Obviously, no NFS game is going to compete with LFS or any other sim oriented game for it's reality, but most of the NFS series are fun and challenging in their own way.
The main differences between ProStreet and the previous 3 NFS games: Tracks are independently located at "legal" venues, with the supposition that the former street racer in the game has now gone legit. Tracks are scatter out through the world, as opposed to being marked off streets of relatively large city maps. The former games had very large city maps, included a free roam mode that allowed a player to cruise around in the city, and get involved in pursuits if caught speeding. So free roam and pursuits (as evader or cop) are gone. Drag racing is back (Carbon didn't have it). Drift is more realistic. Speed mode is new, basically cars driven almost pegged at the speed limiter speed of 250mph, although only one car in the game, the 911 Turbo, can run the Nevada tracks at that speed without going airborne and most likely getting totaled, in a cool (for the first few times) slow motion outside view.
This is the first NFS game with some tracks based on real world tracks. I'm not sure how accurate these tracks are or if they were "smoothed" out for ProStreet. Like most NFS games, ProStreet limits power induced oversteer, steering induced understeer, and exaggerates peformance of the cars.
Power induced oversteer is prevented for most cars (except for drift mode). For the lower powered cars, it's pretty obvious that the engine power is cut when taking turns, which I found a bit annoying. It's less obvious with higher powered cars, especially the rear wheel drive cars like the Ford GT.
Steering induced understeer only occurs on front wheel or all wheel drive cars and only when combined with braking or downshifting. Excessive steering inputs on rear wheel drive cars (or cars setup to oversteer) result in a mild oversteer that scrubs off speed; this can be used to stuff some of the rear wheel drive car into turns at higher speeds.
Peformance is greatly exaggerated. Real world lap records at Willow Springs are about 1:06 for a CART (Indycar) and F1 race car, set back in 1987. The fastest car in ProStreet, the Zonda, when fully souped up, can do a lap just under 46 seconds, pulling over 5 g's by my estimate, and hitting the in-game speed limiter of 250mph on the two "straights".
There are a large number of cars, but not the huge number of tracks, in the previous NFS games. All events occur on race days held at various locations: Autobahn, Autopolis, Chicago Airfield, Ebisu, Mondello Park, Nevada Highway, Portland, Tokyo DockYards, and Willow Springs.
The career mode isn't as progressive as previous NFS games. It's not clear when to upgrade or buy new cars because of the ingame handicapping. There are "tier" levels of cars, but the game will handicap the AI cars based on what the player is driving up to a point, requiring a faster car only in the latter stages of career mode. With 52 race days, and 9 locations, there's quite a bit of repetition in career mode.
Online play is based on the same single location race days used in career mode, which is pretty restrictive compared to previous games where any track could be chosen while with a group of players. The result is that there aren't a lot of online players (at least for PC).
Offline and ranked (online solo mode) scoring is done via a handicapped points system, so rather than choosing the fastest car, the most points are accomplished by using a car with a relatively high handicap. Head to head online play is still based on the fastest car / player, and points are ignored in this case.
Sample videos:
The most important feature, the slow motion "totaled" sequences, which are fun the first dozen or so times:
npcznd.wmv
Stage 3 Lotus Elise at Willow Springs, "incredible" speed.
npwslte.wmv
Stage 4 Zonda at Willow Springs, "ludicrous" speed.
npwsznd.wmv
Stage 4 911 Turbo at Nevada C (speed mode):
nps911.wmv
Drift mode (RX7):
npdrift.wmv
Drag mode (Zonda):
npdchiznd.wmv
Wheeli mode (supra no-nitrous drag, followed by Charger wheelie):
npdwchg.wmv
The main differences between ProStreet and the previous 3 NFS games: Tracks are independently located at "legal" venues, with the supposition that the former street racer in the game has now gone legit. Tracks are scatter out through the world, as opposed to being marked off streets of relatively large city maps. The former games had very large city maps, included a free roam mode that allowed a player to cruise around in the city, and get involved in pursuits if caught speeding. So free roam and pursuits (as evader or cop) are gone. Drag racing is back (Carbon didn't have it). Drift is more realistic. Speed mode is new, basically cars driven almost pegged at the speed limiter speed of 250mph, although only one car in the game, the 911 Turbo, can run the Nevada tracks at that speed without going airborne and most likely getting totaled, in a cool (for the first few times) slow motion outside view.
This is the first NFS game with some tracks based on real world tracks. I'm not sure how accurate these tracks are or if they were "smoothed" out for ProStreet. Like most NFS games, ProStreet limits power induced oversteer, steering induced understeer, and exaggerates peformance of the cars.
Power induced oversteer is prevented for most cars (except for drift mode). For the lower powered cars, it's pretty obvious that the engine power is cut when taking turns, which I found a bit annoying. It's less obvious with higher powered cars, especially the rear wheel drive cars like the Ford GT.
Steering induced understeer only occurs on front wheel or all wheel drive cars and only when combined with braking or downshifting. Excessive steering inputs on rear wheel drive cars (or cars setup to oversteer) result in a mild oversteer that scrubs off speed; this can be used to stuff some of the rear wheel drive car into turns at higher speeds.
Peformance is greatly exaggerated. Real world lap records at Willow Springs are about 1:06 for a CART (Indycar) and F1 race car, set back in 1987. The fastest car in ProStreet, the Zonda, when fully souped up, can do a lap just under 46 seconds, pulling over 5 g's by my estimate, and hitting the in-game speed limiter of 250mph on the two "straights".
There are a large number of cars, but not the huge number of tracks, in the previous NFS games. All events occur on race days held at various locations: Autobahn, Autopolis, Chicago Airfield, Ebisu, Mondello Park, Nevada Highway, Portland, Tokyo DockYards, and Willow Springs.
The career mode isn't as progressive as previous NFS games. It's not clear when to upgrade or buy new cars because of the ingame handicapping. There are "tier" levels of cars, but the game will handicap the AI cars based on what the player is driving up to a point, requiring a faster car only in the latter stages of career mode. With 52 race days, and 9 locations, there's quite a bit of repetition in career mode.
Online play is based on the same single location race days used in career mode, which is pretty restrictive compared to previous games where any track could be chosen while with a group of players. The result is that there aren't a lot of online players (at least for PC).
Offline and ranked (online solo mode) scoring is done via a handicapped points system, so rather than choosing the fastest car, the most points are accomplished by using a car with a relatively high handicap. Head to head online play is still based on the fastest car / player, and points are ignored in this case.
Sample videos:
The most important feature, the slow motion "totaled" sequences, which are fun the first dozen or so times:
npcznd.wmv
Stage 3 Lotus Elise at Willow Springs, "incredible" speed.
npwslte.wmv
Stage 4 Zonda at Willow Springs, "ludicrous" speed.
npwsznd.wmv
Stage 4 911 Turbo at Nevada C (speed mode):
nps911.wmv
Drift mode (RX7):
npdrift.wmv
Drag mode (Zonda):
npdchiznd.wmv
Wheeli mode (supra no-nitrous drag, followed by Charger wheelie):
npdwchg.wmv