Need for Speed: Carbon for PlayStation 2 Reviews by Gamers

Sure, NFS: Carbon looks great, and sounds great...but it's not great. Firstly, either I'm getting too good at these games, or Carbon is way too easy. Secondly, the car selection isn't as varied as it has been in the past. Thirdly, I'm unimpressed by the customization. Okay, yeah, you can Autosculpt SOME of the parts, but only if you have certain people in your crew (usually the more worthless ones), and even though I'll spend a good 10-15 minutes pimping out my "ride", I don't like spending hours tweaking each little curve and fin to the minutest detail...I play the game to race, not to stare at my car in the garage, and I can only see the rear end of my car 99% of the time, so who cares if my rims are concaved 28%? Fourthly, the races themselves are lacking. Gone are the drag-races, the drifting (which I've never liked to begin with) is sloppy at best, the circuits are ALL 2 laps, and the canyon races are impossibly frustrating with anything but a tuner, and then you're two slow to win it! Fifthly, the wingmen! UGH!!! The blockers are worthless because they're too far behind to ever catch up to anyone to block, and the drafters are prone to blocking you! Scouts are nice sometimes for showing some shortcuts, but they tend to show your opponents them, too. All wingmen love to get in the way, and the races without them are the most fun. All in all, compared to most racers, Carbon is a decent game, but as far as a Need For Speed title, it falls way short. BRICK!!!

This game has too much loading, too many badly acted cut scenes, a stupid plot, and gameplay tricks that complicate your day and detract from just racing. I don't care about my "crew", I don't want to wander around at night to find my "safe house", and I don't care about taking over areas from other gangs. What happened to the racing?

The characters in this game aren't "cool", they're just insulting and stereotypical. It feels like something middle-aged suburban white dudes thought would play well with urban youth hipsters. Wrong.

Once upon a time, when it was just about fast driving in an expensive car, I thought the Need For Speed series was a lot of fun. Maybe I'm just getting too old for this.