Sunday, April 22, 2007

carbon

Plot outline

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
Races with as many as 12 cars racing on the same track are now featured in Carbon; as well as a larger variety of licensed vehicles than its predecessor Need for Speed: Most Wanted; from the "Exotic," "Tuner," and "Muscle" categories.
Races with as many as 12 cars racing on the same track are now featured in Carbon; as well as a larger variety of licensed vehicles than its predecessor Need for Speed: Most Wanted; from the "Exotic," "Tuner," and "Muscle" categories.
Carbon allows the player to change every aspect of their car's appearance; from the exhaust tips to the entire body kit. Here, a stock Lamborghini Murciélago LP640 is compared to a heavily modified Audi Le Mans Quattro, showing the range of possibilities.
Carbon allows the player to change every aspect of their car's appearance; from the exhaust tips to the entire body kit. Here, a stock Lamborghini Murciélago LP640 is compared to a heavily modified Audi Le Mans Quattro, showing the range of possibilities.

The prologue to the beginning of the Career Mode, starts out with the player driving down Carbon Canyon in their BMW M3 GTR, which the player won back from Razor (the antagonist in Need For Speed Most Wanted) in the final Blacklist race in Rockport. The story is recalled throughout the game with the use of FMV sequences, which are presented as "flashbacks". The first flashback recaps the player's last race before he left Palmont, driving Darius's Toyota Supra, in Palmont City (with Kenji, Angie, and Wolf racing against him). As the cars approached the finish, the Palmont PD ambush them and use some sort of EMP device to disable all the cars, apart from the player's. Nikki, the player's friend throughout the game, rushes to the car to drop off a bag containing the prize money. As she tries to pass the bag over to the player a 'cop' pulls her away, and the player makes his escape through an alley that is strangely blocked by Chrysler 300C after the player escapes. The player opens the sack only to find it is filled with paper, implying there were two bags, a decoy and a real one; and that they had been switched without Nikki realizing. As the flashback ends, Darius advises the player to leave the city with his car rather than face the heat. The subsequent introductory race involves Cross (the former Rockport Police Sergeant), who is now a bounty hunter, pursuing the player down a Canyon in his Chevrolet Corvette C6, just as the player is about to drive away. Like the intro race in Most Wanted, this race ends abruptly, fading out as the player's car slams into a truck. The next cut scene shows the BMW M3 GTR totalled and cornered by Cross, who is all too happy to finally settle their old score from Rockport. Eventually, Darius comes to the scene in his Audi Le Mans Quattro. Darius gives Cross the money he needed, and Cross goes away.

As Darius explains to the player now the main concern in Palmont is the current war for territories between rival Racing Crews. There are 4 dominant gangs ruling their respective areas of the city, three of them headed by the player's opponents during the race that fateful night the player left; as well as Darius's "Stacked Deck", along with several minor gangs. Darius recruits the player with the intention of using him to take over the city for "Stacked Deck", to return Darius's favor of saving him from arrest.

As the player progresses through Career Mode and proceeds to win more and more races, the player gains new territories and eventually wins complete control over a gang's entire district. After taking all the territories in one district, the boss of the district's dominant gang challenges the player to a series of 2 races: one on the streets of his or her respective district and the second in the canyons. If the player wins, they are awarded "Marker Cards" similar to those in Need for Speed: Most Wanted; the player can choose two out of a possible six cards, one of which maybe the pink slip to the defeated boss's car. After that, a member of the defeated crew will ask to meet the player, where he/she will then reveal their point-of-view of the night the player fled, giving clues to help the player make sense of the suspicious circumstances of his departure and offer to join your crew.

After the player defeats all three crew bosses, Darius offers to meet up with the player. Instead of congratulating him, he accuses the player of stealing the money that was dropped off in the player's car and asserts that the city is rightfully his own. He then has Cross, who was waiting for the player; arrest him. Next, Darius takes the player's car keys and hands them to Nikki, asking her to bring the player's car to his garage. However, Cross instead releases the player as Nikki tells him of a deal she made with Cross, before handing back the player's keys. She also helps the player connect his crew members' stories to reveal the true nature of the police intervention: Darius had set up the fateful race to allow him to become head of the Dominant "Crew" in Palmont and to drive the player out who was a threat to him. Part of Nikki's deal, includes her racing as part of your crew.

