Overall: Well EA Sports changed up on this Need for Speed and takes all of the Illegal street racing action we've been used to into the world of Sanctioned Events with ProStreet. Of course you've gotta work your way through the different racing/events styles- Grip, Drift, Drag or Speed to face the Top Dawg Ryobi Watanabe.
NFS:ProStreet changes the normal drag racing of just lining up and going the distance to beat your opponent, but yet like an actual Drag race you must Preheat your tires. This being said it's not just hold the gas and it warms them up, you have actually got to work the gas to achieve MAX Grip. Not only that, but like a regular drag race if you get to high in the RPM's on the line you can pop the front end up and ride a wheelie. That will come into play in the Wheelie Drag event but not when you're trying to get the best time down the 1320.
Working through the Events you'll earn points to Own each event and unlock more cars for you to try and dominate the tracks with. As always you can go in and customize and modify your vehicles to be fast and eye catching. Gameplay: NFS:ProStreet is pretty easy to get used to, although drifting and the wheelie contests can get to be tricky. Some of the high speed events can put you on the edge of your seat trying to kep the car on the road and avoid being totaled. TOTALED is one of the cool new features that takes your wreck and puts it into slow motion so you see all of the havoc that happened to the vehicle.
ProStreet offers the following driving events:
Grip/Grip Cl@!%#*!- Where you have to beat the other cars in your cl@!%#*! to the finish.
Drift- think you've got style and can slide w/ the best ?
Drag- warm your tires up and launch down 1/4 or 1/2 mile tracks.
-Drag Wheelie- lauch your car and try and keep your front end off the ground the longest distance.
Speed Challenge- getting from the start to the finish the fastest
When driving in ProStreet a new feature offered is a clutch, you have the normal Automatic and Manual but clutch offers the ability to engage and disengage the clutch like you would while driving a real car. this adds to the gameplay and makes it a little more then just a simple trigger pull for gas and a button to shift but yet add the bumper button as the clutch to be able to shift up or down.
As always with the NFS series you can go online and race MP in events like you did during your way through the Career Mode. Also another new feature, you may choose to share a Blueprint you have done for a car with a friends so everyone has the same setup for an event. Racers warm up your tires and grip your steering wheel for a fun ride. Graphics: From the opening you can see the detail that EA has added to the vehicles and the look of read asphalt as you fly down the road. As you race through tracks you'll have spectators cheering and watching the race and don't get caught up looking at them cause the telephone poles or moutain ridges can result in a TOTALED ride you've gotta watch slowly tumble and roll to a crashing hault.
ProStreet will have you dodging parts as you race around giving yet another obsticle to contend with above and beyond your AI competitors. Sound: As you compete the announcer is praising how good of a driver you, Ryan Cooper, is as you tear around the tracks. When you sit in teh burnout box and rev up the car and you hear the tires scream, announcer working the crowd you know it's time to show your stuff.
The sounds of the cars, tires screeching and a cool soundtrack to pump out some great tunes as you Dominate your way to Victory in NFS:ProStreet.
Overall: Need For Speed Pro Street has been wrongly criticized throughout it's release, and all the criticizing is unjustified. The game was VERY good, and although some errors did exist, it more than made up for it with a solid delivery, excellent visuals, great audio and good gameplay throughout the entire career mode. It had a @!%#*! high replay value, too, which is rare in racing games these days, reasons still unknown but it wasn't a factor in this title. Gameplay: The gameplay was very good, and the damage modeling was brilliant. Destroying Zondas and Lambos never gave me a bittersweet feeling the way this game did. The handling itself was very good too. However, one big factor was that the framerate was extremely unsteady at points, especially in tunnels. The customization was briliant, too. Graphics: The graphics were amazing. The car models were as good as the likes of PGR4 (well, not really but pretty close). The enviroments looked spectacular too, especially Nevada. I don't know why people say the graphics were lacking. They're brilliant and the best in the NFS series so far. The damage modeling didn't dissapoint, either. Sound: The cars sounded amazing, just like they should. Honda Civic loud and abnoxious but nice nonetheless , the Pagani Zonda like an Enzo on steroids. Nothing out of place. The soundtrack was quite good and the least annoying in the NFS series. Some very catchy songs in the mix!
Overall: Need for Speed Prostreet gave me a need to give Most Wanted another test drive. The graphics are good (on par with Most Wanted and Carbon) but they have not progressed beyond that. The cars look good but the crowd makes you think Tobey Maguires' character in Spiderman 3 is a Van Gough. The tracks are just that, tracks. As such they are bland. This is an average racer. It tries to imitate Forza 2 and doesn't quite hit it's mark. The game isn't bad, it's just not Need For Speed. Gameplay: I'm not sure how I can pull off 50 words that I require in this section when the game is about driving on tracks. That's it. Gone are the cops, free roam and Speedbreaker. Playing this game on a track is like driving a Porshe in a sandbox. Sure your ride looks sweet but you have nowhere to go. Prostreet gives the player that same effect. You would think a street racing game would take place on the street. Maybe EA is twitchy about getting sued. Maybe they could hear Jack Thompson slithering around. EA played it safe here and so will you with no sense of excitement or thrill. Graphics: Cars look good. They do break apart really nicely but you have to pay for all that bent metal so you tend to drive more cautiously. Think of it as Need for Speed with training wheels. You don't want to write off your car. The tracks look good but lack environmental detail. The crowd looks terrible. A huge step back for the series in terms of the look of the characters and no graphic progression in any other areas. Sound: The vehicles sound good. There isn't much else in terms of audio. At least Most Wanted had the cool cop chatter. The announcer is really bad as well. Kind of like when you go to the grocery store and you can hear someone talkng on the P.A. system but you tune them out because you have no interest in what they are saying. You will drown out the event announcer in a similar fashion. Suggestions: Drag racing is really improved in this version. Keep that and scrap everything else. Maybe EA is on to something here. I bought Prostreet and traded it and got Most Wanted instead. I had Most Wanted when the 360 launched and I should have kept it. EA basically just sold me two games. Unless the next Need For Speed is true to the series, EA won't be selling me another.
