Once in a while a game comes along that allows you to hit 120 in a 30mph zone, pump your adrenaline in races with rivals, impress a bevy of scintillatingly dressed girls and pimp out your ride.

Need For Speed: Carbon is one of them.

The latest in a line of games famous for their heart-pumping racing action, Carbon has finally abandoned the city for the challenges and thrills of long and winding canyons. On top of the huge amount of highway miles for you to practice, crash and conquer, Carbon kicks it up another gear by featuring a new drifting mode that makes for much more versatile racing. Oh, and lets not forget the high-speed cop chases.

Different in objectives from previous Need For Speed games (Like the highly acclaimed Most Wanted series) where it was just a straight-forward, beat-your-rival-to-the-finishing line game, Carbon brings in gangs and territories where you have to race to earn and conquer for your own. Even then, rivals will continue to challenge the territories that you already own. Think of it was the board game Risk, but with a nitro element.

One of the new features of NFSC (Need For Speed: Carbon) is the fact that you don’t race as an individual anymore. Instead, you race with a crew (wingmen included) that will watch your back along the race.

The wingmen consists of blockers, drafters and scouts. Blockers are like your heavyweights, where all you have to do is pick out a rival, hit the Y button and your blocker sweeps out and slams into your rival. Your drafter allows you to race at ultra-high speeds in his draft at intervals during the race. The scouts are your eyes and will tell you where all the shortcuts are. It’s a useful new feature but if you are traditional and prefer to fly solo, the crew can get on your nerves, sometimes getting in your way or destroying targets directly in your path.

As mentioned above, Carbon also comes with a new drift-racing feature, which literally allows you to get into some of that Tokyo Drift action. The powersliding in Carbon may not be as smooth as some other racing games such as Ridge Racer but it definitely offers some nifty tricks for you. The only issue is that when you’re drifting through winding canyon roads, sometimes you start feeling like you’re just sliding around with almost no control. Definitely a neat new feature but not something that would hold your interest for long.

The feature that got UrbanWire’s interest piqued and that receives a fat stamp of approval from UrbanWire would be the Autosculpt feature, which allows for extreme customization of your ride. From the size and shape of the car to the style of your roof scoop, the shape of your grill to the details on your wheels, this new feature allows you to choose exactly how your car is going to look. It’s not something that will change your performance of the road but it’s sure to have you rolling in with the hottest looking ride in town.

Carbon satisfies with pretty straight-forward controls. It takes about half an hour to conquer the pretty gradual learning curve on Carbon. As usual, NFSC carries on a soundtrack that will match your heartbeat in any race, but your wingmen’s incessant chatter can sometimes ensure that you pay almost no attention to the music. As for the graphics, Carbon outdoes itself with some pretty weird sequences. At a glance, you would think that you’re watching some really good computer graphics but if you look closer, you’ll realise that it’s actually real people, filmed and edited to look like digital animation. It gets a bit creepy after awhile.

Disappointingly, the game does not support online play or multiplayer functions, which greatly reduces the opportunity to test your pimped out ride against other real players.

Overall, Need for Speed: Carbon has lived up to its standards and is definitely still at the forefront of street-racing games. Even with some minor flaws, Carbon still proves to be a stylish and addictive street racer.

Platform: Xbox
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: EA Black Box
Genre: Racing

Score: Graphics: 9/10
Sound: 7.5/10Plot: 8/10
Gameplay: 6/10
Addictive Rating: 9/10
Overall Rating: 7.5/10

Publicity Screenshots Provided by EA Singapore