The player is then given access to Silverton, the final District the player has to conquer, controlled by Darius's "Stacked Deck". Here Darius is agitated by the player's dominance and recruits the three other major crew bosses to race against the player; part of the deal presumably, providing them with new cars as well. Once the player defeats of all of Silverton's territories, he is challenged to a series of 4 final races, the first two against all three of the other gang's bosses, the 3rd a street duel and the finale; a Canyon Duel with Darius.

After Darius is finally defeated, he grudgingly hands over the keys to his Audi. Darius then leaves without much left to say, but not before giving a final warning that "there's always someone out there who's faster than you are, and sooner or later they're going to catch up."

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Car Customization

Carbon allows for a considerably larger number of car customization options than the previous game in Most Wanted. The new AutoSculpt feature allows you to take stock after market parts such as spoilers and rims, and shape and mould them to your liking, adding and defining little touches, such as shape, contours, size, etc. It also allows you to layer as many vinyls as you like, which was previously not possible in Most Wanted; and pick from an enormous amount of colors, different paint types for your car, vinyls, rims and other various accessories. There is also the option to tune the performance for your cars by tweaking performance parts like Turbochargers for example, to have more or less Torque or Horsepower; or choosing between Wheels that have very good grip or very good drift characteristics. All the performance tuning options have their advantages and disadvantages however; i.e. Nitrous Oxide systems that have a high velocity provide a quick surge of high power but have much less capacity. This allows for a much greater variation in performance among the same or similar cars.

[edit] Characters

It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Need for Speed series characters#Carbon. (Discuss)
Main article: Need for Speed series characters#Carbon

There are several main characters that the player encounters during the game, some of these character's can eventually become part of the player's own street racing "Crew":

Name Casted by Voice by Car(s) Boss of Description
Nikki Emmanuelle Vaugier Emmanuelle Vaugier Ford GT - The player's ex-girlfriend who is on your side for most of the game and reveals much of the back story to you. She becomes a selectable crew member as a "Drafter" later in the game.
Darius Tahmoh Penikett Tahmoh Penikett Audi Le Mans Quattro Stacked Deck The game's chief antagonist and boss of "Stacked Deck", whom you end up racing in the final canyon duel to control all of Palmont. Although he helped you escape in the beginning, he reveals his hidden agenda as you capture territories and as the game progresses.
Cross Dean McKenzie Dean McKenzie Chevrolet Corvette C6 - The former Police Sergeant of the Rockport Police Department who lost his job after failing to stop you from escaping Rockport in NFS: MW. Currently works as a bounty hunter bringing street racers such as yourself to justice, however his hidden agenda in the storyline is never made clear and although he is tipped off by Darius as to your whereabouts, Nikki manages to somehow secretly call him off after making a deal, and you escape from him once more.
Angie Danielle Kremeniuk Danielle Kremeniuk 1969 Dodge Charger R/T
2006 Dodge Challenger Concept		 21st Street She's the Boss of a gang called "21st Street" located in the Kempton District; prefers muscle cars.
Kenji Ken Kirby Ken Kirby
Archie Kao		 Mazda RX-7
Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX		 Bushido He's the Boss of a gang called "Bushido" located in the Downtown Palmont District; prefers tuner cars.
Wolf Shaw Madson Shaw Madson Aston Martin DB9
Lamborghini Murcielago		 TFk He's the Boss of a gang called "TFK" located in the Fortuna District; prefers exotic cars.


Pole Position on a circuit race in Need for Speed: Carbon; the player's car in the foreground is a Nissan Skyline R34 GTR V-Spec, a Tier 3 Tuner Car in the game.
Pole Position on a circuit race in Need for Speed: Carbon; the player's car in the foreground is a Nissan Skyline R34 GTR V-Spec, a Tier 3 Tuner Car in the game.

Note that the three crew bosses have two cars listed, the first is their primary car which they use earlier in the Career Mode against the player when he races for control of their respective Districts, and can be won by the player after capturing all of their territory. The second can only be seen after the player defeats all of the above crew bosses and unlocks the final district, Silverton. They then proceed to work for Darius, trying to bring you down under his orders and race against the player. Their final cars have new "Stacked Deck" paint jobs, with vinyl designs similar to that of their former crews. Their racing and handling AI has also somewhat markedly improved from the player's previous encounters with them.

