Another year, another Need For Speed game. This time around, it's titled Need For Speed: Carbon. Here's some details from Games Asylum:
EA have been silently working away on Need for Speed: Carbon for the past year, and have granted The Official PlayStation 2 Magazine the first "low(ered) down" in the latest issue. That's their pun, not ours, if you're wondering.
There's a bit of confusion as to where the subtitle originates from. Obviously there's the whole carbon fibre thing, but as well as a large urban city to roam freely around, there are also three canyon environments including one based on Carbon Canyon - a popular location in California for "motoring enthusiasts".
The developers are looking to include between 50 and 100 vehicles, incorporating some that are yet to be unveiled by their manufacturers and, for the first time in a NFS title since 2000, a range of Porsches.
The cars aren't the only stars though, as effort is being made to create a stronger feeling of a society by being able to build up a crew. Every character, including rivals, have their own skills and talents such as blocking off slip roads and fall into one of three categories - tuning, muscle and exotic. If you're into tuning then a team can be formed with expertise in that area, or if customisation is your thing then drivers also into "tricking out" can be chosen.
Trackside railings now bend and buckle when hit (which should make for some entertaining police chases when zooming down a mountain at 150mph) and there's also talk of tilt sensor support for the PlayStation 3 version.
Formats? The magazine only states PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2 and PSP, but undoubtedly it's going to be a multiformat title. We'd be surprised if it made it onto GameCube however, as not only is Carbon due to be released around the same time as the Wii (this winter) but EA have also wordlessly dropped Superman Returns for Nintendo's aging block.
Also, Game Informer has posted a trailer of the game here. It doesn't show much, however:
Link (click on "Media")