Need for Speed: Carbon - Retrospective 

On acquiring the game: towards the end of the video, I mentioned that I received a nastygram from my ISP. After this video released, I discovered a different way to obtain the game that doesn't run that risk. I won't share that information here because I very much like my channel and don't want to jeopardize it, but my Discord server may be of interest to you: discord.gg/2ndtX7JY

The live action cutscenes are 10 times better then the horrible ones we get now

My dad played this game a lot but there was one moment that we will never forget. It never happened again. During the final canyon duel with Darius, Darius fell off the cliff. We couldn't replicate it again no matter how hard we push him lol. That was like a one in a million moment for us.

Whats funny is the fact that instead of sending a text message to tell you how much they hate you, they rally the entire crew, wait in an alley until you drive by, then pull up on you, let down their windows, and speak for 12 seconds just to then pull off in unison. Its utterly amazing.

one important cultural factor to remember when discussing NFS:MW and Carbon respectively, and I swear no one ever mentions it; NFS:MW ('05) was still riding high off the 'street racing' persona success of 2 Fast 2 Furious ('03), and Carbon (October '06) was running hot off the success of The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift (June '06). The fact that you could kind-of 'replay' those moments from Tokyo Drift was a peak moment in my childhood.

Bodykit sculpting. That was a whole new level of amazing

At the prologue, when the guy with the red coat asked cross what's the player's bounty, cross should've said "he is the most wanted"

a bunch of corrections: -muscle cars arent shit in this game in fact they are the exact opposite, they are kinda useless in tier 1 but in later tiers they have far superior acceleration than the rest of the cars in the game (corvette and viper are known to be the most op cars of the game because of their insane acceleration, you can beat darius canyon duel easily by overtaking him in the first turn with those two) -the minimap is actually supposed to show the race course, i personally never had that issue so its probably a problem with your copy -the game is called Carbon because of the Carbon Canyon which is where you do all the boss races

What I really like about Palmont City's style is how each of the districts are designed with your car class in mind at the start. Downtown is tight and technical as fuck, things that tuners don't have much trouble with. Kempton on the other hand is chock full of wide roads and has lots of soft turns, making life easier for muscle cars and giving them the ability and flex their might. Fortuna and Silverton are rather varied in their layouts, Fortuna moreso because Exotics aren't the most distinct in terms of playstyle, and Silverton is where it all comes together.

Man if carbon didn’t have such a short story and half it’s content cut it would have been way bigger than it is today. Still such a great game and mods keep it alive as ever. Great video

4:39 the "Activate Windows" watermark that you see through out the entire game is the best thing a game could have.

Everything is a DB-9, didn't you know? The toyota across the street is actually a DB-9 in disguise.

If I remember correctly, this game was originally a lot more ambitious, wanting to do some revolutionary things for it's time, but EA gave them a harsh deadline and they faced a few other setbacks as well. EDIT: This game is also my introduction into the racing genre and started my love for the spinning Doritos and now drive a RX-8 😄

They were making these Games with love unlike these days

HOW can you say nobody wants live action cutscenes? I cant believe thats all you had to say about this..... it looks SO much better. I always wondered why they stopped doing that. Yes, I know they did it in 2015, but they didnt even try to make it look like the rest of the game... The genius thing about MW and carbon was that they filmed it and then made it look like the game. It was such a smart way to do it.

All the game problems were due to EA and not the designers. They never had enough time to fix everything. It's crazy how much they were able to do with the little time they had. The game was started before MW was released so I assume they added cop chase later because higher-ups wanted to have cops in the game.

39:00 The one thing that I wished Carbon took advantage of was the use of the crew mode. We can use it in the race but I wish we could use the crew to help out during the pursuits. Like each crew member can give you more unique ways of evading the cops. Blockers will take part in the pursuit, scouters would find routes to escape, etc. It would have made such a unique experience compared to MW. Or even do a Crew v Crew race at the end with the player, Nikki and two other crew members taking on Darius' crew for supremacy. Ultimately the crew were quite useless other than the normal races. But it had so much potential.

Live action combined with greenscreen in this game is actually perfect, acting is good enough, the atmosphere is there and the characters are mostly memorable, Neville ftw

One of the greatest racing games to ever exist.

