Need for Speed 4 High Stakes
It plays very much like Need for Speed 4, but with some extra play
modes and one big added feature. I reviewed Need for Speed 4 more than a
few months ago and loved the game. It had a few shortcomings, but they
were minor and insignificant compared with the outstanding gameplay and
graphics. When I first played Need for Speed 4, I thought it was vastly
superior to Need for Speed II. Now that I’ve played the next Need for
Speed game, High Stakes, I have to ask myself: Does it surpass the third
installment as easily as the third surpassed the second? Not exactly.
That doesn’t mean the game is bad or even worse than Need for Speed 4.
It just isn’t a huge leap in terms of graphics and gameplay.
Those who buy this game should realize that it plays very much like Need
for Speed 4, but with some extra play modes and one big added feature.
The biggest feature added to the game is car damage, which we’ve all
been crying for since the inception of this fine arcade racing series.
I’m happy to say that on this count, the game benefits greatly from
damage modeling. All cars have ratings for body, engine, suspension, and
handling. Too many bumps, scrapes, and crashes will bring those ratings
down. At first, the damage is subtle, but once you start racking up the
collisions, you’ll see the car’s body start to warp, the windshield and
windows break, and the engine start to smoke. Tires will be off kilter,
and you’ll notice the performance of your car suffering commensurately.
There is no way to fix your car during a race, so you are in a bind
should the damage be extensive. There is a status window on the top
right corner of your screen, though, so you can monitor your damage and
respond accordingly. You might want to be less reckless if you see the
red damage-indicator bar overtaking the blue status bar. For Need for
Speed purists who don’t want to play with damage, this option can be
toggled off.
System= Pentium III CPU 600 MHz
RAM= 196 MB
Size= 162 MB
Video Memory= 32 MB
OS= WIndows 98, XP, Vista, 7 and Windows 8
WINRAR 4.20is
a powerful archive manager. It can backup your data and reduce the size
of email attachments, decompress RAR, ZIP and other files downloaded
from Internet and create new archives in RAR and ZIP file format.
Changes in RAR compression RAR general compression algorithm is
optimized for better utilization of several processor cores. While some
speed gain is possible even in single processor mode, best results are
achieved in multi-core environment. Speed gain depends on data type and
average file size. Several cores are utilized more efficiently when
compressing large files. WINRAR 4.20 had to increase memory
requirements to achieve higher compression speed. General RAR
compression algorithm allocates about 120 MB comparing to 40 MB in
WINRAR 4.20. WINRAR 4.20 text compression algorithm
cannot utilize several CPU cores efficiently, so its performance in
multiprocessor environment is much lower than for general algorithm.
Also its decompression speed is much lower than in general algorithm
regardless of CPU number. So we decided to disable the text algorithm by
default. If you need maximum possible compression ratio for plain text
data regardless of speed, you can enable the text compression in
“Advanced compression parameter” dialog. Press “Compression” button on
“Advanced” page of archiving dialog to access it. You can also change
this option permanently in default compression profile; In the command
line mode the text compression can be enabled with much switch. “Fastest” (-m1) compression mode also
supports several processor cores now. In 4.11 it could use only a single
processor core. WINRAR 4.20 general decompression algorithm speed is
slightly improved,though not same extent as RAR compression. RAR
decompression is not able to use several processor cores, so its
performance does not depend on a number of cores. Changes in ZIP
compression: now ZIP compression supports
several processor cores resulting in noticeably higher performance in
multi-core environment. Single CPU ZIP compression is also faster than
in 4.11; Memory use for ZIP compression is increased to about 15 MB. Recovery volume creating and processing
can use several CPU cores resulting in higher speed. Though, typically
hard drive seek speed is a limiting factor for recovery volumes, so this
gain is most noticeable when working with solid state drive. Now the
allowed value for -mt switch is 1 – 32, not 0 – 16 as before. “Find
files” command can search data in 7-Zip archives. Previously “Find
files” did not support .7z archive format. Windows 2000 is not supported
by WINRAR 4.20 and WINRAR 4.20 self-extracting modules anymore. “Save current settings” button in
“Advanced SFX options” dialog is now available only when converting an
existing archive to SFX. Options saved with this button are applied only
to convert to SFX operation. If you create or update SFX archive, only
SFX options stored in default compression profile are used. Options
saved in “Advanced SFX options” dialog are ignored for these operations.
Need for Speed: Underground (NFSU)
ffis the seventh racing game in the Need for Speed video game series
developed by EA Black Box and published by Electronic Arts in 2003. NFS
Underground remakes the series’ formula completely with a heavy
emphasis on tuner culture and a storyline-driven career mode. All races
take place in a generic city at night. Rather than exotic cars,
Underground featured vehicles associated with the import scene.
