bit-tech Shopping: Electronic Arts Need for Speed: Underground 2 (Xbox)

• Racing
• Sports

Rating: 8

Time with product: 1 Months

Strengths: Excellent graphics, Online mode, introduction of SUV's into the series

Weaknesses: No vehicle damage, the driving between races can become tiresome after some time in the story mode

Summary: I enjoyed the original Need for Speed Underground and was looking forward to the improvements that would be made to NFSU2. I liked the idea of the open-ended environment and the shops and events spread around. The tuning options are comprehensive and are easy enough for people new to the series to pick up. The story mode is solid and has a nice overall lenghth. All of the race types from MFSU return with the addition of URL races, which have you driving against competitors on a race track similar to other simulation racing games. Overall, I enjoyed this game and would recommend it to fans of the import tuning scene and arcade racing games.

Rating: 8

Time with product: 1 Week

Strengths: good graphics and lots of fun

Weaknesses: Drag and drift races are hard

Summary: I spend a lot of time on the x-box and like a game that keeps my attention. This is one of those games. It's been a lot of fun.

Rating: 6

Time with product: 3 Months

Strengths: good graphics, online play

Weaknesses:

Summary: Need for speed underground 2 has a bigger free roaming city to explore and race in than the previous NFSU. They have added several new game modes to the already existing Circuit, Drift, and Drag. There are more than 150 racing events that span across 180 tracks. You can fully customize your ride.

Rating: 8

Time with product:

Strengths: Lots of customization, pretty graphics, long story mode

Weaknesses: No vehicle damage

Summary: Need For Speed: Underground 2 is the car tuner's dream game. There are so many options for customizing your car that it's mind blowing. The game allows for quite a bit of exploration while you drive around the city looking for people to race. The graphics are top-notch and there is a pretty good sense of speed. The handling of the cars is good, but could have been tweaked a little bit. Overall, this is a very fun racing game with an insane amount of customizable parts.

Rating: 8

Time with product: 1 Years

Strengths: customization

Weaknesses: no car damage

Summary: Need for Speed Underground 2 is a great game which improves on many of the minor aspects from the first game. It's a fun game to pick up and play for a while and can have great replay value for avid racing fans. Fans of the NFS series should go out and get this game.