| Brand: |
Electronic Arts |
| Average Rating |
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Need for Speed Carbon Wii What starts in the city is settled in the canyons as Need for Speed Carbon immerses you in the world’s most dangerous and adrenaline-filled form of street racing. You and your crew must race in an all-out war for the city, risking everything to take over your rivals’ neighborhoods one block at a time. As the police turn up the heat, the battle ultimately shifts to Carbon Canyon, where territories and reputations can be lost on every perilous curve. Represent your car class, your crew, and your turf in Need for Speed Carbon, the next revolution in racing games.
Survive the Canyon All-new Canyon Duel and Drift race modes are the ultimate test of skill and nerve, where one wrong turn could cost you more than the race.
The City Is Yours for the Taking Race for control of the city block-by-block by taking down rival crews on their turf, then defeat their crew leaders in life-or-death races in Carbon Canyon.
Customize Your Dream Cars The revolutionary new Autosculpt car customization tool gives you the power to design and tweak your crew s cars in every way imaginable.
Represent a Class Affiliate with the Tuner, American Muscle, or Exotic car classes and prove once and for all who makes the best set of wheels. A new physics model makes each class handle and drive differently.
Build Your Crew Strategically choose your crew members and then use their skills on the road and in the garage to help you win races and customize your cars.H more info
{ 25 comments… read them below or add one }
Don’t get it for the Wii wheel
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
One of the reasons I picked up this game is that I was looking for something else to make use of the Nerf Wii Wheel peripheral that so far I’ve only been using with Speed Racer. Now, I’ve only played it for two days, but in that time I have learned two things. One is that the game is generally pretty fun and the other is that the default “steering wheel” style control scheme is an unmitigated disaster. It is possible to control the car only in the loosest sense of the word, in the same way that if you shake a box with a cat inside you could be said to be “controlling” the cat. Yes, your actions affect its movement, but not in any kind of predictable or repeatable way. It’s not a matter of the tilt being too sensitive or not sensitive enough; somehow it is both. Your car won’t turn enough, until after the turn is over, at which point it will curve straight into a wall even though you have straightened the wheel. I’ve seen it said that there is a learning curve here, and maybe if I could figure out exactly when in the turn I ought to stop turning my car even though the turn is not done yet, there would some way to do it. But I suspect that by the time I mastered such a thing, the experience would bear little resemblance to operating a steering wheel anyway. Furthermore, I believe a simple thing like maneuvering a virtual car around a corner while not even at top speed should not require a learning curve tantamount to landing the space shuttle. Call me crazy, but that is just how I was raised.
At first I feared the game, though graphically gorgeous (for the Wii anyway) would be completely unplayable. There is no excuse for control this disastrous (especially when the Wii’s other racers prove it’s possible), and I can only conclude that the guys at EA simply failed to crack the problem. Maybe there is some specific issue with their physics model, which was designed to be controlled by an analog stick, that cannot be ported over to a tilting controller without destroying the fabric of the game. I don’t know.
Happily, there are 5 control schemes here to choose from. One of them involves tilting the nunchuck, which works marginally better than the Wiimote (imagine an angry cat on a leash instead of in a box), but twisting a nunchuck is nothing like using a steering wheel anyway, so why bother? The last two options involve steering with the analog stick, which is an absolute delight, especially after an hour of slamming your unruly car into walls with your Wii wheel. The analog stick steering is, in fact, especially good, and furthermore, the Wiimote throttle control, in which you tilt the controller like a gas pedal, works like a charm. Yes, it sounds counterintuitive and completely stupid, but in fact it triggered an epiphany — the key to racing, especially in these games, is actually not steering at all. After all, any idiot can steer (once he is using a sensible control scheme and not one that is fundamentally broken); one usually blows a race by trying to take a turn too fast. This is because mastering finesse with the gas, brake and handbrake are the key to success. Once I tried control scheme 5 (4 is nice too, as it tethers the Wiimote to brake/reverse as well as gas, but unfortunately the handbrake is operated by jerking back on the nunchuck, which doesn’t seem to do anything), I found myself commanding the throttle and handbrake with an assurance and precision I had never experienced playing NFS with a conventional controller. In fact, it works so well, I wondered if EA’s programmers had consciously not bothered to perfect steering wheel controls, so certain were they that the weird nunchuck-analog/Wiimote gas pedal scheme was superior.
So yes, the game is playable and so far, a lot of fun on the Wii — not just in spite of, but even due to, the Wii’s unique controls. But not the ones you expect. And if you’re interested in getting more use out of your Wii Wheel here, forget it.
