[Inquisitor]

playing an ipod through an xbox?  thats like having coldplay at a rap concert.  for some reason, i cant imagine that working properly.

It works flawlessly. And, it plays it thru the USB link, so its doing a real digital feed, rather than the analog feed most iPode stereo integrations work with.

There's a free AAC compatibility plugin on XBL Marketplace as well, though all my iPod music is MP3.

Its an amazing integration.

[Fineus]

I realise my earlier post looks kinda negative, but I'm going to go and be a bit more positive about NFS:C now.

I just read an interview with the game producers and it turns out that my personal hate of NFS:MW - catchup - has been significantly reduced in favour of real-world performance of cars. No longer will you be overtaken by a car that was miles behind you and couldn't possibly match your car. Gone are the days of the Pug 205 overtaking a DB9 on a straight. They're angling back towards proper performance values and that means a lot to me as I was continually frustrated by the above.

I'm looking forward to this now.

[Deepblue]

Demo is up on XBLM. It's a bit crap IMHO.

[Inquisitor]

That makes me sad, I'll downlaod it tonight and look.

[Fineus]

Isn't that the XBox360 demo though, not the PC varient?

[Deepblue]

I wouldn't expect the PC version to be much different knowing EA...

The Cliff races are a ton of fun, but the rest is pretty meh. The worst part is the framerate. The game looks no better than NFS:MW but chugs like an alchoholic. I would certainly hope for more after the likes of PGR3 and even RR6. This is just pathetic on EA's part IMHO.

[Fineus]

It might not be much different, but I'd at least be happier seeing how it ran on my system than on a console variation, you know?

Any idea what's causing the frame rate problems? A lot of people have real issues with the motion blur they seem to like plastering on in more-than-healthy doses. I usually turn that off as soon as there's a program or setting out there that can do it.

[Inquisitor]

Its a little prettier than MW, more variety in colour, the night time neon is back, whether its back for the whole game is another question.

The straight up racing is more of the same, I am ok with that, and the addition of your "crew" to help you win the race is interesting, we'll see how that pans out in the full game, having them qall drive the same car is a bit goofy....

The car visual customization is kinda neat, autosculpt could be of fun to create unique rides out on  Xbox Live.

Drift racing is back, but it seemed to kinda suck. They also brought back the exotics (Gallardo, etc) so its not just a tuner game (I know MW did this too).

I dunno, I kinda liked the demo.

[spartan_0214]

I enjoy almost all of the Need for Speed franchise. However, there's only one MAJOR problem with NFS:

Damage Modeling.

Honestly, if you run into a wall at 150 mph, your car wouldn't be able to be towed to the finish line. And, you'd be dead.

That said, video games aren't always about realism, but still, your car only loses a bit of torque and a bit of speed when you constantly hit the walls at 150. What's up with that?

Other than that quarrel, the NFS series is fun with it's kinda lame storylines, but excellent edge-of-your-seat racing....

[Ulala]

You mean you want a damaged looking model or a damaged handling model? Or both?

[spartan_0214]

both, plus cars that actually move like they're damaged (not serverely though, that'd be ridiculous)

[BlackDove]

The game would be extremely hard/impossible to beat if damage models and effects were realistic. The whole point of Most Wanted is that everyone else sans the cars you're racing against is more or less realistically destructable. It's what allows you to flip over and destroy 50 police cars in one milestone setting. The police would **** you in the ass past condition three if the damage to you was equal to how they are damaged.

Nonsense.

[Ulala]

I like Burnout 3's method. Doors, hoods, etc fall off, lots of eye candy damage, explosions, and breakage... but you're still able to drive, lol. Not realistic by any means, but quite enjoyable and fun.

[vyper]

Gents, the main reason there are no damage dynamics is that the Brand owners would never allow unrealistic representations of damage made to their cars; Either in showing a car being weaker than it really is or stronger than it could possibly be. No damage at all is the only solution.

[Unknown Target]

The most recent NFS game I played (although, if I'm getting it right, I played the PC version):



Probably will be the last one too

[Deepblue]

Gents, the main reason there are no damage dynamics is that the Brand owners would never allow unrealistic representations of damage made to their cars; Either in showing a car being weaker than it really is or stronger than it could possibly be. No damage at all is the only solution.

Actually, they don't want severe damage at all, even if it is realistic. Which is why Forza 2 won't have wheels popping off unfortunately.

[Fineus]

Kind of sad really... shows a sort of paranoia that indicates they think people can't tell the difference between real life and computer game worlds.

If I drive a Lambo in a game and pile it into a wall at 200mph then of course the car is going to be ruined. That's not bad advertising for Lambo, it's common sense.

[spartan_0214]

actually, I'll have to side with Kalfireth. The physics on NFS are rather stupid. I have High Stakes for PS1, and when you hit a police interceptor, your car flips in the air? I don't think so. if you hit one of those, your car is going to flip through the air, total the interceptor, and kill you in the process. At the very least they should end the race right there. Or make the physics enough to where you hit an interceptor going 60 mph while you're doing 120 mph, the cars should bounce off of each other and hit walls and all kinds of things ... rather annoying that the physics is wrong.

There is one cure for this. A cheat code. On the PS1 version, hold down d-pad up, square, and circle, and your car becomes heavier. The physics are more realistic that way....

[asyikarea51]

All this talk about damage reminds me of a particular racing game that has utterly no damage model or code at all... but I don't mind having no damage, because these days, everyone plays rough. With possibly good reason, due to the way catch up works in that game... hitting and blocking becomes a necessity. ><

For me, I'll either have no damage, or visual damage at the most. No actual coded damage... sometimes it's just fun when someone sends you flying sky-high into the air, only to see you catch him off-guard and steal his victory at the finish line... XD

Obviously real life is a different story with real damage, so I'll go to games if I want fun without the dangers XD

[Fineus]

But if you had damage it'd add a whole new dimension to gameplay - having to have your car towed if you really badly crash it. Having to get the parts in and get mechanics to look at it etc. Or you could go the way of Carmageddon and say your car loses performance if you crash - but you can fix it mid-race by pressing a key.