Need for Speed: ProStreet [X360]

Back in Leipzig our own Patrick Joynt managed to get some hands-on time with the newest addition to the long-running Need for Speed series from Electronic Arts. Patrick did a fine job giving us the lowdown of what this new racing game is all about so we won't repeat what he said here. Instead we're going to jump straight in and tell you about our own hands-on time with the Xbox 360 version of Need for Speed: ProStreet at a pre-Tokyo Game Show event held by EA in Shibuya.

The two modes we got to check out were Drift Challenge and Drag Race. We were able to try out both modes numerous times. Unfortunately, the room we were playing in was insanely loud and we couldn't hear the game itself. In racing games sound can be vitally important, especially if you want an audio cue for when to shift or when your car is drifting. During the Drift Challenge we had a hard time figuring out how the mode was different from a regular race. There were arrows showing the best driving line for turns (we were told that this wasn't final and may or may not be in the final version) and whenever we tried to drift the car we didn't get any sort of award for it. There wasn't any sort of ticker or score for drifting. However, there is a chance that we were just weren't nailing the drifts at all. We wish we had a quiet room to play this mode in so we'd have a better idea of how we were doing.

In any case, this is definitely one of the most realistic-feeling NFS games to come along in a while. Each of the cars feel like they have some real heft to them and at high speeds you do feel like you're sitting on a street rocket that's just barely under your control. As mentioned in our last hands-on, this can lead to some impressive crashes. We'd be more ecstatic about these crashes if Burnout: Paradise wasn't sitting right next to us.

The Drag Race mode is very unique; for starters, we were told that this mode has its own driving physics that are separate from the rest of the game. Some people may wonder what the appeal of drag racing is, after all, you're just going in a straight line. But like many things in life, this is much harder than it looks. Doing well in drag racing comes down to timing. Timing your shifts perfectly and timing when to use your nitrous are all key factors. You'll also have to worry about keeping your car in a straight line.