As the game progresses, the player can select the following people to be a crew member; however the player can only hire 3 crew members at a time, and only one active crew member can participate with the player in a race. Since the player can only hire 3 members at a time, it allows for some planning and strategy as to the outcome of races. For example, if some extra cash was needed and the player didn't want attract extra police attention in the territory he was racing in; a combination of at least one Mechanic and Fixer would allow for some extra cash and less heat from the police. While every crew member has a unique skill and specialty, they also reveal to the player a piece of the storyline, recalling what they specifically remember from the mysterious night the player left Palmont in the beginning:

Name Casted by Voice by Car(s) Roles Skills Description
Colin Steve Lawlor Steve Lawlor Tier 1: Alfa Romeo Brera
Tier 2: Porsche Cayman S
Tier 3: Porsche Carrera GT		 Drafter Fabricator Comin is a drafter in the game. A drafter goes in front of you and if you stay right behind him, your car will increse speed.(because of less air resistance)If you stay behind him, you will increase speed and have alot better handling. Ranking member of Wolf's TFK before his defeat. He reveals to the player that he knows what the thief who switched the money bag looked like. Uses Exotics.
Neville Chris Gauthier Chris Gauthier
Brian Scolaro		 Matches Player's STARTING class

Tuner: Tier 1: Mazda Mazdaspeed 3
Tier 2: Renault Clio V6
Tier 3: Nissan 350Z

Muscle: Tier 1: Chrysler 300C
Tier 2: Ford Mustang GT
Tier 3: Shelby GT500 '67

Exotic: Tier 1: Alfa Romeo Brera
Tier 2: Lotus Elise
Tier 3: Lamborghini Gallardo

 Blocker Fixer Your first crew member, portrayed as an awkward, obese, typical social loser; albeit a formidable Blocker, he uses cars in the same class as the player.
Nikki Emmanuelle Vaugier Emmanuelle Vaugier Ford GT Drafter Mechanic The last person to join your crew. She only uses a Ford GT, and is available after you start racing against Darius in Silverton. See above table in the table for more info.
Sal Elias Toufexis Elias Toufexis
Josh Keaton		 Matches Player's STARTING class

Tuner: Tier 1: Mazda RX-8
Tier 2: Volkswagen Golf R32
Tier 3: Toyota Supra

Muscle: Tier 1:Chevrolet Camaro SS
Tier 2: Dodge Charger SRT-8
Tier 3: Shelby GT500 '67

Exotic: Tier 1: Mercedes-Benz CLK-500
Tier 2: Porsche Cayman S
Tier 3: Lamborghini Gallardo

 Scout Fabricator Sal is a scout,which means he tells you where the alleys are and helps you find the shortest way to the finish line. The second racer to join your crew, a young, experienced driver, he is interested by your former "reputation". He uses cars in the same class as the player.
Samson Noah Danby Noah Danby
Joe May		 Tier 1: Chevrolet Camaro SS
Tier 2:Dodge Charger R/T
Tier 3: Plymouth Hemi `Cuda		 Blocker Fixer A member of Angie's "21st Street" Crew before her defeat. The only former crew member to not fly his respective crew's colors, he explains that the driver of the Chrysler 300C that aided your escape in the beginning has a badge on his belt. He favors Muscle Cars.
Yumi Melody Melody
Kim Mai Guest		 Tier 1: Mazda RX-8
Tier 2: Mitsubishi Eclipse GT
Tier 3: Subaru Impreza WRX STi		 Scout Mechanic Formerly a member(possibly second-in-command)to Kenji's "Bushido" before his defeat. Yumi explains she had tuned into the Palmont Police Radio frequency during your escape and explains that the ensuing chaos was all set and planned from the start. Uses Tuners.