For the mini-map not displaying the race line, I think that’s solely a PC problem because on PS2 and PS3 it’s always highlighted in yellow.

I'd like to add that certain muscle cars in this game are OP. With Angie's car alone, you can clear most of the game even the race events in Silverton and also making Kenjis and Wolf's boss races seem like a joke if you've chosen a muscle car at the beginning

Damn, when the blur kicks in, this game holds up like a champ visually! I loved it as a kid, my first memory is crashing and some cop saying "Dispatch, this guy can't drive." and me laughing my ass off at both the hilarious line and the fact that the AI was reactive to your driving. Awesome game stylistically, with fitting music. The menu music alone is GOATed AF.

Never knew that bosses in canyon duels can actually fall off the cliff at all. It never happened to me, ever.

I'm sorry, but the muscle cars in this game are extremely powerful and you can absolutely DOMINATE the entire game with them, if you can control them properly.

Uphill task for Carbon. Came hot off the heels one of the most vaunted titles in the series in Most Wanted 2005. But I loved Carbon growing up. It had the night racing, neon lights, customization, each tier class had its own perks and disadvantages. I spent more time playing Carbon than MW or Underground 2. And it had large variety of cars like the Skyline R34 which was shockingly left out in MW. Hope Kryzee can make a V2 of the Redux mod

Sal is a G. He would always finish in front of me in first place and win the race 😭

One thing I would like to add is the speed scaling. Corvettes shred apart canyon duels and Vipers are roleplaying as an intercontinental ballistic missile. Just love it.

It's funny how he brushed off how useful Samson race bonus is. If you don't know he gives 10% bonus to the cash reward also if you add Neville as the second partner you get an extra 200$.

Carbon was one of my favorites because it was the closest we will get to late 90s to early 2000s street racing in Japan aesthetics or ideals.

Apparently the Supra at the beginning of Carbon was a placeholder for the M3GTR from Most Wanted but the devs couldn't get the license in time so the placeholder Supra stayed. Basically you've always had that M3GTR. You escaped Palmont in it and reached Rockport. Then after leaving Rockport, you return to Palmont again and that is where Carbon starts.

38:06 The game does actually highlight the racing line in the minimap with a yellow color. However, it is tied to the original UI aspect ratio (4:3). When you installed the Extra Options mod to solve issues, one of the things it does is allow you to run the game in 16:9 aspect ratio, which ends up breaking the yellow racing line UI element. Since Carbon's coding is somewhat of a mess, the mod devs were not able to fix it as of December 2022

Darius pulled the Disney villain plot twist move💀

The activate windows in the corner goes HARD

I got this game on my 14th birthday. I'm 30 now. Time flies! I still remember using Kenji's car to beat Wolf, Angie, and Darius on the PS2.

Carbon and NFSU2 are top of the NFS pyramid in my opinion. They just feel the best to play.

16:13 and 34:30 best and most intense race mode in the game without a doubt. I wouldn't be surprised if that was taken directly from Fast and Furious Tokyo Drift, coincidentally releasing the same year as Carbon in 2006. I would not be surprised at all that EA probably went to Justin Lin, the director of Tokyo Drift, and took pointers from the Sean and DK race at the end of Tokyo Drift.

i just like hearing you complain

My biggest problem with Carbon was the tire screeching. Just constantly. Thats all you could hear for like 99% of your races.

Definitely need a NFSU2 retrospective, these videos have been anything other than ambient noise for me. Keep it up man!

I hope you keep making retrospectives of all the racing games of the 2000s The explanation inception is hilarious.

Carbon is my childhood. I used to remember struggling to win races and I'd always get busted, not knowing I could actually escape and hide from the cops. I just immediately ragequit once my car flys off the cliff in the canyon duel. That was little ol' me when I played the challenge series unaware of a career mode until I rediscovered the game as a junior in high school. What good times I wish I could relive. I'm not sure how I could download this game, let alone the Collector's Edition and other classic NFS games like the Underground series and Most Wanted.

This was the last good NFS game for a really long while. While it's basically Most Wanted but switched to night time, copy-and paste police pretty much. It still had good customization, autosculpting was a cool concept that had potential. Drift came back, the canyon races were fun. The game just wasn't long enough though. You can beat it in a day easily if you've got time. Still love Carbon though, criminally underrated. The PSP version is really good too, definitely worth checking out.

