Nostalgia Sunday: Need For Speed II - Special Edition

 Need For Speed II - Special Edition

I got this game way back before the year 2000. It was for sale in a discounter and I got this along with FIFA 98, on which I might do another Nostalgia Sunday. It was a real fun game and my neighbours had it too, so we could play against each other. These were the days, where Need for Speed games were still good.

The Story:

You had three modes to choose from: Single Race, Tournament, or Knockout Race. Single Race is pretty self explanotory. You can race any track and try to get familiar with it. In Tournament mode, you race against several computer driven cars and try to become first. After finishing every track in the tournament and being first, you unlock new tracks, cars and the Knockout mode. In the Knockout mode you race against other cars. Every round, the last car gets eliminated, till there's only one left, who will be the winner. That's your "story". Who would have thought a racing game had a story anyway? Who am I kidding, I'll get to those in the "Sequels and Prequels" part.

The Game:

At first, you can choose between two modes: Arcade and Simulation. They pretty much speak for themselves, as Arcade is more for fun racing and Simulation for a more realistic feel. You then can choose between your cars, which reign from a McLaren F1 to a Ford Indigo concept car. The tracks differ from each other too. They take you into a jungle, into snowy mountains and also in the australian Outback. There's also a multiplayer mode for Splitscreen racing, or through a LAN network. There was a special track only for LAN races, but I never got to see it unfortunatly. After a while we had the game I also found out about cheats from my neighbours. Not those were really fun. You'd enter a code in the main menu and your car would change to another one. There were cars like a VW Beetle, that weren't even available through the normal game. You could even change your car to a giant T-Rex, or a toilet. It was fun experimenting with this, as you could even get a car, that was so fast, you couldn't even control it.

Prequels and Sequels:

Now if you don't know about the Need For Speed series, you have been propably living under a rock for 20 years. From being a more arcady game, it changed to being a simulation several times and back. I didn't play all the games, but some which I really enjoyed. Need For Speed Underground for the PS2, was the first NFS game I got after NFS2. The new style it had, tuning and street races, was a fresh breath in the racing genre. The whole game was fun and NFSU2 even improved on its predecessor. Then was basically again a time, where I didn't play any NFS game till today. After NFSU2, none of the NFS games seemed to appeal to me and many people thought like that too, I think. It was the same game every year, with a stupid story and not much playtime. The newest NFS game, Need For Speed The Run, is the best example. You can play through it in two hours and the long awaited "on foot" segments where just quick time events. Hopefully EA can go back to its roots and make a good NFS game again. I'd buy it.

As the first picture shows, I still have the game. I can't run it though, because it won't work on Windows 7. I have the PSX game for an emulator, but it just doesn't feel right for some way.

Syndicate Demo Impressions

So the demo of the game Syndicate came out a few days ago and I'd like to share my experiences with it.
First of all, I know the first Syndicate was more of a RTS game, while this is a FPS. I never played the original, so I can't draw any similarities or contrasts between the two. This is just about the new Syndicate.

So the first thing I did, obviously, was to download the game. It's about 800MB or something, so that didn't take long. I started the game, watched the intro and all that, and was then finally in the main menu. Till here: All fine. Then you choose to play coop. This menu STILL is ok. It's a little confusing, but still doable. The you use RB to choose your agent and my god I can't read anything. I have a 23 inch Full HD TV and I just can't decipher what's on the screen, until I move up close to the TV.
If you figured all that out, you'll choose your agent, what weapons he has, a server to play on and then the game starts.
You will propably have to wait for the other players, while waiting in a truck first. Everything is fine, but then BAM!

Your screen is cluttered with infos about your health, weapons, abilities, your teammates, your objective, where to find the holy grail and how 9/11 could have been avoided. Jokes aside, after a few minutes, you'll get used to it, but it still isn't really comfortable.
The gameplay itself is pretty much like any other shooter. You run through a level, kill the bad guys and enter new areals. What the game adds though, are the abilities in the lower left corner and the Dart Overlay in the lower right corner, which lets you see through walls and make out enemies for a small period of time. Your health is pretty low and the game mainly focuses on teamplay, so running and gunning like in Call of Duty isn't an option. You'll meet some small bosses in the level, which need your teamplay. They are immune to all projectiles, till someone disables the armour of the boss, by standing next to him and holding LB. The other teammates would have to distract the boss, so one teammate can do that.

Conclusion? I enjoy the demo, for what it is. The gameplay is fun, even though it's nothing new and seems to cash in on the "Call of Duty like shooters". I won't buy it though, till there's something that stands out to me, like a really good story, or more elements, that not every other shooter has.
You should try the demo out for yourself though. It's only 800MB.

100$ for a virtual car. Really EA? Really?

Source: http://asia.gamespot.com/news/ea-rolls-out-100-car-for-need-for-speed-world-6347632

This story's a little old, but it doesn't make it less ridiculous.
EA announced on 15th December the "Koenigsegg CCX Elite Edition", which will cost you 100$ to drive in the free racing MMO "Need For Speed World". Till 21st December there was a 25% discount, so it did cost 75$. Still something I wouldn't pay. I mean, I played World of Warcraft for 2 years or so, which cost me about 300€, but it wasn't just a car, but a huge world that evolved. This is just a car...that you don't physically own.

EAs banning spree

Source: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/12/05/ea-origin-bans-update-edition/

So, EA has been banning alot of people lately. And for no real reasons too. Apparently people say, like, a bad word on the EA forum, and they get banned for 72 hours or so.
Okay.
I could live with that.
BUT:
These banned words aren't really that bad, like maybe "e-peen". Okay, anyway, if those people try to appeal their ban, they get told off. 24 hours later, their account is now permanently banned.
No Origin, no EA games, no Multiplayer, no Singleplayer (yes Singleplayer) for you anymore. You now can't play the games you bought for the singleplayer.
I'm not banned yet, but I find this ridiculous. One reason why I'll never post on EA forums.