Need for Speed Underground

Need for Speed Underground was EA's fastest title yet. We've already seen how the new technology (rumored to be the Xbox and PlayStation 2) is able to render the jaw-dropping cutscenes that made up the actual gameplay. This is one of the few games we've heard from EA that seemed to give the PC and Xbox a run for their money--they're doing this in a single second with the Xbox version. The visuals of the PC and Xbox versions will purportedly run at the highest possible quality, and you'll see that the level of detail and detail in the graphics engine is impressive.

As for the game itself, Need for Speed Underground will take place in Chicago, a near-future setting populated by street racing drivers and police, as well as each of the game's 20 existing NFS characters, as well as different manufacturers and venues. The police will be the driving force that you'll control, with NFS Underground taking heavy advantage of the Xbox's hardware, as they'll be able to take corners and hop over each other's cars or objects. When in the midst of the action, you'll be able to look around corners and observe other drivers' routes through the city, and you'll be able to interact with them. As you might expect, the PC and Xbox versions of the game will benefit from the same features as the PlayStation 2 and GameCube versions, and the Xbox and PlayStation 2 versions will offer quite a bit of new content in the form of content and extras.

Need for Speed Underground's visuals engine will benefit from some great new lighting effects, such as the way that the lights come on and off your car in the most effective way.

The graphics in Need for Speed Underground are shaping up nicely on both the Xbox and PlayStation 2. The Xbox game has been beefed up since we last saw it, thanks to its beefy CPU and network features. As you'd expect, the Xbox version is sharper, with some nice refinements in its lighting, bump mapping, and animation. The other major addition to the game, which we've covered before, is the camera. The Xbox game features an impressive set of three-tiered screens that offer an in-game view of your car. You'll see sparks flying in the breeze as you're chased by the police and assorted environmental effects. The final touch is that the game's audio is being tweaked and will include a wealth of different tunes and tracks.

The audio in the game is shaping up to offer an exciting experience. The music is still a bit rough around the edges in places, and it hasn't gotten its due in its place since we last saw it. The audio has gotten a bit beefier thanks to some polish and an audio tweak that keeps things moving along. The car models feature a clean and powerful presentation that is appealing thanks to an impressive assortment of ambient effects that are appropriately copious and menacing. You'll hear the various bump mapping and fire effects that are in place, as well as the ever-present whine of the car. The assorted effects, which are an assortment of color-coded signs, will add a bit of variety to the racing. You'll hear the assorted bumps and particle effects that are in place throughout the game. The voice acting is suitably high-energy and adds a nice touch of profanity to the proceedings. The game's visuals offer a unique take on the audio experience.

Based on what we've seen so far, Burnout Paradise's visuals are coming together pretty well. The core gameplay offers a sizable upgrade over the original game's visuals and offers a good amount of customization for your car. You'll find a solid assortment of modes to choose from, most of which can be experienced from the first-person view. You'll find two new modes in Burnout Paradise, career and time attack. career is a career-style mode that rewards you for making the best of the many challenges you'll face in the game. You'll be able to tweak your car's appearance in a number of ways, the most prominent of which is the various challenges you'll face in the game. You'll find a story mode that will deal with the character's personal journey from high school to the Paradise City heist. The game's story mode is a collection of your own custom content that will include unlockable content from the various modes. You'll find roughly 10 individual events to unlock. You'll find two story-driven modes to choose from in Burnout Paradise. The time attack mode will feature your standard set of tasks you'll have to complete to earn new cars. You'll find yourself tearing through the game's modes in both time attack and time attack modes. The twist to the mode is that you'll find yourself earning new content as you play. The content will offer a good deal of variety to offer you a tighter experience that's both new and familiar.

The Burnout Revenge modes will offer a mix of old and new content.