[nfs most wanted vs underground]

I've been playing a lot of Need For Speed: Most Wanted lately, and I've recently beaten Blacklist #9 to finally unlock the Mazda RX7. Here's my favorite car, the Mitsubishi Eclipse that won me all my races and the next car I'm going to upgrade, the RX7 (which I intentionally made to look like Kyoko's RX7 from Initial D 4th Stage).

I like this game, but not as much as NFS: Underground 2. Although NFS Most Wanted is much the same with NFS Underground 2 graphics-wise (car models, environment, weather effects and motion blurs), Most Wanted does outclass the previous NFS games with the lighting effects. The lighting's just beautiful especially on sunsets, although it can blind you on horizons (but that's what's cool about! It actually blinds you!).

In terms of gameplay though, much of what drew me to Underground is no longer around in Most Wanted. While the police chases in Most Wanted are certainly exciting, it simply took too much of the game I became used to (note: I never really liked NFS: Hot Pursuit). Don't get me wrong, smashing through mobile roadblocks and dissing cops (cops on friggin' Corvettes) is cool - but I'm not looking for Grand Theft Auto, I'm looking for NFS.

In NFS Most Wanted:
No more advanced performance tune ups - I liked how Underground 2 allowed me to dabble in being a "mechanic"; performance testing and analyzing car performance graphs; but sadly, in Most Wanted you get this simple tuner slider bar.
No more drift races, rally and the downhill drift races.
No more cute chics at the startup line.
No more hidden races, shops and random challenges in the Free Roam mode. Frankly, Free Roam is useless now, since all the shops are the same and you can simply jump to races and initiate police chases straight from the Safehouse.
No more hydraulics (no more watching the car jump) and speakers systems (you don't feel like a pimp no mo') and less variety on vinyls - overlaying multiple vinyls to create unique and wicked, messed up vinyl designs.
But most of all, NO MORE Toyota Corolla.
No more SUVs (I want my Hummer!). Sure they gave lots of luxury cars this time like the BMW (yeh!), Lamborghinis, Porsches and a Dodge Viper but their just that, friggin pogi cars not streetracing cars - but then again that's just me.

In short, Most Wanted offers less visual flavor, customizability and Initial D-ness but offers ...more cops (and you don't even get to BE a cop).