Underground was commercially successful, and inspired a sequel. Import
racing fans should definitely check out Need for Speed Underground.
It’s hard to talk about an import car racing game without mentioning the
movie The Fast and the Furious. The movie put as much of a spotlight on
tricked-out cars as it did on its cast, and the resulting effect caused
a huge surge of interest in the import racing scene. In the wake of the
film, a number of other properties have risen up to try to claim a
piece of the lucrative scene as its own. Need for Speed Underground is
EA’s attempt to get involved, and it’s mostly a success. Need for Speed Underground contains a decent-sized car roster. Right off
the bat you’ll find a Honda Civic, which is one of the more popular
rides in the scene. But the inventory doesn’t stop there. You’ll also
find a VW Golf, Acura Integra, Toyota Supra, S2000, Ford Focus, Dodge
Neon, Mazda Miata, and a few more. Though the different cars are rated
in handling, acceleration, and top speed, in practice the cars don’t
drive all that differently, especially once you’ve purchased some
upgrades in the career mode.
System= Pentium 4 CPU 1.4 GHz
RAM= 256 MB
Size= 179 MB
Video Memory= 32 MB
OS= Windows 98, NT, 2000, XP, Vista, 7 and Windows 8
London Racer 2
is the sequel to the game London Racer also known as m25 Racer
developed by Davilex. I’ve got to say that I enjoyed M25 Racer more and I
really think London Racer 2 is definitely not the greatest racer arcade
I have played. London Racer 2 is an arcade racing game, in which you
enter an illegal street race organization as a rookie. This organization
sets up illegal races on the m25 and in London and Oxford. In this
hierarchic organization you start in the small league, but when you’re
good enough, they let you enter the “Luxury sports car league” but at
the end, you’ll be trying to reach the ultimate league: the “GT Racer
League”. During the leagues, you try to go faster and faster through
buying extras and power-ups for your car to tune it up. By finishing
higher in the leagues, you’ll earn more money with which you can buy
even better cars or upgrade your current car. You’ll be able to get
money and other items like, nitro boosts and -fixing icons-, which
naturally fixes your car, by picking them up during the race. The game
offers various cars types including bonus cars that can be used only by
finishing some levels. It also offers two sorts of gameplay
Graphics
For a start the game graphics aren’t too bad, but it is definitely not
as great as it could’ve been. The graphics aren’t realistic, which make
the game less fun to play. The game’s environment lacks quality, and
could’ve been a lot more detailed. But still I have to say that the
environment of the courses include a number of items like: coffee
tables, street lights, cars, buses, construction cones and more, which
add a lot to the race atmosphere. But still, some of those items look
shallow and with too little detail, especially the traffic cars. I have
to add that I liked the character design, because each of them has their
own personality that reflects the car design. You can use three
different driving view modes: hood view, bumper view and rear view. I
know doesn’t matter to some people, but I must say that the game’s menu
design really lacks in colors, and basically look shallow.
Sound
London racer 2 offers a general race game sounds which includes: great
thrilling race music, sounds effects like police sirens, car sounds
effects like car engines, tires, brake sounds, crash sound, environment
sounds like birds, traffic sound effects and more. Along with the car
radio which adds a lot to the gameplay.
The one thing I really liked in London Racer 2 is the sound. When you
start to drive you can listen to the radio songs and programs that can
really make you laugh. The addition of the radio really makes the game a
lot more fun to play. In general the game sound effects quality is
average – London Racer 2 doesn’t offer outstanding music/sound. But as I
said earlier it adds a lot to the atmosphere.
Gameplay
First of all I most say that the control of the car is very unrealistic
and not fun to play. The car steering is very hard and tight. The
artificial intelligence of the cop cars is not good either, and even has
a few bugs. For example I often noticed that the cop car ran into
buildings, and sometimes the cops didn’t even chase me after I broke
traffic rules.
London Racer 2 isn’t a realistic game, in regards of physics either.
Speaking of which, the sense of gravity is really strange at times. For
example, when you accelerate and hit some object, like cars or walls,
your car rises into the air like it was a feather, and if you hit a
street light it brake right out of its place like a toothpick and flies
away.
Multiplayer
As I already mentioned London Racer 2 offers just a local one, including
two game modes: the first one is a duel, where you race against your
friend in split screen mode. The second mode is “Cop VS Racer”, where
the cops have to destroy or catch up with the racer in order to win, and
the racer has to survive for some time in order to win. The game offers
a simple local multiplayer that can be fun for a little while.
System= Pentium II CPU 400 MHz
RAM= 128 MB
Size= 90 MB
Video Memory= 32 MB
OS= Windows 98, 2000, NT, XP, Vista, 7 and Windows 8
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