Its gaming weekend! I went out (which I very rarely do) and got a copy of Need for Speed Carbon and Sim City 4 Deluxe Edition so it comes with both Sim City 4 & Sim City Rush Hour Expansion Pack. I've played Sim City 4 quite a few years ago but didn't really give the Rush Hour expansion pack a shot.
As for NFS Carbon - I really did not expect much from this version of NFS, somehow the video's/reviews on the web failed to impress me - so I didn't go out on opening day (fight with a kid!) to get a copy this time around. However, I installed the demo a few days ago and kind of liked it - so picked my lazy butt to go get a copy today.
I installed NFS Carbon on my Windows Vista RTM machine - the installer ran just fine and installed the game - but the game refused to start. I had to set compatibility mode (by right clicking the NFSC.exe in the installed directory -> Select Properties -> Select Compatibility tab) to Windows 98 and the game worked just fine!
I was mighty surprised by the game - its a WOW! Its a perfect cross between NFS Underground 2 and NFS Most Wanted. The opening intro's are coool - though I thought Mia (Jossie Maran) was a little better than Nikki (Emmanuelle Vaugier) . But maybe it's not Emmanuelle's fault - The NFS Most Wanted intro's were all about Attitude! NFS Carbon intro's are all about Nostalgia - I almost jumped out of my seat when Cross hits my car from behind! :) The quality of graphics are amazing! Especially the videos, game play isn't all that smooth on my laptop (which has a NVidia Quadro 110m - not a gaming card actually) so its my card thats to be blamed here I guess.
Game play is cool - the story line is much much much much better than the pathetic story line of NFS Carbon for the PSP. The new team building feature is fun so far (you can actually hunt, hire and fire your team mates!!) - I like the game, I would certainly recommend it to all NFS fans.