Author Topic: NFS: Carbon DEMO released -- 650 MB Download  (Read 6932 times)

Offline MysterD

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NFS: Carbon DEMO released -- 650 MB Download
« on: Friday, October 27, 2006, 07:18:54 AM »
650 MB download for NFS: Carbon DEMO

Quote
   
EA(TM) presents
Need for Speed(tm) Carbon DEMO
README

(C) 2006 Electronic Arts Inc.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

WHAT THIS FILE IS
=================
This file is help text for the demo. If you are experiencing problems not covered in this README, please contact EA Customer Support.

NOTE: Content of Web Links within this document may not be under the control of Electronic Arts.


************************************************************

TABLE OF CONTENTS

************************************************************

1. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
2. BASIC KEYBOARD CONTROLS
3. MANUAL ADDENDUM
4. TROUBLESHOOTING

************************************************************

1. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

************************************************************

MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
===========================
Windows XP Service Pack 2 (32Bit Edition only), Windows 2000 Professional Service Pack 4 operating system Intel Pentium 4 (or equivalent) CPU running at 1.7GHz or higher 64MB DirectX 9.0c compatible video card (NVIDIA Geforce4 Ti/ATI Radeon 8500 or higher) using a supported chipset (see below) 512MB RAM DirectX compatible sound card


NOTE: Do not install the Need for Speed Carbon DEMO in the same windows directory as the retail Need for Speed Carbon game. Use separate directories for each of the versions.


************************************************************

2. BASIC KEYBOARD CONTROLS

************************************************************


The basic keyboard controls required to play the game are:

In Game Controls:

Steering Left/Right Arrow
Throttle Up Arrow/A
Brake/Reverse Down Arrow/Z
E-brake Spacebar
Nitrous Boost Right Shift
Speedbreaker X/G
Look Back L
Shift Up Left Shift
Shift Down Left Ctrl
Camera Change C
Reset Car R
Pause Game Esc
Activate Crewmember Right Ctrl
Read SMS Tab
World Map M
Enter Race/Shop Return


Menu Controls

Highlight Menu Items Up, Down, Left and Right Arrows
Cycle Choices / Move sliders Up, Down, Left and Right Arrows
Select / Go to next Screen ENTER or left mouse click on selection
Return to previous screen ESC

************************************************************

3. MANUAL ADDENDUM

************************************************************

VIDEO CARD SUPPORT
==================

Although Direct3D is supported, this support is only officially
extended to certain 3D accelerator devices. The following major D3D
chipsets are supported.

NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti-4200
NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti-4400
NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti-4600
NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti-4800
NVIDIA GeForce FX Series
NVIDIA GeForce 6200
NVIDIA GeForce 6600
NVIDIA GeForce 6800
NVIDIA GeForce 7300
NVIDIA GeForce 7600
NVIDIA GeForce 7800
NVIDIA GeForce 7900
ATI Radeon 8500
ATI Radeon 9000
ATI Radeon 9100
ATI Radeon 9200
ATI Radeon 9500
ATI Radeon 9550
ATI Radeon 9600
ATI Radeon 9700
ATI Radeon 9800
ATI Radeon X300
ATI Radeon X550
ATI Radeon X600
ATI Radeon X700
ATI Radeon X800
ATI Radeon X850
ATI Radeon X1300
ATI Radeon X1600
ATI Radeon X1800
ATI Radeon X1900

***NOTE: Laptop versions of these chipsets may work, but are not officially supported. NVIDIA GeForce MX series not supported.


While Direct3D supports a wider variety of 3D accelerator devices, the
behavior of Need for Speed Carbon DEMO cannot be predicted in these
situations. In extreme cases, running Need for Speed Carbon DEMO with
a Direct3D device that is not officially supported can lead to an
unstable PC environment.

SOUND CARD SUPPORT
==================

Need for Speed Carbon DEMO supports DirectSound. If your sound card
driver does not support DirectSound you may experience choppy or
stuttering sound or sound that cuts in and out. If your sound card
driver does not support DirectSound, we recommend obtaining updated
drivers from your sound card manufacturer.


DEFAULT GRAPHICS SETTINGS
==============================
The first time Need for Speed Carbon DEMO is run, a system check is
performed and default levels are set for the various graphics
settings. These default levels are set to provide the best game play
experience possible based on the hardware detected in your system.

