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Need For Speed Underground: Cube- CRAP, PS2- GOOD.
I picked up Need For Speed Underground today, going for the Game Cube version, as reviews made it out to be basically the same title across all three platforms, and as it's the only version of the game with progressive scan, the GC version seemed the way to go.
Starting up the game and skipping the grainy FMV, I was surprised to see some ugly textures, slowdown, and a choppy frame rate, and I hadn't even started a race yet...this was on the car select screen!
The race itself was no better. I can more than deal with 30fps, but this game was choppy and filled with slowdown more so than any racer I can even recall that's been released this generation; this wasn;t even a smooth 20-24fps; it felt like a choppy 20fps. The thought of trading the game in towards Counterstrike tomorrow definitely crossed my mind.
Later on this afternoon, I went to Gamestop with a friend, and while he was at the counter, I noticed that they had the PS2 version on display. Even on the crappy display monitor, the game looked better. I tried a race, and was surprised to see that the choppiness plaguing the GC version was not present, the textures seemed better, and there were even a few effects such as light trails from street lamps that I didn't remember seeing in the GC version.
To sum it up, this seems to be Need For Speed Hot Pursuit 2 all over again: The PS2 version has a good 30fps frame rate and looks very sharp, while the GC version is a choppy, slow mess of a game once again. I'm very curious to see if the Xbox version has a steady frame rate, and almost bought it instead of the PS2 version, but I decided to avoid that as I didn't want to get burned again.
I am getting tired of reading reviews claiming a multiplatform release runs the same across all three systems, and then buying it for one platform only to find that it runs much better on another. IGN and Gamespot in particular seemed to just cut and paste their review of the game for all three systems, and between the PS2 and GC versions at least, they are definitely not the same.
I'm sure that IGN will have a comparison up within the next few days, but this is the type of thing that needs to be addressed when or before a game is released, and using the same review and not at least mentioning differences in frame rate or other visuals needs to stop ASAP.
Lee