Dude first time watching your video and not a single dull moment! Great editing, story telling and review!

Love the video format, First time viewer! Thanks man!!

I like the live action cutscenes, it gives it a fun feeling of a older game

This game was my childhood. I beat this game countless times with the 69 Charger. It became my main car in every racing game that followed.

I played this as a 10 year old Finnish kid and had fun times guessing what the characters were talking about

Loving your videos dude

One detail that impressed me in this game is that the brake discs actually rotate with the wheel, a detail that MW 05 didn't have, it's very hard to see without a debug camera or a freecamera

my childhood is Test-Drive, Outrun and Need for Speed 1-3. and now 30 years later i can still play NFS with my 6 year old son. great memories

Love the video keep up the good work

love the content man brings back nostalgia

This game was the first time we ever laid eyes on an R8 (le mans quattro in the game) and it's been my dream car ever since

Back into those PS2 days i remember the graphics being so mind blowing, now looking at Unbound it makes you appreciate how far we've come

Thank you for leaving the whole cutscene! I was invested WOW

I gotta say teh cutscenes did set the mood just right for you to feel like you are part of a movie, with racing bits. A somewhat corny teen movie but one with racing so it's actually kinda awesome :D

bringing back the bmw and then taking it away again really was a kick in the balls

I remember always kinda exploiting Speedtrap races by using Drafter since they rubber band hard to get ahead of you so if you race like normal and are in first but are losing in points just use the ability before getting to the speedtrap and your follower will have busted speeds to catch up therefore passing the marker with insane speed...Also using cars with high acceleration meant easy canyon races since you could just pass the opponent before the first turn and just stay ahead of them for a few seconds for an auto win

So many most wanted and carbon retrospectives and so many channels grew from them. This says how loved these games are. Love to see it

I don’t even know how many times I beat this game back when I got it from my dad. It was my first game and only at that time. So I was replaying it like crazy I even got my friend into it. We were meeting at my place and playing it together race by race. When we reached end we were starting all over again. I absolutely loved this game and I still do, so many great memories. I even resolved it during my it classes 3 years ago and I still had a blast playing it. Installing some mods these days makes it even better. The best nfs imo

A cool thing I noticed was in the boss cutscenes they are followed by the guys who later spoke to us , here at 22:41 you can see samson looking at us before leaving.

I remember my dad upgrading our shitty old computer with a graphics card and another stick of ram, so I could play this game, beat the whole thing with the starter Camaro, God I loved this game.

Watched your Most Wanted Video liked it very much. The Carbon video is even better. You got yourself a new subscriber!

38:07 If you look closely at 38:16 in the left side on the mini map, near the flame icon from the heat meter you can see the race route is marked with yellow. What you see its a bug that makes the route yellow highlighter move at the same time with you, that's why you can partially see it.

Thanks for making this and the Most Wanted video man. I’m 22 now and some of my fondest gaming memories were doing cop chases in these two games after elementary school with my childhood buddies. Great memories

One crucial thing to add: the canyon duels and drifts are a reference to the old Inital D and the legend of the Japanese Drift King who made a name for himself after racing down the Togue lane in the vicinity of Tokyo

Dude your commentary is really good and engaging your doing good work keep growing brother love from India.

This game was soo influential on my life. Like my dream car 67 Camaro SS all because of this game. The first car I bought is an 05 rx8. And the only other car I had almost bought was the Alfa berra. Did it subconsciously but I fell in love with these cars from this game. Carbon will forever holds a special place in my heart.

Great stuff right here. Looking forward to your channel’s future, my man

👀👀 Come join the Discord discord.gg/2ndtX7JY I'm not trying to be the "racing games" guy, I'm trying to be the "games that you played while your parents were arguing in the kitchen" guy. I'm leaning Dead Rising next, but you know I have my eyes on getting a copy of Underground 2 and ProStreet 👀 Subscribe if you're feelin' me, drop a hate comment if you don't. Much love!

