Need for Speed: Porsche Unleashed
Encyclopedia
Need for Speed: Porsche Unleashed, released as Need for Speed: Porsche 2000 in Europe, and Need for Speed: Porsche in Germany and Latin America
, is a racing
video game, developed by Electronic Arts Canada
and published by Electronic Arts
, and is a part of the Need for Speed
(NFS) series. Unlike other NFS titles, Porsche Unleashed centers around racing Porsche
sports cars, with models ranging from 1950 to 2000. The game is noted for its extensive information regarding Porsche and its cars. Unlike the previous four Need for Speed games, Porsche Unleashed was not released in Japan.
Need for Speed Porsche Unleashed gives the player the opportunity to race Porsche cars throughout a range of tracks located in Europe. The cars were studied in detail in terms of driving mechanics in order to create a realistic simulation. The premise of the game remains largely the same compared to previous games in the series: driving and racing sports cars. However, the game only offers Porsches. The handling of the cars was improved, and the player can customize their cars drawing from an in-depth catalog of different Porsche-parts. Although the game retains the police chases from Hot Pursuit
and High Stakes
, the feature is relatively minor and is only seen in the Factory Driver mode (see Modes).
In terms of game concept, Porsche Unleashed is often hailed for the unusual effort of focusing on a single car brand, thus allowing greater depth and acting as a platform of information on the Porsche brand. Apart from the vast number of cars and spare parts, the game also features many historical videos and pictures of Porsche vehicles, as well as written information.
races, by selecting the number of laps and opponents and directly customizing their cars (to a certain extent) as well as toggling a knockout match for circuit-based tracks (where the last racer to complete each lap is eliminated until one remains, winning); the multiplayer
mode allowed players to join or host races with up to 15 others.
New additions in the game include Evolution and Factory Driver modes, which are essentially career-based modes, each presenting the player with different challenges. Evolution mode is a set of tournaments, wherein the player is required to purchase and upgrade cars to drive for specific races, unlocking them for access in the Quick Race mode (selling them, however, would lock them again); race tracks will also be unlocked through wins. As the player wins in tournaments, the time goes by and the new cars appear. The second mode, Factory Driver, places the player in the position of a test drive
r for Porsche, performing various stunts and deliveries in order to advance through the mode and acquire several cosmetically customized Porsches.
Online play is the real strength of PU, where a loyal and very active community flourished. Despite the disconnection of the original EA servers in late 2003 the community continues to thrive through the private development of the IPLounge, together with a scoring system known as Porsche Unleashed Records Lists (PURL), which continues to serve a worldwide racing community.
such as Corsica
, Autobahn, Côte d'Azur and Schwarzwald. At the beginning of the game, four locations are available: Côte d'Azur, a Monte Carlo circuit
, Normandie
and the Pyrénées
. Players unlock more tracks as they progress in the Evolution mode.
, 924
, 928
, 959
, 911 Carrera RS (964)
, 968
, and road versions of the 911 GT2 (993)
and 911 GT3 (996)
. The 935/78
was replaced by the 917K
in the distinctive Gulf Oil
paint scheme.
film, Top Speed, and the Porsche Cayenne
. The game features three existing tracks from Porsche Unleashed and three Porsche vehicles: the 911 (996) Turbo, the 959 and the Cayenne Turbo.
Access to Need for Speed: Top Speed was bundled alongside the Windows version of Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2
.
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
, is a racing
Racing game
A racing video game is a genre of video games, either in the first-person or third-person perspective, in which the player partakes in a racing competition with any type of land, air, or sea vehicles. They may be based on anything from real-world racing leagues to entirely fantastical settings...
video game, developed by Electronic Arts Canada
EA Canada
EA Canada is a video game developer located in Burnaby, British Columbia. The development studio opened in January 1983 and is EA's largest and oldest studio...
and published by Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts, Inc. is a major American developer, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games. Founded and incorporated on May 28, 1982 by Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers...
, and is a part of the Need for Speed
Need for Speed
Need for Speed is a series of racing video games published by Electronic Arts and developed by several studios including Canadian-based company EA Black Box and British-based Criterion Games...
