Who still plays Need for Speed Carbon?

[Sonygamer455]

You know, I created this thread almost 3 years ago after buying the PS3 version to see if anybody still plays Carbon and if there are any that play online on the PS3 version and I have barely played the PS3 version all since buying it and it has kind of been tucked away and somewhat forgotten over the years for some reason. Which is ironic since I played the crap out of the PS2 version over the years and still do sometimes. That said, you would think I would have already done the same for the PS3 version, but for some reason I haven't and I am not too sure why.

I am almost tempted to play it now, but if I know Carbon well, the reward cards will keep you busy for a long time and I don't want to start the game and then not finish it when the new NFS comes out. Not sure if I should play it now so the new NFS will seem even cooler when I play it or wait until later when I don't have any new releases to worry about.

 

[MoLiEG]

Just play it man

I think I will start a new game next week on my Xbox.

 

[Stephan]

I got the game for the PS3. And I love how Darius calls Cross' name wrong.

Man would it be great if Razor, Darius, Caleb and Eddie would come back in NFS2015 as returning antagonists with the updated versions of their car?

 

[GT5Power]

Started up Carbon a few weeks ago and came back to my lovely Ford GT... Needless to say I got hooked again. In fact, I'm playing it right now.

 

[Suzumiya]

Possibly the best of the Post-Underground games.

 

[ThrasherDBS]

Sorry to bump this thread in the midst of all the NFS 2015 threads, but I just recently picked up Carbon for my PS3. I've been in the Need For Speed kick for about a month or so now. I've beaten The Run, and Shift 2, but I wanted to revisit good old Carbon. I'm not so sure my PS2 works all that well anymore, so I decided to give it a try on the PS3. I was half-expecting some more stuff on it that the PS2 version didn't, but it's pretty consistent content-wise with the PS2.

That said, I have been having an absolute blast. It feels as though a few of the Challenge Series challenges got easier, as I've been able to beat all of them already. (Of note was the gold police challenge where you have to last for 12 minutes driving around in a suped-up R34, and man was that fun! Trashing a whole bunch of Corvettes, wrecking Cross about a minute or two in, zipping in and out of alleyways, it was such a blast!) I've started career mode with my old mainstay: the Camaro. I'm liking the facial animations that are present in the game, even if they look really weird up close. Everything looks nice and crisp in HD, and I didn't realize that this game had rain cycles in it as well! There's a few little things that the PS3 can handle that the PS2 couldn't.

My favorite addition is the PIP display during boss races. During my race against Angie, there was a point where we both went through a narrow shortcut, doorhandle to doorhandle, and the PIP showed up with her looking to the side at my car with a sly grin on her face. It may seem like a silly little addition, but I really feel like it adds more of an immersive feel to it. It actually feels like you're racing against an actual person, rather than a faceless figure composed of a bunch of zeros and ones.

This has felt every bit as sweet as the PS2 version I first played eight years ago. With the best Tier 2 vehicle in my stable now, I'm looking forward to dusting some tuners and exotics.

 

[CleanCut]

I really enjoyed Carbon myself. Found the races near the end to be nearly impossible - the ones on the mountain switchbacks.

My favorite feature was being able to chop the top on muscle cars. This somehow applied to the C6 Corvette as well, so you could get a pretty radical looking ride in the game!

I won't revisit the game however. For one thing, I game on PC, and now with Windows 10 I even had some trouble getting Prostreet to load up, let alone something older. Plus the resolution settings do not go high enough to make the graphics remotely enjoyable anymore.

 

[JR98]

I recently played through the game on PC with the Tuner career and was alot of fun. Later races were actually alot easier than I remembered (aside from the Wolf Lambo Canyon Run) and the end race is actually pretty easy with a good tuner such as the Skyline GT-R, but I imagine it would be quite challenging in an Exotic and absolute hell in a Muscle. Still an amazingly fun game with an exceptional car & music list, if only pursuits played a bigger role in the game as they were just as fun as MW's (Which I still play on PC almost daily).