These settings can be adjusted in the Options menu.

Resolution: Use the arrows to increase or decrease the game
resolution. Increasing the game's resolution may slow down system
performance.

Level of Detail: Use the arrows beside the Level of Detail bar to
increase or decrease global graphics setting. Increasing the Detail
setting to high will improve the game's graphics but may slow down system
performance.

Anti-Aliasing: Adjust this setting to increase/decrease pixel smoothing.

Texture Filtering: Adjust this setting to increase/decrease the Quality of the textures.

Shader Detail: Adjust this setting to increase/decrease the shader detail.

Vsync: Updates the screen based on the refresh rate of your monitor.

World Detail: Increase the amount of detail visible in world geometry.
Decreasing world geometry detail may increase overall system performance.

Road Reflection Detail: Increase or decrease reflections visible in the road.

Car Detail: Setting this to High increases geometry details
on the car.

Motion Blur: Enable/disable motion blur effect on supported video cards.

Particle System: Enable/disable particle effects in the game.

Default Settings: Reset your graphics settings to the default for your
hardware configuration.

Not all graphic details are available for all video cards due to
hardware limitations.


************************************************************

4. TROUBLESHOOTING

************************************************************

FAST USER SWITCHING
===================
You will not be able to run two versions of the game using two different
windows accounts via the fast user switching (windows key + L).

DEVICE DRIVERS
==============
It is highly recommended that the latest versions of all device
drivers (i.e. video and sound card drivers) be obtained and installed.
Please consult your card manufacturer for their newest drivers. Also,
keep in mind that video chip manufacturers sometimes provide drivers
in addition to the card manufacturer.

If you are experiencing issues with an unstable PC environment please
make sure your Motherboard drivers (AGP, miniport) are up to date. For
further information please contact your Motherboard manufacturer.

VIDEO & GRAPHICS PROBLEMS
=========================
If you are experiencing performance problems on the default graphics
settings, try lowering some of the settings or the game resolution.

This game requires DirectX 9.0c
It is available for download by going to:

www.microsoft.com/windows/directx/

Graphic Cards: Graphical settings and features available in-game are
dependant on Graphics Card capabilities. Settings not supported by your
Graphics Card hardware are disabled in the Options Menu to prevent
adverse effects on the game and your computer.

NVIDIA Cards: All supported NVIDIA cards were tested using ForceWare
driver version 91.47 (Win2k/XP). It is highly
recommended this driver or a more recent version be used when running
Need for Speed Carbon DEMO.

Known Issues:

ATI Cards: All supported ATI cards were tested using Catalyst driver
version 6.8 (Win2k/XP). It is highly recommended
this driver or a more recent version be used when running
Need for Speed Carbon DEMO.

BACKGROUND PROGRAMS
===================
Avoid running other programs in the background.

Programs starting up automatically can cause Need for Speed
Carbon DEMO to lose control of the screen and keyboard, possibly
causing an unstable PC environment. We strongly recommend that you
shut down or suspend applications that start up automatically or
programs that automatically run other applications at specified times
before running Need for Speed Carbon DEMO. These include, but are not
limited to:
- Windows System Agent
- Windows Task Scheduler
- Windows "Disk Cleanup" utilities

Similarly, message boxes and dialog boxes from other programs or from
Windows itself can also cause Need for Speed Carbon DEMO to lose
control of the screen and keyboard, possibly causing an unstable PC
environment. We strongly recommend that you shut down all other
applications before running Need for Speed Carbon DEMO. These
include, but are not limited to:
- Email programs
- Calendar, appointment, or contact applications
- Network or Internet chat programs

Also, connections to/from non-dedicated servers can be disrupted when
background programs or screen-savers launch. We recommend that you shut
down other applications and run Need for Speed
Carbon DEMO by itself whenever possible.

POWER MANAGEMENT SUSPEND/SLEEP MODES
============================================
Systems (i.e. laptops or other portables) that automatically power
down into "sleep" or "suspended" modes can cause Need for Speed
Carbon DEMO to lose control of the screen and keyboard, possibly
causing an unstable PC environment. We strongly recommend that you
disable these features before running Need for Speed Carbon DEMO.

