Need for Speed: High Stakes
| Need for Speed: High Stakes | |
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| Developer(s) | EA Canada |
| Publisher(s) | Electronic Arts |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows and PlayStation |
| Release | March 24, 1999 (PlayStation) June 20, 1999 (Microsoft Windows) |
| Genre(s) | Racing |
| Mode(s) | Single player and multiplayer |
Need for Speed: High Stakes (also known as Need For Speed: Road Challenge in Europe and Over Drivin' IV in Japan) is a 1999 racing computer game, developed by Electronic Arts Canada and published by Electronic Arts. It is part of the Need for Speed series, once again featuring a host of exotic sport cars and tracks located in Western Europe and North America.
New features
As is its predecessor, Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit, High Stakes retains police pursuits in game, as well as introducing three new racing modes: High Stakes, Getaway and Career. High Stakes is a racing mode in which the reward was the losing player's car. Getaway requires the player to outrun a pursuing police vehicle for a given time period. Career mode incorporates a monetary reward system that allowed a player to purchase vehicles and performance upgrades while earning cash by racing in a chronological set of tournaments.
Another innovation is the introduction of damage models. Vehicles which have been involved in accidents featured visibly crushed car bodies and suffered from performance penalties. After a race in Career mode, the player is given the option to purchase repairs. The mode also allows players, for the first time, to upgrade cars, although the feature simply consists of switching between three upgrade levels for each car.
The PlayStation version of the game, released some months before the PC version, features improved gameplay. Only all-new tracks were implemented without the additional rehashes from NFS III in the PC version. Additionally, the AI in the game was more advanced; the five AIs such as Nemesis, Bully and others featured different driving characteristics (ie. Nemesis would hound the player until a slipup occurs, whilst Bully exhibits a more aggressive style, occasionally ramming into the player's vehicle).
Cars
Cars featured in High Stakes consist of existing sports cars and one original bonus car. As opposed to the original classes "A", "B" and "C" used to designate vehicle performance, High Stakes categorizes vehicles based on triple-As, double-As, single-A or B classes, the former referring to high-performance vehicles. Cars featured in the game include the following:
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Standard models
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Police models
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Tracks
The tracks featured in High Stakes and their attributes are largely the same as it is in Hot Pursuit. Races can still take place at night and/or with weather, and reversed and/or mirrored tracks. However, minor refinements had been made on new tracks, particularly the ability to include night lightings when nighttime racing take place. Movable props also return in the new tracks after their introduction in Need for Speed II and absence in Hot Pursuit.
High Stakes features a total of nineteen tracks: Ten new tracks (including three bonus tracks), and nine bonus tracks that are direct copies of those from Hot Pursuit. The new tracks are set in various locations in Western Europe and North America, each conveying specific identities and landmarks (although the new bonus tracks do not actually indicate any visual signs of their locations). It is also worth nothing that the majority of new tracks are set in the countryside or forests. The set of new tracks include:
- Celtic Ruins: Set in Scotland, containing ruins, open grasslands, a village, museums and forests.
- Landstrasse: Set in rural Germany, passing through mansions, towns and forests.
- Dolphin Cove: Set in the rural United States, starting and ending at a lakeside town, and running along the coastlines, forest and canyons.
- Kindiak Park: Set in a fictional national park in Canada, and features two railroads (with a passing train).
- Route Adonf: Set in the France countryside, passing through an old town, cliffs and forests.
- Durham Road: Set in rural England, running past partitioned roads, the English countryside and towns.
- Snowy Ridge: Set in the United States, on snow-covered highlands.
- Raceway: A race track set in Italy.
- Raceway 2: A race track set in the United States.
- Raceway 3: A race track set in Spain.
For the Hot Pursuit-based bonus tracks, see Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit tracks.
Criticism
High Stakes was widely criticised for being too similar to NFS III, especially due to the fact that all of the tracks from NFS III were contained in NFS HS/RC (amongst others).[verification needed]
Incompatibilities
High Stakes is known to have issues running on Windows XP (as well as Windows 2000 and Windows NT), as the game currently requires either Windows 95 or Windows 98 to run properly.[citation needed] The game also doesn't support newer video cards, meaning using an old GeForce/ATi graphics card (or even a 3dfx Voodoo2 graphics card) is preferable to using a new GeForce/ATi Radeon graphics card when playing the game.[citation needed] The game's predecessor in the series, as well as its sequel, are both compatible with both XP and new graphics cards.
While no official patches have been released by Electronic Arts to rectify both problems, third parties have released their own fixes and patches on the Internet, including patched executables or replacements for certain files.[citation needed]
External link
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