The Need For Speed - PC, 4/10/95

Months on, we still get the odd mealy-faced lament from 3DO owners affronted by a shocking review which damned Need For Speed to death with the fearsome oath "You just drive about, man".

Unfortunately, we're always right.

And now PC owners with high-end machines (which effectively means a DX4, you bigamist) can experience the same "driving about" stuff, like the bloated deserters they are.

The PC copes surprisingly well with The Need For Speed's finely-sculpted supercars and speeding backdrops.

Do a couple of stupid handbrake turns, drive a mile up the road, turn around and drive back and your tyremarks still besmirch the tarmac. It's quite funny.

All the gaming options - one-on-one (with modem option) or a tournament against six CPU swimmers - and all the different views. Although in one of them your car doesn't have any wheels.

The Need For Speed doesn't fail on technical grounds: all 100km of scenery on the seven tracks looks superb.

No: it lets itself down on its own terms. Having set out its stall as a hyper-realist "sim" for serious driving enthusiasts, it delivers arcade smack-ups and Road Rash-style "fuzz-teasing".

There's no true freedom of movement and you never really get that console feeling of being part of the action.

Allegro-owning Super Car readers only.

The Need For Speed - PC CD-ROM - by EA

Req: 8MbR DX2/66
Graphix: 87%
Sonix: 82%
Gameplay: 74%
Lifespan: 77%
Originality: 65%
Uppers: Gratifying aesthetics; fast
Downers: Uneasy sim/arcade straddle
Overall: 77% - Billy Whizz