WINDOWS VIRTUAL MEMORY ISSUES WITH 512 MB RAM
==================================================
If you experience any Virtual Memory issues while running the game, try increasing
the page file size on your hard drive. Please consult the Microsoft Windows help
pages to determine how to tweak your virtual memory settings.

CHOPPY PLAYBACK DURING VIDEO SEQUENCES
==================================================
If you experience choppy playback during video sequences, try increasing
the page file size on your hard drive. Please consult the Microsoft Windows help
pages to determine how to tweak your virtual memory settings.

WINDOWS VISTA
==============================================
While Windows Vista is not officially supported, users running the Need for Speed Carbon DEMO under Windows Vista should run the game as an Administrator. To do this Right Click on the Need for Speed Carbon Demo shortcut on your desktop and select PROPERTIES. In the PROPERTIES window select the COMPATIBILITY tab. Under PRIVILEGE LEVEL select RUN THIS PROGRAM AS AN ADMINISTRATOR, and then click OK. Running the game without administrative credentials may cause online related problems.

KEYBOARD PROBLEMS
=======================
To adjust the feeling\sensitivity of the steering in gameplay when
using the keyboard, enter the Keyboard option in the Windows Control
Panel (Start - Settings - Control Panel). By adjusting the Repeat
Delay and Repeat Rate the user can adjust the controls to feel more
analog or digital depending on their preference.

Some newer keyboards do not allow certain combinations of more than
two keys to be depressed simultaneously. For example, if you were
pressing both the up arrow key to accelerate and the left arrow key to
turn, and you pressed the <C> key to change your view, the view may not
change. Unfortunately, this problem is due to a limitation of the
hardware.

While it is possible to bind game controls to the F12, Print Screen and
Windows keys, these keys will also retain their original function and can
interfere with gameplay.

The Windows key is not locked out during gameplay and it will bring
up the start menu during gameplay. This may interfere with gameplay.

(C) 2006 Electronic Arts Inc. All rights reserved.

END OF Need for Speed Carbon DEMO README

Offline Xessive

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Re: NFS: Carbon DEMO released -- 650 MB Download
« Reply #1 on: Friday, October 27, 2006, 10:08:26 AM »
Wow, that's a lot of info. Not a bad size for a demo, considering every other demo that's come out recently has been over 1GB. I'd be more interested if the NFS series wasn't bastardized.

Offline poomcgoo

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Re: NFS: Carbon DEMO released -- 650 MB Download
« Reply #2 on: Friday, October 27, 2006, 11:53:02 AM »
I'd be more interested if the NFS series wasn't bastardized.

I don't know if that's necessarily true.  Sure they're definitely going down a different path than older NFS games, but have you played NFS Most Wanted?  I thought that game was awesome.  I think they're back on track.

Offline Xessive

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Re: NFS: Carbon DEMO released -- 650 MB Download
« Reply #3 on: Friday, October 27, 2006, 04:41:33 PM »
Yeah I had a whole rant about MW :P

In the first NFS Underground you at least got rewarded for skilled driving and manoeuvres. In Underground 2 they removed a lot of those elements and they changed the reward from the useful unlocking points to N2O. You practically never run out of N2O, instead of it refilling after each lap, now it slowly refills if you maintain a certain speed or if you pull off other moves (near-miss, drift, etc.) And finally in Most Wanted, now you actually get rewarded for crashing, destroying, and all sorts of crappy driving (you get bounty points).

The cars and the graphics were great, but the game felt like EA was trying to catch on the 'criminal' element of games like GTA, True Crime, etc. except in a racing game. It just became chaotic, and you have no incentive to drive with skill! The only possible reward for a drift, a near-miss, or a clean turn is more stupid N2O which I barely use anyway!

Besides the concept and game mechanics being faulty, there was the permanent daylight. In the Underground series one of the biggest complaints was that it was always night, and there was no real environmental change unlike all the previous NFS games (you could choose what time of the day you wanted to race, and which sort of weather conditions). In MW they made it daytime, but now there's no NIGHT!! WTF?! It's one or the other??

Either way, MW was not a big leap from Underground 2. If you had Underground 2 you'd be pretty disappointed if you spent the extra cash on MW, unless you're a huge fan and collector of the series.

Underground 1 is by far my favourite from the NFS tuner series.