Good Game
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
This was a gift for my husband, he has all the need for speed games for PS2. He played this for awhile but then got bored with it. I’m not sure why. It seems like a really fun game and my friends 5 year old likes to play it for fun.
Best NFS Game?
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I am looking forward to the NFS game EA releases that tops this one. Carbon is a rush. The game is best played with a Wiimote and the nunchuck. The graphics are impeccable for a Wii game and the game is very fun. The arcade style street racing provides hours of entertainment. The free roam, as in Most Wanted, allows for other achievements in the game and other unlocks. It is not a difficult game, but also not an easy game. To complete the game 100% with everything accomplished and everything unlocked takes a lot of time and effort and every bit if it is fun. The game can be hard at times but it is a rush from the beginning to the end. The story line is excellent, especially for a NFS story line. Two thumbs up to EA for this.
Love the game but…it has a glitch!
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
Yeah love the game, was really surprised at how much fun it was, love that you can customize your cars. I wish you could sell them though. I accidentally bought the same car twice and would love to be able to sell the extra car. Anyway game is fun but I was so upset to find that there is a glitch and I can’t get past a certain part. I am only about 65% through the game and now can’t get any further. Everytime I beat the race (one of the boss races) the game freezes and then I have to turn it off.
Great fun, lots of options for everybody.
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I don’t buy racing games. I never do. It’s not my type of genre.
But with the Wii, I knew I had to try one out, and gave this one a go.
I was not disappointed.
Need For Speed: Carbon brings a lot to the table.
The objective of the game is to take control of territories by winning races and defeating county bosses. This is done through a few types of races including drift races, normal circuits, checkpoint races, and speedtrap races (which measures your speed at certain checkpoints and scores that way).
Each territory holds a few races, and after you defeat them you get to battle the boss for the territory in a canyon race, where you follow the boss as closely as possible for maximum points. Then he follows you, and to the victor goes the territory.
Through the game, you can be challenged by other crews to have your territories taken back. If you refuse to race, they automatically revoke your territory. This creates a nice tug-of-war feel, rather than you just pushing through the levels.
The game has a (Somewhat limited, but what can you expect) free roam mode, from which you can enter races or just drive around, and possibly enter police pursuits. Useful for test drives and just messing around for a few minutes when you have nothing to do.
One of the bigger features of NFS: Carbon is the crew members/wingmen. Throughout the game you hire members of your crew to give you bonuses such as parts discounts and cash bonuses. You can also activate a crew member as your wingman to utilize in circuit races. There are three types of wingmen: Scouts, Blockers, and Drafters. Scouts go ahead of you and find shortcuts, which is useful to new players, Blockers cut off opposing drivers, and drafters drive in front of you to speed you up for a slingshot effect.
It’s interesting, but you’ll probably find options of use limited. Scouts become useless as your knowledge of the game grows, and the other two aren’t very complicated.
Customization is wonderful. I’ve gone through many settings already in the tuning section, and you can perfect exactly how you want your car to drive. There are also many options for physical alterations, in case you’re feeling creative.
Parts can be upgraded for better performance as you unlock them in races.
Graphics and sound are great. The worse I’ve seen is a bit of framerate lag at the start of a few races, and the worse I’ve heard is, well, nothing. It’s great. The conversation that takes place, whether it’s with your crew member or whether you’re overhearing police officers communicate with each other is a lot nicer than I would’ve expected. It’s not dry at all, and flows very well with what you’re doing and how the Non-player drivers are acting. And you can always turn it off if you want to.
Audio options are flexible, allowing you to turn separate music, sound, voice effects off and on depending on which ones you want.
The driving sounds are great too, from the tires squealing to the engines roaring, it’s a very engaging experience.
Now, for the big Wii separation: the controls.
The setup I use, and I would bet most other people would use, is the single wii remote setup where you tilt it as a steering wheel. Now I’ve seen many reviews speak of responsive issues with the controller, but I have seen absolutely none. Everything goes exactly as I tilt and press, though I may mess up sometimes, it is me who messes up, not the controller. I fear maybe the other reviewers may have been holding the controller backwards. Just be reminded that the limits of tilting the controller goes to nearly exactly 90 degrees. Any past that, and it goes a little wonky. But if you don’t tilt it too far, it’s perfectly responsive.
The controls really make for a wonderful experience, A little gas, a tilt, a push, and your sliding, screeching, and roaring across the pavement. Really wonderful, and I couldn’t see myself playing with an analog stick.