 

[Stephan]

IMO on choosing your first car, this is what I can think of the difficulty setting when choosing your starter car:

Exotic- Easy
Tuner- Medium
Muscle- Hard

Because you have to consider also what Neville and Sal is driving. For example if you end up choosing Exotic as your first car, then once you get a Tier 3 car, that's where I felt like the game has gotten a bit easy with crew races because you have mostly your crew driving Exotics (Neville and Sal driving their own Lamborghini Gallardo, Colin with his OP Porsche Carrera GT and Nikki with her Ford GT).

Did somebody try beating the whole game using only Muscle cars? Man that must have been hard especially since all Muscle cars are hard to corner.

 

[JR98]

IMO on choosing your first car, this is what I can think of the difficulty setting when choosing your starter car:

Exotic- Easy
Tuner- Medium
Muscle- Hard

Because you have to consider also what Neville and Sal is driving. For example if you end up choosing Exotic as your first car, then once you get a Tier 3 car, that's where I felt like the game has gotten a bit easy with crew races because you have mostly your crew driving Exotics (Neville and Sal driving their own Lamborghini Gallardo, Colin with his OP Porsche Carrera GT and Nikki with her Ford GT).

Did somebody try beating the whole game using only Muscle cars? Man that must have been hard especially since all Muscle cars are hard to corner.

Actually I think it Exotic is the hardest at the start as you are pitted against Wolf's DB9 as the first boss battle, and I remember that being extremely hard in the Brera.

I think Tuner is the easiest career, especially later in the game and the extra handling is a HUGE help in canyon runs, while muscle would be the hardest at the end of the career due to the terrible handling of the cars.

 

[Stephan]

Actually I think it Exotic is the hardest at the start as you are pitted against Wolf's DB9 as the first boss battle, and I remember that being extremely hard in the Brera.

I think Tuner is the easiest career, especially later in the game and the extra handling is a HUGE help in canyon runs, while muscle would be the hardest at the end of the career due to the terrible handling of the cars.

Well yes it is true that in the first boss battle in the Exotic career which is Wolf and his DB9 but then again once you finally unlock the boss race, you already have enough money to tune the Brera for the boss race.

Well you know why, that OP Evo IX though. I mean I always thought the Carrera GT was already enough to be OP for MW and Carbon but the Evo? I do remember that the Evo is also another good car to beat everyone on the Blacklist but now in Carbon, it became OP for canyon races.

Muscle career......don't wanna try that again. It made me rage quit during canyon races and crew races. I always thought once I finally got to Tier 3 muscle cars, the handling would finally improve but no it was even harder than before especially the Corvette.

I kinda wished that our wrecked M3 GTR would be restored by Nikki but then again, that would make the Darius boss battle even easier than using the Evo IX.

 

[JR98]

I kinda wished that our wrecked M3 GTR would be restored by Nikki but then again, that would make the Darius boss battle even easier than using the Evo IX.

I don't think it would, since in MW it's far from the best car in the game. Accel & Top Speed are slightly lower than the supercars (with Ultimate parts) and the handling is very low compared to most cars in the game with Ultimate parts.

Overall the Evo VIII is far better than the M3 GTR in NFSMW

 

[Sonygamer455]

Sorry to bump this thread in the midst of all the NFS 2015 threads,

That's okay. I enjoy reading every bodies experience with Carbon.

I didn't realize that this game had rain cycles in it as well!

I didn't even know that! Thanks for sharing!

My favorite addition is the PIP display during boss races. During my race against Angie, there was a point where we both went through a narrow shortcut, doorhandle to doorhandle, and the PIP showed up with her looking to the side at my car with a sly grin on her face. It may seem like a silly little addition, but I really feel like it adds more of an immersive feel to it. It actually feels like you're racing against an actual person, rather than a faceless figure composed of a bunch of zeros and ones.

I haven't played the PS3 version much at all, but I have seen that and I do like it.

and absolute hell in a Muscle.