I think one part you missed is, that you always wonder whats behind thoose wood logs and then at the very end you find out with a even Higher heat Level than you could Imagine. So good

Man i love this game. I liked Cutscenes. The dark theme was nice. The crews idea was a nice addition and makes u want to unlock all the places to see the reactions of the other leaders . Nice customisation. Honesty, the only bad part for me is that it was just short, and I wanted to enjoy it more

This was the first and most memorable car game I’ve ever played as a child. I have so many fond memories playing the wii on the few occasions my parents would let me play. I’m days away from my 21st birthday and can still say with certainty that this game has fueled my love of cars which has only grown.

You should try the Battle Royale mod. It expands a lot on the territories mechanic and adds a bunch more cars and events like City Streets Drifting.

This the first time watching 40min video without a break , srsly good video ❤

Definitely gonna watch more of your videos!

that intermission really took me off guard man 😂😂😂 love your videos ♥️

I never played this game back in the day, but watching your video on it and all the content on the new NFS, this one is so much more appealing from the car list, the customisation, the game modes, the locations…

This game was one of the first video games I can actually remember being able to understand and let me tell you did it set my expectations way to high for any other game I ever played after

This shii deserves million views ur passive aggressiveness had me dying the whole vid great content bro😭

Dude, the quality of your videos are fantastic! Great work 🔥

I wanted to study, but your Most wanted video showed up and I just couldn't have resisted, it was that good. I watched that and now will watch about carbon (even though I've never played them, just watched both games on youtube).

I love this game and I'm still playing this game until I completed around 30 careers. the canyon duel, canyon drift, and boss scenes are excellent for me. ofc the customization in this game is incredible and it makes me not bored to play with. Another point I love about this game is it can switch to manual gear while many racing games only hv automatic gear. Lastly, after I spent much time playing and practicing, I manage to use my fav car - rx7, and complete a career and even overtake Darius in a canyon duel.

The cutscene in this are so good, the dramatic lines make me laugh.

I've randomly come across this channel tonight and I'm loving the videos 🔥 Keep them coming, amazing work

I didn’t get to play this game as a kid, but I remember searching youtube for the mountain drift world record video with my friend and watch them again and again

Dude. The Video is gold.

Dude there is no pee stored in the nuts hahahahaha you made my day with that one.

The cut scenes in Most Wanted and Carbon were good! I liked them. What I did not like was the "Tiers" for the cars. I like being able to tune out a beginners car to compete with late game ones. EA should bring some updates so you can simply install and run those old NFS games on new hardware without any troubles!

Please never stop making videos, you're my new favorite game reviewer

I remember playing this game in middle school. How did you just string me on for 40 minutes. Subbed

Thanks for the vidéo, i was forgot that the pitch is really cool in this game ^^

I only remember carbon for the canyon duels they were so frustrating but so much fun

With Carbon being my first Need for Speed (I dont count Underground 1 and 2 as i was wayy too young and only dabbled a bit in it on my Brother's Saves untill i got older) the following is a Hill im willing to die on: I LOVE the Live Action Cutscenes in Carbon, fight me about it. Theyre something i will always remember of this Game, playing this on my PS2 i felt like im living trough a Movie, it was awesome. If i walked past these People on the Street nowadays, i would immediately recognize them. I think they where great.

This was my first street racing game, where it all started. I was 6 years old, my parents got me a PS2 for Christmas, and I found this gem used. I still have my original copy. I played through it 6 times and in the end on one of my game saves I sold all of my cars and just had a lotus Exige maxed out and it won against everything. I used to be so used to the map that at times I would see gaps just a car width wide and close my eyes and go through the gap, see corners, close my eyes, turn around them without a hitch hitting anything. I wish this game got more love than it did. Nobody remembers it but it’s one of my favorites of all time. The best cars to try to win the game are the Corvette and the Dodge Viper. They have decent handling that’s not the best but manageable and they have rapid acceleration.

Your dry ass humor gets me through the week, honestly. Keep it up mate!

The minimap issue at 38:17 has something to do with the widescreen fix. Its an issue I had when I played the game recently and I added fixes that young me didn't know about, you can see the track overlay on the minimap working correctly in other versions of the game.

I love this game nice to see they still people in 2022 discovering this game and willing to play

fun fact, which starting car you choose also affects the car used by each crew leader, the cars being better depending on the order in which you take on the crews

I like how the soundtrack and music in the game changes depending on what type of car you racing in