Need for Speed: Underground - PS2

EA's long-running Need for Speed series takes a step into slightly shadier territory with the release of Underground. Quite possibly inspired by the Fast and the Furious films, the game introduces players to the world of urban street racing in high performance tuner cars, and charges them with the task of building the ultimate street machine by earning cash to pay for custom body kits and a host of licensed car performance mods.

Taking place entirely in harsh nighttime environments, the game is made up of a series of diverse events, based around the familiar concept of tearing round city streets at ridiculous speeds. As you would expect, success is achieved through a combination of precision driving, ruthless aggression and knowing the odd short-cut. This time around, the concept of drag racing has also been included, which sees you burning down straight races, timing your gear shifts to perfection in order to win.

There are over 20 licensed cars to be found throughout the game, including models from legendary Japanese manufacturers Mitsubishi, Subaru and Toyota. In each case, the vehicles are fully customisable, offering you hundreds of ways in which to create your own unique ride. As such, there are literally shed loads of aftermarket parts for you to buy along the way, coming courtesy of the likes of AEM Inc, Dazz Motorsport, Enkei, Sparco, and Turbonetics. In actual fact, you could probably kit your car out to look like the 'winners' who do wheel spins in Halford's car park every Sunday night. Although, at this stage, we're unsure as to whether the game features a Vauxhall Vectra. Fingers crossed, eh?

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