Maybe. However if you use the Corvette Z06 on the first Canyon Duel, you can pass Darius on the first corner. It may take some tries though.

I have played through NFS 2015 and I like the game, but it doesn't come close to Carbon in my opinion.

 

[ThrasherDBS]

the end race is actually pretty easy with a good tuner such as the Skyline GT-R, but I imagine it would be quite challenging in an Exotic and absolute hell in a Muscle.

Having done three separate "Only Exotic", "Only Tuner", and "Only Muscle" careers on the PS2 version, the exotic one was actually the hardest of the three. I used the Corvette in the Muscle career and because of the explosive amount of acceleration, I managed to pass him on the first corner. I used the Lancer Evolution in the Tuner career, and managed to get around him in the tight corners. The Murcielago, being the jack of all trades and overall master of none, was the hardest. There's only one opportunity to get around him, and it's quite a narrow window.

IMO on choosing your first car, this is what I can think of the difficulty setting when choosing your starter car:

Exotic- Easy
Tuner- Medium
Muscle- Hard

Did somebody try beating the whole game using only Muscle cars? Man that must have been hard especially since all Muscle cars are hard to corner.

For me the difficulty goes like this:

Muscle - Easy > Easy
Exotic - Medium > Hard
Tuner - Hard > Medium

I guess it boils down to driving styles. I'm very oriented to going around corners sideways in Need For Speed games especially with powerful cars, so the muscle career I always find pretty easy. I consider the Dodge Charger R/T the best tier two car, and I get Angie's through a reward card. The RX-8 you're given in the tuner career has a really hard time standing up to Kenji's RX-7, at least in my opinion. Had to retry those races quite a bit. Wolf was quite a middle ground between the two, using the Brera. All three are challenging, but I didn't have to restart nearly as much in the Exotic career. However, in the endgame, you can see above why the difficulty shifts between tuner and exotic for me. (Last night against Angie, I didn't have to restart a single time.)

In the end, you just have to know exactly how to capitalize on a car's strengths. In muscle cars, the handbrake is my friend on the twisty bits, and the sooner I can safely stand on the pedal, the most of an advantage I can squeeze out of its acceleration. So the "strictly muscle" career was the easiest for me because I can capitalize on their traits better than in an exotic or a tuner, and I understand that everyone has a different style, so they'll find different careers easier than others.

 

[CleanCut]

I found the muscle cars were easy to drive because it was easy to drift them around corners. But my favorite car in the game was the DB9, just because of the style, not because of its attributes.

It's funny, the PIP of your oppenents/teammates faces was a neat idea, but it was my least favorite part of the game because it made the FPS lag like crazy when they popped up. It was infuriating! (Again, I was playing on PC)

 

[Dreadmed]

I'm tempted to see if I can pick this up for the PC (on the cheap) after reading through this... ah, the memories.

 

[LeGeNd-1]

IMO on choosing your first car, this is what I can think of the difficulty setting when choosing your starter car:

Exotic- Easy
Tuner- Medium
Muscle- Hard

Because you have to consider also what Neville and Sal is driving. For example if you end up choosing Exotic as your first car, then once you get a Tier 3 car, that's where I felt like the game has gotten a bit easy with crew races because you have mostly your crew driving Exotics (Neville and Sal driving their own Lamborghini Gallardo, Colin with his OP Porsche Carrera GT and Nikki with her Ford GT).

Did somebody try beating the whole game using only Muscle cars? Man that must have been hard especially since all Muscle cars are hard to corner.

Muscle is bad in cornering BUT if you use speedbreaker during tight turns and nitro on exit the acceleration more than makes up for it. I beat career using the Viper and I'm on 2 wheels for most of the tight turns Also the trick to winning canyon using Muscle is to set the gearing to full acceleration and engine to full torque. Do whatever you can to get ahead of the boss early and stay there for 10 seconds.

 

[Stephan]

Muscle is bad in cornering BUT if you use speedbreaker during tight turns and nitro on exit the acceleration more than makes up for it. I beat career using the Viper and I'm on 2 wheels for most of the tight turns Also the trick to winning canyon using Muscle is to set the gearing to full acceleration and engine to full torque. Do whatever you can to get ahead of the boss early and stay there for 10 seconds.

