Just a note to anyone reading this review, Take off 1 or 1.5 points of graphics off my score since I'm reviewing this game a good 4 years after it having been released with me having played this game in fits and spurts since then. Every so often I get the urge to play it and come back to it because the way the car physics and control was handled was so well implemented. Not to mention some of the tracks were just so well designed you want to see them again. This game is not your run of the mill Arcade racer where you can smash into anything and jerk the wheel hard at high speeds and not-spin-out. In short in this game the faster you go the more difficult it will be to control your car at highspeed, more like how it works in the real world. The game models the physics of the cars pretty good though it doesn't totally bow to being over-realistic to the point where it makes the game not fun. If you love driving games you'll probably want to pick this one up in the bargain bin since it's 4 or so years old now. The game is a pure racing game in that there is nothing to do besides drive and beat your opponents in the different races. So if you go in expecting midnight club style racing you'll be disappointed. This is after all pre-midnight club and NFS underground. The graphics are dated by 2004's standards but don't let that deter you from getting it. It's one of the best Need for speed games ever released. It's too bad that the more realistic physics didn't catch on and EA took the series back into overly arcade territory with Hot pursuit 2 and need for speed underground. This is a game to pick up if you ENJOY driving just for the sake of driving. It's not a game that pretends to be "action packed fun" all the time and keep you occupied if you have attention deficit disorder or patience issues. Since if you do the career mode in the beginning the porsche cars you start out with are very slow compared to the later model porches you get towards the middle of the game. Over-all the game just controls and feels very accurate. Definitely plays great with a wheel or gamepad. You go through career mode starting at the earliest point in the porsche history timeline about the 1950's or so, using ancient, somewhat ugly and "classic" looking cars. It really depends on if you are a car buff or not if you like the "old" design cars they used to make back then. You basically progress through the porsche history timeline racing missions in a somewhat linear fashion, they usually have a couple other races you can pick and choose from the menu that you can do to also advance forward as well. As you go through the game new cars will slowly become available and you will be able to buy the ones you want and upgrade them with parts to make sure they control and perform their best. The other part of the game is a series of mini-games really, in that you become a "pro test driver" for posche and they have you do a series of drills and sometimes some interesting stunts with your car. But for the most part it just serves as a drill for driving practice to learn how to control your car to meet the mission requirements. My only real complaint about this game is the lack of variety in some of the tracks and that the computer AI is inconsistent. You see it goes from somewhat dimwitted to very difficult to beat due to it knowing all the shortcuts on some of the more difficult tracks, though you can adjust the difficulty or limit the cars class in quick races. Also the multiplayer online mode where you go to play against others no longer works, but you can play over LAN still. All in all this is one of the best games in the series if only EA would make another game like this and add and fix up all the things that weren't in this game it could really renew the entire series.
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