Need for Speed Carbon

Once you’ve chosen your ride, you’re sole mission is to overtake rival territories, until you’ve taken over the entire city of Palmont. To help you out in this noble quest, EA has added in a new feature that allows you to hire your very own crew (cough*Juiced*cough). Now I never played Juiced, but I enjoyed this addition as it gives you a certain edge over the competition. Your crew in the game comprises of different people who specialize in different areas; Blockers will block opponents, while Drafters will race in front of you to provide some sort of slipstream NOS (cough*Midnight Club*cough) and the most useless of all is the Scout as who will race in front of you showing you where to go next. Thanks, but I like to rely on my own eyes for that.

Even though the addition of a crew is a nice feature, it hasn’t been implemented very well as your crew’s AI isn’t as sharp as you may imagine and they end up blocking/banging you at times. To make matters worse, they’ll constantly chatter with you, boring you with their repetitive dialogues, and this kind of gets annoying after a while. The more races you win with (or without) your crew, the more districts you take over and once you’ve taken over an entire territory (that comprises of an X amount of districts), you’ll be treated to a one on one with the area’s Boss. This showdown is broken up into two parts; one has you racing with him/her in the city, while the other has you duking it out in the canyons in a *drum roll*... canyon duel. Ah yes, the canyon, a winding and narrowing bitch of a road where one mistake can cost you your life. Canyon races are broken up into two parts as well; the first has your opponent in the lead while you try and catch up with him, while the second will see you in the lead while he tries top catch up with you. If you manage to overtake him (and keep that up for 10 seconds) or knock him off the ledge in the first race, the second one doesn’t take place at all and you win the dual. Unlike the boss fights from Most Wanted, these duals will test your patience as the bosses rarely screw up and if they’ve taken a lead, you’ll rarely be able to catch up with them.