I rented this game twice in order to beat it; not sure I would do that again.
User Rating: 7.5 | Need for Speed Carbon PS2
I'm a huge fan of racing games like the need for speed series and midnight club 3: DUB edition, but this game disappointed me. It seemed like I could have beat it in 8 hours of playing, which is too short. Some of the new things ea brings to this game are cool, but the game doesn't last very long. There are 3 different car classes to race with: tuner (best turning), exotic (best top speed), and muscle (best accelleration). You start off right after the end of most wanted, happy as can be with your m3 gtr you won back from razor in most wanted, and right away, cross is chasing you again! He is driving in his corvette right behind you in your bmw, and after a little driving, you get to a cutscene, where your car is totalled in one of the canyons. After listening to them talk for a little, Nikki takes you in her ford gt to get a new car for yourself. You can pick either the mazda rx8, the chevy camaro ss, or the alfa romero brera. I recommend the rx8 because muscle cars have HORRIBLE turning and the exotics have so-so turning to start off. You have to then pick a member of your crew to be active, which means they join you in a lot of races. There are 3 different kinds of crew members as well: blockers (my favorite), scouts (find shortcuts for you) and drafters (let you draft them for nitrous). What I like about the 'crew' idea in this game is that the crew members ACTUALLY HELP YOU, instead of just racing alongside you. I like the blockers the most because they also ram enemy racers' cars. You can customize their cars and you don't have to pay for any of it! I used blockers the whole game (switched to Sampson, then back to Neville), and as you unlock the tier 2 and 3 cars the crew members cars improve too. There are rival crews you have to face: Bushido, 21st Street, T.F.K., and Stacked Deck. They start off ruling most of the four sections of the city: downtown(center), kempton(south central), fortuna(west), and silverton(north). As you win races in each little neighborhood, you gain control of that area, and it turns a teal color, which represents your crew (and unfortunately you cant change that color). When your crew gains control of a whole section, you challenge the leader of the crew that used to control that section. Sometimes during the game, smaller, less significant crews will attack your territory by challenging you to a race you've already done. Those races are often easy, but some take a couple times to beat. The first 3 sections of the city are easy to beat, but the 4th, silverton, is more difficult, because after you beat that, you find out that the leaders of Bushido, 21st Street, and T.F.K. all joined Darius in Stacked Deck, and there are 4 races you have to do against them. In the first 2, I believe you race Angie (dodge challenger concept), Kenji (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX MR), and Wolf (Lamborghini Murcielago). I found the first 2 races pretty easy, but when you race Darius in his Audi LeMans Quattro (first in a circuit, then canyon) it can test your patience, but pull through and win the last 2 races, and you beat the game! 
