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The
selection of visual upgrades is now twice as that of the
first part. You
can pick from car-stereos, suicide doors, spoilers, headlights,
side skirts, roof scopes, rims and loads more.
I
really liked to play with the hydraulics, making your car
bounce to the music is very funny to see. This
feature is not only funny, but you can also use it to show
off for photo-shoots.
Aside
from upgrading your car with performance upgrades to make
it faster, you can also fine tune your car in the garage.
Here
you can tune your car to get the most out of it for a certain
race or measure the performance of the car like it is.
You
can test the car for its performance and let the computer
tune it automatically or tune it yourself manually.
Then
you also get the chance to test the tuning on a separate
track.
All
of this to squeeze that extra bit of performance out of
your car and achieve maximum performance for a race.
 Doing photo-shoots is a way to earn cash and make your
reputation grow a little more.
Getting
there is a complete different race altogether.
Sometimes
you’ll get a phone call, saying that there is a photo-shoot
across town, but first come first serve. Whoever
gets there first gets to win the photo-shoot and gets their
picture taken for a magazine or DVD cover.
It
can happen that the photo-shoot consists of 2 parts, winning
the shoot and then a quick race to get to the photographer.
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The
city covers a lot of ground and it’s divided in 5 neighborhoods.
Each
neighborhood has its own style, different racing conditions
or different tracks and will be unlocked as you progress
in the game.
This
means that the surface of the road, weather and dangers
alongside the road change, depending on which neighborhood
you are in. It
also means that the variety in scenery keeps you entertained
longer.
When
an area or neighborhood gets unlocked you will see a short
movie about that neighborhood to show you what you can expect.
There
are signs above and along side of the road to indicate which
neighborhood you are in just in case you forget.
They
also show you where to find certain shops.
A
new way to earn a lot of cash quick is to get yourself and
your car sponsored. This
means that a big brand name will sponsor you with money,
but you must win 3 or 4 races they have selected.
When
you select a sponsor you get to see which races you must
complete, beforehand of course, so you can pick which sponsor
and races best suit you.
Each
sponsored race earns more cash than the normal races would
and that’s on top of what you receive accepting the sponsorship.
It’s
a very fast way to get those much needed upgrades and to
receive a free sponsored car.
Of
course you only get the free car if you complete and win
all the sponsored races and finish the photo-shoot.
You
can select different cars to fit your racing needs and store
up to 5 cars in the garage.
Some
of the brands used in this game are Toyota, Honda, Renault,
Nissan, Ford etc etc. Each
car and brand has a different characteristic, which means
they will behave differently on the road. Sometimes
you need to switch cars to win a certain race.
If
you do buy a new car, it means that you have to start all
over again with your upgrades. At
least you can store the other car you had in the garage
and work with the one you just bought.
 When
you crash into other traffic or against other objects, you
might see some slow-motion effects making crashes more spectacular,
but it won’t damage your car.
It’s
not very realistic, but it saves you a lot of cash trying
to repair it. J
Many car manufacturers get twitchy at the idea of games
manufacturers showing their cars in a badly damaged state
and the lack of realistic damage effects may be a condition
of the licensing.
There’s
also an online mode, where you can race against other players
from around the world. In
the first part you could play against players from the Playstation
2 as well, with this release I expect that to be the same
for all the other consoles. Of
course I didn’t have the means to test and verify that.
Graphics:::…
The
graphics are incredible, but it does depend on what kind
of hardware you have.
It
has support for older (DirectX 8 compatible) video cards,
but then you won’t get to enjoy the richness of the graphics
that the game has to offer.
Every
car is highly detailed and the shopping avenues in the city
display high quality textures.
The
game takes place partly at night and this shows off the
light effects too, as you punch the gas, the world gets
slightly blurred and even moreso if you use the nitrous
boost. This
gives you the illusion the car drives really fast.
Roads
are slightly reflective and shiny, especially when it rains.
The
environments are detailed and very diverse, really pleasing
to the eyes.
Sound:::…
The
sound is good and well sampled and the sound effects are
terrific.
Different
cars and engines produce different sounds, the turbos squeal
a little when used.
 Engine noises are shaped by the environment they run
in, if you drive through a tunnel, the sound will actually
change and sound more hollowed out.
In
the distance you can hear the cars of other races if they
are in the same block.
You
can choose to play the game in mono or stereo, I didn’t
have a choice to select a 5.1 or 7.1 speaker set.
The
game is richly filled with background music, featuring rappers
like Snoop Dogg, Fat Joe, Xzibit and many others.
If
you really like the in-game music you can even buy the soundtrack
of it, one track by Snoop Dogg is exclusively available
for this game only.
For
more information on the soundtrack, you can visit the website
here.
Patching time:::…
The
game has just recently been released and there’s already
a patch available for it. It’s
version 1.1 and is said to improve performance by solving
some rendering issues.
That
seems to happen a lot these days with games. J
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