NEED FOR SPEED 3 PC
Ten original race tracks were featured in NFS High Stakes while the PC version also added the nine tracks from Hot Pursuit which required to be unlocked first by playing. Speaking of cars, their number was increased now to 13. High Stakes was also coming with a special feature in which two racer bet their cars on a duel, with the winner being able to keep the other’s car. Building up on the previous title, the graphics were a bit more interesting, vehicle physics were improved and for the first time in the series, a career mode and damage system were implemented. Need for Speed: High Stakes came in 1999 and I think I played a bit of it over at one of my classmates who had a Playstation. The game had so many features to feast upon, I can’t even remember what impressed me the most realistic graphics for the time, car reflections (static ones of course, but still enough for the time), in-car camera, vehicle fine tuning (although I had no idea what those sliders do), police chases, multiplayer, the possibility to be the chasing cop, varied tracks or the electronic OST. I first played it on my cousin’s computer in 1998 when it came out and I was pretty much speechless. Next came Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit which represented my entrance into the world of virtual racing and NFS at the same time. random traffic into which you could crash) and a ton of cheat codes to alter the game experience. Special features included realistic background vehicles (i.e. This time though, the tracks weren’t simply made up, but were mixing fantasy with rear life landmarks. As with its predecessor, NFS II featured 9 exotic cars and seven tracks.
Need for Speed II came around in 1997 and despite the fact I was a bit more grown up, I still had almost no contact with it.
I suppose you have played at least one of the title’s series, but even so, I invite you take a look at how Need for Speed started and how it is today in the following ‘short’ retrospective. Ultimately, Need For Speed challenged us to beat our own high scores, laugh in the police’s face and run, defeat our enemies, collect all the cars, customize them, fine tune them, be the most wanted, win the race around the country, grab the cash, get the girl, loose our beloved car, take it back again, experience the thrills of both legal and illegal racing, infiltrate, catch the bad guys or be them, crash, burn, cry in anger or anxiously drive for hours to see the next cutscene.Īnd we’d like to give a big THANK YOU to all developers, publishers, talented artists and programmers that worked so hard to offer us experiences we don’t necessarily get in real life and for creating this awesome cult now defined by three letters - NFS. Need for Speed took us through four-wheel adventures in many parts of the world, like race tracks in Australia, Europe and Africa, or the sunny rural roads of France after which came the era of fictional cities, licensed international tracks again and then whole fictional states.
Need for Speed defined what an arcade racing game is, being based more on the fun experienced while playing than simulating real cars’ behavior, now being considered the most successful racing video game, with over 140 million copies sold until 2009.