has been), you can add 20mph to the "feeling" of speed without actually changing the game's framerate. Zargarpour used the same process while creating the pod racing sequence for Star Wars Episode I.

A driving game, though, is nothing without background scenery to blow past. There are no real cities in this game, but the scenery is inspired by real-world locations. While it looks like a city on the surface, Osieja says, Underground is really a race track under a city's skin. "This way, you don't have to worry about driving too many 90-degree corners you can't do successfully at over 100mph."

Another departure from reality is the utter lack of Johnny Law. Why is that? Programming A.I. logic for the 5-0 requires a lot of extra time, but even more important, Osieja says, he didn't want this game to feel like NFS: Hot Pursuit 2.5--instead, the emphasis is on the racers. He went on to hint that while this game is all about urban street racing, the white-knuckle cop chases present in Hot Pursuit 2 will be back in another game down the road.

We've also heard that you'll be able to challenge other PC or PS2 racers over the Internet. Combine that with the open-ended customizability, and you can be the proud owner of some serious online bragging rights for the player with the best ride. And at least we'll be able to burn out sooner rather than later. Originally slated for a Q1 2004 release, the EA Black Box team has been firing on all cylinders and--gasp--the game is coming out ahead of schedule. Your pink slip is on the line just in time for the holidays.