(NFS) series. Unlike other NFS titles, Porsche Unleashed centers around racing Porsche
Porsche
Porsche Automobil Holding SE, usually shortened to Porsche SE a Societas Europaea or European Public Company, is a German based holding company with investments in the automotive industry....
sports cars, with models ranging from 1950 to 2000. The game is noted for its extensive information regarding Porsche and its cars. Unlike the previous four Need for Speed games, Porsche Unleashed was not released in Japan.
Gameplay
Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit
Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit, released in Japan as Over Drivin' III: Hot Pursuit, is a 1998 racing video game, developed by Electronic Arts Canada and published by Electronic Arts. It is the third major title in the Need for Speed series, significantly incorporating police pursuits as a major...
and High Stakes
Need for Speed: High Stakes
Need for Speed: High Stakes, released as Need for Speed: Road Challenge in Europe and Brazil and Over Drivin' IV in Japan, is a 1999 racing video game, developed by Electronic Arts Canada and published by Electronic Arts...
, the feature is relatively minor and is only seen in the Factory Driver mode (see Modes).
In terms of game concept, Porsche Unleashed is often hailed for the unusual effort of focusing on a single car brand, thus allowing greater depth and acting as a platform of information on the Porsche brand. Apart from the vast number of cars and spare parts, the game also features many historical videos and pictures of Porsche vehicles, as well as written information.
Modes
As in previous Need for Speed games, Porsche Unleashed includes two standard modes that had been featured in previous Need for Speed games: Quick Race and Multiplayer. The Quick Race mode is increasingly flexible, allowing players to customize and play single playerSingle player
A Single-player video game is a video game where input from only one player is expected throughout the course of the gaming session. "Single-player game" usually implies a game that can only be played by one person, while "single-player mode" usually refers to a game mode for a single player, where...
races, by selecting the number of laps and opponents and directly customizing their cars (to a certain extent) as well as toggling a knockout match for circuit-based tracks (where the last racer to complete each lap is eliminated until one remains, winning); the multiplayer
Multiplayer game
A multiplayer video game is one which more than one person can play in the same game environment at the same time. Unlike most other games, computer and video games are often single-player activities that put the player against preprogrammed challenges and/or AI-controlled opponents, which often...
mode allowed players to join or host races with up to 15 others.
New additions in the game include Evolution and Factory Driver modes, which are essentially career-based modes, each presenting the player with different challenges. Evolution mode is a set of tournaments, wherein the player is required to purchase and upgrade cars to drive for specific races, unlocking them for access in the Quick Race mode (selling them, however, would lock them again); race tracks will also be unlocked through wins. As the player wins in tournaments, the time goes by and the new cars appear. The second mode, Factory Driver, places the player in the position of a test drive
Test drive
A test drive is the driving of an automobile to assess its drivability, or roadworthiness, and general operating state. A person who tests vehicles for a living, either for an automobile company or a motorsports team, is called a test driver....
r for Porsche, performing various stunts and deliveries in order to advance through the mode and acquire several cosmetically customized Porsches.
Online play is the real strength of PU, where a loyal and very active community flourished. Despite the disconnection of the original EA servers in late 2003 the community continues to thrive through the private development of the IPLounge, together with a scoring system known as Porsche Unleashed Records Lists (PURL), which continues to serve a worldwide racing community.
Locations
This game features many different tracks, all set in EuropeEurope
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
such as Corsica
Corsica
Corsica is an island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is located west of Italy, southeast of the French mainland, and north of the island of Sardinia....
, Autobahn, Côte d'Azur and Schwarzwald. At the beginning of the game, four locations are available: Côte d'Azur, a Monte Carlo circuit
Monte Carlo
Monte Carlo is an administrative area of the Principality of Monaco....
, Normandie
Normandy
Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...
and the Pyrénées
Pyrenees
The Pyrenees is a range of mountains in southwest Europe that forms a natural border between France and Spain...
. Players unlock more tracks as they progress in the Evolution mode.
PlayStation version
While largely identical to the PC version, a number of changes were made for the PlayStation release. It features a wheel-style interface. In Evolution mode, the music and graphics adapt to the era (the Classic era for example contains a monochrome interface with oldies music). Apart from changing the paint job, cars cannot be customized. Several additional cars were added which are not available in the PC retail version: 356 No. 1Porsche 356/1
The Porsche 356/1 was the first real Porsche car created by Ferdinand "Ferry" Porsche. This prototype car was a two-seater open roadster with a mid-mounted, air-cooled flat-4 engine of 1,131 cc displacement that produced...
