Who Still Plays Need For Speed Underground 2?

[Zibster]

a sister thread to Most Wanted 2005 and Carbon threads.

NFSU2: what a game. with its revolutionary open world, extensive customization, and unique features like SUV racing and magazine covers, Underground 2 stood out, and still stands out, to many players, myself included.

considering the games popularity and massive sales, I imagine there are a good handful of players who still play the game. if you're one of those people, then this thread is for you.

 

[ThrasherDBS]

Had insomnia a few nights ago, and decided to start a playthrough. Like Most Wanted, I've never beaten this game from start to finish either. I think I got to the third stage of the game before everything got monotonous. Picked the 240SX, and beat the first set of races. Finally got drowsy again and went back to sleep.

I'll come back and finish this, but at the present moment, I've got an open playthrough on Most Wanted 2005 for my PS3 and I've also been playing ProStreet.

 

[GBalao888]

This and the original NFS Underground glorify ricing, if your car becomes one heck of a ricer then it's likely to end up in magazine and DVD covers. I enjoyed finishing this game on PC while recreating the Player's Nissan Skyline GT-R R34 during the intro cutscene of the career mode and tutorials of drag, street cross and drift events.

 

[ThrasherDBS]

That's one thing I'm not necessarily fond of in this game honestly. It was cool when I was 11, but not so much now. If I'm not mistaken, you "have to" rice out your car otherwise the game won't let you progress. That's one of the things I liked about later games. You didn't have to put body kits and spoilers on your car, but the option was there if you wanted to, and there were optional incentives to doing so. In Most Wanted and Carbon, it brought the heat level down on your car so the cops wouldn't recognize it. In ProStreet, body kits improved the aerodynamics of the car, as opposed to being a strictly cosmetic change.

 

[Zibster]

@ThrasherDBS @GBalao888 yeah, the rice factor is pretty horrendous in hindsight, but considering that I'm playing the game as o write this, the gameplay masks the forced customization for me, anyway

 

[Dreadmed]

Likewise, even after all this time, I can still remember some of the... monstrosities that I created, both in 1 + 2 (partly because of the star requirements, partly because of my lack of taste).

*shudders*

 

[JR98]

I remember having a hideous looking 106 with a carbon fibre hood and wing with a horrendous bodykit and awful rims (among other "upgrades"). Was still only 3.2 stars. Haven't played this in a while but may get back to it. I tried completing it on PS2 a while back but only got to unlock the Supra before the game became incredibly dull as it was just the same races over and over and over again.

Although I did use a cheat to get the Skyline GT-R in My Cars and modified it to look like the cutscene car, which I also did for the original Underground.

 

[Zibster]

I was playing some yesterday, and I had no idea how long the game would be, which I can't say is a bad thing, at least for myself

 

[CleanCut]

I haven't played it in years. I remember hating to rice out my car in order to get stars, but once you got the reward, you can always take stuff off again. Funny thing is, even more reserved car mods in the game would be rice by today's standards LOL. The customization star rating was probably the worst gameplay mechanic in the whole game. The rest was great.

 

[Marc30599]

I'm playing through this game on my PC with the Ford Mustang RTR and I can't believe how much better the graphics are on the PC version then the PS2 version I have like its way better, not even component cables can come close to the PC graphics of nfsu2. now I see why those PC players go around proclaiming "PC Master Race"

 

[Nexus]

I'm playing through this game on my PC with the Ford Mustang RTR and I can't believe how much better the graphics are on the PC version then the PS2 version I have like its way better, not even component cables can come close to the PC graphics of nfsu2. now I see why those PC players go around proclaiming "PC Master Race"

Just wait until you see some of the graphics mods

 

[JakeMR2]

I have that graphics mod, I beat the game more than once, with added rage quits in drag racing. However, I like the PC version than the PS2 version. I see why PS2 players would get jealous of the PC users. I hacked into the PS2 executable plenty of times, and retrieved some odd menus like a Debug Test Menu for car layers. Still fun to mess around with the tuning of the game to get quick turn in.

 

[Stephan]

Alright. Let's talk about the beta version of Underground 2. In my previous post in the Most Wanted thread:

Not Most Wanted related, but I found a video showcasing beta Underground 2 car selection and guess what, I've found something real interesting at 0:32 mark.

@JakeMR2 Could you tell us the presence of these cars especially the NSX? Is it possible to get the textures the NSX similar to the M3 E46 in Most Wanted? Also is the Integra Type-R, Neon, Impreza 2.5, and NSX present in the game files of the final version of Underground 2?

 

[JakeMR2]

Alright. Let's talk about the beta version of Underground 2. In my previous post in the Most Wanted thread:

@JakeMR2 Could you tell us the presence of these cars especially the NSX? Is it possible to get the textures the NSX similar to the M3 E46 in Most Wanted? Also is the Integra Type-R, Neon, Impreza 2.5, and NSX present in the game files of the final version of Underground 2?

From what SpeedY from the NFS Theories 2.0 forums told everyone the car files are basically A.I. car files, but the player can only use the Fairlady Z (Z33) and the Lancer Evolution IX. I can try searching through the bins with TexEd, but I would have to do some math to extract the texture files, by squaring the size at least.

Though, a 3000GT can be seen in the Burnout 3: Takedown demo as a A.I. the models do not work in any certain way. I wish we could hack into the data to find out about it. SpeedY recently found out a Ingame Camera Maker for the PS2 version of Underground 2.



Also, good news the Debug World Camera can be activated in ALL Black Box era games. It would be cool to explore with it. Maybe we can find some junk textures that EA themselves left behind.


