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Need for Speed Carbon

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6.9 User Score:

Generally favorable reviews

Based on 17 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 39 votes
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Game Info

Publisher: Electronic Arts

Developer: EA Black Box

Genre(s): Racing, Driving

Players: 2

ESRB Rating: E10+ (Everyone 10 and Older)

Release Date: October 31, 2006

Summary

What starts in the city is settled in the canyons as Need for Speed Carbon immerses you into the world's most dangerous and adrenaline-filled form of street racing. You and your crew must race in an all-out war for the city, risking everything to take over your rivals' neighborhoods one block at a time. As the police turn up the heat, the battle ultimately shifts to Carbon Canyon, where territories and reputations can be lost on every perilous curve. Need for Speed Carbon delivers the next generation of customization giving you the power to design and tweak your crew's cars in every way using the ground-breaking new Autosculpt technology. Represent your car class, your crew, and your turf in Need for Speed Carbon, the next revolution in racing games. [Electronic Arts]

Also On Metacritic

GAMES: Need for Speed Most Wanted Need for Speed Underground Need for Speed Underground 2 Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit 2

Cheat Codes & Hints: Cheat Code Central GameSpot Hints & Cheats

Also On The Web: Official Website

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

GamingTrend

This is a solid racing game that has evolved the need for speed series and just tightened and improved upon many of the things that were left unfurnished in the last game.

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Cheat Code Central

The Canyon Duel and the returning Drift Race, which has been absent in recent years, are both exciting and engaging additions to the already impressive list of race types carried over from "Most Wanted."

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GameZone

Need For Speed lives up to its heritage staying at the forefront in the evolution of racing simulations. Although I wish there was more revolution I can’t deny its status of a rock-solid racer.

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IGN

The drifting is an acquired taste (but it's good), the canyon duals are decent changes (though not great), and the crews...well, they suck. Of the myriad new features, the addition of muscle cars and the online functionality are the best.

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GameBrink

A great addition to the series for fans and probably a decent rental for most. While things have been upgraded and new elements added on, it’s still NFS and it still gets repetitive and boring after awhile. It’s like EA’s "Madden" of racing.

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Games Radar (in-house)

So what if Carbon isn't redefining the street racing genre - really, at this point, what could? It hits a sweet spot of intensity, danger, and style.

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PC Gamer

These niggles aside, Need For Speed Carbon delivers an entertaining blend of racing, performance tuning, and professionally acted FMV storytelling. [Feb. 2007, p.64]

PC Zone UK

Fans of the series will still find it entertaining, and newcomers will have plenty to see and do, but there's simply not enough new content to recommend it over "NFS: Most Wanted." [Jan 2007, p.90]

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PC Format

Engaging enough, but where's the innovation that the franchise so badly needs? [Christmas 2006, p.93]

ActionTrip

EA tries to do a lot with NFS: Carbon, but that still doesn't help me shake the feeling that the accelerated pace of NFS releases is in many ways pointless and counter-productive. It dilutes the overall impression of the franchise, rather than make it more appealing to the fans.

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Gamer 2.0

A solid racing game. It might have a few rough edges and frustrating spots, but overall it’s a fun game.

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GameSpot

Even though the wingman mechanics and canyon races don't quite pan out, it's still a stylish and enjoyable street racer.

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Computer Games Online RO

With many games supporting widescreen out there, it’s a shame that EA’s games still ignore it.

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PC Gamer UK

Carbon manages to look uniformly bland. [Christmas 2006, p.82]

Jolt Online Gaming UK

What the series needs is not useless gimmicks and badly rehashed game mechanics, but good, old-fashioned racing fun. We don’t need customisable bells and whistles; what gamers really want is a Need for Speed that uses its strengths, and doesn’t try to shoe-horn in its weaknesses for the sake of bullet points on a press release.

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VideoGamer

Regardless of that feeling of déjà vu, Carbon is another solid racer from EA, and the Auto-Sculpt feature is absolutely fantastic, not to mention the impressive car roster and functional online component.

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Boomtown

A lazy effort.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this game is 6.9 (out of 10) based on 39 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Jose O gave it a3:
no widescreen, i dont like the gameplay the graphics are bad, those are the main 3 aspects that made me not like this and some other new versions of NFS. To get it straight, for me i think the best NFS would be just either Most Wanted or Underground 2 with up to date graphics, less cartoonish and more real, with new and more parts, up to date cars, if possible real cities, or if not at least different cities and maybe 2 or more cities to choose from. This game has 1 thing i love, the fact that u can have your pieces to be longer or shorter, example: your rear bumper can be longer (closer to the floor) or shorter (further from the floor), the rims can be bigger or smaller and the tires can be wider or narrow. That new crew thing its good too, maybe with some mods would be good to keep it as an optional feature.

Zee gave it a10:
Need For Speed Has always been my favorite games of all time, This one was one of those NFS that blew me away! Tons of fun with crazy police after you crashin into stuff and the way you can feel free to design your car in a crazy way with flames, add nitro-boost, sweet rims, tint your windows, flash those neons under the car, and those crazy upgrades!! 10/10 for sure!!

Aravindhan K. gave it a9:
Awesome game... the career option is really great... your crew will be racing against other gangs to control the territory... really adrenaline pumpin... the types of races , circuit, checkpoint, sprint, speedtrack, drift , boss race all are awesome... a really worthy buy.

Daniel C. gave it a2:
I got the demo of this and though, great! So I get the game finally and start playing. The new menu system is not very good or well rendered which at first, made me think it was going to be cheap. However, playing the demo the races were quite good and there "seemed" to be a large variety. When playing the full game I found that the new and improved drag races were few and far between. I have only played about 5?! Most of the races were rubbish and nothing works properly. The graphics suck, the game play is worst and the lack of originallity. Even including the new duals and autp-sculpt system it is not changing direction at all. EA tried to make it somthing that no one wanted it to be. In my oppinion if they should change anything it should be the driving world, its far too boring compared to what we see in top of the line games. Forget autosculpt, its lack of scope and malubility makes it pointless to have and reducing the polygon count just for this doesn't help. I much prefere to just stick to the mod upgrades. Make the next game closer to Underground 1 and 2 with improved and more interesting worlds!

Brian L. gave it a3:
Just another NFS, please bring back MCO or sell it let the ones that loved this game play on.

Sergey A. gave it a3:
The graphics are not exactly top of the line. The interface for modifications is getting more and more confusing, It seems to be less of a need for speed game and more of a product placement and movie career for wanna bes. Very disappointing.

Steve O. gave it a4:
Tired & repetitive. Done this 3 times before. Its time to drop the fast & furious style of gaming. Need for speed used to be a great series until it became a yearly update with nothing worth buying the next one for. Gameplay is very short and virtually the same as most wanted except its dark. The pointless mods are only a minor distraction from this and wingman, (WTF!) is that the best they can come up with, not to mention an even lamer story than the last three(honestly). Thankfully the silly car rating has been dropped but again this shortens the game even more. They really need to shelve this series until they can come up with something new, these last 4 games are really below average and getting very stale. This feels more like an add on than a new game.

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Need for Speed Carbon

Game Info

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