The biggest feature added to the game is car damage, which we've all been crying for since the inception of this fine arcade racing series. I'm happy to say that on this count, the game benefits greatly from damage modeling. All cars have ratings for body, engine, suspension, and handling. Too many bumps, scrapes, and crashes will bring those ratings down. At first, the damage is subtle, but once you start racking up the collisions, you'll see the car's body start to warp, the windshield and windows break, and the engine start to smoke. Tires will be off kilter, and you'll notice the performance of your car suffering commensurately. There is no way to fix your car during a race, so you are in a bind should the damage be extensive. There is a status window on the top right corner of your screen, though, so you can monitor your damage and respond accordingly. You might want to be less reckless if you see the red damage-indicator bar overtaking the blue status bar. For Need for Speed purists who don't want to play with damage, this option can be toggled off. Although damage cannot be repaired within a race, it can be repaired between races if you are playing in the new career mode. Unlike the tournaments in Need for Speed III, this career mode has higher stakes attached to it, if you'll pardon the pun. You start you off with a wad of cash and asked to purchase a lowly BMW Z3 or a Mercedes SLK 230. Then you enter a series of circuits organized into tiers. As you advance through the tiers, you earn more money, which you can use to repair your car between races, upgrade your existing cars, or buy new vehicles. There are three different types of circuits in the career play mode. There are regular races, where you try to amass the most points over three or more tracks. There is a knockout mode, where the last-place finisher in each race is eliminated from the circuit. And there is a high stakes mode, where it's you against one other driver with your cars on the line. Each circuit has an entry fee and offers the finishers varying amounts of cash depending on how they placed. In the high stakes mode, your entry fee is your car, and the prize is the loser's vehicle. It's a quick way to earn a car but also a very quick way to lose one.

With ten tiers to race, and multiple circuits within each tier, there is a lot of gameplay in the career mode. The career mode also cleverly forces you into making hard choices on how to manage your car and money. Do you pay the $8000 to upgrade your car's suspension and engine, or do you save the money and hope you can win enough in the next race to buy an all-new ride? The additional car damage and repair costs also force you to race a little smarter. In addition, persistence is rewarded, as successive victories unveil more expensive levels of cars, bonus cars, and bonus tracks.

Download Need for Speed: High Stakes

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