I actually tried doing that but it only worked on non-Silverton canyon races. When it comes to Silverton, the only canyon race I can remember winning is the rematch against Angie and her Challenger Concept. As for the others, it took me 10 restarts to win those races.

I don't think it would, since in MW it's far from the best car in the game. Accel & Top Speed are slightly lower than the supercars (with Ultimate parts) and the handling is very low compared to most cars in the game with Ultimate parts.

Overall the Evo VIII is far better than the M3 GTR in NFSMW
View attachment 547322 View attachment 547323

The handling of the M3 may be low but it was agile on the corners if you really know how to use the M3 but I realize that Black Box changed the stats of the M3 plus the engine sound. Now it has louder transmission whine.

 

[ThrasherDBS]

I actually tried doing that but it only worked on non-Silverton canyon races. When it comes to Silverton, the only canyon race I can remember winning is the rematch against Angie and her Challenger Concept. As for the others, it took me 10 restarts to win those races.

Speaking of restarts, do you know the only reason I've had to restart races tonight?

Do you know those shortcuts that go off the main road, cross over the main road, and then rejoin the main road again? The ones that are all over the place in Fortuna? Samson (current wingman) has taken me out, not once, not twice, not three times, but four times, he's taken me out on those shortcuts because he takes the main road. And it's always toward the end of a race too. Someone passes us because I'm nose-deep in the concrete wall with my rear tires still in the air, or I'm on my roof, or in the case that just happened, I was spun out and now my car is pirouetting on its nose, right at the line. All because the idiot doesn't take the same shortcuts I take. I've managed to make a nigh-unstoppable monster out of Angie's Charger and Samson's Charger too, but evidently the only things that can stop us are each other.

Beginning to think Samson is a saboteur. Such a shame too, he's been a good blocker for me in the PS2 version.

 

[Stephan]

Speaking of restarts, do you know the only reason I've had to restart races tonight?

Do you know those shortcuts that go off the main road, cross over the main road, and then rejoin the main road again? The ones that are all over the place in Fortuna? Samson (current wingman) has taken me out, not once, not twice, not three times, but four times, he's taken me out on those shortcuts because he takes the main road. And it's always toward the end of a race too. Someone passes us because I'm nose-deep in the concrete wall with my rear tires still in the air, or I'm on my roof, or in the case that just happened, I was spun out and now my car is pirouetting on its nose, right at the line. All because the idiot doesn't take the same shortcuts I take. I've managed to make a nigh-unstoppable monster out of Angie's Charger and Samson's Charger too, but evidently the only things that can stop us are each other.

Beginning to think Samson is a saboteur. Such a shame too, he's been a good blocker for me in the PS2 version.

How was that possible that Samson is hitting you? I rarely use Samson when I'm using a muscle car in a crew race. I mostly use Scouts (Sal and Yumi) and Drafters (Colin and Nikki) for crew races. But I feel like when I use Drafters, it makes the crew races easier especially when you're in a Tier 3 Exotic car.

As for restarting, when I'm using Tuners then I mostly restart in non-canyon races due to their low top speed. For Exotics I restart in tight canyon tracks and Muscles, I restart in both races.

 

[CleanCut]

I'm tempted to see if I can pick this up for the PC (on the cheap) after reading through this... ah, the memories.

Just be careful. Like I said earlier, I had some trouble getting Prostreet to run on Windows 10, and Carbon is even older. I didn't have any trouble with Prostreet on Windows7, so if you are still on 7 it'll probably work fine.

 

[ThrasherDBS]

How was that possible that Samson is hitting you?

When the shortcut crosses over the main road, he's always going about the right speed to T-Bone me in the intersection.

 

[Stephan]

When the shortcut crosses over the main road, he's always going about the right speed to T-Bone me in the intersection.

So he just T-boned you? But did you activate him during the race?

