10.11.03
Race 71 of 111
  
    I was originally going to write a review for Need For Speed Underground but I 
decided to save that one for a later date. I was inspired by a game to post a new 
rant, which is something I have not done in a while. This once concerns what I like 
to call “Perfect PC Player” syndrome. That may be an inaccurate description however.
  
    I have encountered PPP a lot in my time gaming but it seems to have become more 
prevalent in recent years. I think it’s mostly just the programmers being lazy. 
Basically in many games, they will start out great, lots of fun, not too easy, not 
too hard, then maybe 2/3rds or 3/4ths of the way through the difficulty will make a 
dramatic leap skyward. I have two similar examples to present regarding this phenomenon, 
Midnight Club 2 and Need for Speed: Underground. 
  
    See a few months back, around the beginning of the semester, I started playing 
Midnight Club 2. It is a game not without it’s flaws but playable nonetheless. For 
example, it would have been nice if the cars could be upgraded, you essentially must 
you’re your newest car in order to win every race. But what if you like the look and 
style of an older car? Tough. The free form racing was fun as well though for the most 
part a bit more linear than it should have been. Then somewhere about 2 races into the 
Tokyo section things dive-bombed for the worse. Suddenly the computer became a master 
at turning, it didn’t even have to break. The traffic seemed to be completely centered 
around the player’s location, like it was designed only to interfere with my racing. 
Also even the best fastest car was not fast enough. I mentioned this complaint to 
others, friends online and in real life, they had all experienced the same problem. 
Suddenly the game was unbeatable and the fun quickly drained out of it. 
  
    More recently I started playing NFS: Underground. What’s this? It’s like Midnight 
Club 2 only it has all the things MC2 needed to be better. Look at all those options 
for customizing. Look at me burn through these races too. Generally most races could 
be completed in 1 or 2 tries. Then there was Race 71 of 111. A horrible winding track 
with impossible to beat computer opponents. Ok, I’ll just drop down to easy difficulty; 
I’ve done it a few times before when I was irritated at other races anyway. Still the 
computer was too fast, too perfect. Wrecks that would sent me spinning and rolling would 
not faze the unstoppable computer opponents, it would weave through traffic (at least 
once literally through) with ease, and it never had to slow down on the turns. It took 
at least 50 tries to complete this race, probably closer to 70. And I felt no 
satisfaction for I had learned the true secret of the game. 
  
    You see during these 50 tries I decided to run a few experiments. Every race I 
would end up chasing one guy for 6 laps completely un able to pass him, yet when I 
wrecked I could still always catch right back up. So one time I started the race and 
sat at the starting line for a whole 2 minutes whole the other races took one lap head 
start. By lap 3 I had caught back up to them and was on the lead lap. Logic says that 
if I’m fast enough to complete 3 laps while they complete 2 I should be fast enough to 
win the race while they are still behind on lap 5. No, I still was perpetually stuck 
just behind them for the final 3 laps. See the AI is rigged. The closer you get, the 
faster he goes, and regardless of if his car can handle it. 
  
    Anyway, after race 71 all fun had been drained from the game. I believe race 73 was 
another 4 lap circuit on the same track that sucked my care about how well I raced from 
me (basically I run in to shit all the time out of general hatred). Now I’m up to about 
race 78 and my will to continue playing is slowly draining. Now, why is this bad? 
  
    See, the makers of MC2 and NFS: Underground make games. If a game does well, it will 
often get a sequel. I am currently 100% not likely to pick up Midnight Club 3 or 
Underground 2 should either ever be made. Hell I’ll probably never bother with another 
Need for Speed game again, all because the programmers though it was a good idea to 
artificially increase the difficulty late in the game. I suppose the idea was to keep 
me playing longer. Had the game stayed at the level it started at I’d have played it for 
much longer, hell I’d have probably replayed it a lot. I’ve already uninstalled Midnight 
Club out of disgust and Underground is very close to the edge at this time.