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Good: Fun, fast racing, tons of customization options, large variety of modes

Bad: Worthless crew members, frustrating canyon races, Xbox 360 achievements difficult to unlock

Sweet: Muscle cars. Finally.

The Need For Speed series has always provided one of the most thrilling street-racing experiences in gaming. Renowned for its sharp visuals, fast cars, and visceral police chases, the series has always been one of the most entertaining arcade-style racers out there. Need For Speed: Carbon, the series' second next-gen entry, continues that tradition with the same high-speed action you've come to expect as well as a number of new features. Unfortunately, not all of these additions are necessarily for the better.

The game's story-based career mode is once again the star here, and like last year, it's told through a series of cutscenes that are half CG and half actual actors. It's a very interesting style and really lends the game its own sense of personality. The plot revolves around a fallen street racer working his was way back up to the top in order to take over the city. It's a fairly standard story setup, but it works fine.

The main progression of the career revolves around taking over territories controlled by rival teams. By participating in and winning a certain number of events in a particular region, you will eventually take control of that territory. After taking control of the final territory held by a rival group, you will be challenged to a boss fight. These are multi-stage races that involve a standard event in addition to a canyon race, one of the many new features in Carbon.

Canyon races actually end up being fairly frustrating in execution. The race itself is two-fold. In the first part, you follow your opponent down a winding cliff path and score points by keeping up. After that, the opponent does the same. Whoever has more points wins, and if either person goes off the cliff, it's game over for that unfortunate individual. Because of this last condition, canyon races are often highly infuriating. Take one turn too fast, and you'll meet an untimely end and have to begin the whole race over again. Also, when competing against the computer, you're really at the mercy of the AI on the second part. It's almost completely up to luck whether or not the computer keeps up with you.

Another of the new additions is the ability to hire a team of crew members to help you on and off the course. In each event, you can choose to bring along a crew member in one of three varieties: blockers, scouts, and drafters. Blockers will attempt to block target opponents, scouts will show you hidden shortcuts, and drafters will pull ahead of you allowing you to use their slipstream to rocket yourself forward. It's a neat concept, but in reality, the crew members are more of a liability than a benefit. On several occasions, I had my blocker actually ramming into me and cutting me off in a race. Granted, there were a few times where the crew members were helpful, but for the most part, it seems I would have been better off without.

On the plus side, the core gameplay in Carbon is the same solid racing action the series has always provided. The event types are plentiful with standards such as circuit and sprint races, and a few more interesting ones such as drift, where you earn points by drifting through turns, and speedtrap, where you try to have the highest total speed at certain checkpoints. The former is really an acquired taste, as it takes a lot of skill and practice to be able to drift to the point of winning.

The trademark police chases are back, albeit not quite as noticeably. When competing in certain races, you will attract police attention and accumulate heat on your car, increasing the chances that cops will be looking for your vehicle. Should they give chase, you can freely drive around the city wreaking havoc as you attempt to evade squad cars, spike traps, and more. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like very many events result in chases, and even when they do, they're remarkably easy to evade. It's still good fun running from the cops, but it would have been nice to have a little more of it.

Yet another big change in Carbon is that it divides car types into three classes: exotics, tuners, and muscle cars. Each of these types controls remarkably different, and the addition of muscle cars is a nice, long-needed feature. Much like their real-life counterparts, these vehicles are extremely fast, but lack the precise handling of the other classes. When you begin the career mode, you can select one of these three classes to start with, but you're always able to purchase cars from the other classes after gathering enough money.

In addition to the robust career mode, Carbon features a number of other modes, including one-off custom races and challenge mode, where you can unlock new cars and parts by beating specific events. Online play is smooth for the most part, with little in the way of lag. The Quick Race feature allows you to quickly get into a match and behind the wheel. It's a great addition that is sorely missing from the current-gen versions of the game.

The game also features an enormous amount of customization options for your vehicles. Carbon features an all-new Autosculpt feature that allows you to purchase individual body pieces and then modify them to your exact specifications using a series of sliders. You can also choose to purchase pre-made body kits as well as a number of performance-enhancing parts. The sheer level of customizability is astounding, and the ability to take your custom-made vehicle online for competition only makes it better.

Visually, the game looks great, with a steady frame rate and a nice level of detail on the cars. The tracks all look good, with a nice amount of variety in the scenery. The only downside is that the game doesn't always look quite next-gen. At times, the graphics are only marginally better than those in the current-gen versions. Still, once you get racing, it's hard to complain.

The voice-work is for the most part decent, but a few poorly written lines hurt the delivery. The soundtrack is comprised mostly of techno, which seems fitting for this type of game. Sound effects are also fine, with each car sounding like its real-life counterpart.

Need For Speed: Carbon is another solid entry in a solid series of arcade racers. The core racing action is still sound, but the new features are a mixed bag. While the addition of muscle cars and the new Autosculpting feature are both great, the canyon races and crew members are grating at best. Regardless, Carbon is still a fun racing title that should please anyone who's a fan of the genre.

Graphics: 8.5

Sound: 8.5

First Play: 8.0

Replay Value: 8.0

Gameplay: 8.0

Overall: 8.3