Need for Speed: High Stakes

***Need for Speed: High Stakes*** (Known as **Need For Speed: Road Challenge** in Mainland Europe, **Need for Speed: Conduite en état de liberté** in France, **Need For Speed: Brennender Asphalt** in Germany and **Over Drivin' IV** in Japan) is a racing video game released in 1999. It is the fourth major installment in the *Need for Speed* series.

## Why It Rocks

1. Graphics are great by the late 1990s standards.
2. The gameplay, unlike newer titles, is pretty fun and challenging, as it focuses more on a realistic driveplay scheme while conservating the original arcade gamestyle, something that not many developers do right.
3. You can play either as a racer or a cop.
4. Career Mode is introduced, in where you compete in Normal or Knockout Tournaments for cash, or in High Stakes competitions in where you can win your opponent's car.
5. In addition to the Career Mode, you can also buy new cars, sell your current car(s) and even upgrade your cars.
6. Also features a new damage system, which can not only affect your car's look, but also its performance too.
7. *High Stakes'* pursuit system has been significantly improved in terms of AI and police tactics over *Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit*. New pursuit modes like Getaway and Time Trap are introduced.
8. The soundtrack is decent, also featuring licensed soundtracks with the courtesy of Junkie XL (who later would compose *Need for Speed: ProStreet*), Fat Boy Slim, Rom of Prisco and etc, the first in the series to feature licensed soundtracks. While the PlayStation release features new tunes such as "Electro Optik", "Globular Cluster" and "Callista (Race Mix)".
9. There are lots of nice mods for the PC version you can download online including the official addon cars such as the Nissan Skyline GT-R V-Spec (R34) from the Japanese release of the game. ***All of them are literally free.***
10. The PC version features the race tracks from the previous game that are unlockable by completing Career Mode tournaments.

## Bad Qualities

1. The PC version won't run on a 64-bit computer, meaning it's not possible to play this game on modern Windows machines without using the compatibility mode and some manual alterations.
2. Career mode is kinda repetitive. Some races can take more than 10 minutes or even 20 minutes, which is not uncommon in EA Canada era NFS games.
3. The damage models in the PC release look odd (because the cars just infinitely deform whatever you do), while in the PS1, some parts disintegrate while the rest of your vehicle's body will appear scratched just like in *Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2005)*.
4. The skyboxes look dull, especially in the PC version.
5. The PlayStation version suffers from terrible controls that can make your car go understeer in most of the times, forcing you to decelerate to turn the car in a more closed angle, however, some vehicles suffer from the complete opposite and it's even harder to control them adequately, to make things worse, sometimes the controls will not respond, and if you're playing on a high-tier event (Especially the last one), this can be a death sentence for your progress.
6. Some cars such as La Niña and Titan are exclusive in either the PC or PS1 releases.
7. Some of the features such as the ability to edit the soundtrack, switching the languages of the cops on and off, Test Drive and Special Event modes are exclusive to the PS1 release, which is a bit disappointing.
8. High Stakes mode is multiplayer-only in PS1 release. You need 2 memory cards for it to even work.

## Reception

*Need for Speed: High Stakes* was met with positive reviews and reached number 10 in the UK charts. It was heralded during its time for its intense action and beautiful graphics.

## Trivia

The Australian and Japanese versions feature exclusive cars, such as the Ford Falcon and HSV Coupe in the Australian version (as was seen in the Australian PC release of Need For Speed III: Hot Pursuit), and the Nissan R34 Skyline in the Japanese version.