So I was ready to give NFSU2 a chance after snagging a cheap copy in a bundle of PS2 games. Most of this has evaporated and with the constant droning message about road users needing to be responsible as well as the ‘lads mags’ being killed off (because sexism…whatever), the world feels like a more sterilised and straight place. However, I have been heavily re-involved with cars and the ‘scene’ over the last 6-7 years and in an ironic twist of fate, I now actually MISS the days of The Fast & The Furious movies, street racing culture and magazines like Max Power with topless models draped over ridiculous cars. It probably didn’t help that I eventually played the original Underground and wasn’t that impressed.
It was the impression that they only slapped their name on yearly cash-cow updates, average licensed fare and software that they could sell via cynical marketing which tapped into what teenage boys of the mid 00’s wanted.
There was also a stigmata associated with EA during the PS2 era if you ran in certain gaming circles. I was busier playing my intellectual JRPG’s and skillful fighting games while the masses were buying NFSU in droves. Despite always being a big car person (or ‘petrolhead’), I looked down on these games when they were current because they tapped into a street racing subculture which appeared far more glamorous in Japan or the US while here in the UK, it was associated with ‘ricers’ or ‘chavs’ building ugly, thunderous monstrosities out of Citroen Saxos or Peugeot 206’s. I have a strange relationship with EA’s Need for Speed Underground games.