One thing to be said though, which is completely beyond me, is that even with the sideways wii remote setup, the wiimote controls are vertically oriented for ALL of the menus. Even when you simply pause from a race, you’d have to flip the controller. A completely unnecessary bother. Navigating the world map is also done with the D-pad, when pointing would have been so much easier. This is still minor, but completely glaring in the fact that it could be so easily remedied.
What I think of the game:
I don’t play racing games much. I enjoy this game a lot.
It has an arcade sort of feel, yet incorporates a tug-of-war feel to keep you coming back, and a free roam and customization when you’re past all that. It’s still not super-deep, but for a racing game, I am pleased.
I haven’t had the chance to try out other racing games as I said, so something better could be out there, but I believe that Need for Speed: Carbon is a very solid choice.
Fun game with good graphics
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I bought this game for my bf with a steer wheel and he just like it. He spends a good deal of time trying to learn new tricks and taking property of new territories. So far he keeps busy and happy.
Yet another great game from EA!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
When I was looking on Amazon for a great racing game, I went straight to Need for Speed. Originally I was going to purchase Most Wanted because I thought Carbon was just a racing game like Prostreet: No Pursuits, no freeroam, just cars and racing. Then I did some research on Carbon. Carbon has nearly EXACTLY the same features as MW with the exclusion of helicopters (I didn’t really like them anyway), Drag Races are replaced with Drift racing, returning from Underground. Drift Racing drives me insane. Fortinately, they aren’t required to continue the career, but you will have to do one to get Tribal vinyls.
Then there’s the canyon. (dramatic music here)
Canyon racing can be both awesome and annoying at the same time. The dangerous part is on some turns there are yellow walls that break when touched. If you fall off, you lose, of course. Three types of canyon are in career: Canyon sprint (can’t fall of, both N2O and SB), Canyon Drift (Can fall off, N2O) and Canyon Duels (Can fall off) Canyon Duels are the best way to decide who’s the best racer at like a party or something.
Now to Career mode. Remember the BMW from NFSMW? The wicked blue and white one? You get to drive it for approximetly 30 seconds before you crash it into a truck. There are three catagories to choose from at the beginning after you totaled one of the coolest cars in the world. The catagories are Tuner (High turning, low speed) Muscle (High Accel, low turning) and Exotics (High speed, low accel can be easily fixed.) I went with Exotics, and I will never regret it. Of course, you can buy other types, too. The territory system is a major part of career. You and your crew(explained later) must concur the four main parts of Palmont City: Fortuna, Downtown, Kempton, and Silverton. Each are mostly owned by the four big boy street racers. Fortuna is owned by Wolf, leader of T.F.K., exotic (No idea what that stands for) Downtown is owned by Kenji, leader of Bushido, tuner, Kempton is owned by Angie, leader of 21′st Street, Muscle, and Silverton is owned by ???? (If I said the name, it would spoil the entire game.), leader of Stacked Deck, Mixed. Occasionally, you will be challenged by smaller crews to a race on your territory. If you accept, you race. If you say no, they get your territory. Now to the Crew system. In a race, you can have a crew member help you in a race and believe me, you want to. Trust me. There are three types of crew members: Blockers, drafters, and Scouts. Blockers, when activated, will ram the nearest car to him, sending him 95% of the time to last place. Drafters, I don’t know what they do, but they’re useless. Scouts find the fastest route around the track, and that includes shortcuts. Some crew members have outside race abilities, like unlocking Autosculpt (again, more on that later) parts, getting discounts on parts and cars, and lowering the zone heat level.
And what’s Street racing without the 5-0?
The pursuit system is nearly like the ones in Most wanted, without helicopters. Pursuits can happen in the middle of a race, or in Free Roam when you cause destruction and mayhem. In a pursuit, you are chased by the police, while you have to outrun -and outsmart- them. There is an Evade/Busted meter at the top that tells you how close you are to the two. You can total the cops by hitting there car a bunch of times, hitting them so hard they fly up in the air, or by pursuit breakers. Like most wanted, the higher your heat level, the more aggressive the cops are. Level 1 is Civic cruisers. Level 2 is Undercover Cruisers, and they will deploy Roadblocks, which you can easily get through with Speedbreaker. Level 3 is State Pursuit Vehicles, AKA Pontiac GTOs, and Roadblocks. Level 4 is when things get real tricky.There are Undercover Pursuit Vehicles. In Roadblocks, there will now be spike strips. If you drive over one, you lose your tires, and then your life will suck. Level 5 pursuits will be over in less than 30 seconds if you have a Tier 1 car. The 5-0 will throw everything they have at you: Federal Pursuit Vehicles, AKA Corvette Z06, Roadblocks, and Spikeys. Oh, one more thing: If you get Busted, you will be charged fines depending on the carnage you’ve caused. If you pay your fines, your car will get an impound strike. If you get three Impound strikes, it’s bye-bye to your car. If you lose your last car, or you can’t pay your fines, you are put in jail, and it’s game over, buddy.