Edit:
I remember something about DebugCarCustomize.fng in Underground 2, in the final those files do not appear at all. Not even the names.

 

[Stephan]

From what SpeedY from the NFS Theories 2.0 forums told everyone the car files are basically A.I. car files, but the player can only use the Fairlady Z (Z33) and the Lancer Evolution IX. I can try searching through the bins with TexEd, but I would have to do some math to extract the texture files, by squaring the size at least.

Though, a 3000GT can be seen in the Burnout 3: Takedown demo as a A.I. the models do not work in any certain way. I wish we could hack into the data to find out about it. SpeedY recently found out a Ingame Camera Maker for the PS2 version of Underground 2.



Also, good news the Debug World Camera can be activated in ALL Black Box era games. It would be cool to explore with it. Maybe we can find some junk textures that EA themselves left behind.


Edit:
I remember something about DebugCarCustomize.fng in Underground 2, in the final those files do not appear at all. Not even the names.

Good.

So @Sonygamer455 , will you join the quest in finding hidden files in NFSUG2 alongside @JakeMR2 ?

 

[Sonygamer455]

So @Sonygamer455 , will you join the quest in finding hidden files in NFSUG2 alongside @JakeMR2 ?

I don't really have any knowledge for hacking Underground 2, just Most Wanted, Carbon and Undercover (PS2).

 

[Stephan]

I don't really have any knowledge for hacking Underground 2, just Most Wanted, Carbon and Undercover (PS2).

Oh I see.

@JakeMR2 did you find something hidden in the final version of UG2?

 

[JR98]

Does anyone know what upgrade(s) change the engine sound for cars? I have a Skyline GT-R but I want it to be as fast as possible while still keeping the original engine sound.

 

[Stephan]

Does anyone know what upgrade(s) change the engine sound for cars? I have a Skyline GT-R but I want it to be as fast as possible while still keeping the original engine sound.

Probably the acceleration/top speed related upgrades. I believe there's no way that you can keep the original Skyline R34 sound.

 

[JR98]

Probably the acceleration/top speed related upgrades. I believe there's no way that you can keep the original Skyline R34 sound.

I'll try removing all upgrades and installing them one by one tonight to find out which ones change the sound, but I'm assuming it'll be some of the engine or ECU upgrades that do it.

 

[JakeMR2]

Oh I see.

@JakeMR2 did you find something hidden in the final version of UG2?

I'll check it out, as soon as I leave school. The FNGs from the demo are still there, like:

Debug Art
Debug A.I
Debug Physics (crashes upon execution)

 

[JakeMR2]

Sorry to double post like this, but I found another thing in the final version of Underground 2, and is quite odd...

Yup, it's the drag strip in Bayview, but why is it here??

 

[Sage Ages]

I'll try removing all upgrades and installing them one by one tonight to find out which ones change the sound, but I'm assuming it'll be some of the engine or ECU upgrades that do it.

I think it's the engine upgrades that change vehicle sound effects.

Sorry to double post like this, but I found another thing in the final version of Underground 2, and is quite odd...

View attachment 607526
Yup, it's the drag strip in Bayview, but why is it here??

What exactly are you refering to in the picture?

 

[JakeMR2]

I think it's the engine upgrades that change vehicle sound effects.


What exactly are you refering to in the picture?

This is from World Camera Debug, this track still has the red arrows and all, it's just missing the road surface. I forgot what the dragstrip was called, but it has that unfinished look to it when your in free roam.

 

[Stephan]

Sorry to double post like this, but I found another thing in the final version of Underground 2, and is quite odd...

View attachment 607526
Yup, it's the drag strip in Bayview, but why is it here??

This is getting real interesting.

Anyways I noticed that the graphics in the beta PS2 version of UG2 looked better than the final version. Just like what the PS2 demo of Most Wanted was compared to the final version.

 

[JakeMR2]

This is getting real interesting.

Anyways I noticed that the graphics in the beta PS2 version of UG2 looked better than the final version. Just like what the PS2 demo of Most Wanted was compared to the final version.

Yup, you are correct EA had NFSU2 shaders from Underground 1, and has used assets from the game. For most of cars, in Most Wanted it was more fluid compared to the release one.

 

[Stephan]

Yup, you are correct EA had NFSU2 shaders from Underground 1, and has used assets from the game. For most of cars, in Most Wanted it was more fluid compared to the release one.

Also is it just me or do the cars in NFSUG1 and UG2 differ in size? Take the Skyline for example:

Everytime I look at UG1 cars, they seemed to look bigger than the UG2 cars. Plus not to mention some differences such the Skyline headlights.

 

[Sage Ages]

I'm pretty sure they just reused the models from UG1.

 

[Stephan]

I have a question, which is the most horrible looking bodykit and good looking bodykit in NFSUG2?

For the most horrible bodykit I would have to go with the Vapor kit. There are only a few cars that look good with the Vapor kit such as the Eclipse, RX-7, MX-5, Golf, Celica and 206. While the majority of cars that can be fitted with the Vapor kit looks horrible.

For the good looking bodykit, the Mantis kit is the one I would choose because it doesn't look too ricey unlike the other kits and it does look great on all cars especially the Skyline.

For the honorable mention, I would go with the Apocalypse kit especially when fitted it with the IS300. Try fitting with Level 3 Suspension and you'll get a car from NFSU2 that has a perfect stance without mods or tuning.

 

[Tornado]

I still mess around with the PC one on occasion. Now that it has been fixed for widescreen and has all those silly texture replacements its like a completely different game from the one I first played on the PS2 in 2004.