Crew Member Name Main Ability / Sub Race Bonus Career Bonus
Colin Drafter / Fabricator Longer Draftstream when active Enables AutoSculpt Spoilers, Exhaust Tips, Wheels and Chop top (Muscle Cars only)
Neville Block / Fixer Zone Heat doesn't increase after the race +$200 add to winnings
Nikki Drafter / Mechanic Speedbreaker and NOS get an extra 50% Car Purchase get an 10% Discount
Sal Scout / Fabricator Zone Heat is reduced after winning Enables AutoSculpt Body Kits, Hoods and Roof Scoops
Samson Blocker / Fixer 10% of winnings is added to total winnings Controlled Zones draw less cop attention
Yumi Scout / Mechanic NOS get a 25% boost Performance Parts Purchase will get a 10% Discount
A Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX MR Edition during a circuit race in Carbon.
A Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX MR Edition during a circuit race in Carbon.

Other miscellaneous people include:

Name Casted by
Stunt Nikki Silje Halvorsen
David David Footman
Flag Girls Cheryl Dee Chung
Heather Johnson


[edit] Crews

Bushido
a Tuner Crew led by "Kenji", they control the Downtown District of Palmont.
T.F.K.
an Exotic Crew led by "Wolf" who race in the Fortuna District.
21st Street
a Muscle Crew led by "Angie", who controls the Kempton District.
Stacked Deck
the most powerful crew in Palmont the player must race against, with a variety of Exotic, Tuner and Muscle cars of tier 3 origin; led by Darius in the Silverton District.

[edit] Minor crews

Inferno
A minor and weak Muscle Car crew that can be found in some parts of Fortuna.
Los Colibries
A minor crew with muscle Cars that control a small part of Downtown.
Scorpios
A slightly more powerful crew that favors tuner Cars, that can be found in Kempton and are led by a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX.
Kings
The weakest of the minor crews, they are found in the Downtown District and only challenge in the player in a few races; and are subsequently completely defeated. They drive all types of cars.
Rotor 4
Another minor crew which drive tuner vehicles that can be found in the Fortuna District.
Black Hearts
A small group, who are mainly in Kempton District. Prefers exotic cars

[edit] Official cars

A Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX and a Lamborghini Gallardo in a Canyon Duel--a game mode that resembles touge.
A Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX and a Lamborghini Gallardo in a Canyon Duel--a game mode that resembles touge.

The cars in Need for Speed: Carbon are divided into three categories:

Tuner Cars: Their strongest point is handling, with decent acceleration but slower top speed. They consist of Japanese cars and mainstream European models.

Muscle Cars: Their strongest point is acceleration and have decent top speed. Their handling is also poor though, and such cars are prone to sliding. Most cars are from companies of the United States.

Exotic Cars: Their strongest point is their top speed, and are the most balanced, performance-wise, of the car classes. Most cars are from European companies.

*Exclusive to EA Downloader NFS: Carbon Collectors Edition
**Exclusive to NFS: Carbon Collectors Edition
***Accidentally locked cars that were meant to be available
#only playable in Challenge Series

The official site only lists 46 vehicles, 3 of those being special police cars.[2][3]

[edit] Cut Features

This is a list of some of the features that were originally intended to be a part of Carbon but were cut either due to time restraints, changes in design or difficulty of implementation:

  • A police helicopter that fired vehicle EMP disablers (much like the movie 2 Fast 2 Furious) was supposed to join Police Pursuits in the game at Heat Level 3, but was cut due to the complexity of mapping paths in the air.
  • Customizable license plates. This feature could be unlocked in Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition. EA chose to cut it because they wouldn't be able to restrict what players would put on their license plates (eg. offensive/obscene words).
  • Drifting races with computer players racing alongside the player; however programmers had difficulty in programming the AI to drift. This feature was included during drift races in Need for Speed: Underground 2.
  • Rain during drift races.
  • A fourth type of crew member: a "Persuader", who could cause traffic to block the player's opponents. This was cut due to programming difficulties.
  • Traffic in Canyon Duel and Race Wars.
  • Many UCAP (motion capture for facial expressions) scenes were cut due to the sheer amount of rendering power needed.
  • 20 Car races were cut from previous-generation (i.e. PS2, Gamecube, and Xbox) console versions of Need for Speed: Carbon due to lack of processing power and ability to handle complex graphics and large races. These versions also do not show the faces of the drivers in their cars, when they talk to the player; instead returning to the "talking cars" cut-scenes from Need For Speed: Most Wanted.
  • A flag girl (the girl in cut scenes before a race who flags the start) for Tuner races (currently there are only Muscle and Exotic flag girls in the game).
  • Including the San Juan district as a fully-explorable starting area prior to Palmont, complete with Police AI. Cut due to complexity and size.
  • The ability to adjust the Pitch of your car's suspension, making it slant downwards.
  • The ability to get more than a 20x bonus multiplier on Drift races.

