Need For Speed Underground: Rivals

Published 14 January, 2005

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Comments (13) Latest comment 7 years ago

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  • HarryB #1 7 years ago

    hardly, it has lost all of the graphical touches and now it's just a plain and jaggy racer instead of prior mentioned tarted up with motion blur... specular effects, reflections etc

    Although, I suppose the screen blurs anyway... not on purpose... but it'll help somewhat

  • ChocNut #2 7 years ago

    Considering the effects that were used in Ridge Racers, EA would have to have a pretty good excuse for NFSUG running without some nice 'graphical touches' on the PSP - I say you're wrong harry.

  • Nause #3 7 years ago

    I think it looks pretty bloody good for a handheld game, you picky b****** Harry.

  • Pirotic #4 7 years ago

    Ridge Racers didnt actaully have any fancy effects - the blur was down to the screen not being able to refresh blacks fast enough, and the 'lighting' was done by overlaying a very faint transparency which could only really be seen when the roads were bright.

    its not PS2 quality anyway, but still mighty impressive for a handheld.
    Edited by 1 at 14/01/05 @ 20:08

  • Pirotic #5 7 years ago

    I'd say it looks about the same as ridge racer, but with more polygons in the cars and less in the scenery.

    i'd be more worried about how 'dark' it is, like i said a few posts ago the PSP cannot update blacks very well, so any black on screen tends to blur like crazy when moving - i suspect most of the next gen games for it try to minimize the use of black, but this would look shit in motion with that contrast :P

  • HarryB #6 7 years ago

    you say I'm wrong?.... look at the bloody pictures
    it looks crap

  • Pirotic #7 7 years ago

    but from what i remember, it looked crap on the PS2 :D

    sure, its lost a few effects - but the PSP is somewhere between PSone and PS2 in terms of hardware, you can't expect to get a portable PS2 for the same price as the home console itself.

  • ChocNut #8 7 years ago

    "Ridge Racers didnt actaully have any fancy effects - the blur was down to the screen not being able to refresh blacks fast enough, and the 'lighting' was done by overlaying a very faint transparency which could only really be seen when the roads were bright."

    Too many mistakes above... I see we've some more PSP bashing so here we go: Ridge Racers DOES use a blur effect which is nothing to do with the screen and its visible when you boost. Secondly, anyone who has taken a good look at the specular lighting on Ridge's roads knows that it compares to Burnout 3's road lighting - Ridge didnt have any fancy effects? Have you looked at the car reflections recently?

    Now I agree, I'm not 100% in the know about NFSUG on the PSP, but it's by EA and they usually make good-looking games - namely NFSUG. Bottom line- the PSP is more than capable of some lovely effects.

  • Pirotic #9 7 years ago

    PSP bashing? yer - i paid £300 just so i could bash it on the forums :D

    the reflections are not the same as the stuff you get in the current gen console games, its just a texture with animates based on the viewing angle, like the old school Gran Turismo ones - if you put the game on TT and just take your time to play with the graphics you'll notice the reflections bare fuck all resemblence to whats actaully around the car. With stuff like PGR2 and NFS the game renders the area to be reflected in a low resolution buffer then maps that over the vehicle, so its actaully reflecting its surroundings.

    The spectacular lighting on the road looks spiffy, but try doing the course in mirror mode (hold down select) and you'll notice it still does the spectacular lighting when your going round the opposite direction, which shows its just pre-mapped onto the track rather than calculated (ala PGR2).

    Dont get me wrong, it looks great and blows the DS stuff out of the water - but it doesn't have any fancy effects by todays standards - no real-time reflections, no blooms, not even a lens flare. It looks like a PSone game being emulated, with smooth textures and a crisper resolution.

    Something which did impress me, is the way the speedo lights up when you go in a tunnel - thats detail.
    Edited by 1 at 16/01/05 @ 00:37

  • ChocNut #10 7 years ago

    Pirotic if its a trick (what isnt come to think of it!) it's far better than you give it credit for. The reflections do respond very well to the environment. I have payed close attention to them and they're certainly better than those we saw on the Ps1. Test it as you go under those cable bridges - and I think you'll notice that reflections far surpass glowing speedometers when it comes to the tunnels.

    Cmon - Ridge Racers looks great and you know it! What exactly are people looking for from Sony? DS heads saying the only thing good the PSP does is graphics, and at the same time saying PSP graphics aren't that great anyway.

    The PSP is a quantum leap for handheld gaming - we've skipped a generation here people - pay attention and give it it's due.

  • Pirotic #11 7 years ago

    I never said it looked crap, i just said it would be unfair to expect PS2 quality graphics from it - none of these games look as good as the PS2 port, but they are still light-years ahead of the DS.

    I totally agree about skipping a generation, it just goes to show how lazy Nintendo had been with the handheld market.

  • Zero Beat #12 7 years ago

    I wish the fake environment reflection in Ridge Racers was much higher quality just for the starting spin around the car, it does look really crap up close. During the race it's quite sufficient.

    PGR2 has the best tech I've seen, if only the best of GT4 and PGR2 could be mixed together now. Few years to wait..

  • carcassa #13 7 years ago

    simply great