Need for Speed: ProStreet

Need for Speed: ProStreet
European cover art featuring a Nissan GT-R
Developer(s)	EA Black Box Exient Entertainment (DS)
Publisher(s)	Electronic Arts EA Mobile
Artist(s)	Wilson Tang Eduardo Agostini
Composer(s)	Tom Holkenborg
Series	Need for Speed
Platform(s)	PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Wii, Nintendo DS, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, mobile
Release	PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, Wii, Microsoft Windows, Mobile phone, Xbox 360 and Nintendo DS NA: November 14, 2007[1] EU: November 23, 2007[2] PlayStation Portable NA: February 18, 2008 EU: February 22, 2008
Genre(s)	Racing
Mode(s)	Single player, multiplayer

Need for Speed: ProStreet is a racing video game, the eleventh installment of the Need for Speed series. It was released worldwide in November 2007.^[1] ProStreet includes more than 40 cars including a few from American Le Mans Series. ProStreet was the first PlayStation 3 game with DualShock 3 rumble support.

The demo, featuring two races, one speed challenge and one grip race, appeared on Xbox Live on October 26, 2007, on PlayStation Store on November 1, 2007, and on PC on November 2, 2007. ProStreet is preceded by Need for Speed: Carbon and is followed by Need for Speed: Undercover.

Plot

The game begins where a former street racer known as Ryan Cooper enters a challenge day and wins it with a Nissan 240SX. Ryan is mocked by Ryo Watanabe, the Showdown King who drives a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X.

He then moves on to Battle Machine, a famous race organization, and dominates it. He then moves onto Showdown Chicago, promoted by Super Promotion and the best organization is introduced, the Super Promotion; there are other organizations in each specific event such as the Noise bomb for drift, G Effect for grip racing, ROGUE SPEED which is for drag, and Nitrocide for speed runs. Each organization has a top race team, Apex Glide, Touge Union, Grip Runners, Aftermix, and Boxcut, respectively. Ryan dominates the showdown and moves onto React Team Sessions. He then moves onto another Showdown again promoted by "Super Promotion" and dominates it. He then receives invites to elite organizations of the four Kings of Drag (Karol Monroe), Drift (Aki Kimura), Grip (Ray Kreiger), and Speed Challenge (Nate Denver) after breaking 10 track records in each race mode. He beats them, earns their crowns, and dominates enough organizations and showdowns to face Ryo Watanabe. Ryan beats him and the Apex Glide team leaves Ryo. Ryan then becomes Street King by beating each of the kings.

Gameplay

Need for Speed: ProStreet has taken the series in a different direction of gameplay. All racing in ProStreet takes place solely on closed tracks, making ProStreet the first game in the series since Need for Speed II that does not animate illegal racing. The performance tuning feature is enhanced, compared to previous versions, especially Autosculpt. Unlike Carbon, where only certain body kits can be autosculpted, this can now be applied to all body kits, including stock bumpers and wide body kits. Furthermore, some adjustments through autosculpt impact the car's aerodynamics.^[3]

There are four different game modes in ProStreet: Drag (a race in a drag strip, point to point), Grip (similar to Circuit races but with four different types of Grip races available), Speed (similar to a Sprint race) and Drift.

• Drag race is a simple straight away race that has three heats. There are three types of drag races, 1/4 and 1/2 mile drag races where the fastest time, out of three runs, wins. There is also a wheelie competition where the longest wheelie on the 1/4 mile track wins.
• In Grip races, there are four different modes (Normal Grip, Grip Class (all versions except for the PlayStation 2 and Wii versions), Sector Shootout and Time Attack), the player has a choice to race rough, such as ramming, smashing, or blocking the opponent in order to win the race, or race cleanly and follow the given racing lines. Normal Grip races feature 2 to 4 laps around a circuit track with up to 7 other racers. First driver to cross the finish line wins. Grip Class races take 8 racers and divide them into two even groups. The racers are placed into the groups based on their vehicles performance potential. Group A starts about 10 seconds ahead of group B, both groups race on the same course but are only competing against the 3 drivers in their group. In Time Attack, the driver with the fastest overall single lap time wins the event. In Sector Shootout the track is divided into several segments, with drivers attempting to complete these sectors in the shortest possible time. Extra points are awarded to drivers who 'dominate' the course by holding the fastest time for every segment of the track.
• In Speed Challenge races, players must cross the finish line first to win the race. Players have to be cautious in Speed Challenge at speeds exceeding 200 mph.
• In Top Speed Run races, there are 3 to 9 checkpoints and at the instant a player crosses a checkpoint their speed is clocked and added to that player's score, the player with the highest cumulative speed wins. This is similar to the Speedtrap events in Need for Speed: Most Wanted.
• In Drift, players drift to emerge as the driver with the most points scored in the event. Points are scored based on speed, angle, and how long the drift is held.

Other than game play itself, ProStreet features detailed damage modeling, unlike previous Need for Speed games (except for High Stakes and Porsche Unleashed) where damage is relatively little or non-existent altogether. The new damage system introduces more depth of damage (except on the PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Nintendo DS and Wii versions, where the damage modeling has been scaled down due to the limited processing power, so the damage is similar to the previous titles) where any object in the game world has the potential to inflict cosmetic damage breaking off pieces of the car such as the hood,bumpers,side view mirrors, light damage, or heavy damage which reduces performance of a car, and even has the potential to total a car immediately after impact.^[3]

The Speedbreaker does not return for ProStreet (as the game lacks a police presence; the Speedbreaker was mostly intended for police evasion, however it returns for the Nintendo DS version of the game).

Development

The official title was leaked several months before the official announcement. Soft Club, the Russian distributor of the game, unveiled the name and release date of the game in February 2007.^[5] EA had not until the official announcement on May 31, 2007, given any clue about the game's title.

Reception

Need for Speed: ProStreet received mixed reviews from critics. Game Informer and GameSpot have cited the lack of police in the game, the handling of cars being unrealistic, and the fact that ProStreet strays away from its traditional roots of street racing as reasons for the ratings, as well "an overload of in-game advertising and a higher hardware requirement (causing poor sales on the Windows version)." IGN.com mentioned the common complaint that all of the cars had shoddy performance and terribly unrealistic handling. videoGaiden lambasted the game in its 2007 Christmas special, having harshly criticised its predecessors in the previous two years. The main criticism was that the game was as lacking in substance as the previous installments, but also lacked the high production values of those titles. These were the lowest ratings ever in the series despite higher sales of the next game, Undercover. The PlayStation 2 and Wii versions were also criticized due to missing content, downgraded graphics and frame rate issues.

Need for Speed: ProStreet has sold 2.4 million copies in the United States.^[17] The PlayStation 2 version received a "Platinum" sales award from the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA),^[18] indicating sales of at least 300,000 copies in the United Kingdom.^[19]

References

External links

• Official Need for Speed: ProStreet website