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Need for Speed: Carbon is a multiplatform racing video game and the tenth title in the Need for Speed series. It was developed by EA Black Box and published by Electronic Arts.

Need for Speed: Carbon reimports a high number of gameplay assets from Need for Speed: Most Wanted but also introduced several features new to the franchise, including the ability of creating crews, canyon duel racing and Autosculpt customisation. It continues the plot from Need for Speed: Most Wanted but takes place in a night-only setting.

Need for Speed: Carbon was first released in autumn 2006 for the PC, GameCube, PlayStation 2 and Xbox platforms, as well as for the newer PlayStation 3, Wii and Xbox 360 platforms. In the following year, it was also made available for Macintosh.

Similar to Need for Speed: Most Wanted 5-1-0, a handheld spin-off title - entitled Need for Speed: Carbon - Own The City - for the GameBoy Advance, Nintendo DS, PlayStation Portable, and Zeebo platforms was released.

Online services were shut down on August 31, 2021.

Career[]

Plot[]

Progression[]

The career mode is centered around the fictional Palmont City setting, which is made up of four distinctive districts and the surrounding canyons. Each district is occupied by several rivaling crews that the player must take on with their own crew. Players will take over a district after challenging and defeating a crew boss, from whom they may also select Boss Bonus Cards that contain bonus rewards. Territories that were successfully gained by players may also be randomly attacked by smaller crews.

Events[]

Challenge Series[]

The Challenge Series puts the player into various events of a certain type and difficulty level. Unlike Need for Speed: Most Wanted, players may start with any event type although they are restricted to bronze tier events first. After winning Gold Tier events, players will receive new aftermarket parts and cars if they are playing on the Collector's Edition release.

Quick Race[]

Main article: Quick Race

Players may create a custom race event within Quick Race mode. A higher career mode progression is required for unlocking new tracks, event types and vehicles.

Reward Cards[]

Reward Cards are a series of unlockable vehicles, aftermarket parts and vinyls.

Cars[]

Need for Speed: Carbon is the first Need for Speed title to feature a large quantity of classic American muscle cars. The garage can be filled up with six cars independent of tier and design class. This number limit excludes pink slips rewards from bosses, which means the player can have up to nine cars if the three bosses' cars were awarded. All cars are categorised in performance tiers and car classes:

  • Tier 1 - Low performance capabilities
  • Tier 2 - Moderate performance capabilities
  • Tier 3 - High performance capabilities
  • Exotic - Highest top speeds
  • Muscle - Quickest acceleration
  • Tuners - Best handling

Customisation[]

Performance[]

Players can purchase individual upgrade parts that are divided into three classes with fine-tunable elements available before final purchase. As each vehicle is only competitive with other vehicles of the same tier, players cannot upgrade their performance tier.

Visuals[]

Need for Speed: Carbon offers a bigger range of customisation items and options than Need for Speed: Most Wanted; the Autosculpt feature allows players to visually modify custom vehicle exterior parts. Decals and vinyls are no longer fixated to certain areas and may be moved and reshaped by players.

Vinyls[]

Vinyl decals can be applied to cars to create unique wraps.

Special Releases[]

Collector's Edition[]

Nfs carbon collector's edition

The Collector's Edition is a limited special release of the standard game. It has an alternative cover art featuring a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX MR-edition on the front and is packed in a metallic package featuring a Koenigsegg CCX and Nissan 240SX on the back.

The Collector's Edition includes three new challenges, six additional race events, four exclusive vehicles, multiple pre-tuned vehicles and ten exclusive vinyls.

A making-of DVD is also included. All of these features are included in the Mac release of Need for Speed: Carbon as standard.

The digital release of the Collector's Edition also includes two ancillary cars and the Ultimate Performance Kit.

Own the City[]

NFSCOTC Boxart

Need for Speed: Carbon - Own The City is a handheld exclusive release for the PlayStation Portable, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, and Zeebo platforms. Compared to Need for Speed: Carbon, it greatly differs in terms of gameplay, settings, content, and plot.

Arcade[]

NFSC Arcade Art

Need for Speed: Carbon was reformatted into an arcade title by Global VR.

Downloadable Content[]

Multiple downloadable content packs were made available post-launch.

Soundtrack[]

Trivia[]

Gameplay[]

  • Need for Speed: Carbon re-imported the option for players to drive with a manual clutch.
  • There is an additional district known as San Juan, which is used for tutorials at the beginning of the game and for three race events in Quick Race mode. It is not accessible in Free Roam mode within normal gameplay.
  • Palmont's Downtown, Silverton, Fortuna and Kempton districts can be seen on the last leg of the final showdown against Darius in the "Eternity Pass" Canyon Duel event.

Development[]

  • Need for Speed: Carbon is the last Need for Speed title to be released for the Nintendo GameCube and the original Xbox. It is also the last to support the Windows 2000 and Windows ME OS, and the only title to be released for MacOS X.
  • A newer model of the Subaru WRX Impreza is featured in the Nintendo DS release, which is not made available for gameplay.
  • The PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, and Wii releases have the most limitations of any console release;

Promotional[]

  • There are some billboards and ads advertising the 2006 Mazda MX-5 although it is not included in the game.
  • The Tuner crew - Rotor 4 - only utilises tuner cars with a similar livery to that seen on the Group C #55 Mazdaspeed Mazda 787B.
  • The song Staggered Injection by Ekstrak, which is played when a race is led by an AI opponent using an Exotic car, reappears in Mass Effect 3 as a remix. It can be heard in the Purgatory club onboard the Citadel space station.
  • Players can unlock a bonus Mazda RX-8 featured in a short-lived graphic novel and cancelled television series titled Revved[1]. It can be used in Quick Race events by visiting and purchasing it from a Mazda Dealership found in the Billings District of Downtown Palmont.
  • As part of the game's dynamic advertising, a few billboards advertised the presidential candidate Barack Obama's campaign in 2008 and 2012.[2]

Trailers[]

References[]

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