Offline Quemaqua

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Re: NFS: Carbon DEMO released -- 650 MB Download
« Reply #4 on: Friday, October 27, 2006, 07:48:01 PM »
I fucking hate the import tuning scene.  I was kind of stuck around it and mildly interested due to a friend of mine who was into it, but he wasn't into like the dumb shit.  He was into *actual* tuning, not painting your fucking helmet to match your car's horrible neon-purple color and illuminated underside, while you stick 800 import tuning stickers all over your car even though it's got stock power and gets smoked by your mom's minivan.  And I hate all the weird pseudo hiphop culture that surrounds it.  So I hate all the NFS tuner stuff.

That said, I really don't like most of the NFS games much anymore just from a gameplay standpoint either.  I'm just not into the series anymore.  Which is a shame, because I was all over it 1-3.

天才的な閃きと平均以下のテクニックやな。 課長有野

Offline Xessive

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Re: NFS: Carbon DEMO released -- 650 MB Download
« Reply #5 on: Saturday, October 28, 2006, 01:03:01 AM »
I fucking hate the import tuning scene.  I was kind of stuck around it and mildly interested due to a friend of mine who was into it, but he wasn't into like the dumb shit.  He was into *actual* tuning, not painting your fucking helmet to match your car's horrible neon-purple color and illuminated underside, while you stick 800 import tuning stickers all over your car even though it's got stock power and gets smoked by your mom's minivan.  And I hate all the weird pseudo hiphop culture that surrounds it.  So I hate all the NFS tuner stuff.

That said, I really don't like most of the NFS games much anymore just from a gameplay standpoint either.  I'm just not into the series anymore.  Which is a shame, because I was all over it 1-3.
Yep, exactly. I agree. Although I liked High Stakes (NFS4) because it introduced a damage system.

Offline Quemaqua

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Re: NFS: Carbon DEMO released -- 650 MB Download
« Reply #6 on: Saturday, October 28, 2006, 01:17:03 AM »
I didn't hate High Stakes.  It was actually a pretty solid game.  I think at that point I'd just mostly gotten out of the whole racing thing.

天才的な閃きと平均以下のテクニックやな。 課長有野

Offline Xessive

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Re: NFS: Carbon DEMO released -- 650 MB Download
« Reply #7 on: Saturday, October 28, 2006, 02:59:43 AM »
Hehe yeah, every so often I'll get an urge to race! Then I'll just get bored of it, and move back to regular gaming.

Juiced was a pretty sweet game now that I think about it. It wasn't just about tuning your car, you had to think about how to tune it, upgrade it, and make sure you have the most appropriate equipment for your car. It wasn't just buy the best stuff on the market and your set. You had to keep track of what class your cars were in, and make sure not to upgrade them too much or they'll be in the bottom end of the next class. Personally I thought it looked better than NFSU and NFSU2 at the time.

Offline Quemaqua

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Re: NFS: Carbon DEMO released -- 650 MB Download
« Reply #8 on: Saturday, October 28, 2006, 08:53:10 AM »
I don't remember it reviewing well, but I never tried it.  The one game I played more than any other, scarily enough, was Tokyo Xtreme Racer and the sequel.   :-[

天才的な閃きと平均以下のテクニックやな。 課長有野

Offline MysterD

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Re: NFS: Carbon DEMO released -- 650 MB Download
« Reply #9 on: Saturday, October 28, 2006, 06:25:50 PM »
I will also say that I did enjoy Most Wanted. I need to play that one s'more.

Back to Carbon, 8.2 from IGN

Offline Xessive

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Re: NFS: Carbon DEMO released -- 650 MB Download
« Reply #10 on: Thursday, November 02, 2006, 01:26:12 PM »
I just tried it out, and I have to say the graphics are very impressive! The screenshots don't do it justice! And FINALLY the driver models actually show and they're very high quality!

The gameplay seems essentially the same as before, and they brought back Drift racing! ;D There weren't any Drag races, so I really hope they didn't eliminate it in the full game! Overall, the gameplay feels a lot more like NFSU1 mixed in with the better features of the NFSU2 and NFSMW.

