echanics and the motor oil companies recommend you change your oil every couple thousand miles, and promise horrible things if you don’t do what they say. Well, it seems that EA demands that the Need for Speed series get its own clean flush just as often. This is the third next-generation NFS title in three straight years, and regardless if we’ll ever see the Carbon or Most Wanted imprints again, I don’t wonder if EA – like the powerful, secret motor oil lobby – isn’t trying to trick me into spending my cash needlessly.

I’ve talked to various EA team members about this title on a few occasions, and I have no doubt that they wanted to go in this direction for perfectly sound reasons. The worldwide locations, the sharing of car set-ups, and the more sim-style of racing are the paramount game features. What bothers me is that when you add these elements together, you’re not necessarily getting a better product. The global locations and their tracks are nothing special, and the sim-racing – while decent – is not something that EA just invented. The one part of this game where I had fun was the speed challenges. These test the limits of your skill and nerves as you tear down country roads with little margin of error. Of course, they’re not as good as Carbon’s Canyon runs, but there’s no point pining for those now, is there?

The game’s races are grouped into race days, which contain different kinds of events (like drag, drift, time trial, etc.) that require different kinds of cars. The race days are a good idea because they require you to repair you car between races (even if the damage itself is meted out inconsistently), make you master your different rides, and provide atmosphere. With that said, all of this could be done in any of the previous Need for Speeds. In other words, EA has come up with some good ideas and instead of pairing them with the other good ideas they’ve already come up with in Carbon, for instance, it paired them with stale and predictable ones. Why did they think that the rug needed to be pulled out from under Carbon just so we could go race in some non-descript Tokyo dock location or by-the-numbers track in Europe?

The one undoubtedly cool thing that ProStreet brings to the table is its online play (except on Wii), where you can create your own race days and invite friends to compete them. The race day will keep a persistent leaderboard of everyone’s progress, so you can always go back and knock off your buddy.

How often do I change my motor oil, you ask? Whenever I damn well feel like it.