Now to my Favorite part: Cars and Custimization! They have nearly ALL the cars from NFSMW and more. Some classics like the Gallardo and Mercedes SLR Mclaren return, along with new cars, like the Audi Le Mans Quattro and the Koenigsegg CCX. Even the BMW M3 E46 GTR returns! I can’t name all the cars, but go to [...] to find a big list of most of the cars. Custimization time! First, you can add a coat of paint to your car. You can get Matte, metalic, candy, iderescent, Chrome, and more in any color in the universe. Some more of the things you can add and autosculpt are vinyls, spoilers, rims, rim paint, roof scoops, window tint, hoods, ride height, and, in some cars like the Corvette, Chop Tops, and more. There are well over a million combinations of cars and colors and parts. Using much of your money you win from racing, you can upgrade the nitrous, engine, suspention, transmission, and more to make it faster and better than any car.
Now to the small flaws in Carbon. The Drift races are hard, but some people are naturally great, so this isn’t much of a flaw, just a lack of talent on my part. 2: There are only four bosses in this game. I was hoping to see more like a blacklist sort of system. 3: The whole game takes place at night, so it’s hard to see the curves in Canyon until it’s too late. 4: This game lacks online play, but it has multiplayer.
Overall, this game is nearly perfect, able to satisfy speedaholics everywhere. If you just want to race, or be on the edge and live like an outlaw, Need For Speed: Carbon is for you.
Most of what you expect a NFS game to be
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I’ve played numerous NFS games over the years and one thing that thankfully you can count on is the graphics and game play getting better and better and this game is no exception. Now I do have a bunch of little issues that I will mention but keep in mind overall the game is very fun to play and can keep you entertained for hours on end.
First slight issue is everything happens at night. Fine….it’s a game about street racing and most street racing doesn’t happen at three in the afternoon. But sometimes the dark screens make it a little difficult to maneuver as you can’t see whats ahead of you.
Second issue is the “Boss races”. Once you take over all the areas from a certain group you do this boss race. The first part is a street race in there territory, the second and third parts are a race down the canyon (First part your following them, second part there following you). The problem with the canyon race is the normal metal guardrails are replaced by balsa wood and paper. If you slightly graze the guardrail you miraculously get thrown over the edge and lose the race. Kinda frustrating but eventually you learn to either switch to a much better handling car with sticky tires or hit the brakes a whole lot. Think I lost 40 boss races in a row on day….good thing I had my Wiimote strap on my wrist to prevent me from throwing it at the tv….
Last issue I had was the sound track, it seemed to play the same 4 or 5 songs over and over and over. Would be nice to have a expanded catalog of music to listen to.
With those complaints noted I will say the graphics are awesome (other then the too dark comment). The game play is really good and I liked the idea of being able to roam about the city without just doing event after event. Also the ability to pick what event you want to do next was nice. The controls, well, there a little difficult on the default setting tilting the Wiimote back and forth for steering. I choose control option 5 which lets you use the nunchuck analog stick as steering and the Wiimote as the acceleration pedal. I found this much easier to use and keep control of your car and the button layout easier to remember.
All in all good game with decent replay ability. Decent amount of car and customization options along with different crew members to hire on your team and a good AI will keep you playing for a while.
Great Game
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Bought this for my kids and they love it and could sit and play it for hours
NFS Carbon
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Nice graphics with great car options & tracks. Was a bit disappointed that you can still play it from the couch, but otherwise a good game. The kids love it!
NFS Carbon – Lots of fun
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I got this driving game based on a lot of good recommendations. I am having a blast with it. The graphics are impressive especially for the wii, it really surprised me. Now the controls are ok, I have tried using a stationary wheel but it seems to not be very accurate. I switched over to using the nunchuck for steering and braking and the controller for the gas. The challenges are fun and the story is pretty good, I am tired of the cops….who isn’t. Over all I would recommend this game for the wii.