I like the new interface and style. The car customization is a lot more comprehensive and versatile than any of the previous ones. They added a feature called "Autosculpt" where you can very finely customize or "sculpt" the physical parts of your car's body kits. I wasn't impressed with NFSU2 and I didn't like NFSMW, but Carbon is pretty impressive; EA really took me by surprise with this one.

It took 3 games worth of requesting and complaining on their official boards to actually get some kind of results with the features I really wanted! Unfortunately, it seems we're back to "eternal night" once again. Apparently giving us the option of day or night is way more difficult than making the body kits extremely intricate and customizable.

Offline MysterD

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Re: NFS: Carbon DEMO released -- 650 MB Download
« Reply #11 on: Thursday, November 02, 2006, 04:05:01 PM »
I just tried it out, and I have to say the graphics are very impressive! The screenshots don't do it justice! And FINALLY the driver models actually show and they're very high quality!

The gameplay seems essentially the same as before, and they brought back Drift racing! ;D There weren't any Drag races, so I really hope they didn't eliminate it in the full game! Overall, the gameplay feels a lot more like NFSU1 mixed in with the better features of the NFSU2 and NFSMW.

I like the new interface and style. The car customization is a lot more comprehensive and versatile than any of the previous ones. They added a feature called "Autosculpt" where you can very finely customize or "sculpt" the physical parts of your car's body kits. I wasn't impressed with NFSU2 and I didn't like NFSMW, but Carbon is pretty impressive; EA really took me by surprise with this one.
Glad you like it. :)

Quote
It took 3 games worth of requesting and complaining on their official boards to actually get some kind of results with the features I really wanted! Unfortunately, it seems we're back to "eternal night" once again. Apparently giving us the option of day or night is way more difficult than making the body kits extremely intricate and customizable.
Can't they just make a day/night system in the game so it can change after a while from day to night and night to day, like many other games do...? :o

Offline Xessive

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Re: NFS: Carbon DEMO released -- 650 MB Download
« Reply #12 on: Thursday, November 02, 2006, 04:26:23 PM »
Can't they just make a day/night system in the game so it can change after a while from day to night and night to day, like many other games do...? :o
I have no idea why they refuse to make it like all the NFS games before Underground! You could always choose time of day (morning, high noon, afternoon, dusk, and night! Not just day or night!!) and weather condition (rainy/sunny, snow was unique to certain regions). The Underground games were permanently night just as in Carbon, and Most Wanted was permanently afternoon! WTF?!

Offline MysterD

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Re: NFS: Carbon DEMO released -- 650 MB Download
« Reply #13 on: Thursday, November 02, 2006, 04:34:03 PM »
Seems quite silly, if you ask MyD.....yeah....  :o

Offline Xessive

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Re: NFS: Carbon DEMO released -- 650 MB Download
« Reply #14 on: Sunday, November 05, 2006, 04:15:53 AM »
Well, I just confirmed that they've taken out Drag Racing, and replaced it with one of the most irritating racing modes ever conceived: Canyon Duel. You thought it was tedious enough to go down hill through a barrage of hair-pin turns, try doing while having to maintain a certain distance from your opponent. Basically your opponent starts off and you have to chase him, and stick to him as closely as possible. Not only do you have to go through this hell of frustration once, if you win you get to do again except this time you're being chased. It is absolutely agonizing. I have no idea why they ditched Drag Racing! It was an innovative mode, and my favourite! As a consolation prize, at least they brought back Drift, even though it's not quite as varied or comprehensive as Drift in NFSU1.

Now, the cool part is you get a crew who can be your wingmen and assist you in some races. The not-so-cool part is quite often they get in my way because they feel the need to stick to my car! Quite often they'll be as close to you as possible, and in the case of scouts and drafters they'll always be one step ahead of you (regardless of what car they have), which can be very problematic as they have a tendency to slam the breaks when they're right in front of me! I didn't think I had road-rage issues, but man, the retarded AI of my wingmen can really push my buttons.

The good thing about the game is that it's not as retarded (conceptually) as Most Wanted. The bad thing is it's not as good as NFSU1. Honestly the only thing NFSU1 was lacking was the Free Roam mode, and even that isn't a big loss. Carbon is graphically the most impressive, but just as with NFSU2 and NFSMW I have no real incentive to drive properly. Either way I'll take it over NFSMW any day.

Meh, screw it I'm gonna go back to TrackMania.