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| NFS Pro Street |
Need for Speed: Pro Street (X-Box 360, PS2, PS3, PC, PSP, Nintendo DS)
Whether it's grip racing, drift competitions, drag racing or blasting through canyon roads, Need For Speed: Pro Street aims to capture the atmosphere and attitude of a new breed of racing and the racers who participate.
Modern-day muscle cars like the Dodge Charger and Audi RS4 meet imported drifting machines like the Nissan 240SX or Toyota Supra to give Pro Street a selection of machines that will satisfy. It emphasizes following a character through a legal street-style racing career, unlike the previous Underground games which saw racers blasting through city streets after dark.
Detailed damage sees the cars get crunched, scraped and dented if they come in contact with an obstacle or another player, and graphical realism goes so far as to even capture reflections in the chrome accents on the cars.
This game brings the successful franchise's latest work to any modern platform including PC, though you'll need some serious computing horsepower to play it with the visual effects cranked up.
Offering variety, detailed cars and tracks, and a real-world atmosphere, fans of the Need For Speed series will appreciate Pro Street as a gift. Just check their game collection for previous NFS titles.
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| Dirt |
Dirt (Xbox360, PC, PS3)
This one looks like a blast. Dirt presents six different racing disciplines for drivers to master, including Hill Climb, Rally RAID and the CORR Desert Series. Players get to pilot expensive machinery around in mud, gravel or sand at ridiculous speeds to cross the finish line. Dirt offers a selection of nearly 50 machines, so there are hours of gameplay built in. This game resides somewhere between a simulation and an arcade game- so players will find it serious but a lot of fun at the same time.
They can drive their digitized dream-cars with control for the fastest time, or partake in some mud-sliding mayhem and watch the vehicle come apart spectacularly thanks to advanced damage rendering. It all takes place on tracks which the game's developers say were painstakingly re-created through visits, photographs and satellite data.
Players boast online that Dirt is one of the best-looking racing games on the Xbox 360, but it's available on PC and PS3 as well. If you're car-buff is a big fan of watching rally-racing on TV, they'll feel right at home. Don't skip this one of there's a rally-fanatic on your list, though it'll give any seasoned gamer hours of enjoyment.
Can't Decide?
If you don't know which game to choose, which system to choose it for, or which sort of racing genre to look at, a gift certificate for rentals from the local video store makes a great gift- and allows your racing-fanatic to determine which game suits them best.
photo:Bizarre Creations, Electronic Arts, Codemasters