NFS Carbon PC demo

By Tom Bramwell Published 30 October, 2006

Three tracks, three cars.

EA has ended the month the way it began - with a Need For Speed Carbon demo.

This time it's the PC version, which you can grab from 3D Gamers (650MB) ahead of the game's release on multiple formats on 3rd November.

The demo consists of the introductory cut-scene, followed by a Circuit and a Drift race using any of three cars. Winning both of those gives you the chance to try out a Canyon Duel against Kenji. You'll also be able to tweak the cars using Carbon's "Autosculpt" tool.

As well as appearing on PC, Carbon is down for Xbox 360 (a demo of which is also available, as mentioned), PS2, Xbox, Cube, DS, PSP and GBA, with a Nintendo Wii version following on 8th December.

Look out for a review in the near future.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (15) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Talha #1 5 years ago

    Well all the better for people to decide how rubbish this game actually is. Honestly, I haven't played it but God it stinks. Please stay away in droves - this is just NFS Underground 3 in disguise. Maybe that way we can get back to the days of Porsche Unleashed.

  • Darren #2 5 years ago

    It has the same content as the 360 demo but it runs a hell of a lot better at 1280x1024 with 4X FSAA and maximum settings on my not-exactly-state-of-the-art PC. The drift race, for example, which is near unplayable on the 360 due to its awful framerate is fine on the PC and perfectly playable even with just the cursor keys. I managed to score over 200,000 on my first go whereas I had to struggle to get 50,000 on the 360 version!!!

    It makes me wonder just how powerful the 360 really is when a mid-range PC can outperform it with certain games. Either that or EA's programmers are just inept! LOL

  • Talha #3 5 years ago

    @Darren: I think it is the latter! ;-)

    Honestly though, I think suddenly the RAM provided with both 360 and PS3 doesn't seem all that much, and I think that is poised to be a big bottleneck.

  • UncleLou #4 5 years ago

    Terrible demo. What a disppointment after the excellent Most Wanted.

  • Talha #5 5 years ago

    @UncleLou: +1. 'Terrible' is the right word to describe it - another black chapter in NFS's chequered history.

  • t8yman #6 5 years ago

    "It makes me wonder just how powerful the 360 really is when a mid-range PC can outperform it with certain games. Either that or EA's programmers are just inept! LOL"

    I'd say lazy and inept. when you look at the graphical ability of the 360 (gow movie?), and you look at tw07 and the lack of improvement over 06, it screams lazy to me

  • L42yB #7 5 years ago

    "It makes me wonder just how powerful the 360 really is when a mid-range PC can outperform it with certain games. Either that or EA's programmers are just inept! LOL "

    After looking at the graphics that are acheived when running Splinter Cell D.A. in Hi-Def on the 360, I don't think u can blame the hardware. EA probably didn't want to spend more than a few bucks porting this title to every platform, so they didn't actually bother to make it use the 360 to it's full potential. Expect to see much, much more of this on multiplatform titles, especially after the PS3 comes out. Altho I do agree that EA's programmers are totally inept ;) The only decent things they produce are generally created by some other group of devs...

    Good games by EA: Developer:

    Burnout 3 - Criterion
    Timesplitters 3 - Free Radical
    Battlefield 2 - Digital Illusions
    Edited by 1 at 30/10/06 @ 15:50

  • Talha #8 5 years ago

    One only needs to look at PC versions of FIFA 06 and TW07 to see how EA are screwing PC gamers. Usually the WORST version of their games is reserved for the PC, and I think X360 version of Carbon has suffered a similar fate due to the fact that people will buy it on every other platform in sufficient numbers to make X360 version sales not matter at all.

  • kangarootoo #9 5 years ago

    After playing NFS:MW and liking it rather a lot, I couldn't believe what I was seeing when I played the 360 demo of this. Very disappointed.

  • Talha #10 5 years ago

    @kangarootoo: Actually its not that hard to believe. In true NFS tradition, the shittier the game, the better it sells - so it was natural for EA to take this year's cue from the Underground games.

  • Sko #11 5 years ago

    "Honestly, I haven't played it but God it stinks."

    This and all your replies, Talha, you're coming off as some kind of obsessive loon. :)

  • Der_tolle_Emil #12 5 years ago

    I want Need for Speed 2. In my opinion still the best. Although Hot Pursuit 2 was fun too. But the series has definetly gone down the drain since the whole tuning/underground thing started.

    I don't like tuned cars at all. Not in games, not in real life. Personally I also hate the persons who are driving tuned cars. I know a few and seriously I never met such shallow minded people (not to say dumb). There may be exceptions (I just say this just to be on the safe side here, if I truly believe it or not is an entire different story) but generally the whole tuning scene is best when looked at from very, very far away.

    I tried the 360 demo just in case last week and I couldn't say that I was disappointed by the graphics. The looked fairly standard to me but I don't know the other 360 incarnations of NFS so I really don't have any comparison. Gameplay-wise it sucked. Felt like driving on ice. If I want über artifical drifting I'd rather stick with Ridge Racer.

    Edit: Plus I think I said a few weeks ago I will boycott EA for their shitty games and marketplace downloads.
    Edited by 1 at 30/10/06 @ 15:23

  • SomaticSense #13 5 years ago

    Played the 360 demo, and it is fucking awful. It'll still sell by the bucketloads though, if only due to the sheer amount of chavs who have NO taste whatsoever.

  • yagisencho #14 5 years ago

    I was playing NFS: Porsche Unleashed this past week. It's such a brilliant game, it still stands up to most contemporary racing games (gameplay-wise) nearly 7 years after its release.

    I bought NFS: Underground and played it until grew bored (especially with its 'tude). I can't be bothered with another NFS game until they return to the Porsche formula, including Evolution mode. Maybe BMW next? Ferrari? Hell, I'd even settle for Mustang at this point.

  • SomaticSense #15 5 years ago

    According to a formula developed by NASA (shouldn't they be concentrating on landing on Mars, or something?), NFS: Carbon is more highly anticipated than Rainbow Six: Vegas, Assassin's Creed and Lost Planet!!!

    [link url= http://uk.xbox360.ign.com/articles/742/742616p1.html
    ]http://uk .xbox360.ign.com/articles/742/7...[/link]

    Seriously, the world's officially going mad.