Need For Speed games are important part of gaming industry and history. From the first game published Need For Speed was making a name for it self. Many other arcade driving games were copying or trying to copy Need For Speed, some was successful and some were not. Not all Need For Speed games was excellent, some were good, some were poor, but overall Need For Speed is fun game to play. Need For Speed games are arcade and not simulation, so driving is not very complicated as in some driving simulation games. Last 4 parts of Need For Speed are executable, Underground, Underground 2, Most Wonted were best in their time, and actually Most Wonted is still best and Carbon have to claim that title from Most Wonted.

Need For Speed Carbon was released for PC on 1st November 2006. I got my copy of NSF Carbon 16th November and by 20th November I have finished Carrier Mod, and I must say that Carrier Mod is too short and relatively easy to complete. Time needed to finished Carrier Mod is about 10-12 hours.

I started with Exotic Cars, Alfa Romeo Brera, then switched to Mercedes SL65 AMG after that to McLaren SLR, with McLaren I defeated Darius, and after that I got Mitsubishi Lancer and finished 5 races that I skipped, mostly Drift type races.

My first car was Alfa Romeo Brera.



During game I sold it so picture is taken from My Cars. Brera is Exotic Car Tier 1, it is very beautiful and does not need any styling except color, window tint, ride height and rims. Actually all cars in Carbon are probably best modeled until now and they look exactly like real ones, so any styling with body kits or anything else is really not necessary.

Brera is nice but not best so I bought Mercedes SL65 AMG. SL65 is Exotic Car Tier 2.



I didn't change the looks of SL65, just rims, paint, window tint and ride height. The SL65 I used to about half of the carrier and then I bought Mercedes SLR McLaren. SLR is the most expensive car in Carbon but it's worth every cent.



With SLR you can beat every opponent, I used it to defeat Darius and all of his crew. After defeating Darius I got message that Audi LeMans is unlocked, but in it wasn't in the Car Lot, probably that's one of the bugs in the Carbon.

At the end I bought Mitsubishi Lancer.



Lancer and Skyline are the best Tuner Cars in Carbon, and are best handling cars too. I bought Lancer 'cos I didn't finished 4 Drift Races, and I thought that 4WD on Lancer will do better than rear wheel drive on Mercedes. On first drift race I noticed that Lancer is behaving in the same way as SLR, but problem was not in the car but in my style of driving, I tried to drive drift as I was driving it in Underground and Underground 2, and that just doesn't work. Trick with Drift Races in Carbon is to drive them just like any other race, speed is the key, and in corners car will drift and you will be able to control it. This way in circuit drift races you can drift whole lap, just look for ideal line in corners and that's it.

Big news in Carbon is your Crew. Blocker is most useful wingman, they can make distance from you and your opponents, and that comes very handy in all races. Drifter can help you in high speed races, but you need to practice before you can use drifter to boost your speed. None of the races have long straight road to achieve maximum speed so drifter wont help you too much. Scout is useless and I didn't use them at all. Shortcuts can be find without them easyli, so you don't need them at all.

Police is very easy to out run, I was only once pulled over, and my heat level didn't rise over 3rd level.

Challenge series is interesting and fun but it can't replace Carrier Mod which is too short, as I already said.

Need For Speed: Carbon is good arcade driving game but it could be better.