, 924
Porsche 924
The Porsche 924 is an automobile produced by Porsche AG of Germany from 1976 to 1988. A two-door, 2+2 coupé, the 924 replaced the 914 as the company's entry-level model, and was the model that finally retired the 912. In production terms, the 924 was the first Porsche model powered by a...
, 928
Porsche 928
The Porsche 928 was a sports-GT car sold by Porsche AG of Germany from 1978 to 1995. Originally intended to replace the company's iconic 911, the 928 attempted to combine the power, poise, and handling of a sports car with the refinement, comfort, and equipment of a luxury sedan to create what some...
, 959
Porsche 959
The Porsche 959 is a sports car manufactured by Porsche from 1986 to 1989, first as a Group B rally car and later as a legal production car designed to satisfy FIA homologation regulations requiring that a minimum number of 200 street legal units be built....
, 911 Carrera RS (964)
Porsche 964
The Porsche 964 is the company's internal name for the version of the Porsche 911 model manufactured and sold between 1989 and 1994. It featured significant styling revisions over previous versions of the 911, most prominently the more integrated bumpers , although it was still obviously a 911...
, 968
Porsche 968
The 968 is a sports car sold by Porsche AG from 1992 to 1995. It took over the entry-level position in Porsche's lineup from the 944, with which it shared about 20% of its parts...
, and road versions of the 911 GT2 (993)
Porsche 993
The Porsche 993 is the company's internal name for the version of the Porsche 911 model manufactured and sold between late 1993 and early 1998, replacing the 964...
and 911 GT3 (996)
Porsche 996
The Porsche 996 is the internal designation for the Porsche 911 model manufactured and sold between 1998 and 2005. It has since been replaced by the Type 997...
. The 935/78
Porsche 935
The Porsche 935 was introduced in 1976, as the factory racing version of the Porsche 911 turbo prepared for FIA-Group 5 rules. It was an evolution of the Porsche Carrera RSR 2.1 turbo prototype which had scored 2nd overall in the 1974 24 Hours of Le Mans....
was replaced by the 917K
Porsche 917
The Porsche 917 is a racecar that gave Porsche its first overall wins at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1970 and 1971. Powered by the Type 912 flat-12 engine of 4.5, 4.9, or 5 litres, the 917/30 variant was capable of a 0- time of 2.3 seconds, 0– in 5.3 seconds, and a top speed of over .There are 6...
in the distinctive Gulf Oil
Gulf Oil
Gulf Oil was a major global oil company from the 1900s to the 1980s. The eighth-largest American manufacturing company in 1941 and the ninth-largest in 1979, Gulf Oil was one of the so-called Seven Sisters oil companies...
paint scheme.
Need for Speed: Top Speed
An additional online-only conversion of Porsche Unleashed, dubbed Need for Speed: Top Speed, was released in response to both the release of MacGillivray Freeman's 2002 IMAXIMAX
IMAX is a motion picture film format and a set of proprietary cinema projection standards created by the Canadian company IMAX Corporation. IMAX has the capacity to record and display images of far greater size and resolution than conventional film systems...
film, Top Speed, and the Porsche Cayenne
Porsche Cayenne
The Porsche Cayenne is a five seat mid-size luxury crossover manufactured by the German manufacturer Porsche since 2002, with North American sales beginning in 2003. Its platform was developed by Porsche and is shared with the Volkswagen Touareg and the Audi Q7. It is the first V8-engined vehicle...
. The game features three existing tracks from Porsche Unleashed and three Porsche vehicles: the 911 (996) Turbo, the 959 and the Cayenne Turbo.
Access to Need for Speed: Top Speed was bundled alongside the Windows version of Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2
-Development:Different versions of the game were produced for each game platform; the Xbox, GameCube and PC versions were developed in EA Seattle, a subsidiary of EA Canada, while the PS2 version was developed by EA Black Box in Vancouver, B.C. Canada. Also, it did not feature a career mode...
.