Hold on to your bladders. It's going to be a triple-shocker! That's right, first-off, it's not another bloody SHUMP, which in it's self is staggering. Not least of all because I have a copy of Raiden DX on constant play on my PSP, and it's awesome. Shock number two, is that it's an NFS game. That's right: Need for Speed Porsche Unleashed. And thirdly, it's awesome too. Yep. Need for Speed – Porsche Unleashed is brilliant.
Now, you know me, and maybe you don't, but I like emotion in my games. I'm a big graphics whore, I make no secret of that, and I like driving games. I also pick-no-bones over the fact, that by and large the best driving games are the most modern. The best car related game I have played ever was Grid by Codemasters. I liked Grid because it simply is that good. Before that, I felt PGR4 was the best. On something called an Xbox 360 – whatever that is. PGR4 was placed in the ranks of 3DOkid love because it wasn't perfect, but it dripped emotion. The people who made PGR loved cars. In the same way Raystorms creators loved SHUMPS.
Not perfect, but epic. There is something about it, that makes you smile.
To say I love NFS Porsche Unleashed, today, in 2008, means it's pretty special.
So what's to love?
Firstly, Porsches. I do love Porsches. All Porsches. The 356, the 924, the 928, the 911, Turbos, RS', all of them. They are all awesome. You can keep your unreliable Italian trash, and your bloated half wooden anglo-battleships. Porsches are the greatest cars ever made. Ever. And I won't hear another word on the issue.
Next thing I love is the graphics. I picked one of the modes, don't ask me which one, go and read one of those reviews based on the game manual if you want to know that. Anyway, I picked a mode, picked a car; a handsome golden 356B cabriolet, with a green roof, and I started the pre-race qualification. In the snow. In Germany. To say I nearly wept for sheer joy, was, perhaps, something of understatement. Porsches? Snow? Germany? No combination of gaming goodness has brought me so close to a platonic love with a black disk, crammed with ones and zeros, than ever before.
If I wasn't so afraid of the wife catching me, I would have taken that disk on a two-hour knee trembler. Oh-how-I-love-this-game.
Is that clear?
Listen, the snow was falling! On my 356. In the snow. In Germany. Dare you imagine?
So, I took my 356 and started flinging it around corners. The first thing I noticed was it was true Sim-arcade. And god bless Electtronic Arts for that. The little car realistically performed a turn the Anthill Mob would have been proud of. This is not a bad thing. All the fun of real cars doing things that are simply impossible in the real world.
The other nice thing was damage. Well, to be fair it was and it wasn't. It was encouraging to see the PS1 pulling off such great things as car damage. Scratch the front wing, and behold, the front wing of the car is scratched. Very good. Still, it kind of ruined the replays. Especially for a Porsche-Graphics whore.
Now we come to an iffy part of this write up. Deep breath. Pause. I actually own one of the cars in the game. A black 911 Carrera.
Yeah. Okay. Whatever.
Now you finished ushering profanities, declaring this 'the worst I've got a Porsche' blog entry ever and waving your finger about guessing the size, incorrectly, of my manhood. You have one question right?
Is the game anything like the real thing?
No. Not at all.
The game is better.
Like I said; Cartoon handling, and exaggerated performance. For example, achieving 147Mph (237Kmh) is possible, of cause it is, it's just not that likely on a rough looking single track country road. Plus the acceleration of the game version of my 911, is much better than the real thing. You will also find, that if you press-the-hammer and accelerate away from the Police in excess of 120Mph, in any car really, the Police don't give up after a while. They really, really get the arse.
But that, in my opinion, is the beauty of the game. Gaming is fantasy. And this game lives up to that fantasy.
I am of the opinion however, that whoever wrote this game, was either under the kosh to produce an utterly loveable and completely stunning car game, one would assume Porsches legal koshes, or the good folk at EA loved Porsches too.
Now, there is one mistake. And all car games make the same one. The best car in this game is not the 911 (996) Turbo or the GT3. No. These cars lack charm, and they go too quick. And no, it's not my car. All games make the same mistake of believing the super-car is the best car, but true to every car game I've ever played, the most fun is to be had with one of the earlier cars. Namely in this case the 2.7 911 RS. It's fast enough. It looks great. It handles great. And the graphics are moulded to fit the cars era. It's perfect.
Finally, aside from my doubts over which car should be consider the best, this game is actually very good. In fact, it's better than good. It's brilliant. Fun, fast and emotive. Of the truly overlooked classics of the original Playstation, this game, is quite possibly, the best arcade-sim driving game on the PS1.
Yes – better than GT.
Need for Speed: Porsche Unleased. There is no substitute.
3DOKid.
