Need For Speed demo hauls ass

A demo version of upcoming illegal street racer Need For Speed: Carbon has been released today on the Xbox Live Marketplace. You can download this demo for free, although, the huge size of the demo takes a bit of time to suck out of Microsoft's network (unless you've got a fat broadband pipe installed in your house, that is).

Included in the demo are three different racing vehicles, each representing a different class of racer: muscle, exotic or tuner. Once you've chosen a ride, you get hands-on with Need For Speed: Carbon's Autosculpt feature, which allows you to mold the after-market bumpers, skirts, rims and hood with some clever little sliders. After you've got your car together, you have your choice of two tracks: a drift track and a circuit track. If you can prove your chops on both of those, you'll get the chance to take on a canyon race.

We noticed some weird slow-down in the game when we were whipping through the canyons, and at this late stage, this concerns us a bit. But, to be totally honest, we're less about the racing and more about the style - Autosculpt alone is enough to get us all revved into the red over this one. Look for Need For Speed: Carbon to skid wildly into stores later this month.

October 4, 2006