A Non-Gamer’s Opinion
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I don’t have a PS or XBOX, so this is my first real game system since the 80′s. I think this game rocks. The graphics are great and the gameplay is really fun. I may not be a gamer, but I am a car guy, and this game is keeping me interested much longer than I though it would. They really put some thought into it- things like the police chatter you hear on your scanner, the slow-mo replays they insert into the game automatically when you do something cool (like catching air going over a hill), being able to go wherever you want in career mode… it’s just great. I just got the Wii wheel, and I like it much better than the controller alone. Seems easier to control. I highly recommend the game and the wheel. Sweet!
Not bad
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
Nothing new here. Typical arcade type car racing game. Not bad, but nothing to get overly excited about either. After reading reviews for just about every car racing game out there, it seemed this was one of the best. I really don’t have any major problems with the game, but I would hate to see the others if this is one of the best! It will get played and the price was reasonable.
This one is fun! Nerve wrecking but fun! Takes practice!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Fun for everyone! takes practice but alot of fun to do and you get to laugh at your self and others! Makes you think how in the world did we get our licenses?
AWESOME GAME!!!!!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I’ve played a lot of NFS games in the past, Underground, Underground 2, Most Wanted, Hot Pursuit 2, Porshe Unleashed, and Carbon is the BEST. I own this on the Wii (duuh), and I think it’s real great! The graphics are good, cars fun, city awesome, cop chases really cool, and play is very entertaining! I would always suggest this game to anyone who wanted to buy it! BUY THIS GAME!!!!
Takes a while to get used to
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
I must admit, I am not that good a player of the NFS. With that, this game takes awhile to get used to. Add to it the slow responsiveness of the game to the Wii remote, and sometimes you are puzzled what’s happening on the screen. Unless you’re pretty well experienced with NFS, don’t go for the Wii version, would be my take.
Why so dark and gloomy??
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
I’ll admit for the first month I was hooked. But that was because of the races, nothing else. I hated the fact that it was never daylight.It was also always raining. Also, if you met one cop, then more were on you in a flash. Plus, in real you can’t knock down ater towers w/ your car, especially without getting scratched. I just hope nfs nitro’s graphics are better.
Misleading Information
Rating:1 out of 5 stars
I searched the Amazon site for a racing game that came with a steering wheel for Wii and thought that this game sounded like something my husband would like. Well, the game came. and lo and behold no steering wheel. I called amazon (good luck finding the number) and was informed by someone that could barely understand or speak English that I would not be getting the steering wheel with the game. So I now have to make an additional purchase because I already have the game. I have not yet gotten the game console and I hope to goodness that I do not have as much problem getting that order straight. There are other issues, but I will wait until all is said and done to comment… Do not depend on their search criteria! Need for Speed Carbon
Carbon
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I personally like this game alot. But I tend to me more of a car game type person. Some may like it some may not but I give it 4 stars overall. And the price was right! SO 2 thumbs up from me.
JEG
Pathetic experience… playing nfs on wii is really bad.
Rating:2 out of 5 stars
i just got the game and played one night with it. It was disappointing. NFS 3 was much better than this. The graphics and concepts are probably “better” but getting the thing to respond correctly with the controller was almost impossible. So if you are buying this keep your expectations low.
Great Game
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I got this game a couple of days ago and already love it. Great features, so so story line (good for a game though), cops chasing u is also fun.
As for the controls, it takes a little time to get used to them (for e.g. how much do you need to turn the remote for the cars to turn and all that) but once u do, it is so much fun. I had difficulty controling my car when i first played it but now since i have got a hang of it, i cant stop playing it.
Would definitely recommend for those who love action packed racing games. And for 30 bucks its a pretty good deal as well.
Awesome game, worth any amount of money
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This is by far one of the best games in the NFS series yet. Good controls, easy interface and so much fun. The races are great, drifting is much harder that in NFS: Underground 2, but it’s still fun, cop chases are HARD. For those who have played Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit 2, this is MUCH harder than those chases. Even the 5 star chases are easier.
The one downside to this is the controls. The setups are not all the same as in Underground 2 and Hot pursuit 2 (the two I have besides this one. I’ve played more, though).
This game is worth whatever amount it’s being sold for.
tough but fun
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Not bad and easier on the hands using the WII controller compared to the normal Playstation controllers.
Somewhat difficult controlling the car in some situations of racing…mostly the sprint races.
Crap
Rating:1 out of 5 stars
Game sucks.
Need to be able to use the classic controller with it like you can with Underground and it would be better. Hubby begged for it and played it for a whole five minutes. Waste of money!
NO WHEEL, HOW LAME
Rating:2 out of 5 stars
It’s a pretty cool game, but not being able to use the wheel pretty much ruins it for me. If I had known that, I wouldn’t have bought it.