[edit] Trivia

  • When a player is in pursuit Heat Level 5 or more in the challenge series, Cross's Z06 Corvette will appear; visually exactly the same as his pursuit Corvette from Rockport, down to the police department badge.
  • The San Juan district is unaccessible by free roam. It is only used as a practice course in the beginning of the game (available in the Collectors Edition), or in Pursuit Tag.
  • All the hotels and casinos in Silverton are spoofs of their real-life counterparts (e.g. the London hotel is a spoof of the New York, New York resort and casino, in Las Vegas.
  • Cross's Corvette C6 is the same Corvette C6 from Need For Speed Most Wanted, only the police logos and vinyls were removed.

[edit] Soundtrack

Much like the previous Need For Speed titles, the soundtrack features a variety of electronic, hip-hop, and rock music. The list of licensed tracks is as follows:

  1. Dynamite MC - "Bounce" & "After Party"
  2. Ekstrak feat. Know-1 - "Hard Drivers"
  3. Eagles of Death Metal - "(Don't Speak) I Came to Make a Bang"
  4. Every Move a Picture - "Signs of Life"
  5. Gary Numan/Tubeway Army - "Are 'Friends' Electric?"
  6. Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five - "Scorpio"
  7. Goldfrapp - "Ride a White Horse (Serge Santiago Remix)"
  8. Kyuss - "Hurricane"
  9. Lady Sovereign - "Love Me or Hate Me"
  10. Ladytron - "Sugar (Jagz Kooner Remix)" & "Fighting In Built Up Areas"
  11. Melody. - "Feel The Rush (Junkie XL Remix)"
  12. Metro Riots - "Thee Small Faces"
  13. Part 2 feat. Fallacy - "One of Dem Days (Remix)"
  14. Pharrell feat. Lauren - "Skateboard P presents: Show You How to Hustle"
  15. Priestess - "I Am the Night, Colour Me Black"
  16. Roots Manuva - "No Love"
  17. Spank Rock - "What It Look Like"
  18. Sway - "Hype Boys"
  19. The Bronx - "Around the Horn"
  20. The Presets - "Steamworks"
  21. The Vacation - "I'm No Good"
  22. Tiga - "Good As Gold"
  23. Tigarah - "Girl Fight (Mr. D Hyphy Mix)"
  24. Tomas Andersson - "Washing Up (Tiga Remix)"
  25. Valient Thorr - "Heatseeker"
  26. Vitalic - "My Friend Dario"
  27. Wolfmother - "Joker & the Thief"
  28. Yonderboi - "People Always Talk About the Weather (Junkie XL Remix)"
12 Racers pitted against each other in the new "Race Wars" tournaments, unique to Carbon.
12 Racers pitted against each other in the new "Race Wars" tournaments, unique to Carbon.

[edit] Critical Reception

Many magazines reviewed the game well. PCFormat gave it a score of 78%, saying that it was "engaging enough," but lacked innovation. IGN.com gave it a 7.9 and 8.2 for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 versions respectively, out of 10 possible points.

"It's not revolutionary, it's not brilliant, but it's good, deep racing." said IGN.com

One criticism of the game is that it doesn't take a lot of time to beat. Gamespot noted that it only took them 7 hours to beat, hugely shorter than the gameplay time needed for its predecessor.

Another major criticism of Need for Speed: Carbon was that with its release, many of the anticipated cars such as the Porsche 911 Turbo and Ford Shelby Mustang GT500 were unaccessible in game. After much criticism from common Need for Speed forums such as NFSUnlimited.net and NFScars.net, EA's representative Smoothie later discussed this as a minor problem made during the late production of the game, and respectively, EA released packages of the locked cars available for download for $5.00 USD on the game's website.

It must also be noted that Carbon's road system has not been built to "Most Wanted" caliber, with far too many corners to provide a driving experience. Top speeds are not easily attained, with many of the roads resulting in awkward turns and corners.

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