You've just rolled out of a tunnel in a brand new Mitsubishi Eclipse, the engine is purring and the paintwork is gleaming. Suddenly, you notice your rival speeding up behind you. Time to put the pedal to the metal and get the hell outta there! The traffic is thick tonight, but you weave your way through it with ease. Your rival is only a couple of seconds behind you, so drastic action is needed – time to press that little button for what you heard was called NOS. Whoosh! You zoom ahead of your rival and clear the finish line! Woohoo! You won! You won!This is just another average day in the life of a street racer, and Need For Speed: Underground puts you in the driving seat. The last NFS game, Hot Pursuit 2, was enjoyable despite its flaws, and Underground promises to give you much more enjoyable racing for your cash. But how much more fun is it really? Buckle your seatbelt, my friend – you're about to find out.

Graphics:

EA have done an excellent job on the graphics. The graphics in the last game were OK and they allowed a real sense of speed when you were going rather quickly especially that nifty catch-up thing on the cop cars. Anyway the graphics in NFSU are, in so many words, pretty damn good. The environments are very well presented the road has a realistic effect and the cars are very well detailed. The frame-rate can be a bit dodgy at times (e.g. when flying over a bridge time seems to slow down and then you hit the ground and you seem to warp forward about 5 metres) but this rarely happens. The whole city is very bright which gives the added effect of as if you're racing through the night. On the whole the graphics are very pleasing to the eye and have certainly shown improvement from the last game.

Sound:

The sounds are also brilliant, like the squeal of the tyres as you shoot off of the start line or the whoosh of the nitrous in the exhaust as you fly into warp drive and you may find yourself cringing as you smash into an oncoming van or car, but also the tunes are very, shall we say, motivating as it is a cool combination of rock (Rob Zombie) and rap (Petey Pablo) music. The gear changes are also a big part so they are also loud and clear as you shift gears, this helps enhance the aura to give you the feeling you're actually doing this.

Gameplay:

This game is superb where the races are concerned. NFSU has fully licensed cars, body kits, engine parts and various other accessories to unlock for your car. There is a lot to do to your car, the amount of possible customisation is incredible, but it's best to start unlocking things in the Underground mode.

NFSU has a different way of doing things in the way of modes: it has Underground mode, which I suppose you could call the story mode, and it has the Quick Race mode, which is the Arcade Mode. Pretty normal you would think, but within Arcade mode there are sub-modes: Circuit which is your normal race around in circles mode, Sprint mode which is get from point A to point B faster than your opponents, Drag mode (my personal favourite) which is all about reaction time in a straight 1 mile race (watch out for the multi-angle incoming traffic though), Drift mode which is about going around corners sideways to get loads of points, the Lap Knockout mode which is much like the Circuit race except that the person in last place at the end of each lap is knocked out of the race and Free run which allows you to accustom yourself to a new track with no opponents or traffic.And of course, there is a split-screen mode that is basically a 2-player mode where you battle out your arguments in a head-to-head race. Then there is the Customize Ride mode where you can modify the cars you have acquired by winning races and by parts you have bought in the Underground mode.

Customizing your car is also more important than it may seem, as to enter certain races in Underground mode you need to have a flash motor, and you gain points for adding different parts and generally making sure your car looks swish.

In Underground mode, you start off as a newbie to the street racing scene, and start off with a duff car like a Volkswagen Golf (oh, the horror). As you enter more races, you gain more parts to buy, and can make your car look nice and go fast. Alternatively, you can buy a new car, or trade in your old one. So you can switch from a crappy old Golf to better cars, and gradually work your way up to a 'proper' car like a Toyota Supra (hurrah!). Once you have the upgrades and parts, you have to race your rivals and see if you're up to the challenge.

Sadly, unlike racers such as Midnight Club 2, NFSU is extremely linear, with more emphasis on getting from A to B as fast as you can than choosing your own route through the streets. The last thing I must touch on in this section is not really a flaw in the game as such, but is a reason why some might find the latest NFS game disappointing. Quite simply, there's very little new here. NFSU does not break the mould when it comes to racing games, and there's nothing new to satisfy gamers hungry for a little more than standard racing.

That being said, Underground is still a great game when it comes to game play, no severe problems.

Playability:

This game is basically a modified version of the old game with a lot of things added to make it better (and better it has become for it) so it should be no problem for players of the previous games but not only that, beginners should have no problems anyway as it is the standard driving set-up.

This game is really easy to get hooked on, you might sit down intending to play for ten minutes, and you will end up playing for forty. The game is great to pick up and play. Definitely nothing wrong here folks.

Lifespan:

NFSU is quite a chunky game, with over 110 races to get stuck into. However, the catch is that if you play for about forty minutes each day, you could complete all of these in about a week (if you're as skilled as this reviewer ;) ). But never fear racing fans, coz the Arcade mode will keep you playing for weeks, and the two -player will ensure rivalry between your mates for months after that.

Final Say:

There is no a doubt that NFSU takes the street racing genre to a new high and with the added bonus of being able to modify your cars, something that many such games lack, this game allows a great deal of customisation and adding your own 'personal touch' to races. The graphics are not exactly up there with F-Zero, but they are much more than just mediocre. The sound/effects are great and with fabulous game play and few flaws there is little stopping it. NFSU is not quite a groundbreaker in the racing department, but is certainly a top racer.