I have no problems with Blockers though especially if Neville is driving his Gallardo.

 

[ThrasherDBS]

No, by the time we're at that point in the race, we're ahead enough that activating him to block would be unnecessary. Your blocker keeps up with you, so there's both of us with probably a five second lead ahead of everyone else. I take the shortcut, he stays on the main road, we cross over both routes at the same time, crash into each other, and that usually results in the other cars catching up and passing us.

 

[Stephan]

No, by the time we're at that point in the race, we're ahead enough that activating him to block would be unnecessary. Your blocker keeps up with you, so there's both of us with probably a five second lead ahead of everyone else. I take the shortcut, he stays on the main road, we cross over both routes at the same time, crash into each other, and that usually results in the other cars catching up and passing us.

How was that even possible? In my experience, only Drafters or crew members with Tier 3 Exotics can catch up to you or even overtake you.

 

[ThrasherDBS]

In my experience, the crew members always keep up with you, so long as they don't make a mistake, and so long as you fit all the performance parts on their cars as soon as they're available. (It doesn't cost you anything, so there's no reason not to fit the performance parts on their cars.)

Samson's Charger and my Charger are pretty quick, that's why I felt it was the best Tier 2 car. We zip ahead of the pack because of the acceleration.

Admittedly, I'm a little lost as to what you're not understanding.

 

[Dreadmed]

Just be careful. Like I said earlier, I had some trouble getting Prostreet to run on Windows 10, and Carbon is even older. I didn't have any trouble with Prostreet on Windows7, so if you are still on 7 it'll probably work fine.

It might be a problem... my laptop is running 8.1, and I had to fiddle around to get NFSU 1 to work, but that was due to the Sec drv causing problems, once that was sorted it ran absolutely fine. Prostreet was a bit more difficult though, so as you say, I'll probably need to double-check for any problems relating to Carbon.

 

[Stephan]

In my experience, the crew members always keep up with you, so long as they don't make a mistake, and so long as you fit all the performance parts on their cars as soon as they're available. (It doesn't cost you anything, so there's no reason not to fit the performance parts on their cars.)

Samson's Charger and my Charger are pretty quick, that's why I felt it was the best Tier 2 car. We zip ahead of the pack because of the acceleration.

Admittedly, I'm a little lost as to what you're not understanding.

Well at least you told us that experience though.

Anyways, I still wonder why the game didn't award us the Le Mans Quattro for career mode use after beating Darius. I could've used that for pursuits though.

 

[ThrasherDBS]

Finally beat the game tonight. That was good and refreshing.

Gotta say though, has anyone run into a sort of bug where the Tier 3 opposition appear early? I was completing Fortuna and Downtown at pretty much the same time, and unlocked both of the bosses at the same time. I go and beat Wolf (guy seriously has the most punchable face, next to Razor's). When I got done meeting Colin, the game makes me do a defensive race. Mind you, I hadn't had the opportunity yet to unlock a single Tier 3 vehicle and I hadn't even beaten Kenji yet, and my Charger gets put up against a bunch of Tier 3 vehicles (including a very persistent Corvette) Thankfully the Charger can reasonably hold its own against Tier 3 vehicles, I was able to beat them, but it was still jarring, and I don't think I would have been as fortunate if I had been driving Wolf's DB9 or Kenji's RX-7.

Decided to use the Viper this time around as my endgame car. Pretty snappy and quick, and also a lot more planted in the corners than the Charger. Though, I had to revamp my muscle memory a bit, because it doesn't kick out as much as the other two cars I've used through this playthrough. Managed to beat the final boss, passing him on the first corner, but man did he keep his nose right on me for those ten seconds.

 

[CleanCut]

Cool! Man, I don't remember a lot about the game, it has been way too long since I played it to remember much. But it was a fun one for sure. I wish they could recapture the NFS magic basically from NFSU2, MW, Carbon, and Prostreet. If they could somehow wrap all of those games together, taking the best from each, that would really be something.

What would you guys want from each of those games and why?