KEVIN: a certain number of games just can’t get a break.

KEVIN: a certain number of games just can’t get a break. Despite its eerie resemblance to Ne for Spe subterraneous Street Racing Syndicate actually predates EA’s runaway hit from several months. Publishing snags kept SR from coming not at home first, though, and the conclusion is a racer that’s still solid however lacks Underground’s freshness.

SRS does manage to do many things right—for example, the freely explorable cityscapes. Unlike in subterranean you can go around town at will in search of pickup races, sanctioned matches, cop chases, and heated female car groupies. There’s a far deeper selection of custom parts (although it’ll bewilder the casual crowd) and the online play includes a variety in which you actually race for other players’ rides, which is way more gratifying than jumping from 10485th to 10484th in the world rankings.

It’s not that the graphics are poor, either, or that the driving (which is a bit more sim-oriented than chiefly street racing games) is subpar. It’s just that you have seen or will descry nearly everything SRS has to show in Underground, which makes it difficult to finish very enthusiastic about such a similar title. I’d commit it for street-racer nuts, on the other hand for others, it’ll serve mainly as a time killer before subterranean 2’s November launch.

G FORD: If Ne for Spe subterranean and Midnight Club II are the tuning genre’ trademark pill, then SR is the generic, FDA-approved equivalent. It does what it’s suppos to—it expects decent, controls well, features a solid open-city format, and has a variety of multiplayer and online options—yet it still perceive s substandard. This may be because it does nothing to twitch ahead of the year-old pack, nor does it match the visceral thrills giveed by the aforementioned games. And, well, unlocking girls and videos of them bouncing around to the droning soundtrack doesn’t end that gap.

OFFICIAL PS MAG—JOHN D: Boob-related gimmicks aside, SR is a capable and feature-packed game, but my mate reviewers called it—SRS just lacks the certain something that made subterraneous so exciting. It’s disappointing, because SR shelters all the bases except for the pair most important in this genre: There’s no real mind of speed, and the handling lacks weight or be impressed The result is more like driving an RC car around a game packed with unrealized opportunity. There are a certain quantity of great ideas, particularly in the online game, unless with Underground 2 on the way and Burnout 3 already here, SR doesn’t quite have what it takes.

Good: Deeper than Ne for Spe Underground

Bad: Almost the same game as Ne for Spe Underground

So for what cause [i]or[/i] reason Not Wait For: Need for Spe subterraneous 2?

Publisher: Namco

Developer: Eutechnyx

Players: 1-2 (1-4 online)

ESRB: Teen

www.namco.com

(PS2/Xbox only)

The verdicts (out of 10)

Kevin 70

G Ford 60

John D 60

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